Kids Virtues!

I got to spend the best week in Colorado with my dear friend catching up, talking, laughing, crying and talking about our out of control lives and kids! It was great!! 🙂  While we were together we made list upon list of things we wanted to accomplish with our lives and our family.  One thing we did which I loved was make a list of virtues for her family and her kids.  We are both very visual so to have something to stare at helps to remember what in the world we actually do want for our family.   I had never really made a point to sit down and list out what our goals were for our family…I’d seen them thousands of times..the cute little signs “our family loves, kisses, hugs, never yells, is always calm, sweetly disciplines, never gets mad” etc etc… (In the name of full disclosure…I have one of those signs and I love it!)  That being said…All the things listed on my cute sign about our family rules are not put into practice in our family as much as I’d like.  My very creative and artistic friend made a sign for immediate teachable moments with her kids when something listed on that cute sign doesn’t happen (i.e.: like when your kids (or you) begins screaming at the top of your lungs because you find your coffee mug tipped over and coffee spilled all over your couch, or when instead of patience you huff and puff and roll your eyes because your 3 year old is taking 1 billion years to zip up his coat because he HAS to do it himself)…ok maybe these things are just me, again full disclosure, I am most definitely not the most patient person in the world!!  SO because I am not artistic like my amazing friend  (by the way check out her stuff here: http://piperpixiedoodle.com  )  I decided to make my own chart…sans pretty handwriting and beautiful art…but instead on my simple and foolproof computer! I’d love to share it with you and your family!!  Click on the link below for the printable!!

kids virtues

my favorite things

I am a serial organizer…I love getting new ideas for organizing pretty much anything but especially our school room!  I have gotten so many great ideas from some seriously genius ladies!  Here are some of my favorite things in our school room that have helped us stay organized and keep things fun…

Our school room.  We love it, its where our days play out, where we learn, make a mess, paint, learn more, rinse and repeat:)

I’ve had this clear dry erase board for years…its been in many different places in our home but we like it here…good reminder of the verse we’re working on each week.

we LOVE this thing!  We seriously use it every day.  Just a simple paper roll…thats all!  I actually bought this and then found out my mom had gotten one for me for Christmas…whoops! 🙂  You can get it here:

http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/10149350/

Another favorite thing we use everyday….Just a simple tray.  We use it for painting, crafts, projects, tv trays.  Im sure there are some much cuter, kid trays out there, these were $1.00 at the time (can’t beat that!) You can get them here:

http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/40041131/

Anyone that knows me well knows I LOVE containers!  Don’t ever go shopping with me for organizational items…its dangerous and an addiction I fully admit it!  Some of my favorite ones for the school room are these takeout containers and peanut butter containers. They’re a great size and clear.  The red bowls are used every day for everything they were a great dollar store find!

And of coarse our new favorite item in our school room and home is our bean bags!  We love them!!  There are so many neat bean bags and lots for a much higher price than we paid but we are loving these!  You can check them out here:

http://www.target.com/p/circo-bean-bag-digital-camouflage/-/A-15007405#prodSlot=medium_1_37&term=bean+bag