Guest posting on Meremade today!

Hey, head on over to Meremade and her awesome Back to School Month. I'm guest posting today!! I have some cool free labels for you!

enjoy!

First day of Joy School

The Buddy started joy school yesterday. He LOVED it! Couldn't stop talking about it all day. . . "We did singing" . . . "I liked the joy fish!" . . . "I know pokey bear." . . . "I didn't want to stop playing duck duck goose!"  It was so fun to hear him talk about it, especially since we did the first day at our house so I knew what he was talking about. He had a spill of words when his daddy came home and showed him his melted crayon art project. We had so many crayon "crumbs" left over that we did a bunch more after the other kids went home. I thought this one turned out so cool. Don't you think it looks like a bird?

They were really easy to do. We just shaved crayons with a paring knife and then folded a piece of printer paper in half and sprinkled the crayons inside, put a bunch of newsprint on top and melted it with the iron.Then open it up quickly before the crayon dries. It would be fun to do with fall colors in mind as fall decorations. Turn them into garland or place mats or whatever.

Also, quick reminder that Thursday night I will be announcing our giveaway winner! Last chance to enter!

Freebie Friday: ABC Squares

Some fun and versatile ABC "squares" for the freebie this friday! (click on the words to go to the download)

Just in time for school, eh? Two pages with a couple double letters- the most common ones.  Here are some fun thoughts on using them:

modge podge on wooden blocks
memory, matching or go fish game
tile them in a large frame

mount them on a chipboard or laminate them
make them into magnets
use them as cupcake toppers
Put them on buckets/ boxes or jars and fill them with things that start with that letter
use them as labels to spell out names, etc . . . 

enjoy!

FF-Dinosaur Shapes

*UPDATE: The dinosaur shapes are now available for a small fee in my etsy shop: You can find the one page version here. I have also put a larger version with 2 dinosaurs to a page here.

In the spirit of school, I thought I'd do something for the little buddy this week as our freebie. He LOVES dinosaurs, and is really not interested in learning his shapes. Seriously, he should already know them. He knows his colors, numbers, and even all the letters and their sounds. But shapes? Other than circle he really couldn't care less. But, my sneakness thought if I combined it with dino's he might change his mind.

This one is a 2 page printable. The first page has the dinos on it and the second has the shapes. I did two sizes of shapes. Large ones (easier for little fingers to pick up) and small ones that are the exact size to fit inside the dinosaur. I won't lie, the little ones are tiny, probably only an inch or so which makes them harder to cut out. I laminated the shapes so they would last a little longer, and added magnets to the back of the big ones. You could also do velcro sticky dots. So far he seems interested . . . that's a good first sign, right?

FF-Math Circles

*UPDATE 9-8-11: Updated the link. Should work again! Enjoy!

I must be thinking about school. All the school supplies are up in the stores, and I have to reign myself in from buying hoards of things. I don't even have a child going to school. . . but new crayons, new markers, new pens and pads of paper and cool organizing things. I love them. I guess that must have inspired my freebie for today. Click here for one inch math circles-numbers and math symbols. Here are some fun ideas for using them:

*Don't worry about the math symbols and use them to teach a toddler to count

*don't cut them out-leave as is and use 4 different colored buttons to do math equations together (aka put a button on 3, a button on 2, a button on + and then ask your child to put a button on what they equal (5))

*Cut them out and use for math quizzing

*print on adhesive backed paper and use as stickers for crafting, or math

*Make them into magnets for the fridge

*Use them in a calendar-for the months (I didn't do 31 numbers for days)

I'd love to hear what else you might use them for-let me know!

A note: I used a 1.25" circle punch to cut out the circles, hence all the white space around the outside. A 1" circle punch would probably look a little better.