Elementary: 5-9 years

When your mom is a kindergarten teacher, you hear a lot about the massive changes sweeping public education, impacting even the youngest of students.  You start to pay a lot more attention to these changes when your own children near the age of entering kindergarten.  And while research has documented…

Last week we had beautiful, perfect pre-summer weather: blue clear skies, sun for days, and that temperature that is warm enough for water play, but not so hot you are melting.  I promised the girls a pool day in the backyard, and of course, that morning, Lil’ M woke up…

Happy Friday… and welcome to We Love Weekends!  A place where our favorite bloggers from around the globe link up their best family-friendly content to inspire you and your family to have fun together and love your weekend. Last Weekend Last Saturday had been highlighted on our calendar for a…

I’m a gift giver… I love everything about it.  I love brainstorming for the perfect idea, going out shopping to find it, and especially love putting it all together in the perfect package (back in my broke college days, I was known to spend more on wrapping than the gift…

We eat out with our kids a lot.  They have been going to restaurants since they were infants, and I can recall maybe twice since Big M was born nearly 4 years ago, where they were so badly behaved we took turns racing through our food while the other shepherded…

Last week, I got rear-ended enroute to preschool drop-off at a red light.  It’s been a fun-filled two weeks since of replacing car seats, getting the damage appraised and now repaired.  But what do they say – when life gives you lemons, make lemonade?  The car seat replacement left us…

Happy Friday!  It’s that time of the week again – where I share all about my weekend and bloggers from around the web link up their best family-friendly content to make you and your family love the weekends too! Last Weekend Here in the US, last weekend was a long,…

Living by the beach, much of our home decor is beach themed.  On top of a cabinet in our living room, we keep a large vase of seashells – some were originally purchased as party decor, others have been added over the last 8 years of walking the neighborhood beach,…

Big M, at 3.5, has become increasingly interested in the concept of days and times.  When she is awaiting a holiday or Grandma coming to visit, she will ask what day it is happening, and then everyday ask if it is that day yet!  Similarly, she has picked up on…

Earlier this week, I shared my book reviews for two books from Hands-On-Prints, Around the World from a to z and Nuts for Coconuts.    Be sure to check out the book review for a chance to win a free book for yourself!  Big M has become quite taken with both,…

Happy Friday, everyone!  I feel like this month has flown by, and I cannot believe school is almost out for the summer… Hopefully, We Love Weekends gives you some great ideas to keep your family not only entertained this weekend, but all summer long!  Check out our favorites from last…

Spring is in full bloom all around us here in New England (finally!).  And with it, lots of sunny days in the great outdoors.  This year, Big M more than ever is full of questions and wants to know the names of all the flowers!  We recently made our own…

 I participated in an Influencer Activation on behalf of Influence Central for Hands-on-Prints books. I received books to facilitate this review. All opinions expressed are 100% my own. Books are probably the most prevalent, and most loved, toy in our house.  Big M’s library started before she was even born,…

Growing up in Texas, there’s a lot of state pride ingrained in you from an early age.  Come every March and April, there are fields upon fields of blue bonnets as far as the eye can see – so many, and all left to flourish, untouched!  The blue bonnet is…

I recently received an amazing set of books from Hands-On-Prints.  Stay tuned for my full review next week, but one of the books immediately became Big M’s favorite.  Around the World from A to Z, by Christinia Cheung and Han Tran, is a beautifully illustrated alphabet book.  Inspired by Montessori…

Happy Friday!  That means it’s time for our favorite weekly link-up, and more importantly, time for the weekend… hopefully all the content shared by our fellow kids’ activity bloggers will give you some inspiration to make the most of your weekend! Last Weekend Along with the rest of America, we…

A few months back, when I couldn’t take Big M’s requests to read the same Fancy Nancy book for the 100th time in a row, I decided to change up our bedtime reading routine and start reading chapter books!  She fell in love with The Wizard of Oz and has…

As I mentioned last week, Big M and I have been reading Charlotte’s Web at bedtime, inspiring many of our daytime activities, or ‘projects’ as she likes to call them.  Our next Charlotte’s Web Words project channeled our inner Templeton, as we worked on not only word formation, but also…

When I was pregnant with Big M, my brother-in-law gave my husband and I this book: Sh*t My Kids Ruined: An A-Z Celebration of Kid-Destruction.  My husband and I paged through it and laughed, thinking to ourselves, these kids must have been left unattended for hours for that to happen! …