Crayons

Before and After

Finding the "right" color crayon from a caddy/box had always been a challenge for my son. To help, I stacked a bunch of them upright, wrapped them with a rubber band and put them in a small tub making it easier for him to eyeball just the right shade of green.

Hair Clips For Cutie

Say, "Cheese!"

One of my niece's favorite words is "owl", so of course I searched my fabric stash for something cute to make her.

I made a super simple hair clip out of the following:

* owl fabric

* hair clips

* felt

* fray block (prevents fabric from coming apart)

* liquid stitch (fabric glue)

I cut an area around the owl and applied fray block. After it dried, I trimmed around the edges then used liquid stitch to fasten it to a felt background. After that dried, I glued it to a hair clip.

Kid's Favorite Shirt...

...kid's favorite pillow.

Organizing Homework

Hi, today I'm over at About Multiples, the official blog of Gemini Crickets Parents of Multiples Club of Silicon Valley, with some advice on organizing school paperwork.

When my son was in Kindergarten, homework was easy to manage. Most of the week's assignments fit on one page. To prepare for first grade, I decided to use an accordion folder to organize his paperwork... (read more about managing homework for multiples, here).

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.

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.

Maps - The Navigator

This past summer, we went to a couple of local aquariums. My son was the designated trip navigator. Not only did he get to hold the TomTom in the car (repeating all the phrases as we drove), but also mastered the maps on site.

After we got home, I fastened the maps to foam core and stuck them to his wall with adhesive putty.

Safety First

Whenever we go to an crowded event, I have my son wear bright clothes to make him easier to spot and I have his name and my cell phone number fastened inside his clothes. Most importantly, I take a photo of him on my digital camera or phone

In case we ever get separated, I have a picture of the clothes he's wearing (and fancy hair) and a memento of the occasion.

Lego Chess

My son recently expressed interest in learning to play chess. To make the game more fun we made it out of Lego Pieces; using square blocks as pawns and minifigures as the characters. The King has a special hat and the queen has girl hair and all the other pieces have a cape with their position written on it.

He learned the positions and movement of the pieces, but for him, it was much more fun playing with the captured minifigures than finishing the game.

Building Set Solutions

My son LOVES building sets, but he sometimes gets frustrated looking for specific pieces. After hearing, "Mommy, where is this piece?...Mommy, I can't find that piece..." one too many times I came up with a few things to help him organize his toys and keep me sane at the same time.

This double-sided plastic container, from Daiso, can fit two mini building sets with instructions in one container. If my son gets the urge to build something, he doesn't have to search the massive piles of pieces to find what he needs. Also, I can pop one of these in my bag to keep him entertained in the car and/or restaurants.

These stackable plastic containers are great for organizing pieces. I use the divided compartments for small parts (such as slanted bits, round bits, tiles) and bigger trays for parts like flats, windows, wheels and minifigures. I labeled each tray to make it easier to sort/find pieces.

I keep the manuals in several three-ring binders according to categories (Star Wars, City, Power Miners...) and three-hole punch plastic bags to keep the smaller manuals.

Gallon-sized plastic bags are helpful in keeping specialized sets together, again, cutting down on the frustration for both of us.

Pixos and Play-Doh

My son got a set of Pixos last year. Pixos are small, colored, plastic-like balls that stick together when sprayed with water. They usually come in little non-resealable plastic bags, so storage becomes an issue.

Last year for Halloween I gave out Mini Play-Doh as an alternative to candy. Unfortunately, not too many trick-or-treaters came by, so I had a lot left over. I gave them to my son and eventually most of the dough got put into "The Brown Bag" and the empty containers became Pixos holders. The colored lids and the Pixos match - the perfect storage solution!

Bento Containers

My family enjoys eating bento lunches from our local Japanese Market. Basically, bentos are small portions of tasty food packed in plastic divided trays.

The empty trays are perfect for sorting my 5 year old son's building sets. Before he begins to build, I sort the parts by color, size, and/or use into compartments. This makes it easier for him to spot the pieces he needs.

Tradeshow Badge Holder

I use this tradeshow badge holder to carry my son's immunization and medical membership cards. If you have more than one child you can change the strap to each child's favorite color, or have them add their own "bling", to identify whose is whose.