How I Limit Screen Time - A Free Printable List

I have a daily struggle in my house to balance time on screens with the rest of life. We are a family fond of electronic devices of any kind. My kids do not own phones, but we have tablets and computers and tvs and an iPod. I came across this post about the Momentum Optimization Project by Narrowback Slacker. Yes! This is what I need. I implemented it recently with tears from one kids and enthusiasm from the other. I plan to tweak this as needed, and keep it going year round. I think it will be less important to limit screen time because they will not be asking so early in the day, and hopefully this will help them find other things to do before jumping straight to computer games or tv however screen time will never be truly unlimited. Bedtime is also enforced here, even in the summer although it is generally later than through the school year.

I used the Momentum Optimization Project as a springboard but made it my own. I have two printable versions below. In the second one I took out the two things that are more likely to not apply to other families. 

Just click on the one you want for a larger graphic and right click or (CTRL + click) to save and print.

My kids have certain chores they do every morning and I'm adding on a small one: tidying the main bathroom every day. It's not my mess in there. I've made a list for tidying their rooms and for the new bathroom job loosely based again on the lists Narrowback Slacker posted regarding the Momentum Optimization Project.

Again, just click on the black and white lists below and save or print. I also printed them out on coloured paper just for fun.

I love the idea behind this and I'm hoping it sticks in our house.

What are your requirements for screen time for your kids?

Free printable cards and other really cool printable products

Caravan is a really cool shop with tons of affordable, and really cool, downloadable products. I just discovered them and I love their stuff. Best of all, they have free printables for download, including all their stationery. :) Happy dance! Not all the cards are black, those are just my favourites.

Another freebie I love is the proper placement placemat. Print it, laminate it and you're set.

Have a happy, sunny weekend!

Printing on Post-It Notes Is Fun!

Printing on Post-It Notes is fun and easy with the templates that are available online. I used the template from this post by sugardoodle to print a jumble of letters out for the kids to figure out. I printed it and had them post them on any wall they chose. They put it up in the living room. It's a terrible picture, but look what it just happened to spell. It was two days before Mother's Day. Aw, thanks kids!

I really don't know what happened with that picture, but I got the idea for a message like this from a post by Studio DIY - with much better pictures. I also printed out the kids names to stick up in their rooms and they're still up.

Have you ever printed on Post-It Notes before? What did you use them for? Here are a few other ideas for you:

	printable post-it notes from What's The Buzz?
	printable post-it notes for editing and revising writing at writingfix.com.
	these printable post-it notes from How About Orange? are fun. :)
	printable post-it notes for dealing with household clutter and such. I love these ones. They're free over at My Life All In One Place.

Summer Reading Printables

I'm always looking for ways to further inspire my kids to read, especially during the summer when I'm less likely to remember as well. Here are some fun free printables to help motivate and encourage your readers to keep going all the way through summer.

	This summer reading log is free at simple as that. There are five pages, including a front and back and the inside pages look like old school library cards.
	Here's a fun summer reading kit. It includes a printable banner and blank pieces in every colour of the rainbow to make a bunting you fill in as you read books, a bingo card, coupons and bookmarks. It's free at chickabug.
	There's a reading kit for boys or for girls from Creative Mama. Really cute!
	How cool are these? Printable chips that say "I've Read 20 Minutes" and "I've Read A Book" from Simply {Kierste}.
	This book report is free over at Homeschool Creations, along with a reading log.

This list of summer reading programs for kids at frugalfreebiesanddeals is worth checking out.


Do you plan to implement a summer reading program or just keep things loose and carefree?

8 Sweet Free Printables found on Pinterest

I love printables, have I said that yet? Here are a few things I found around Pinterest last week for you, your kids, and one early idea for Father's Day. . .


For when Mom needs some quiet time:

Sewing Cards

aren't they sweet?

Build your own cupcakes

and then, if you need to extend the activity they would look sweet on the front of cards, don't you think?

ClickNColour

Slightly more advanced designs to colour online or print out to colour.

Tool Box Robot Masks

I just think these are so much fun. :)

For you:

chalkboard verses

I love these but that's a lot of ink. I'm going to try printing one, maybe not a full page. Wouldn't they look good in a white frame?

Instagram-style photo cards

These are going on my fridge!

Mini office supply book covers for matchbooks

Be organized and look good. What to do with the matches when I foreclose on their homes?

For Father's Day:

A book about Dad

You really should check this out. Quick, easy, nearly painless and it's so much better than a plain card.

Have fun and may your printer never run out of ink. 

Or, if it does, here's hoping it's cheap to fill. :D

Homeschool Printables!

I love printables! Have I told you that yet? Printable worksheets are one of the best kinds. I've compiled a list of places to find these printables. I'm sure you'll be familiar with some, but hopefully you'll see something new.

homeschoolcreations.com has a ton of Pre-K - K printable packs. Ironman and a couple friends did a few of them last year and we put them into simple lapbooks to keep. He loved them and learned a lot.

1+1+1=1 also has a lot of  Tot - Pre-K - K printable packs. These, as well as the Homeschool Creations printable packs above, can be used for a variety of ages. I find that most of them are fairly advanced. Fun way to do school for Pre-K to K, and they could possibly be used in Grade 1 as well for something different and fun. Could be a good way to keep little ones entertained while homeschool is happening.

School Sparks has lots of printables for Pre-K - K. Math, Reading, Writing, Auditory Processing and Fine Motor Skills worksheets. They also have articles for parents. Definitely worth checking out.

I use education.com for things like cursive writing practice, simile worksheets, learning about homophones as well as word searches, and anything else needing extra practice. When Ironman's math curriculum didn't work well for him last year he did quite a few math worksheets of varying difficulty. It's a good place to find something for them to work on while I read as well. You can look printables up by grade or topic.

worksheetworks.com has worksheets for Math, English, Geography, Puzzles. All kinds of things in here. I especially like the customizable printing and handwriting worksheets.

Amazing Handwriting Worksheets (according to them anyways) ;o) is another custom print or cursive worksheet generator.

Homeschoolshare.com is a great place to look for lapbooks. Search for a topic or scroll down to look by grade level. I'm planning to do a Camping Lapbook with Ironman and the Sarah Plain and Tall Lapbook with Petunia. We really enjoyed making the Twelve Days of Christmas Lapbooks in December. I blogged about them here.

My English Printable Worksheets has a huge assortment of printable worksheets on many topics. Grammar, Vocabulary, Tests, Games, etc. Some would even work for science, like this picture crossword on parts of the body.

Are you reading Mystery of History Vol 1? This site has a ton of notebooking printables and craft resources that correlate with this book. There's lots more printables in The Crafty Classroom, so look around!

The Notebooking Nook has free notebooking pages on all kinds of subjects.

The Notebooking Fairy is a great resource for notebooking. Her notebooking pages are really fun.

Deceptively Educational is a blog with lots of fun printable games and activities covering all kinds of early elementary topics.  It's really worth checking out. This isn't the most exciting picture but I didn't want to post a picture of someone else's kids. They demonstrate most of the games and activities.

12 Days of Christmas Lapbook

Do you know what the Twelve Days of Christmas stand for? Neither did I.

We had fun finding out and making a lapbook about it, although I must say, this was not my best attempt at putting the actual folders together. I got impatient and put them together first, guessing how much room the kids would need. Not the most accurate way to do it, we had too much room. Live and learn. Here I thought I was so smart, saving time, all that!

The template for the parts of this lapbook is from Homeschool Share as a free pdf. I printed everything twice, and afterwards it occurred to me that we could have done one between the two kids because almost every day had two projects. We did almost everything.

Day 1 - A Partridge in a Pear Tree - Jesus death on the cross

Day 2 - Two Turtle Doves - The Old and New Testaments

Day 3 - Three French Hens - either the Gifts of the Magi or Faith, Hope and Love

Day 4 - Four Calling Birds - the 4 Gospels

Day 5 - Five Golden Rings - The Pentateuch - first 5 books of the Bible

Day 6 - Six Geese A Laying - Six Days of Creation

Day 7 - Seven Swans A Swimming - 7 Gifts of the Holy Spirit (Prophecy, Teaching, etc)

Day 8 - Eight Maids A Milking - The Beatitudes

Day 9 - Nine Ladies Dancing - the Fruit of the Spirit

Day 10 - Ten Lords A Leaping - The 10 Commandments

Day 11 - Eleven Pipers Piping - the 11 Faithful Apostles

Day 12 - Twelve Drummers Drumming - 12 Points of the Apostles Creed

... and for the first time ever I can sing them all accurately! Bonus. I've always wanted to be able to do that. Our current favourite version of the song is by Relient K.

The kids had fun putting them together, they love lapbooks. It was nice to focus on something entirely different for a bit. 

We had a couple friends doing them at the same time so here's pictures of their versions. When you're homeschooling you don't often have projects line up with others at the same time. Makes things fun.