Easy Ways to Get Ready for Back to School

August 14, 2016 by Sarah White Leave a Comment

I know different areas of the world are different in terms of when kids go back to school, and if you homeschool you could be on a completely different schedule, but where I live kids have been trickling back to school all month, and my daughter goes back on Thursday.

It seems like this time of year is perfect for getting your learning space organized (even if your space is just a corner of the kitchen table).

Kids Activities Blog has a great roundup of ideas for getting organized for back to school. From places to organize school supplies to ideas for storing all those papers that come home from school, this will get your years off on the right foot.

If you’re going to be helping kids with homework this year or are a homeschooling parent who could use a little extra help, these printable school “cheat sheets” from Princess Pinky Girl are something you’ll want to keep handy. There’s everything here from the parts of speech to algebra equations, multiplication tables, even cooking cheat sheets for homeschool home ec.

Speaking of homeschool, if you’re still trying to get organized for the year check out this free printable planner I shared earlier this summer.

And though it isn’t a free resource anymore, I absolutely love the printable desk mat from You Clever Monkey. My almost-7-year-old has one and it’s really helpful for writing common words, correct letter and number formation, even knowing left from right. There’s a lot of great information packed into one printable page (and it only costs $2, which is totally worth it).

Do you have any organization tips for back to school? We’d love to hear them!

[Photo via Kids Activities Blog.]

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Leaf Activities That Don’t Use Real Leaves

The other day I shared some crafts involving fall leaves, but there are a lot of fun leaf-related activities that don’t use real leaves, so I wanted to share some of those, too.

Like these watercolor leaves from The Artful Parent. These are so pretty and would be great to make a garland or decorate the table for Thanksgiving. You could experiment with different kinds of paper, combine watercolors and crayons, use an eyedropper to apply liquid watercolors — there are lots of different ways to play with this one!

Because I’m a knitter of course I love any project that involves yarn, so this fall leaf lacing craft from Our Kid Things is right up my alley. The multicolored yarn they used is a lot of fun, or stick with fall colors. Either way it’s a great fine motor skill activity!

Using leaf shapes to make other crafts is a great way to incorporate leaves into the classroom without having to use actual leaves. For little kids this sensory painting activity from Kids Craft Room would be a lot of fun (I think this would be fun for some older kids and adults, too, to be honest) and makes a fun and easy decoration.

Of course leaf activities don’t just have to be crafts. Check out this great leaf matching game from Made to be a Momma. These leaves are so cute and after you’ve prepped the game you can play it over and over with no prep. Use fewer sets for younger kids and the full set for older ones.

You can also use leaf shapes in all sorts of learning activities, like in this fall leaf number tower activity from Fun Learning for Kids. There are leaves with single numbers on them that kids can use to stack cubes on in one-to-one correspondence, as well as ones that show dots like dice so kids can add up the numbers to build their stacks.

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