Four years ago, while sitting in a hotel after a long day of exploring Yellowstone National Park, I received a call from my sister back in Indiana asking if I could make her a printable for her first day as a preschool teacher. Happy to do so, I sat there while my boys chilled in front of the hotel TV and created her this printable -- not thinking about anything more it than it benefiting my sister and her new class...

Fast forward to now and this little printable is the best selling printable I've ever made! Funny how things happen like that! Over time, this has also led to me making other handprint craft printables for various holidays, etc. If my boys were still little, you'd better believe I'd be doing these with them -- I miss seeing those sweet little hands! 

I receive comments all the time about how much the parents love receiving these crafts as gifts -- I was the same way when my boys were little! Give me a thumbprint piece of art, a hand, a foot...you name it. Anything to document their size at that time and I was in love! I mean...now I look at my oldest and he's on the verge of wearing clothes from the Men's section! (insert tears)

If you're like me -- a sentimental momma with kids that are growing up WAY too fast -- grab this or make one that fits your needs. You won't regret it when they start to have hands the same size as you and you begin to miss those days of having little ones. It's super fun watching my boys grow up and see the little men they're becoming, but the days when they were little sure were fun! I love that I have various crafts to remember them by!

"The Reading Journal is 168 lessons recommended for grades 2-8. Comprised of 28 unique lessons that focus on vocabulary, word study, comprehension, and higher-level thinking skills, the journal cycles through each lesson 6 times throughout the year, providing just the right amount of practice without too much monotony.

So I don't know about you, but we go through a LOT of bookmarks. I don't know what it is, but my boys just destroy them. They don't mean to, but it happens. That, or they lose them. Either way, they're always looking for a bookmark, ha. 

So as I've been sitting here updating a couple old printables, I decided to make them some fun, Minecraft-themed bookmarks. Sure enough, the boys love them! If you have a Minecraft fan, they may be a fun addition to your school supply list this fall. I just print and laminate them and they're ready to go!

"Hey, Mom! It's like villi!"

Ah, that wonderful moment when you realize they actually WERE listening during the science lesson...

Loki Success GIF from Loki GIFs

We've been working through our Apologia Human Anatomy and Physiology book and while the boys enjoy it, it's a lot to process at times. So when I gave my son these fun, new pencil grips and this was his first reaction, it totally made my day, ha! 

That said, these are so fun! I ran across them at the store yesterday and we're all obsessed. I have a feeling we may need to buy a larger pack!

I don't know about you, but I love documenting little things about my boys at each stage. I love getting those Mother's Day questionnaires with their sweet thoughts, and I especially love seeing their thoughts when each new school year comes around!

Since I'm always randomly searching for a new one each year, I decided to just make one this year. If this is something you might enjoy, be sure to click on the image below!

I'll try to upload an image soon of the sweet thoughts my boys wrote down... ;)

Whether you're a newbie or an OG Homeschooler, curriculum choices can be tough. Do you continue with what you've used before? Try something new? Do a box curriculum? Follow a friend's recommendation? There are SO many options! And honestly, there are way too many amazing options to choose from. I personally struggle with being able to narrow down our choices and actually stick to something. There are so many that I love that I find myself trying to squeeze in more than I should...

To some, it may seem crazy, but after 2 months off, we are now back into the swing of things with our new school year! I've heard of so many homeschoolers that love the 6 weeks on - 1 week off schedule that we decided we're going to give it a try. Surprisingly, the boys were in pretty good spirits about starting school in the beginning of July -- I suppose the idea of constant 1 week breaks helped with that, ha! We're now done with our 1st week and things are going great! There has been very little resistance and thanks to some of our curriculum choices, the boys have actually requested to do extra at times -- total win!

So, as you may have noticed, it's been a little quiet around here...

I've started several blog posts, but I (sadly) haven't had a chance to finish any of them lately. We've been in school a month now and things have been unexpectedly hectic! Gosh, I can't believe it's been a month already! Well, while we've been busy trying to get back into the groove of things, something unexpected happened. I was offered a teaching position at the weekly homeschool class my son's been attending for the last two years. I'm not sure what you'd call it. I don't think you technically call it a co-op since we drop the students off? Whatever you want to call it, my son has been going one day a week for science and social studies/language arts since kinder. He LOVES it! It adds a fun/hands-on day to the mix while still doing our curriculum at home.

So with this said class, apparently the Grade 1/2 class roster grew larger than anticipated over the summer, so they decided to split it into two and needed an additional teacher. It came out of left field when I got the call asking if I'd be interested, but I'm excited about the challenge ahead! It's a good thing we started school early, because I don't think we did a single thing for a week while I was trying to prepare for this new additional aspect of our school year. Ha! I'm looking forward to it, though. I think it's going to be a great year for my son (who happens to be in 2nd Grade now) and the rest of the students!

So why am I writing?

With this new position, I'll be making various printables that we plan to use for our classroom activities. I thought I'd share some of them as they come. Today's post is a freebie and I hope others can enjoy it! It's simple, but fun enough to possibly motivate students. (I hope?!)

So without further ado...

Both of my boys LOVE Mo Willems. If he's written a book, you better believe we've read it -- especially Elephant and Piggie books!!!

With Tuesday being our first class of the semester, I decided to make it a fun one during our reading/writing block and do an Elephant and Piggie theme. We'll start the year with My New Friend Is So Fun! Considering it's the first day, with lots of new kids in the class, I thought this particular book was fitting...


My hope is that most of the kids can read this book, but if not, it's simple enough that we can hopefully get through it without much effort. I found a couple fun activities to do after we read it, but I also wanted to encourage some freewriting. If you've read anything I've had to say about Brave Writer, you know how big Freewrite Friday is in that circle! I love it! Not only do I want to encourage pressure-free, fun, writing, but I also want to see where each of my students are in their ability to write. My hope is that by allowing them to write whatever they wish, we'll see where to go from there.

This Elephant and Piggie printable can be used in a variety of ways. I'm going to use it as an intro during our transition to our writing block. There are three images of the famous pair. I'm going to instruct them to write whatever they want about what they see on the paper. If you think it might interested you, click on the image below for the free download...

If you haven't checked out Mrs. Wordsmith, I'd highly encourage you to do so! To be honest, I had never heard of it until now. However, we're totally sold now. We received it for free as a product tester and are so glad we did! My boys were so excited when it arrived in the mail. They couldn't wait to rip it open and check it out! The quality is top-notch -- the paper is thick (can withstand the terror of a 4 year old), the colors are bright and vibrant, and stories and pictures are fun and inviting. Sam was laughing the second he started looking through the flash cards and reading the activities. The activities are silly, while still being very educational.

So far, we've only truly sampled it. I didn't want to get too far into it just yet, as I'm going to try and incorporate it into our curriculum this fall and I want to wait until then. However, from what we've used so far, it's a total win in our book!


If this sounds like something that might fit the needs of your family, you can check it out here.






I plan to use both for each of my boys. I'll be sure to come back and write more once we've gone through more of the curriculum, but I wanted to write a little note now!

It's the perfect time to go buy it before school starts!

Have you started planning for the new school year? Part of me wants to hold off until August, but then I'll be rushing to figure it all out before we start. Who wants to do that?! I'm so impressed by those I see online that have already bought all their curriculum and have started planning their lessons. So impressed!


So with talking about planning for the next school year, I thought I would share my updated planners and a few others that I love!

Have you bought your new school planner? Or do you even use one? Each and every homeschool is different. I personally like to have everything written down in an organized fashion. Not only does it help keep me on track, but I like to have it on hand if I ever need to look back and reference what we did.

Back when we first started homeschooling (2 years ago), I didn't find a specific planner that I was totally sold on. They were either way out of the price range that I was willing to pay, or the format wasn't right. This resulted in me deciding to go ahead and create my own. I love being able to customize it to fit exactly what I need. Plus, it has been very cost efficient! What doesn't love that?!


I have since shared the ones that I've created on both Etsy and Teachers Pay Teachers. I'm so glad others have been able to enjoy them, too! Here are a few of the new ones I made -- now to decide on which one I'll actually use...






And for those that would rather buy a pre-printed, designed, complete planner, definitely check out Erin Condren! Her planners are beautiful and have EVERYTHING you could possibly think of wanting in a planner. If I were to buy one, I'd definitely choose one of these...

As a way of introducing writing to my 1st grader, we have started doing a weekly journal entry. I generally have him do the journal entry one day, and then a rewrite the next. For the rewrite, I correct any grammar or spelling issues, so it's essentially copywork. Over time, I have seen his writing improve by doing this, which is awesome!


Even though we typically use a composition book for the entries, on occasion, I'll give my son a fun printable with a theme. Considering today was our first day back to school after Christmas break, that called for a fun printable! He has talked so much about how much fun he had over break, so I wanted to encourage him to write about it...

School has officially begun in our house! I can't believe I have a 1st Grader and a Preschooler! Time goes way WAY too fast!!! I feel like our summer break just started, and yet here we are...

Because the first day is always a day worth celebrating, we started it off right with a fun breakfast. Sam picked pancakes with strawberries + whipped cream -- can't argue with that!

Caleb was still asleep or else he would've been in the photo, too.