Chores For Kids: The Preschool & Kindergarten Edition

by Stacy on February 22, 2013

Do you have a set list of tasks on hand that your preschoolers and kindergarteners can do to help around the house?

If your kids are anything like mine, they actually LOVE to help out and if the task involves a spray bottle well, they’re in!

household chores for kids

I start cleaning and the kids inevitably come running in to ask what they can do. I have a few standby tasks … but I had never really taken the time to just nail down all of the things that they can do on their own now.

We’ve been testing out all sorts of Method cleaning products the last few weeks, so I had to get more creative than my usual list of 5 or 6 things they could do. Boy am I glad I did! We’ve been “cleaning like a mother” around here and our home is starting to sparkle because of it. Yes, we have even been singing the song.

Here’s the list I’ve come up with so far … it is by no means complete, but it’s a way better start than where we were. I’d love to hear what items your kids help out with and any additions you think I should add to this list. I’m happy to make a complete list after we’ve all discussed and reprint here for all to use.

Here’s a printable copy of the Chores for Kids chart as it is now. I left a few fields blank so you could add tasks of your own.

I’ve got three kiddos … so if I play my cards right, I’ll be carving out a big chunk of free time for myself! Yay, and having a squeaky clean house doesn’t hurt either. Watch out folks, we might start inviting folks over for dinner …

This post was sponsored by Method, and what a great gift it turned out to be. Thanks so much for being a part of my Clean Like a Mother revolution.

Method All Purpose Cleaner spray is available in a 28 oz. bottle and retails for around $3.99. It comes in a variety of fresh fragrances, including Clementine, Cucumber, French Lavender and Pink Grapefruit.

We usually use a handmade alternative to all-purpose sprays, but I must admit the kids got quite a kick out of the cute bottles and bright colors. (There’s even a unicorn on one of ours!) I think Method products are a great alternative to handmade ones, … if it helps get your family involved in the cleaning process — whatever works my friends. We’ve tried both the Clementine and Pink Grapefruit, Pink Grapefruit was our overall family favorite. Even my husband liked the fresh, clean scent.

I do love that Method All Purpose Cleaner comes in bottles made from 100% post-consumer recycled plastic and are recyclable. I think we’ll be recycling ours for all sorts of things …. they would make great outdoor water blasters come summer.

** In the chore chart above, I say I let my kids scrub our bathtub and shower. I want to be clear, I use a handheld dish scrubber filled with 1/2 liquid soap and 1/2 vinegar. I let them go to town working up a lather and then we hose off all the bubbles. Shiny tubs for all!

One last thing, the folks at Method have been kind enough to give all my readers a $1 off coupon they can use to try out a new, fresh scent of their own. Use the code: APCBLOG at Method when you checkout to claim your coupon. There’s a handy button over there in my sidebar —> you can use too.

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Art Room Aid for Teachers

by Stacy on February 13, 2013

Print / C is for Color

Over the last decade, the amount of elementary schools in America without a visual arts program has risen to almost twenty percent.

I’m here to declare that 20% too much.

When my son started school this year he immediately fell in love with his music teacher. The following week, he told me she was also his art teacher. On parents night, he couldn’t wait to take me to her room to meet her; in a small space behind the stage in the school cafeteria.

In this makeshift classroom she has managed to create a place for everyone to call their own. A getaway full of fun and excitement and sounds and color – it’s a welcome reprieve from the desks they are used to, and it is here in this space behind the curtain she teaches a school full of students both music AND art.

These children are flourishing under her supervision and haven’t a clue that the school’s budget for art isn’t what it used to be. They will never know … because she makes the most of her time with those children and the resources she has available to her.

I now love this woman just as much, if not more, than my son.

………………………………

Blick Art Materials and The Motherhood have teamed up with 50 teachers and 50 bloggers to fund classroom projects all over the country.

Can you guess who one of those teachers and one of those bloggers might be?!?!?!

In 2009, Blick Art Materials started Art Room Aid as a way for teachers to submit projects and wish lists on their site and give them the tools they needed to help raise money for them. Any teacher can create a project of their own, you can start one of your own right here, right now.

Our Art Room Aid project will be to create a school-wide hallway gallery for the students artwork. They will design their masterpieces first, then recreate them on canvas for the school. They already have so many great projects and murals on display in the school, I just know the kids will love seeing their own individual pieces hanging in the hallways.

Here’s our current wish list.

Blick Art Materials is giving us $100 towards our project and we’d love your help raising the rest. If you can’t donate, please share this post in hopes it may find it’s way to someone who can.

It’s programs like Art Room Aid and teachers like Mrs Deane who go the extra mile … and even parents like you, who are willing to contribute time, money and materials to help make sure there is room for art in the classroom, that will become a catalyst for change.

Let’s start right now.

From the bottom of my heart,

Thanks!

 

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Love From Afar: Dating Your Spouse

by Stacy on February 9, 2013

The best stories are built on conflict.

But I believe the most beloved stories are the ones where love conquers all.

Our story is both of those.

…………………………………………………

Being in love with my husband has always been easy, being together has been the part we’ve struggled with! If our life was a movie, it would most certainly be a comedy of errors, one of those almost depressingly sad, but underlying-ly happy romantic comedies.

On our first date, we almost died. Not long after that, I went to a different continent. When I returned, we had two glorious weeks together before he … went to another continent. This cycled continued.

He bought a ring, but didn’t give it to me right away.

I got a stack of papers. Papers that told me this time I wasn’t just going to visit another continent, I was going to LIVE on it.

It would be years before we’d be together again, and just when we started to think all hope might be lost, we might not ever find our way back to one another again … the stars aligned and “someone” sent us both to a new continent.

To start our lives together – We had almost two months with one another, but then it was time for me to switch continents once again. I’d be lying if I told you over the course of these years I didn’t feel lost or alone for a majority of the time, but I also felt something stronger than that –

I felt hope.

For the first time in my entire life, I found someone who loved me unconditionally. No matter how hard things got or how difficult the time apart became, his love was strong and unyielding. He loved me for me, for better or for worse, from near or afar.

It’s been thirteen years this May, and while the miles between us have lessened, we’re still fighting the same battle. Now, it’s only miles that stand between us, instead of entire oceans.

The strangest part about it all, no matter where he goes or how long he is away, he has my heart … and with him the girl who never had a home to call her own feels overwhelmingly at ease.

He is what’s familiar to me. No matter where we are, I am home.

People wonder all the time how you live a life like that, how you can sacrifice so many of the days you’ll never get back … and I would say to those individuals:

the magic is in the moments

Love doesn’t happen over the course of your lifetime, it happens in an instant. You can bottle those instants up and carry them with you for a lifetime, and if you’re lucky you will have enough of those instants to fill the entire nights sky … but for the rest of us, its those bright, starry moments that light the way and those faint hints of illumination glowing in the distance that keep us trudging forward, anxious for the next moment we can tuck away.

We try and make the most of our moments. To make them good, and strong, and bright enough to carry us through until the next chance we’ll have to make another.

Happy Valentine’s Day a few days early,
while you’re reading this I’ll be having a moment with the man I love before he leaves again.

If you havent heard the song, If My Heart Was a House by Owl City … I think after reading this post you’ll know why I enjoy it so much. Find it buried at the bottom of this album.

This is the final post in a series on dating your spouse, find out what the others had to say here:

Kids Activities Blog, My Nearest And Dearest, Pleasantest Thing, Play Dr Mom, Glittering Muffins, Inspired By Family Mag, Mama Miss, Life At The Zoo, Toddling Into Madness, Sense of Wonder, The Educators’ Spin On It, Little Artists, Home Learning Journey, Frogs And Snails and Puppy dog Tails, Pragmatic Mom, Mamas Like Me, Toddler Approved and Adventures in Mommydom

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Make It A Kid-Friendly Super Bowl

by Stacy on February 2, 2013

super bowl party for kids

* What’s a party without cake? We are SO making one of these!
* My SIL wont eat chocolate, but everybody loves a good fruit salad, this one gets major cool points
* Have fun making these Pretzel Dogs together
* When you’re done, try your hand at milk jug helmets
* Then plop down to watch the game with these tasty taco cups

The kids will no doubt, still want more. So let them put on some war paint, tuck some bandanas in their pants and teach them all the fun that is flag football. With any luck, you can coax the men out to run a few plays along with them while you check out all the good commercials!

Go Team Beyonce and Alicia!!
(oh yeah, and the Mr. is a die hard niner fan … so “we” are pretty excited for Sunday)

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8 Ways To Make Kids Smile

by Stacy on January 31, 2013

I’m off to Salt Lake City to meet more than 600 bloggers I have never met before! While I’m gone, I have a special treat for you — my first ever guest post here on Kids Stuff World. I’m so excited to have Rachel of Kids Activities Blog, aka the Quirky Momma visiting us today.

Quirky Momma is one of those places you go to get THE best ideas for things to do with your kids, there is always something new and wonderful happening over there. Bonus points, many of my good pals are contributing content there as well. I think the post Rachel chose to share with us is significant since I hope Kids Stuff World is a place that makes you smile when you visit, and today Rachel is sharing a few fun ways we can make our children smile too!

Without further ado, I pass things off to Rachel:

Do you ever have those days where you are overwhelmed and feel yourself getting agitated with your  kids? When we have those days I try to stop and take a moment to breathe. smile. and really enjoy my kids. Here are just a few of the kids activities we have done to make a “rough” day, into a “fun” one!

 

 

how to make kids smile

Things to do with kids

Crazy activities for active kids. Be silly. Be rambunctious.

Have a silly family festival – here are a bunch of comical activities

Jokes that will make your kids laugh, hysterically.

Make silly faces on a sticker and use them to decorate toothpicks on your lunch.

Best Pranks for your kids – here are a bunch of ways that you can surprise your kids with a prank.

…and if that were not enough, here are a dozen more pranks for kids - make them giggle!

Tell a knock-knock joke to your preschooler

Have a hug fest. Try and find all the different ways that you can give each other hugs.

How do you transform your day? What makes your little ones smile?

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