As my regular readers may remember, one of my organizational strategies involves keeping all holiday-themed stuff in bins, which are brought out well in advance of each occasion. This includes not only decorations, but also toys, books, games, etc. When I pulled out the Christmas bins a couple of weeks ago and let the girls dig in, you […] Read more…
While my students are Christian (most Catholic, as are my daughters) I see a great value in reading stories about Judaism (as well as other religions). I mean, we share a whole Old Testament of history and beliefs with the Jewish people, and it creates a great opportunity to teach about differences. The simple bottom line that […] Read more…
As most of you know, I’m a teacher. And I’m well aware that when it comes to early learning, flashcards are taboo. But you know what? I still think they have their time and place within a balanced approach to literacy (or numeracy, or whatever the case may be). When it comes to sight words, we’ve used cards […] Read more…
This idea came from my friend C, after I saw her hall table adorned with years of framed photos of her children with Santa, as well as some Santa shots from when she and her husband were kids. While I don’t have a lot of official Santa shots (there is one gem of my brother and […] Read more…
Some of the cutest books I’ve received for review lately have a common theme. Here they are: Bedtime is Canceled by Cece Meng, Illustrated by Aurélie Neyret This is a great story about the mayhem that takes place when a brother and sister write up a notice that “Bedtime is Canceled”…and it gets into the wrong […] Read more…
So, I’ve had this beautiful lantern hanging around for years, without really having a great idea for what to do with it. (No offense if you gave it to me. It’s lovely, I’m just not creative enough.) Thanks to the inspiration of Pinterest, I decided to pull it out and incorporate it into my Christmas […] Read more…
Do you ever feel like you just can’t get enough of This Mom Loves? (Crickets…crickets…anybody?) For those (two) who have been asking lately how to find me on various social media, here are all the details: Twitter (@thismomloves) https://twitter.com/thismomloves Pinterest (katewinn77) http://pinterest.com/katewinn77/ I’m not much of a recipe blogger if that’s your thing (but if […] Read more…
Check out the latest book recommendations from my 11 year old niece, “Anastasia”: ************* THE LAST FREE CAT by Jon Blake Jade has always been a quiet girl, until a strange but beautiful cat shows up in her backyard. A boy named Kris shows up at her house, knowing the cat quite well. He tells […] Read more…
Our Halloween Recap: Spent too much on costumes, but Maggie has only ever had hand-me-downs and Frannie has only ever had one new costume (plus, I’ve been at the same school long enough now that I’ve run through all of my old ideas and needed something new too!) I was impressed that Frannie went with […] Read more…