Printable Label Stickers

Depending on where your kids go to school you're burdened with THE LIST OF SUPPLIES.  It can get a little ridiculous when they need 4 folders, a pencil case, a pack of markers, 380 crayons, a ream of paper, 29 notebooks, seventy #2 pencils with pink erasers, a cauldron, and a copy of "Advanced Potion Making".

So you spend all the time and money gathering everything, your kids take it to school, and instantly they've lost it among the other 20 student's things because they all look the same.

Frustrating.

Which is why I'll be printing these labels on sticker paper (found at any office supply store) and adhering them to EVERYTHING.  The labels are 2x3" so they also fit in business card sleeves that can attach to backpacks.  There are two lines on each label - one for a name and the other for a phone number, address, or email address.

If my kids still lose their stuff this year I think I'll sick my copy of "Care of Magical Creatures" on them.

Chore Wheel Tutorial

My kids and chores are akin to gazelles and lions.  Because lions attack gazelles and eat them for breakfast.  except that my kids aren't the lions.  My kids are the gazelles, and the chores are what's eating them for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

It's frustrating for all involved.  (Mostly for me.)  So I did something about it.

I got all super organized on them and have a list of daily chores for each child, plus chore wheels for rotating tasks, plus I have listed the rules (which includes mostly stuff like "no whining"), and to top it all off I have a chart to fill in with stickers so that for every 3 days of doing the chores and following the rules they get a prize.  

Right now our prizes are Squinkies.  Because toyrus.com has them on super mega sale, and you can get a two pack for $.50 if you buy 10.

For anyone who's confused on how to make a rotating chore wheel, here is how I made mine:

First I created the wheel pieces.  I was going to make a printable to go with this, but it really all depends on how many kids you want on the wheel and which chores and too many other variables to make a printable.  This is the wheel for my two older kids so I have a wheel for loading and unloading dishes, and then a smaller wheel with bigger chores.  Plus the biggest wheel for the top.

Then I covered the fronts of my wheel pieces with clear contact paper, because I knew they would be touched by little fingers every day and I want them to last the whole summer.

I also put a small piece of  clear contact paper on the insides of my cutouts on the top wheel.  Just for stability and fancy-ness.

Then I put a brad through the middle of all the wheel pieces.  The biggest wheel with the cutouts on top, then the smallest wheel, and the load/unload wheel on the very back.  When you're creating the pieces for your wheel you're going to want the other wheels to show through the cutouts once they're hooked together.  I did this digitally, but you could also cut out plain wheels, and then trace the cutouts onto all the pieces and just make sure you write the chore in the traced shape.

Lastly, I hung my wheels, and daily chores, and rules/prizes somewhere my kids will see it every day.  I chose to stick them on the creepy little cabinet I have at the top of my stairs.  It's kind of gross.  When we first moved in this cabinet made me almost vomit.  We keep cans in it now.

And now my kids better start being the lions, because I'm ready for the chores to be devoured already.

Tutorial: Make a Cute Mini Notebook

I am a cheapskate and do not pay for school yearbooks.  My kids are in elementary school - yearbooks are just a stupid idea.

But on the last day of school I knew that kids would be passing those books around and wanting "signatures" (as if first graders have signatures- they scribble their name and are lucky to remember all the letters) and I didn't want my kids to feel left out.  So I made them these cute mini notebooks for their friends to sign and scribble in.

They were super easy to make.  See:

1- Gather your supplies.  You'll need some cutesy paper, some regular paper, some adhesive, some staples, a paper slicer, and some chipboard (or a stiff something or other).

2- Slice the regular papers (inside papers) in half the long way.  Then fold them in half.  You can make your notebook thicker or thinner depending on how many papers you use.  But don't get too many, because this is a mini notebook, and thicker notebooks need different steps (I know these things).

3-Cut your chipboard to be a smidgeon-ish longer than the inside papers so it will hang over when it's all put together.

4- Fold the chipboard in half.

5- Take some decorative or plain colored paper and cut it so that it will fit on the ridge of your book, then fold it in half so you can just glue it on later.

6- Tuck your folded regular papers into your chipboard cover.  Make sure they're centered and stuff.  Then whip our your stapler.

7- I put staples in through the front and the back of the book because I knew kids would be handling these and I didn't want things to fall apart.

8- Using adhesive, glue that piece you cut out in step 5 to cover the staples.

9- Decorate the front however you'd like.  Make it pretty.

And that's it.  I got two done in only one episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, because they are just that quick to make (and I probably could have finished them more quickly, except that Buffy is sort of distracting, what with all that vampire slayage and stuff).