365 Days of Play -- Review of a Book Full of Screen Free Activities for 6-12 Year-Olds

 

Disclosure: I was sent a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

It has been a long couple of weeks. Our school stops regular classes for two weeks starting with Presidents Day and the high school holds mini courses. Some of my colleagues and I are teaching a science of cooking and baking class. I have to say as fun as it is, it is tiring to teach cooking to fourteen high school students. I have come home most nights and falling asleep between 8:30 and 9:00. It has been crazy and I'm preparing for this coming week. Before I get to sleep early tonight, I want to share a fun new book with you that is perfect for every family of 6 to 12-year-olds. It is 365 Days of Play by Megan Hewes Butler and illustrated by Emily Balsley. 

Outside Personal Paint Party

Hazel had her last day of school this week. To do something special I thought we would do a paint party. It was beautiful out this week. So we decided to try one of the Muse Paintbar's Muse-to-Go paintings. Hazel's favorite in the beginning was Dolphin Delight. It is offered as a free video so that is the one we decided to do. (You can find it under Kids and click the free video button.) We had nice big canvases in our craft supplies as well as the brushes and paints. We took our plastic patio table and covered it with an old tablecloth and put it on the grass in case we spilled. Then we got jars of water, our brushes for each of us, the five basic colors of acrylic paint (red, blue, yellow, black and white), two small paper plates for each of us and paper towels. We used plate stands for our "easels". We set my computer up on a chair next to the table to play the video. If you do not have the supplies in your craft storage they do sell sets of those as well. 

Sign Here ... Review

Disclosure: I was sent a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

Do you know a child who has trouble communicating his or her feelings? Or maybe one who hates writing thank you notes and other letters? This book is perfect for them and really for any kid who wants to have fun, express him/herself and laugh. The book is Sign Here by Gabrielle Djanogly and illustrated by Adele Mildred. 

Fun Picture Books

Disclosure: I was sent copies of these books free of charge to review. All opinions in my review are my own and I did not receive any other compensation. As in all my reviews I am providing links for your ease, but receive no compensation.

Let's have a staring contest! Ready!! This is the concept of our first book, Don't Blink by Tom Booth. 

What the Fun?! -- A Book Review

Have you entered my current giveaway for a custom canvas print?

Disclosure: Penguin Random House Books gave me a copy of this book free of charge for this review. All opinions in my review are my own and I did not receive any other compensation.  As in all my reviews I am providing links for your ease, but receive no compensation.

What do you really want for your children? One of the most important things to me is for Hazel to be happy and healthy. Well the best way to help that to happen is to create more fun in your family's life and Donna Bozzo has over 400 simple ideas to help you do this in What the Fun?! 

Chimpanzees for Tea & Snappsy the Alligator Did Not Ask to Be in This Book -- Fun Book Reviews

Disclosure: Penguin Kids gave me a copy of these books free of charge for this review. All opinions in my review are my own and I did not receive any other compensation. As in all my reviews I am providing links for your ease, but receive no compensation.

Are you in the need of a laugh? The two picture books I am sharing today will definitely get you laughing. They are so fun and entertaining. The first is Chimpanzees for Tea! by Jo Empson. 

Animals Help Deliver Important Messages: Would a Worm Go on a Walk? & Busy, Busy First Look Reviews

Disclosure: I was sent these books to review free of charge from Worthy Ideals. All opinions in this post are my own. I did not receive any other compensation for this review. I am including links to each item for your convenience but do not receive anything if you purchase them.

Today I get to share with you two new books that use animals to deliver important messages to children. The first book is a religious book that delivers the message that God created animals to do what they do and His masterpiece is you. The second book's message is that no matter how busy a mother is she always has time for a snuggle with her child. 

Would a Worm Go on a Walk? by Hannah C. Hall and illustrated by Bill Bolton is a picture book that has animals doing funny things like the worm on the cover walking with sneakers.

Mathematical Dates & Exponents -- Math Lesson

As I was listening to the radio today I heard the deejay talk about the special date today and I'll admit it had not occurred to me. However I realized it was the perfect time for some math lessons!! Some dates are special mathematically. Many people enjoy the sequential ones like December 13, 2015 (12/13/14). However there are other special dates. February 4, 2016 is a special one. When it is written in numbers it is 2-4-16. Can you find the relationship?

Together Box--Product Review & Discount Code

Disclosure: I was sent this box to review free of charge from Together Box. All opinions in this post are my own. I did not receive any other compensation for this review. I am including links to each item for your convenience but do not receive anything if you purchase them.

Today I get to share with you the fun we had with a Together Box and I get to give you a discount code at the end of my review. Now Together Box is a company that sends you a box with three to four activities in it every month and it has everything you need to do the activities, and I mean everything. Hazel is always excited when we get packages and she was really excited with this one. I noticed it by the side of the house when I was going to pick her up and grabbed it and put it in the car. She could not wait to get home to open it.

She was even more excited when she saw what was inside. She wanted to do all the activities right away. We received the Balloon Box. Now Hazel LOVES balloons, so she was even more excited to see two packages of balloons in there.

Hazel pulled everything out, so she could check it all out. Each box comes with an instruction booklet that also provides more ideas beyond the three to four activities. It also gives clear steps for each activity including which materials to use. The only thing we had to add on our own was water. Literally everything else was sent from a Sharpie marker to food coloring and flour.

Now there were four activities in the Balloon Box, but I am only going to share one with you. The rest were more activity based and I was having too much fun with Hazel and Steve to get pictures. Yes, we did these activities and had some quality family time!! These boxes are perfect for that! The first activity only Hazel and I did. We started with making yarn bird cages. Now Hazel and I had made yarn Easter eggs before, and I knew this was not a craft Daddy would want to do, so we did it while waiting for him to get home from work. Hazel knew it was going to be messy, so she put on her apron and then we mixed the glue.

Then she helped cut yarn. Next we glued them to balloons. We had to make more glue since Hazel put it on a bit heavy and we made two rather larger bird cages.

Hazel got bored and really doesn't like messy hands for long, so she colored the birds for the cages while I finished them up. Then we hung them from our kitchen light to dry overnight. We woke up to find the orange balloon had been popped by one of the cats. Oh, well. After popping the other balloon, I cut out the birds and hung them in our bird cages.

After doing this and waiting for Daddy, Hazel wanted to play with balloons. They happened to do an activity with balloons in her gym class that day, so she was so excited to try it more at home.

Daddy enjoyed making marshmallow shooters to aim at ninja balloons and the balloon powered fountain with us. We still need to do the balloon rockets. Overall our experience with Together Box is wonderful. They give you some fun ideas with all the supplies to have some quality family time. The activities are fun and educational and the instructions are easy to follow. Now Hazel of course wanted to expand her lesson and began asking questions about how balloons are made. I went to the library and we found a book: Balloon Trees by Donna Smith. It explains the whole process from tree to package.

Now if you want to try Together Box, they are offering my readers a special of 50% off your first box with the coupon code: "crafty".  The prices per month range from $24 - $29 depending on how many months you buy. If you are looking for a way to add some fun family time into your busy schedule this box program is for you. They send you everything you need and the activities are fun and easy and with three to four activities in a box, you have one for each week or so in the month. I would love to hear about your family experiences if you order them!!

Happy Family Times #39--Build-a-Bear

Have you done something fun with your family this week? Kelly at Happy Whimsical Hearts and I are collecting fun ideas so we can all have more fun family adventures. Please share yours below.

Decorated Bedroom Door

Well we had a lot of family time this week since we celebrated Hazel's birthday. However I already shared her birthday party pictures. On her actual birthday, we had planned on having a small gathering of her grandparents and us, however my father got a bad cold, so they could not travel. We did some special things in the morning. I had decorated her door before going to bed. She loved it! She opened her gifts right away and we had to dress all her dolls. Only Pocahontas had to get an older outfit. Even Ducky got a new outfit. Sarah is still sick, but she got new pajamas and was put back in bed.

Steve's mother came over and wanted to take her to Build-a-Bear. We had done Build-a-Bear when she was two and she really was too young. Now at four she is a perfect age. And Nonni let her get whatever she wanted. We all went to the mall.

It was hard to choose, but she decided on the rainbow bear. Then she picked the Brahm's Lullaby to go in the paw. Next she picked outfits. Oh, so hard to choose from all the choices. I think she ended up with a First Communion Dress, but she really liked it because of the cross necklace.

And Nonni got the bear a pink purse and brush and Hazel a carrier.

Yes, Hazel walked around the mall carrying her new bear, Princess Teddy. We stopped in the Disney Store and they gave her a crown and pin for her birthday. Then we headed over to the rides they have in this mall. While Nonni and Hazel played on the rides Steve and I did our other errands. Then we came home for lunch and a cake of course. Overall it was a great birthday.


Now it is your turn to share how your family has spent some quality time lately.

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Ok, now for our PARTY!! Please share your FUN Family Times!!