Hands-On Book Craft Activities, Literature Games for Summer Reading Enrichment

Parents, are you worried about whether your kids will retain what they learned in school through three months of summer vacation?  Homeschoolers, need cheap, homemade language arts lesson plans? Special needs teachers, want interactive reading games? Work at home parents, maybe you just need activities to keep kids occupied so you can work. Whatever your need, I've got the answer. Here are hands-on reading activities and book based craft and literature games.  I've created these and give you permission to print (just don't sell them, please). Use these activities for preschool to high school. They're cheap to make, using recycled materials. Lessons are based on HOTS (Higher-Order Thinking Skills): analysis, application, synthesis and evaluation. Perfect summer reading enrichment. Hands-On Homemade Reading Crafts, Book Activities, Literature Games

Activities for Bored, Winterbound Kids: Crafts-travaganza Party

Winter is finally getting serious in our area. Kids are loving the big snow drifts! But below-zero wind chills force some parents to keep kids in the house. Schools cancel recess if it's too cold. Excess times indoors makes for restless, irritable children. Looking for cheap, indoor activities for bored, winterbound kids? How about a crafts-travaganza party?  Activities for Bored, Winterbound Kids: Crafts-travaganza Party

How to Work at Home with Sick Kids

Vacation's over; everyone's back to school; you can finally get caught up on work and wouldn't you know it--a child gets sick. Flu season 2012-2013 is shaping up nasty says ABC News, so if you've got kids, plan on them getting ill. How do you get anything done with sick kids? Let this multitasker mom of four and former homeschool parent help.  WAHM, Parenting Sick Kids 

Free Printable 2013 Calendars, Schedules, Organizers for Kids

One of the best ways to teach a child to be organized is to help them follow a daily calendar or schedule. Here are free printable 2013 calendars. There are monthly and weekly and year at-a-glance calendars, personal organizers and schedules. Many are coloring page calendars, too. Free printable coloring page calendars make great math and time lesson plans for elementary and special needs students. Keep preschoolers busy when older siblings aren't in school with free printable coloring page calendars. You might have kids color calendars and give as birthday or holiday gifts.  Free 2013 Coloring Page Calendars

Free Printable 2013 Personal Calendars

Do you keep a personal or family calendar? If you're like me, you have several going at once. Here is a tool to personalize, customize and design your calendars. Make coloring page calendars with animal, Bible, holiday, fantasy and cartoon character calendars. The calendar creator tool is free to use and customize. Make personalized free printable calendars for everyone this holiday season. Print 2013 calendars in color for older family members and make color your own calendars for children. You might also print all the calendars in black and white and ask children to color images and give colored calendars as gifts. This makes a great Advent service project or countdown to Christmas activity. Read more

Free Christmas Countdown Calendar Printables for Busy Parents

Looking for a cute Advent countdown to Christmas calendar? Here is a complete free printable advent countdown calendar activity featuring teddy bears labeled from 1-25. This Christmas countdown craft can be adapted in many ways for religious and secular advent calendars.  read more

Free Printable Chanukah Crafts for Kids (and busy Jewish Moms!)

Hanukkah or Chanukah, the Jewish Festival of Lights, begins at sundown Dec. 8, 2012. On the Hebrew calendar Hanukkah always falls on the 25th of Kislev on the Hebrew calendar. For busy Jewish parents, trying to juggle work, kids and Hanukkah preparation, life can get busy around the holiday. Here are free printable crafts and activities to keep kids productively (operative word) occupied! Assign children tasks of making decorations and cards. This keeps them happy and out of mischief (for awhile anyway!) read on

Free Printable Halloween Word Games, Word Search, Word Scrambles, Puzzles

Little ones look forward to Halloween, but so do big kids. And sometimes it's hard to keep anxious kids, young or old, productively occupied while waiting. Got some big kids that need activities to keep them busy till trick-or-treat? Maybe you're a teacher or home school parent that needs activities to keep kids on task? Here are free printable Halloween and trick or treat word puzzles, games and word searches. Games are educational too! Use these free printable word games, word searches and puzzles for classroom lesson plans.   Free Printable Halloween Word Games, Word Search, Word Scrambles and Puzzles 

Montessori mom: At-home preschool dramatic play learning center

 As a special needs and former Montessori teacher, my classrooms have always been organized on the learning center principle. Learning centers are rotational play areas were children perform tasks related to specific content areas: math, reading, science, art, practical life, dramatic play. When I had children, I imported the learning center philosophy into my home. The play room was set up like a modified preschool classroom. Got toddler or preschool age kids? I highly recommend setting up learning centers. If you're homeschooling, learning centers are a must. Here's how this Montessori mom designed an at-home dramatic play area. Montessori mom: At-home preschool dramatic play learning center 

Montessori mom: At-home preschool practical life learning center

I'm a certified special needs teacher and a former home school parent. I also taught in a Montessori school. Both Montessori and special education follow a learning center-based classroom model. Learning centers (also called areas or stations), engage children in hands-on, multi-sensory tasks. Each center focuses on different activities: reading, math, science, building, gross motor, art, dramatic play and practical life. When I taught our kids at home, I brought the learning center concept into our home. If you've got preschool kids or are a home school parent, why not try the learning center approach? Here's how this Montessori mom set up a practical life learning area. Montessori mom: At-home preschool practical life learning center

Free Printable Blank Checks for Money Math, Economics and Banking Practice

Money, banking and finances are some of the most practical math applications. Students learn to write checks, balance a check book and manage debit, savings and checking accounts. Here are free printable checks, check register, deposit and withdrawal slips. Links and websites listed below have free printable bank and check book activities to give students hands-on money math practice. Use these activities in consumer math classes, special education lesson plans, homeschool and math activities.  Free Printable Blank Checks for Money Math, Economics and Banking Practice 

Free Printable Math File Folder Games--Helps Working Parents Keep Kids Productively Busy

File folder games are a teacher's best friend in classroom resources. They work great for busy working parents, too. File folders games are great for parents of special needs students as they are hands-on, interactive resources. Here are free printable math activities that can be easily made into file folder games. You can print these games and glue the game board to a file folder. Cut out the pieces and laminate game board and pieces. Place game pieces in a Ziploc bag and attach bag to game file folder. The websites listed have free printable file folder games for number recognition, counting, skip counting, money math, addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, math facts, fractions, decimals, story problems and other math concepts. Free Printable Math File Folder Games for All Grades

Free Calendars--free printable personal planner, online organizer

Speaking from several decades of teaching, one of the most challenging concepts for students to master is calendar skills. Calendar skills are vital skills for personal organization and time management. Here are free printable calendar, free online organizer and personal planner tools and lesson plans to use them. Use these to organize your family life, too.  Click here...

Free Printable Children's 2014 Calendars

Free Printable 2011 Coloring Page Calendars, Schedules, Organizers for Kids

One of the best ways to teach a child to be organized is to help them follow a daily calendar or schedule. Here are free printable 2014 and 2015 monthly and weekly calendars, personal organizers and schedules for kids. Many are coloring page calendars, too. Read more...

Best Gifts for Busy WAHM Women

Looking for that perfect holiday gift for a professional woman on your gift list? Perhaps you need an office gift exchange for a co-worker? Or maybe a recent college graduate just starting her career? Here are a no-fail, sure to please holiday gifts for busy women like you. Read on...

What's Your Art? Grand Rapids Organizes Entertainment Venue Feeds

What's Your Art GR- Local and Arts Calendar and Schedule
If you're an arts buff like me, your bulletin board is covered with events calendars. And your computer screen cluttered with RSS feeds from all the local venues. Would you like your local Grand Rapids events in one convenience location?
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Free Personal Organizer, Calendar, Calculator Software Toolbar Download

Free Online Scientific Calculator, Personal Organizer and Reference Toolbar Download
I'm always looking for all-in-one reference software for my online research. Here's a free toolbar including: to-do list, calendar, world clock, scientific calculator, dictionary, calorie counter, translator, stopwatch, spellchecker and encyclopedia.
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How to Import Blog Posts From Blogger to Wordpress

Do you like to use Google Blogger (Blogspot) and Wordpress? Here's an easy tool to upload your Blogger blog posts onto your Wordpress blog. Click here!

How to Add Pages to Your Wordpress Blog Using Menus

How to Add Pages to Your Wordpress Blog Using the Menus Toolbar
Wordpress is a blogging platform. It allows bloggers to set up pages with their Wordpress blog automatically. Here's the key to adding pages to Wordpress. Don't use the Pages tool from your lefthand dashboard tool bar. Use 'Menus'.
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Public Library Computer Lab Protocol

Public Library Computer Lab Protocol: Common Sense and Politeness
Even though many people have personal home computers, summer heat and the need for a quiet work place drives many people to the public library computer lab. The computer lab, like any other part of the library has some common user protocol.
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