Simple Kids » nesting

A high chair for Amelia (my thrift haul)

Kara — Wed, 16 May 2012 11:51:19 +0000

One of my Mother’s Day treats over the weekend was time by myself at the thrift store. Wonderful! (And, does my husband know me well, or what?)

I picked up some more frames for my growing family gallery and I also came across a treasure: a high chair!

We’ve been using a simple plastic travel booster seat since my oldest daughter Jillian was a baby, but I’ve always wanted a real wooden high chair. It has never been in the budget, though, and I never could bring myself to borrow one of those giant plastic ones from a friend or family member.

Don’t misunderstand: I’m all for using what you have, and for being frugal, and I’ve done that for over a decade now when it comes to children’s things. But, I’ve always wanted for my babies to have one of those nice, sleek wooden high chairs or a charming vintage one, like the ones at my parents and grandparents’ houses.

So, I was pretty delighted on Sunday to run across this one for eight dollars! It is perhaps more of a booster seat than a highchair since it has no tray, but to be honest we’ve been pulling Amelia right up to the table for a few weeks anyway.

She still isn’t very interested in eating table food, (anyone else’s nine month old like this?) but she likes to squish things between her fingers and smash it into her plate and she loves socializing with all of us at the dinner table.

I have plans to give the chair a good sanding and a new paint job but for now Miss Amelia perches in a new, to us, high chair that is lovely to look at and functional.

A definite thrift store score!

This post will be linked up to Thrift Haul at Simple Design. Have you had any thrift store scores for your kids lately? What do your kids sit in at the table?

CURRENT SPONSORS:

UPrinting - Spread your message.
Sparkle Stories - Audio stories for children and families.
A.Vogel - Help your immune system fight colds and flu.
GNOWFGLINS - Enjoying God's natural, organic, whole foods, grown locally in season.

A high chair for Amelia (my thrift haul) is a post from Simple Kids

© 2009-2012 Simple Living Media, LLC | All rights reserved - This feed is provided for the convenience of Simple Kids subscribers. Any reproduction of the content within this feed is strictly prohibited. If you are reading this content elsewhere, please contact hello@simplelivingmedia.com to let us know. Thanks.

Flashing back to my own childhood

Kara — Tue, 08 May 2012 16:10:40 +0000

Arianne over at Simple Design has started a fun link-up for sharing our thrift store purchases, Thrift Haul. Second-hand shopping is one of my favorite hobbies (if you can call something that is also a necessity a hobby, and I think you can).

As I mentioned yesterday, we’ve been spending quite a few weekend mornings cruising the thrift stores looking for picture frames.

Recently one of my thrift store scores had me flashing back to my own childhood: a Fisher-Price Main Street set.

Normally I’m not really a fan of plastic toys and prefer playthings made of natural materials. However, I remember playing with, and loving, Fisher-Price little people as a child and I just couldn’t resist adding this one to our collection (we also have the Fisher-Price barn that was mine as a kid). What can I say? My sentimental heartstrings were plucked.

We were lucky to find this one in its original box, with all of its pieces, and with the stickers in terrific shape. What fun!

It was five dollars well spent as the kids have been enjoying it and I have been enjoying reliving my own childhood memories.

Are you a second-hand shopper? Have you had any recent thrift store scores? Head over to Simple Design to join in the link-up fun!

CURRENT SPONSORS:

UPrinting - Spread your message.
Sparkle Stories - Audio stories for children and families.
A.Vogel - Help your immune system fight colds and flu.
GNOWFGLINS - Enjoying God's natural, organic, whole foods, grown locally in season.

Flashing back to my own childhood is a post from Simple Kids

Helping these walls to talk (however imperfectly)

Kara — Mon, 07 May 2012 04:01:14 +0000

It may be because I am finally starting to come out of my post-baby fog. It may be that it is Spring.

I’m sure that Pinterest has something to do with it.

I suppose it could simply be that the recent sunshine pouring through my windows revealed all the dust and the drab.

Whatever the reason, I’m feeling itchy to make some changes in my surroundings.

For one thing, these bare walls are closing in on me. I’m home with four little children, three of them under the age of five. It gets loud around here, friends. There are times when the noise is suffocatingly loud.

Visual reminders

Decorating has not been a priority the past seven years we have lived in this space. And, while I take a lot of pictures, framing them or scrapbooking just has not happened. (Some day I’ll have to explain to my children why the oldest has volumes of albums documenting her early years and the youngest three just have memory cards and my flickr account.)

My hands, and thoughts, have been quite full with other things.

But the bare walls are starting to get to me.

My motivation to make some changes is simple, really: I want some visual reminders of this wonderful, messy, happy, roller-coaster life with my family. I need it where I can see it, even when (especially when?) what is happening around me isn’t the happy messy but the messy-messy.

Taken at 11:11 am on 11/11/11

Yes, you do see black eyes, markers, and a certain blue hedgehog.

But first I hope you notice the smiles.

During those moments when the roar gets to be too much, I think it would help if I could gaze upon my walls and see the faces of my loved ones smiling back at me. I believe it might be comforting, say, in the middle of the night when pacing the floor with a teething, tired, fussy baby, to look upon these walls and see the face of my baby broken wide into a grin from a recent happy day.

Yes, visual documentation of joyful moments might be just the sweet reminder I need when the three year old melts down that the days are long but the years are short.

And, maybe, just maybe … when the ten year old is rolling her eyes at me or believing her mother incredibly unfair, maybe she’ll look at those photos of that smiling, bald baby from ten years ago and notice the love on the face of the mother holding her in the pictures. Hopefully she’ll remember that we are the same pair, aged just a decade, with the same love.

What does it say about me that my blog has more recent family photos on it than the walls in my home? Egad.

There will be no professional photography and family portrait session (as much as I would love it), no artwork rendering our family into something suitable for the mantle. My simple point and shoot camera and cell phone photos are what I’ve got to work with, alongside my meager shutterbug skills.

I’ve got to liven these walls up and coax them into speaking our family story by other means.

This mama is on a budget.

Instead, off into cyberspace my digital images have been flying (practically every time I stumble upon a coupon code for photo printing), ready to be turned into prints. To the thrift store I’ve been cruising, digging for picture frames and artwork whose wrappings I can raid. I’ve been eying the creations of my very own in-house artists and curating our family gallery.

I haven’t been worried about the “perfect” shot or if there are too many toys (or dirty dishes or dust bunnies) in the background of the pictures. I just go through my images and pick the ones whose memories shout out to me the loudest, the ones where I can almost hear the giggles or feel the soft baby cheeks.

August 2011 – I’m so exhausted, but so happy on one of the best days of my life

My frames are a motley crew of mismatched second-hand finds and some of my prints are in color and some are black and white. Maybe some day I will spray paint all of the frames a matching color and create groupings like the ones I pin on Pinterest, but for now it just matters to me that I put the pictures up so we can enjoy them.

I already feel like the walls are easing up on their squeeze a bit and this place is starting to feel a little less drab (the sun went back behind the rainclouds so the dust is waiting patiently, as dust tends to do).

It has been some time coming and I’m so glad that I decided not to put it off any longer, waiting for the “perfect” timing, photograph, or financial moment. Kids don’t slow their growth for time, budgets, or sentimental mothers.

Tips for Creating a Child-Centered Space

Amanda — Wed, 14 Mar 2012 04:01:00 +0000

The following is by contributor Amanda Morgan of Not Just Cute.

With spring creeping in, I often get the urge to start reorganizing and redecorating. With Tsh’s Project Simplify on top of that, there are many of us who are or soon will be swooping in to reclaim and renovate our kids’ spaces.

But as we do so, I often wonder, are we approaching the project with the image of a magazine spread in mind or with our children in mind? Here are a few things to consider when preparing a child-centered space.

Point of View

As we survey the room with our eyes perched at their usual adult height – say five feet or so off the ground- we are assessing the room in a way that is completely different from the way our children experience it, toddling about at just a few feet tall. It’s certainly worthwhile to consider how we view the area and consider how we feel about our own perspective, but if the space is to be truly child-centered, it helps to get down on the ground and see it from their point of view.

Sit on the floor from many different spots in the space and consider what your experience is from that frame of reference. While most art and decoration in an adult room is centered around that five foot high standard for “eye-level”, for a child-centered room, the art and decoration should be at their eye-level. Are there ways you could bring more interest to the lower part of the walls of your kids’ spaces?

As an example, Steph at Modern Parents Messy Kids offers a tutorial for a magnetic alphabet giraffe here (pictured below) as well as a variety of magnetic wall ideas from around the web here.

This certainly isn’t to suggest that you should have floor to ceiling decorations all over your home, but consider the areas that you intend to be child-centered or even family-centered and put some thought and intention into the bottom three feet of the space that is often ignored.

Photo byModern Parents Messy Kids

Independence

Likewise, from your child’s point of view, can appropriate supplies be accessed by them independently? Can they get their own toys out (and more importantly, put them away)? Can they get themselves a drink? Can they get their own coat and shoes?

Preparing your child’s space in a way that encourages independence not only makes things easier on you, but it also helps your child to practice and master self-help skills and bolsters their self-esteem as well as their sense of responsibility.

Think about what you want your child to be able to do for himself and also consider the things your child would like to be able to do for himself. Look at your space and consider whether you need to lower hooks and shelves, add step stools, or move supplies from a high cupboard to a low drawer.

Invitations

As I have worked in preparing classrooms as well as areas in my own home, I have become more aware of the concept of creating visual invitations. In preparing a classroom environment at the university lab school where I worked, we would set up each activity area in a way that invited the type of participation we wanted to encourage.

So if we wanted children to build with blocks, we usually set up a few blocks in a simple, unfinished structure in the block area. As the children walked by, they would get a visual invitation calling to them to join in and build. Likewise, in the reading corner, we didn’t just set out books, but arranged pillows and blankets to invite children to get comfortable and stay a while. Art tables were prepared with attractive baskets filled with colorful supplies and art trays to define individual space. Without words, children were invited to sit down and create because the environment was prepared in a way that encouraged that.

Simple Kids contributor Mariah Bruehl has an amazing gift for preparing spaces for children. Both her book, Playful Learning, and her Ecourse, Playful Learning Spaces, provide fantastic insight on preparing a child’s space to include invitations to engage and participate fully in that thoughtfully prepared environment.

It is key to remember that when it comes to a child-centered space, it is more about what it invites children to DO, than simply how it looks. Be aware of the active elements in the area you are preparing for your children. Think about not only what you want the space to look like, but what you envision happening there. Prepare the space to visually invite children to that activity.

Likewise, consider what types of invitations you may unintentionally be sending out. If you have large open spaces, you are encouraging large motor/rough and tumble play. Is that your intention? If you set out scissors, you are inviting children to do some cutting. Are you prepared for that? It isn’t so much about what elements are right or wrong, but whether or not the invitations you’re creating match your intentions.

Taking these three points into consideration — the child’s point of view, independence, and invitations — will help you to create and organize a child-centered space that will appeal not just to your eyes, but to your child’s senses as well.

What things do you keep in mind when creating a child-centered space?

CURRENT SPONSORS:

UPrinting - Spread your message.
Sparkle Stories - Audio stories for children and families.
A.Vogel - Help your immune system fight colds and flu.
GNOWFGLINS - Enjoying God's natural, organic, whole foods, grown locally in season.

Tips for Creating a Child-Centered Space is a post from Simple Kids

Project Simplify: Kids’ Stuff – my “After”

Kara — Fri, 09 Mar 2012 14:07:09 +0000

The following post is by editor Kara Fleck.

Well, here we are: the end of week one of Project Simplify, Kids’ Stuff. How did you guys do?

My “Before” and “After”

If you remember, here is my “before” (and thank you kindly to those of you who reassured me it really wasn’t that bad of a mess to begin with):

And, after some decluttering, downsizing, and scrubbing, here are the children’s desk and the play kitchen as of this morning:

One of the things that impressed me was how a few small changes (taking some things away, adding some organization, cleaning the surfaces of the desk and the kitchen) made such a big difference to the kids. They began to play in these spaces immediately, whereas before they would take things from these spaces into other areas to play – a sign that they were too cluttered before for peaceful play.

How did you do? Have you noticed a change in your children’s play spaces this week? Did it change their play? Will you keep going with Project Simplify? I know I am!

Make sure you head over to Simple Mom today to enter Tsh’s giveaway for this week. Happy Spring Cleaning!

CURRENT SPONSORS:

UPrinting - Spread your message.
Sparkle Stories - Audio stories for children and families.
A.Vogel - Help your immune system fight colds and flu.
GNOWFGLINS - Enjoying God's natural, organic, whole foods, grown locally in season.

Project Simplify: Kids’ Stuff – my “After” is a post from Simple Kids

Project Simplify: Kids’ Stuff – my progress

Kara — Wed, 07 Mar 2012 13:07:46 +0000

The following is by editor Kara Fleck.

So, friends, how is the first week of Project Simplify going for you as Tsh leads us in cleaning up kids’ stuff?

I have to admit that I still have a good amount of cleaning, decluttering, and downsizing work ahead of me. My older two children have been terrific about helping, but my three year old isn’t quite as thrilled about the idea and has told me several times she “likes it messy” the little stinker.

I’m finding that it is working out best for my ten and five year olds and I to clean when the baby and the three year old are napping. We put on some fun music and get to work.

The kids are working on their bedrooms, with a bit of supervision from me, and I’m tackling the play kitchen and the children’s desk in our loft playroom.

Here is my progress so far:

Here are my “before” pictures. Yikes!

The Desk

The Issues

too many craft supplies out at once, no organization
trash ending up on the floor
items on top of the desk that don’t belong there

The Game Plan

I’ve cleaned away all of the craft supplies, and I’m giving them back to the children as they ask for them this week. The rest I will organize and store in a closet, the idea being that what they use the most they have access to and the rest is tidy and put away elsewhere.
The desk has all these great cubby holes and drawers that we need to be utilizing (and, once upon a time, we were)
find a small trash can for this space
re-hang the chalk board and return other items that don’t belong on the desk to their homes

The Play Kitchen

The Issues

Again, items on top of the kitchen that don’t belong on this space.
Play food is every where!
the kitchen itself is dirty and needs cleaned

The Game Plan

find homes for all of the objects that have landed on the top that don’t belong there
organize, and perhaps downsize, the play food and toy dishes
find some small baskets and containers that can be used to store the play kitchen items, just like in our big kitchen
remove everything from the kitchen and give it a good scrub down from top to bottom

Okay, that is my progress spring cleaning kids’ stuff so far. Admittedly, it isn’t much. I have plans, but little progress. The kids and I have some work to do over the next few days.

Tune in to this space on Friday and, hopefully, I’ll have some clean and tidy “after” photos to share with you. And, be sure to head over to Simple Mom for some tips and encouragement with Project Simplify.

We’re half way through the week. How are your kids’ spaces looking?

CURRENT SPONSORS:

UPrinting - Spread your message.
Sparkle Stories - Audio stories for children and families.
A.Vogel - Help your immune system fight colds and flu.
GNOWFGLINS - Enjoying God's natural, organic, whole foods, grown locally in season.

Project Simplify: Kids’ Stuff – my progress is a post from Simple Kids

Joining in With Simple Mom’s Project Simplify: Kids’ Stuff (my “before” pictures)

Kara — Mon, 05 Mar 2012 13:15:56 +0000

The following post is by editor Kara Fleck.

This week my friend Tsh, of Simple Mom, launches this year’s Project Simplify. She’s starting us off in Kids’ Spaces and, as I’ve mentioned recently, my family’s kid spaces are in serious need of some attention and tender loving care after a few months of post-baby neglect.

I’m going to give the bedrooms and our loft playroom the bulk of my Spring Cleaning attention this week. I’m going to focus on our loft playroom in this post and I thought I would share with you my “before” pictures before I get started.

I’ve had a few weeks to really think about our home and the children’s things and I’ve been deciding which things we need to downsize and which things we just need to re-figure the storage of and the way we use the space currently.

Here are two areas I really need to focus on: the play kitchen and the children’s desk. The image above shows the actual spaces exactly the way they were, no pre-picking up on my part (man, that was hard to resist!) before I photographed them at 7:30 this morning.

As you can see, the kids’ desk needs reorganized and some of the crafting supplies downsized, the chalkboard (used recently for a spur-of-the-moment awards show) needs to be re-hung on the wall, not precariously balanced on the top of the desk, and it looks like I need to find a child-sized trash can so that the floor isn’t used. And, yikes, I spy safety scissors there just waiting for my three year old to pick them up. Oh, dear.

The play kitchen is another area where some downsizing needs to happen, as well as a good scrubbing of the kitchen itself. The top surface has been used as a “catch-all” of sorts (look, there is Jillian’s school bag) so I need to find some better, permanent homes for those things.

The kids and I have our work cut out for us.

Okay, so there are my family’s two big kids’ stuff problem areas that I’m going to tackle this week.

I’ll be back on Wednesday with my game plan and the progress (hopefully) so far. Be sure to head over to Simple Mom for some tips and encouragement for getting started with Project Simplify.

We can do this! Ready, set, go!

What kids’ spaces are you tackling this week?

CURRENT SPONSORS:

UPrinting - Spread your message.
Sparkle Stories - Audio stories for children and families.
A.Vogel - Help your immune system fight colds and flu.
GNOWFGLINS - Enjoying God's natural, organic, whole foods, grown locally in season.

Joining in With Simple Mom’s Project Simplify: Kids’ Stuff (my “before” pictures) is a post from Simple Kids

Books and Toys: Is it Time to Downsize?

Kara — Fri, 24 Feb 2012 12:56:03 +0000

The following post is by editor Kara Fleck.

It is time to downsize at our house, I can feel it. Our play areas are starting to feel a little chaotic and lately a few Spring-like sunny days revealed a layer of dust on some once beloved items. I know I need to reevaluate what we own and the kids and I need to make some decisions.

I try to follow the “one in, one out” rule, but that didn’t happen during this most recent round of birthdays and holidays. We have accumulated too many things and it is affecting our living space and the quality of the children’s play.

Are you also feeling overwhelmed by the books and toys your children have? Are they having a hard time keeping things picked up?

When this happens at my house, despite our toy and book rotating, I know that it might be time to downsize. Luckily, my friend Tsh of Simple Mom is coming to my rescue with her annual Project Simplify. My house, especially the children’s spaces, can’t wait to begin!

If you’re a regular reader of Simple Kids or Rockin’ Granola then you know that I readily confess that I don’t “do it all.” One of the things I’m able to coast a little bit on is the deep cleaning. I get by with basic every day chores that the kids and I do (toilets, beds, floors, and kitchen surface cleaning) and a twice a year intense deep attic to garage cleaning. Only last fall with a new baby, that autumn deep clean didn’t happen.

We’re overdue for some clutter control.

Perhaps some of you are finding yourself in the same situation?

Is it Time to Downsize?

First, ask yourself a few questions about the items:

Are items currently being played with? Talk to your kids: are they playing with these toys? Do they still want them/love them? Have any books or toys been outgrown? Can things be passed down to the next child or donated? Are there broken or missing pieces that make them unusable? Things that need thrown away or repaired?
Is the way these items are currently stored/displayed in our home visually appealing? Observe your child in these spaces, both during play and when it is time to pick up. Can the child put things away on their own? Is it easy to get things out to play with or read? Is this a peaceful space? Or is it a chaotic and cluttered space? This impacts a child’s play environment.
Would less be more? If so, downsize.

Do We Need to Reevaluate the Space?

There are some areas of our home, specifically the book and toy storage, where I think we need to take another look at the space. I’m not sure we’re using our home and our storage in the most efficient or practical way. There are books overflowing their shelves and we have baskets and lids that won’t shut on bins and toy boxes.

When it comes to the methods of storage and the space you have, ask yourself:

Is there adequate storage space for the items? Do you need a larger bookshelf? Toy box?
Is there a better way to store or display the toys, books, art supplies or collection? Are you making the best use of your space? Do your containers make sense for the objects they are holding?
Do those items deserve the investment of time and space for bigger storage? Do they enrich your child’s play and your family environment? Are they worth making room for?

If you come to the conclusion that your child is ready for a larger bookshelf or her collections needs a bigger storage space, and it is worth the investment of money and space to you, then you can make some adjustments with how you are using the space and bring in some other storage options.

However, if it isn’t worth it to you to get a larger storage system, then perhaps it is time to downsize to a more manageable amount.

I think at our house we need to do a little of both.

If items are just gathering dust and taking up space, I know it is time to let them go to make room for the supplies we truly use and love.

Is it time to downsize the books and toys at your house? I’m going to roll up my sleeves and do some downsizing and deep cleaning in the kids’ spaces. Yes, even with “before” and “after” photos. Will you be doing any Spring cleaning? Will you involve your kids?

CURRENT SPONSORS:

UPrinting - Spread your message.
Sparkle Stories - Audio stories for children and families.
A.Vogel - Help your immune system fight colds and flu.
GNOWFGLINS - Enjoying God's natural, organic, whole foods, grown locally in season.

Books and Toys: Is it Time to Downsize? is a post from Simple Kids

The Second Time Around: Simple Yard Sale Treasures for Kids

Kara — Mon, 20 Feb 2012 05:01:38 +0000

Written by Kara Fleck, editor of Simple Kids. Spring is just around the corner, which means so is Yard Sale Season, my favorite time of year! We’re enjoying the extended President’s Day weekend, so I thought you might enjoy this post from June 2010. Best wishes!

This upcoming weekend is a holiday here in the United States. It also marks the time of year when many local neighborhoods shift yard sale season into high gear. For the savvy shopper, this is the most wonderful time of the year, as the bargains are waiting to be found.

Being one of those people who likes to plan ahead to save myself work and hassle later, I take advantage of this time to get a jump on my holiday and birthday shopping.

Indulge me for a moment, though, because keeping your eyes open now for certain items can pay off in the form of full stockings come December, and at bargain prices to boot.

Here are some simple yard sale treasures for kids that are worth searching for:

1. Dominos

You don’t necessarily need a full set, as most kids prefer to line them up for domino toppling rather than playing the official game. In fact, a mismatched, colorful collection seems to have more kid appeal.

Often I find dominos sets in tins. If the original tin or box is in good shape and all the pieces are there, I will wrap it and give it as is.

If many pieces are missing or the box is damaged, discard the box and repackage the dominos in a simple homemade draw-string bag. Skip to My Lou has a great draw string bag tutorial that is simple, even for my modest sewing skills.

2. Marbles

My two oldest children have recently discovered the joy of collecting and playing with marbles. Don’t know the rules of the game? You can find a printer-friendly copy here: Land of Marbles.

This is another toy that you can gradually accumulate until you have enough to fill a small homemade gift bag. A super fun stocking stuffer!

3. Madeline Tins

I don’t give the tins themselves to the children, but I do use them as molds for making homemade melted crayons. Madeline tins and muffin tins come in a variety of shapes that make for really beautiful crayons and can be picked up inexpensively second-hand.

These pretty crayons have been one of my “go to” birthday gifts for years now and they find their way into the holiday stockings, too.

4. Silk and Cotton Scarves

These are wonderful for playing dress up with and they make fun props for story telling, play, or for decorating the nature table. I like to find solid, light colored scarves and sometimes I dye or over-dye them.

I use powdered drink mix to dye our silks and scarves with. Knitty has an article on dying yarn with kool-aid that includes a color chart you could use for reference, too.

5. Crafting Materials

Abandoned hobbies and craft projects are common yard-sale wares. Partially completed kits or those missing pieces can be put together in a special box to serve as raw materials for young crafter. Pick up some how-to books and patterns while you’re browsing and you can put together a one-of-a-kind gift that encourages creativity.

Keep your eyes out for pin cushions, measuring tape, thimbles, and travel-sized sewing kits, too. These can be combined with fat quarters and fabric scraps to create a sewing kit for a young seamstress or budding costume designer.

6. Board Games

Even those board games that are missing pieces are worth considering. First, they are probably priced very low. And second, it isn’t the games themselves that you want but the fun components. Dice, spinners, chessmen, scrabble tiles all can be re-packaged into a “Build Your Own Game” kit.

Recover game boards with plain kraft paper and you’ve got a blank canvas for whatever your child imagines. Cover this with clear contact paper to help their drawings last through rounds and rounds of play.

You can also add in some fun and unexpected items to enhance your game kit:

wooden spools
buttons
a calculator
small colored pencils
post-it note pads
large rubber bands
an hourglass or wind-up kitchen timer
doll house miniatures
bells

7. Misc. Kitchen Items

Don’t forget to browse the housewares! Over the years, an enamelware tea pot (missing its lid), small wooden cutting board, wooden spoons, and a picnic basket have all found a new home in our play kitchen.

Items don’t have to be child-sized to be appreciated. Often their authenticity appeals to kids, who want to do things just like their parents. Being designed for kitchen use also means they are more likely to stand up to daily play, unlike many of their plastic toy counterparts.

Items I’m currently on the hunt for: whisks, wooden canisters, small tongs, mini muffin tins, egg cups. I’m also on the lookout for square wooden coaster sets. I have an idea to remove the cork, sand them, and repaint them to look like slices of bread.

Use common sense about rough or sharp edges, breakable items, or those with tiny pieces, of course!

Treasures for a Steal

For year-round second-hand shopping there’s always my favorite local thrift store, but most thrift stores don’t compare to the rock-bottom prices that yard sale season brings.

When it comes to finding treasures for my kids, yard sale season will always be my favorite time of year.

What treasures are you hoping to find for your kids this yard sale season?

CURRENT SPONSORS:

UPrinting - Spread your message.
Sparkle Stories - Audio stories for children and families.
A.Vogel - Help your immune system fight colds and flu.
GNOWFGLINS - Enjoying God's natural, organic, whole foods, grown locally in season.

The Second Time Around: Simple Yard Sale Treasures for Kids is a post from Simple Kids

Evening Tasks For an Easier Morning

Kara — Fri, 17 Feb 2012 05:01:36 +0000

The following is by editor Kara Fleck and originally appeared in March of 2011.

Imentioned a short while ago that one of the ways I help to make life a little easier on myself and our mornings flow smoother is by preparing for them the night before.

I have found that a morning routine helps to set the tone for the rest of the day. You can read more about my morning routine here, but today I want to talk specifically about taking some time the evening before to set the stage for the next morning.

Prepping for the Next Morning

One of the questions I asked myself as I was developing our current morning routine was what can I do the night before to give myself a jump start for the next day?

After some brainstorming and making a few changes, I was able to come up with a list of tasks that can be done the night before – thus, giving myself a head-start on the next morning.

Here are the things I do in the evenings to prepare for the next day:

* This past year I’ve been making a real effort to get my family to drink more water. To encourage this, I fill up water bottles so that they are in the fridge waiting for us to grab and go. (2012 Note: this task has become one of my ten year old’s evening chores now.)

* As we are clearing the dinner table, we set the table for breakfast. If you do nothing else, I would encourage you to try this.

* While I’m in the kitchen, I prepare snacks and pack lunches. We homeschool, so most of our lunches are at home, but I pack up dinner leftovers for my husband (who brings his lunch to work) and sometimes we pack a lunch if we’re having a field trip day, too. Not all food can be prepared the night before, but many things can. Even setting out the lunch boxes and food containers on the counter gives me a head start on packing the next morning.

* I make sure homeschool lessons are ready to go and any supplies for art/craft projects that we are going to do are ready, too. My goal is make sure that no one has to wait on me while I find a sharpened pencil or the watercolor paper.

* I also take a quick glance at the calendar to remind myself what is on the agenda for the next day.

* As we’re getting ready for bed and the kids are going through their bedtime routine, I set out clothes for the next day.

* After the kids are in bed, I do a quick tidy of the main living areas and pick up any toys that didn’t get scooped up during one of our 5 minute pick up sessions during the day.

* Before I go to sleep, I set my alarm clock. At first, my goal was to get up fifteen minutes before the rest of my family. Little by little I worked my way up to about an hour and a half by myself in the morning. Now, I know that getting up at 5am wouldn’t make for an easier morning for everybody, but it helps me to avoid that “shot out of a canon” feeling in the morning and allows me to have a daily quiet time, too.

2012 Note: we’re in a “new baby” season of life, so I’m not currently setting my alarm clock and I’m not getting up at 5am (at least not by my choice, some days Mia has other plans) and I don’t get very much time alone in the mornings. However, even fifteen minutes cuddling a six month old and spending some time in quiet thought while I rock and nurse her is infinitely better than starting the day in a race. Baby time is sacred time, too.

Photo by Shutterstock

A Head Start

It doesn’t take very long for me to do these things at the end of the day but, it really helps me to feel like I’m starting the day well to have these tasks already finished and waiting.

Plus, I like having this quiet time at the end of the day to get things settled and the house set to rights again before I head off to bed myself. (Are you noticing a theme here? I like to begin and end my days with some quiet. It helps to balance out the joyful noise of the days.)

And, in the event we do have a morning that starts late or begins a little rocky, I’m still in fairly good shape because I have attended to these tasks ahead of time.

Remember, these tasks are specific to my family and may, or may not, be relevant for your family.

I encourage you to take a look at this list and then start thinking about some tasks that you can do in the evenings to give yourself a head start on the next day, too.

What can you do to prepare tonight to make tomorrow easier for yourself?

CURRENT SPONSORS:

UPrinting - Spread your message.
Sparkle Stories - Audio stories for children and families.
A.Vogel - Help your immune system fight colds and flu.
GNOWFGLINS - Enjoying God's natural, organic, whole foods, grown locally in season.

Evening Tasks For an Easier Morning is a post from Simple Kids

Simple Kids » nesting

A high chair for Amelia (my thrift haul)

Flashing back to my own childhood

Helping these walls to talk (however imperfectly)

Visual reminders

Other stories our walls tell …

Tips for Creating a Child-Centered Space

Point of View

Independence

Invitations

Project Simplify: Kids’ Stuff – my “After”

My “Before” and “After”

Project Simplify: Kids’ Stuff – my progress

The Desk

The Play Kitchen

Joining in With Simple Mom’s Project Simplify: Kids’ Stuff (my “before” pictures)

Books and Toys: Is it Time to Downsize?

Is it Time to Downsize?

Do We Need to Reevaluate the Space?

The Second Time Around: Simple Yard Sale Treasures for Kids

1. Dominos

2. Marbles

3. Madeline Tins

4. Silk and Cotton Scarves

5. Crafting Materials

6. Board Games

7. Misc. Kitchen Items

Treasures for a Steal

Evening Tasks For an Easier Morning

Prepping for the Next Morning

A Head Start