DIY School Years Keepsake Organization Bins

Like any mom, I like to keep things the kids bring home from school. This idea helps collect their memories.

Each month we hang up their artwork and fun things on our wall and (if I remember) at the end of the month I snap a monthly picture of all the art together. Like this.

But there are a few items that I just have. to. keep!

If it's got a kid's handprint on it, I'm keeping it forever.

Got a photo on it? Keep that!

Any sort of "About Me" or about a family member, keeping it!

An Award or Program. My baby got an Award! My baby was in a Play! Gotta save that forever and ever.

Anything that is uniquely special. I'm gonna keep that too (like that one time Car made a picture of a rooster with forks... I need to frame that for my kitchen!)

But by the end of the school year, I end up with a bunch of  paper and artwork that is all special. So, how do I store all of it forever and ever?

This is what I came up with.

I have four paper trays that live in our kitchen. Artwork or items to each specific kid ends up in these paper trays and this is where they live until they go down to their forever home. These trays are conveniently located next to the trashcan, so letter practice, or bingo dots on the letter M, can easily be disposed of (in secret when no little eyes are watching! because that can lead to the end of the world!). Even the baby has a tray to put her growth charts and important documents in.

When the trays get filled, I go through each kid's and weed it out again (maybe that fork rooster doesn't quite go with my kitchen décor... but it makes me smile and I still want it!) Then what has survived goes into their SCHOOL YEAR BIN.

Here's how to put together your own SCHOOL YEAR BIN.

Get a bin. I got four of these at Target for about $4 a bin. If you want to get fancy, you can order waterproof locking bins here, but I'm just not about that and I think these bins will do well stored inside in our office for the duration of their lives in our home.

I also got letter and number stickers and folders. So. Many. Folders. I found an 8 pack of folders at Dollar Tree and bought enough so I could color code the schools (Preschool, Elementary, Middle, High) but you don't have to color code them (but why wouldn't you?!?)

Take each folder and pop a sticker on it for each year. I needed to label a bunch of folders so I got creative and turned some I's into 1s if needed. Label ALL the years. Get folders for ALL the years. Get enough for ALL your kids (I even got a bin for Air so they are all uniform). Get it all done NOW so it's set up and ready to go for the rest of your child's school days. Then all you have to worry about it collecting art, awards, and fun memories.

Pop those folders into your bin! Use some extra letter stickers and put each kid's name on the outside of the bin. Boom. Done. Fill each folder with your special memories and you're all set and clutter free.

My hope is that each kid will have ONE bin to keep all of their school-year memories in. Hopefully they will fill them up with art and certificates and trophies and fun things. Then one day they will have everything together to take with them (or not. I don't care. I'll keep that fork rooster forever!)

Watch hot-mess me (and Car and Ay) put it together here

New Room Makeover - SYKE!

So we've been averaging about a room makeover a week, but not this week. Life just got in the way. And not the good kind of life.

We went to Ikea and had a super fun trip there and dropped some cash. It was Cor's first trip to the land of wonder and amazement. And we took our kids (which probably wasn't the best idea), but we filmed the crazy. You can see it here.

Then we went out on our ELEVEN YEAR WEDDING ANNIVERSARY and dropped some cash down on a brand new king sized mattress. Because we've cuddled long enough and we're ready for space (space that will inevitably be filled with a stray child ending up in our bed.) Fun sidebar, Cam fell off a bed at the store and bleed everywhere... Ever have a bleeding kid in an all-white mattress store. It's super fun stuff. Then our mattress got delivered and was all sorts of lumpy. The delivery guy said it should "settle" but it hasn't... Hmmm.

And we ordered a new king bed from Wayfair for our "steel" anniversary. I like our bed; however, we were NOT impressed with Wayfair. You can find a video of our review here.

Then, after we got home from mattress shopping (and handing over all that cash money), we came home to find out that our WATER was out! Noooooo!

Long story short, it was our well pump. Apparently it's older than dirt. Literally. The well was full of dirt. So that's cool. We were out of water for a good four days and finally had someone come and fix it (and he was here until 1am fixing it.)

It. Was. Mayhem. Don't worry. I filmed that for you too and you can watch it here.

So, sorry-not-sorry for not having a room done this week.
We did buy the paint. That's gotta count for something, right?

Hooray for adulting.

Summer UnSchool

As a teacher, I'm always looking for opportunities to teach our kids. But I also teach for a living, so sit-down-do-this just isn't my style with my little people. Nor is it THEIR style.

We don't even plan a lesson daily, or weekly. I just look for fun things that we can do to increase their learning. And that's cool with me.

This year, our Wreck This Journal has been a source of education and fun this summer. This week we did ONE page. One. That's it. They're 3 and 4, folks. I really just want them to practice sitting at a table and following directions.

Last year, I'd pull up Pinterest and would find a quick and easy craft to do based on something they were interested in that day (like that one time ANTS infiltrated our home so we made a A anthill with finger prints and we learned that they don't have ears). I just keep markers and dollar store construction paper on hand. Boom.

Bur this year, we just flip to a WTJ page and follow instructions. Cam didn't want to come, so Car and I stated without him. Car really just wanted to dump water into our water colors... that's cool too, I guess. So I started putting fingerprints on our page and closing it up  (hello, symmetry lesson!)

Soon Car joined in and Cam became jealous enough to come help too.

We mixed colors (hello, art and color lessons), added water (dilution!), and made a mess (no lesson there... but they liked it.)

Sometimes I'll search Netflix for a show that complements something we learned. I love that Magic School Bus and Bill Nye are available! And a quick Google search helps me find one fast!

So, I'm just trying to keep it fun. And EASY. We probably spend less than 20 mins doing an activity.

Because I've got coffee to drink and lunch to make before the little lady wakes up from her nap! ;)

3$ DIY Cast Cover

Remember that song about the monkeys jumping on the bed? Well, apparently they can do a bit more damage than just a bump on the head.

Cam fell off between the bed and the nightstand and broke his arm. We had to make an emergency call to Dad at work and go right to the ER. It was obviously broken. One of those "Arms are not supposed to bend that way" breaks you'd expect from a skateboard incident gone wrong...

After 6 hours at the ER, Cam got his own XRAY images and a brand new, generic, Emergency Room, boring white cast.

He. Was. Stoked.

I was not. How on earth do you keep a 4 year old who needs to stay away from water clean enough to rock a white cast? I knew we needed to cover it for a couple reasons.

1. Fiberglass casts are strong, light weight, and are as rough as sandpaper. Cam is running around scratching everything in sight. Including us!

2. White is boring.

3. Patterns are fun.

We did something simple. We headed to our local Walmart and I looked at all the adult tube socks. We found one that matched his super hero obsession  (Hello, Captain America).

We simply cut the toe off of the sock, keeping the stitching attached to the tube part and not the toe part.

Then we just slipped that sucker on. We didn't cut a thumb hole, because the velcro like fiber glass is keeping it in place just fine. And we can switch it out with fun patterns easily and still have his white cast easily available for fun signatures.

Be sure to keep the sock OFF the skin of the arm. You don't want to restrict blood flow to a healing arm. Keep the sock only on the cast.

I've seen other tutorials that use nylons or adult tights to cover a cast. They wraped it in a bandage to prevent it from tearing on the fiberglass, but the sock was just the perfect size for a 4 year old and snagging wasn't an issue.

Hopefully, Captain America heals quickly and doesn't use his super hero skills to jump any far distances in the future.

(But who am I kidding).

Caught ya!

I found this idea during one of my Pinterest binges and thought it was the perfect way to bribe... er... encourage the boys to be more helpful. And as a way for us to acknowledge them for good work. I saw the jar here, but we made a few changes.

We used a cleaned out applesauce container and colored our own lable on construction paper. We used way too much tape to attach that sucker on, but they were pretty proud of their work. I wanted the boys to feel involved in the project instead of just explaining to them how it worked. I bought a pack of pompoms from the dollar store and one pack fits perfectly inside our jar.

$ 1 DIY. That's what I'm talking about.

This is where we added a new step. We grabbed a piece of construction paper and I asked the boys different ways to be helpful. Some were silly (Don't break glass... umm, yes, but... okay). But others were spot on (Share. Help our baby sister. Eat our meals.)

Each boy was so helpful making our jar that they already earned two pompoms. When the jar is filled, they each will get a dollar and a special trip to the dollar store.

Maybe we'll have different jars for each kid in the future, but for now, I'm hoping that one jar will encourage them to be helpful together and work on teamwork.

I guess we'll see.

Live on the edge.

I was texting my sister in law today about what was new in our lives and we got to talking about how dang hot and nasty it is.

I read earlier that the library was having a drop in craft take-and-make today and was trying to decide of I should drag my three kids out alone, or just shoot myself in the face. I'm not sure which option would have been better...

After wrestling with Cam to put on some pants, dragging him away from Minecraft kicking and screaming, and having a 20 min chat on the edge of the minivan about how this new library isn't "scary" and they probably have computers like the "grown up library" near our old house, I clip all my tiny people in and went on a hunt for the library.

Everyone was in a better mood and I was getting my cardio chasing three kids in a million directions around the blocks, puzzles, and books. I finally tricked the boys into leaving to go make the craft.

A rainbow. Because I love helping two preschoolers tie 5 billion strings of yarn to half a paper plate and cover it with cotton balls.

During all this exciting crafting, Ay climbed up into the umbrella stroller and, spoiler alert, it tipped.

And bigger spoiled alert, she bit her lip. And in true baby fashion, bled and screamed like she was being slaughtered in a horror flick.

Awesome.

Sensing the urgency of the situation, the boys decided they needed rocks taken out of their shoes, different strings tied on their cloud, or that it was a perfect time to do ninja flips in the craft room...

So... that was awesome.

I took Ay to the bathroom in a screaming bloody mess and half cleaned her up and made sure nothing  (i.e. her teeth) was broken.

She was fine. Gross... but fine.

So we walk back to the craft room where the older boys are rolling all around and the two preteen library assistants are wide eyed and confused  (but still attached to their phones). Thanks, girls. I appreciate you keeping my other kids blood free for the moment. Seriously. It takes a village, folks!

We rushed out of that library covered in blood, sweat, and tears, but we made some beautiful freakin' rainbows, yo.

And I was wearing white.

Because I live on the edge like that.