Messy Rooms!

If your frustrated over your child's messy room, give them the tools they need to keep it organized. My daughter went from pig pen to palace when I got rid of her gigantic toy box and incorporated a cubby system. She now has inexpensive shelving units, that can be purchased at any "big box" store, and you can purchase totes that are made to fit. Now, there is a place for everything, and for the most part, everything is in it's place. Even when things get messy, it only takes her a few minutes to get everything ship shape because she doesn't have to decide where things belong. If this work for you, let us know. Or, maybe you have a good system that works for you that you'd like to share here.

Feeling Foxy?

We made Fox masks for the letter F. It was so fun. All I did was cut the paper plates in half, and cut out the eyes. I also cut the ears out and nose. The kids did the coloring and the pasting. Older kids could cut the ears out and nose out themselves. But my kids haven't reached quite there yet. They are doing better with their cutting!

Here is how the masks turned out. Sorry the quality of the picture isn't like it usually is. I didn't have my camera that day, so I had to use my iPhone. Not bad for a camera phone, huh!?

After we were all finished we pretended to be a bunch of fox in the wild. It was so fun and interesting to hear the many sounds a fox makes. ;)

Pudding Paint

At Learning Zone Preschool we love to get down and dirty! So when it came to the letter P we couldn't miss out on an opportunity to do Pudding Art.

We didn't paint anything specific with our pudding, we used our imaginations.

It was fun and interesting to see what the kids decided to paint.

We used chocolate pudding this time, but you can always use vanilla and use food coloring to change the colors. If you use food coloring you might want to use paint brushes, so you don't die the kids hands. And don't forget those paint shirts!

¡Diviertete!

(Have fun in Spanish)

Musical Jars

Did you know you could play music with just baby food jars, water, and a plastic cooking spoon? You totally can! At Learning Zone we called it a Xylophone.

It was super duper easy and fun! I just prepared the baby food jars by ripping off the paper labels so that you can see through them.

I gave each child 4 jars to make their own music. But before we could make music we had to fill the jars up with different amounts of water. One jar had just a small amount, the next a little more, and the next a little more, and the last one ALOT more.

Once your jars have the right amount of water you can begin to make your music. Make sure to have enough plastic cooking spoons to go around. I found the plastic spoons to work a lot better than wooden, but wooden will still work. To get the best sound from your xylophone tap the jars on the side. The top does okay, but you can really hear the difference when you tap them on the side.

Have Fun!

Happy New Year!

Okay, so was May really the last blog post? We will definitly do something about that this year!

I read an interesting status on my facebook last night which leads me to today's subject. Kids. I know. Who would have guessed? My friend was asking for any and all child-rearing suggestions.
My answer was simple...Reasonable rules, loving praise for expectations met, and absolute consistency for expectations unmet.
For some, my response is something you understand, agree with, and implement with reletive ease.
Some others nod because it seems to make sense on paper, but you have difficulty in the practical application.
Still others are left dazed and confused, and may even feel helpless and alone in your own private parenting nightmare.

Well, I'd like to open it up for discussion. Please feel free to post your own experiences: successes and failures, or post a situation when you just didn't know what to do. There is help to be found!

Grocery Saving Tips

I know these days everyone is looking for money saving tips or ideas. So I thought I would share a few Grocery saving tips that anyone could use when they go shopping.

1. Use coupons. Even if it's a 50 cent coupon, your saving 50 cents. Any amount can help.

2. Pick items on the top or bottom shelf. Bigger sizes of items, which tend to offer a lower price per unit, are usually placed on the highest and lowest shelves at the grocery store. Smaller sizes, with a higher price per unit, are often given prime placement at eye level.

3. Buy store brands instead. Store brands are usually close to the market leader in quality yet less costly. In fact, the same manufacturer that makes the branded product often manufactures the house brand.

4. Avoid buying prepared and packaged goods. You’ll pay a premium for convenience. Consumer Reports once found that two pounds of carrots cost $1.29, compared with $7.16 for the same amount of precut sticks.

5. Become a club member. These free programs entitle cardholders to members-only savings on selected products, a benefit that could shave about 18 percent off your total grocery bill. The catch: The stores keep tabs on what customers are buying to study different segments of the shopping population.

6. Join a warehouse club. Bulk retailers such as BJ’s Wholesale Club and Costco can be 20 to 50 percent cheaper than regular grocery stores when it comes to products like condiments, coffee, bottled water, and canned beans and vegetables. (The supermarket has better deals on items like produce, chips, and cookies.) Visit the websites of clubs like BJ’s (bjs.com; $45 annual fee), Costco (costco.com; $50), and Sam’s Club (samsclub.com; $40) to determine which has the best location and product mix for you, then join online.

There you have it, 6 great money saving ideas at the grocery store. You can't tell me you'll save from at least one of these ideas. I know at our home we've saved with coupons, and shopping at Sam's Club for specific items.
If you have any tips of your own feel free to leave them in the comment area. We could always use more tips. :)

While I have you here I thought I would share a few photos.

Getting to know the community.

Hello Friends,
Last Saturday, Crystal, Marla, and I decided to get out there to get to know our community, so our community could get to know us. We believe that what we offer here at LZP is so special that more people should know about us. In the past we've tried various forms of advertising that didn't provide results. Then, Miss Marla had a great idea! She suggested setting up a table at a Mom 2 Mom sale. It was so awesome.

We were able to connect with other parents in our community in a way we never could have through any other advertising vehicle.

We gave out free bottles of waters and individual bags of pretzels for weary shoppers and kids. We also gave out balloons and stickers and let people enter for a chance to win a $25.00 Wal-Mart gift card. Everyone seemed so blessed that we were giving everything away! These gifts really opened up opportunity to share our hearts about early childhood education with caring parents. The day resulted in a pile of requests for more information! We are looking forward to our next sale, which should be in April. We will post the details here and on our website: www.lzpdaycare.com. (Mom's, if you've never been to one of these sales, you should definitely check it out at mom2mom.com. I bought my daughter, in like new condition, 1 coat; 1 sweater; 2 pr capri's; 2 skirts; 2 pr leggings; 2 shirts; 2 dresses; 1 pr boots for $35.00!)

Til next time,
Miss Bethany