Word Of The Day

In Kindergarten, my son's teacher would have the kids say, write and read a "word of the day". I took that one step further and made a "word of the day" dictionary with an appendix at the end with common phrases, family and friends names and numbers.

Last year, my son would chose a word and turn to the letter page where I wrote the word. This year, he does it all.

Lite Peg Storage

LiteBrite was a popular toy when I was growing up. Basically, it was a light box that colored pegs were pushed into that lit up to expose a design.

Unfortunately, they don't make the original LiteBrite set anymore, but there are plenty of knock-offs. I found a travel set for my son to play with in the car (it's battery operated). This set came with 500 pegs, but only 10 of each color fit into the provided compartments. I found a small plastic craft box that worked perfectly for storing the spare pegs. Too bad the pegs don't light up on the car floor - to make them easier to find.

DIY - Halloween Costume

This year my son asked me to make him a very special Halloween costume - a Lego brick. I was totally up for this challenge!

I made a Lego logo template to cut out sticky back foam letters.








I stuck the letters on plastic container tops and taped the tops to a large cardboard box. I had to use primer on the box to cover the writing and used several coats of red spray paint to cover the entire box, but we were both very excited with the results.

Paper Towel Holder

I was looking for a way to store paper towels in my craft room without taking up valuable counter space. I hung a roll on the side of my work table using two removable picture hangers and rope that I crocheted out of spare yarn.

No More Lost Keys

I hung an organizer near the garage to manage our keys. I haven't misplaced any keys since.

Handwarmers - Repurposed

I had a little trouble rushing to complete a sewing project last weekend. Normally, I would pin a pattern down with a ton of pins, but since I was in a hurry I only used two pins so the fabric kept slipping around while I was cutting.

Remember the rice hand warmers I blogged about last week? I used them to weigh down the area I was cutting. It was the perfect solution in a pinch. Bonus: It could also be used as a pin cushion.

Managing Batteries

A friend presented me with a question that many families with children encounter, "are these batteries charged?" In her house, batteries are a staple; using a lot of reusable, and some disposable, for toys and handheld electronics. To help her answer the question, I came up with a solution that would be compact enough to fit on the corner of a desk.

I covered empty plastic containers with craft paper and a glue stick. Labeling them: use me (fully charged and ready to go), charge me (requires charging), and dispose of me (for the used disposables). I cut holes in the lids large enough to drop a battery inside.

I threw a screw driver, for tiny toy screws, in the "use me" container to minimize the next expected question, "where's that little screw driver?"

Rice Hand Warmers

To teach my son measuring concepts we "played" with rice and measuring cups: four 1/4 cups go into one full cup, two 1/2 cups into one full cup, etc... It was educational for the first five minutes, but quickly turned into a big mess all over the table and floor.

Instead of throwing the rice away, I scooped it all up and made these rice hand warmers. I microwave them for a minute to keep my hands toasty while we walk to school on cold mornings.

Table Cloth Apron

One night after dinner, my son suggested that I wear a swim shirt next time I wash the dishes because my shirts always get so wet (this still makes me smile when I think about it). His comment was the inspiration for creating a vinyl table cloth apron.

Luckily, I already had a cute apron to use as a template. I used vinyl for the main part of the apron and cotton for the ruffle and straps. The cotton absorbs any water that might drip down, and I can also use it to dry my hands.

Back To School - Cold Lunches

I've been looking for lunch ideas, now that I'm packing my son's "cold lunch" everyday. It's challenging to figure out what, and how, to serve. I find that small, easy to eat portions are more likely to be eaten.

To keep food cold, I started using a booboo ice pack on the bottom of the container, covered it with a wet paper towel and added fruit on top.

I found these containers with removable cooler ice (that can be frozen the night before). Unfortunately, these were too difficult for 5 year old hands to open. Just Bento, an awesome site I came across, suggests freezing a juice box the night before to use in place of an ice pack.

Some of the lunches on that site are so pretty, they've inspired me to pack a lunch to eat at home.

Back To School - Labeling Everything!

"Back To School", to me, means labeling everything.

When my son was a toddler, I began ironing on name tags with my cell phone number to all of his clothes; so that was already taken care of.

Plastic was the problem. I tried a number of different ways to label lunch ware: paper labels pealed off or got wet, permanent marker eventually washed off, my son took off the rubber bands to play with...

Packaging Tape was the solution! I wrote his name on a label then stuck it on with packaging tape. The packaging tape stuck really well to the plastic and made it very water resistant.