Games Galore!

Our family loves to play games. I love the habit, because games teach so many academic concepts, they strengthen character, and they build relationships.

Here are some of our favorites for young childrn:

Sorry

Ziggity

Letter Factory Game

Candyland

Cariboo

Hullabaloo

Memory

Don't Break the Ice

UNO Card Game

What are your favorite games for young children?

Free Webinar on Money & Kids - Tomorrow!

The ParentFurther.com webinar series continues tomorrow with a presentation on family financial literacy given by personal finance expert and president and founder of Share, Save, Spend®, Nathan Dungan

Webinar participants will:
Learn to recognize their own dominant money characteristics, and discover how they can impact their family’s well-being.
Get simple, doable tips to help their family develop critical life skills around money and values.
Leave equipped to change the way they approach money conversations with their family.

The live, no-cost webinar, ShareSave Spend: Your Money Traits and How They Are Impacting Your Kids will take place Wednesday, April 18th at 1pm Eastern/12pm Central.

Formore information and to register, please visit: http://www.parentfurther.com/webinars/kids-and-money

I always feel bad when I have to waste things, so I'm always looking for ways to repurpose things around our house.  Frugal Hacks is the queen of stretching pennies by stretching food and other goods around the house.  Check out this article she wrote:  Loaves, Fishes, and Ten Ways with Leftovers - it's full of practical ideas that you can use in your house!

8 Tips for Eating Organic on a Budget

Kelly from Faithful Provisions posted this article titled, 8 Tips for Eating Organic on a Budget.  She shares many wise and simple ways to keep your budget and make healthy food choices.  Check out her other posts while you're on her site!

Cabin Fever? Staycation? We've got you covered!

My friend Susan just wrote this article for ParentFurther, a national organization dedicated to empowering parents:

How do you respond when your kid complains about being bored or having NOTHING to do? When the sun is shining, and it’s warm out, it’s easy to say, “Go outside and play.” But during the unpredictable months of winter and spring, it’s tempting to spend money on rainy day entertainment or expensive vacations to beat the winter blues. Here’s a word to wise (and budget-minded parents): keep a few of the following creative activity ideas in your back pocket. Pull them out on a rainy day, during your upcoming spring break “staycation”, or when cabin fever starts to set in. Your kids (and your wallet) will both benefit from the quality time spent together and the money saved in the long run.

Read the full article here:  http://www.parentfurther.com/resources/enewsletter/boredom-busters-on-a-budget

Natural Cold Remedies

Living in middle Tennessee's allergy bowl with 3 kids, it seems like someone is nearly always sniffly around our house.  And even though I am the daughter of a pharmacist, I still don't like popping pills all the time.  So I was blessed to read an article about natural cold remedies on one of my favorite money-saving blogs.  I can't vouch for most of the practices, as I've never tried them.  But I still thought you might enjoy having an alternate plan for treatment.  I'd love to hear your thoughts about natural treatments too!

Here's the full article:  Natural Cold Remedies from Faithful Provisions

10 Minutes Together: Points for Life

Between full-time jobs and running a household, sometimes the best we can do as parents is to squeeze in ten minutes of quality time with our kids! These quick-and-easy “Ten Minutes Together” lessons are designed to help parents and kids on-the-go make the most of their busy lives together.

 10 Minutes Together: Points for Life: A budgeting and planning game that will get kids excited about their future!

(This is an activity that Susan Ragsdale and Ann Saylor wrote for ParentFurther.org.  They have a zillion tools and ideas for parents, so take time to visit their site!)

10 Minutes Together: Tracking Your Savings Goals

Life Lessons for Busy Parents

Between full-time jobs and running a household, sometimes the best we can do as parents is to squeeze in ten minutes of quality time with our kids! These quick-and-easy “Ten Minutes Together” lessons are designed to help parents and kids on-the-go make the most of their busy lives together.

10 Minutes Together: Tracking Your Savings Goals : A quick lesson in goal setting, tracking, and celebrating!

(This is an activity that Susan Ragsdale and Ann Saylor wrote for ParentFurther.org.  They have a zillion tools and ideas for parents, so take time to visit their site!)

10 Minutes Together: Taste Test

Between full-time jobs and running a household, sometimes the best we can do as parents is to squeeze in ten minutes of quality time with our kids! These quick-and-easy “Ten Minutes Together” lessons are designed to help parents and kids on-the-go make the most of their busy lives together.

10 Minutes Together: Taste Test : A quick lesson in money management, value shopping, and nutrition!

(This is an activity that Susan Ragsdale and Ann Saylor wrote for ParentFurther.org.  They have a zillion tools and ideas for parents, so take time to visit their site!)

Shopping on Amazon this year?  You probably already know that most purchases over $25 ship free, but did you know that there is a free online service that will help you find items to fill the difference between your purchase amount and the $25 shipping minimum?  Whether you need 25 cents or $5, this site will list a plethora of items to choose from.  Then you won't go way over-budget on your purchase!

My mom just made her own hand cream, following a friend's recipe. It is very moisturizing! My DH and I are really enjoying it, and my MIL is planning to make a batch soon.

All products are generic brand from Dollar General, but I'm sure you can also use other generic brands.

2 jars vitamin E cream
1 large bottle baby lotion (use the white unscented bottle unless you want to smell like a baby)
1 small 3.75 oz jar of petroleum jelly

Mix with hand mixer until smooth. Store hand cream in the vitamin E jar (or gladware or recycled jars). Enjoy!

Pharmaceutical Deals

According to Faithful Provisions' blog post, Costco now offers many of the cheapest prescriptions around town - and you don't have to be a member to use their pharmacy!! Check out this short article to learn more - Lowest Priced Prescriptions.

And if you're not a regular subscriber to Faithful Provisions, she posts some great deals throughout the week!!

Christmas ideas and deals this week

If you're thinking about Christmas, check out these great deals compiled by Kelly at Faithful Provisions:

50 Free Photo Cards (with free shipping)

Cooking Light Magazine: 1 Year Subscription Only $5

Gap, Old Navy & Banana Republic 30% off Coupon

Toys ‘R Us: Hasbro Game Deal $.56/ea!


This is also a great article with gift ideas:


Top 5 Charitable Gifts from CAbi Canary - CAbi Blog

Best Kids Meal Deals

If you're looking for an inexpensive meal out with the kiddos, check out Ms. Cheap's Best Kids Meal Deals. She printed her tips in slideshow format, so it's not easy to scan quickly. But it's organized by days of the week, so you can skip forward/backward in the slideshow to find the day that best fits your schedule. The slideshow navigation bar is at the top right-hand corner of the page. Most of the restaurants listed are national chains, such as Applebees, Golden Corral, and Shoneys.

Our family has decided that it's pretty much easier and more enjoyable and definitely cheaper to eat at home, but we do occasionally like to eat out. We often land at O-Charley's, because the kids love the rolls and the children's menu is well-priced. We also like eating at CiCi's Pizza - their buffet is an expensive way to feed hungry kiddos!

If YOU have favorite places to eat out with your family, I'd love to hear about them!

10 Ideas for a Free Photo Collage

Photo collages are so fun to make - especially when they are free! Walgreens is offering a free 8×10 Collage today only (thanks for the tip Faithful Provisions).

Here are some ways you might use your free collage:

1. capture special family memories
2. a vacation collage
3. a year of memories for your child
4. pictures of people that love your children
5. a sports collage from your child's last sport season
6. a thank you gift for Grandma or Grandpa
7. a birthday gift for a friend with friendship pictures
8. anniversary pictures to celebrate the growth of your marriage
9. an extended family portrait collage
10. quiet time collage with pictures and scriptures that remind you to spend time with God

How might you use your free collage?

John Deere Tractors - Free Field Trip!

Today's errands took us to the local John Deere Tractor store to get a bolt for the lawn mower. It could have been a boring errand, but we made it into a field trip.

They have all kinds of tractors inside and outside the store, and they don't mind you riding on them. Well, not driving them, but sitting on them.

So we sat on all the tractors inside, then we got a free bag of popcorn from their popcorn stand, then we sat on the outside tractors while eating popcorn. It was 30-40 minutes of free fun that the kids loved!

Teaching Financial Responsibility - Tips from the FDIC

Do you struggle with how to teach your kids about the value of money and how to manage money wisely? I just read a one-page article, written by the FDIC, with lots of practical ideas on education.com. Click here to Ages and Stages of Money Management.

Here are a few of my favorite ideas from the article:

Ages 3 to 7 - Play games sorting, identifying or counting coins. .

Ages 8 to 12 - Consider rewarding your child for good savings habits by supplementing his or her own deposits or investments.

Ages 13 to 17 - Your child can begin making money outside of the home, either after school or in the summer... The emphasis should be on learning about the working world and responsibility, not making thousands of dollars a year in outside income.

50 photos for 50 cents

Pictures are a great way to celebrate family and record family memories. Especially when the pictures are PRACTICALLY FREE!
Enjoy 50 4" x 6" mail-order prints for only 1 cent each!
Visit www.snapfish.com and use the coupon code PENNY at checkout before July 10.*

Free Family Summer Camp

Bass Pro Shop is hosting Free Family Summer Camps on Tuesdays, Thursdays, Saturdays, and Sundays through July 5th. They sound really cool, so I'm sure we'll be visiting! Gramma is flipping through the ad, reading some of the really cool stuff:



Free activities:
Make campfire smores
Hit the archery bullseye
Cast a fishing line
Laser shooting gallery
Photo with the "Field and Stream" magazine cover



Free crafts:
Decorate a fishing bobber
Make your own leather keychain
Design your own birdhouse
Paint your own plaster animal tracks



Free workshops:
Animal Identification - Discovering Animal Tracks
Plants & Insects - Discover Another World
Hiking Basics

Make sure to check with your store's calendar before trekking over with your kids! Enjoy discovering together as a family!

Ann

Free Book at Barnes & Noble

Gramma & I took the kids to get their free books at Barnes & Noble today. With the BN Summer Reading Program, kids read 8 books, write the titles in their Summer Reading Journal, and write their favorite part of the book. Then take the Reading Journal to BN before 9/7/09 to redeem a free book from the Summer Reading bookshelf.

Download your Summer Reading Journal here.