25 Must-Have Printable Organizers

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As busy moms, we have way too much to do to try to remember it all. When it doubt, write it out! With these printable organizers, you’ll have everything you need to organize bills, weekly menus, medical information and more. Let’s fire up the printer!

Must Have Printable Organizers for Busy Moms

Plan your next trip down to the attractions you want to see and the restaurants you want to try.

When your kids’ schedules are busier than yours, this kid’s activities tracker can come in handy. It includes sections for time, location, things to bring, etc. — perfect for remembering field trip details!

For short term task management, a daily to-do list is a must. This one comes with a handy water tracker, too, to make sure you’re getting enough H2O as you tackle your to-dos.

You can’t stay organized without a calendar, and Blooming Homestead offers gorgeous monthly calendars in several different designs.

The Ultimate Cleaning Checklist details everything that you can (and need to) clean in your home.

A home management binder is a must! The meal planning section is particularly helpful, especially the fridge and freezer inventory. And if you need covers for your organizational binders, you can find them here.

Keep a medical binder to store vital information on each family member, insurance policy information and medical release forms for when you have a babysitter watching the kids. That’s smart.

Paying off debt can be a challenge, but you’ll stay motivated when you track your progress in a debt payoff planner.

 

Printable Organizers for Every Aspect of Your Life

Pay your bills on time, every time, with this pretty bill tracker.

This bill organizer also includes sheets to track your passwords and your automatic payments. That’s super handy if you have a hard time remembering when money is pulled from your account.

You’re much more likely to reach your goals when you write them down. A printable goals worksheet will keep you on track.

If you’re the type to shop for Christmas gifts all year round, a Gift Tracking Organizer is a must. Keep track of gift ideas, gifts that have been purchased, how much you’ve spent and more.

Meal planning is easier when you have your grocery list right alongside your weekly meal planner. You’ll love this printable!

 

Get fit and track healthy habits with a pretty Health and Fitness planner.

If you’re struggling to keep up with all your homeschool lessons, plans and requirements, a homeschool planner is a must-have.

This gorgeous Pet Information Kit is editable, so if you prefer to keep digital files, you can.

Even though many of us use our phones to maintain contact lists, having a physical address book is still a good idea in case you lose your phone. Use these contact pages to create your own address book.

Make the most of your coupons when you’re shopping by having them super organized in a printable coupon binder.

Improve your wardrobe and personal style with a Capsule Wardrobe Planner.

 

Printable Organizers to Make Life Easier

Put all anniversaries and birthdays on a single Important Dates sheet so you’ll never be late with another card or gift again.

Speaking of birthdays, you’ll need a party planning printable, too. It’s nice having everything for the kiddos’ parties on one simple sheet.

Rest easy when your kids are with a sitter. A Babysitter Notes printable details everything the sitter needs to know to take care of your kids.

Use an indoor home maintenance checklist to stay on top of those things around the house you need to do only occasionally. Put it in your home management binder.

Print a car maintenance checklist for each vehicle to ensure that you’re always up to date on your tune-ups.

Moving soon? Create a moving planner with these printables to ease the transition.

 

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Crunchy Granola

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Everybody loves an all natural Crunchy Granola recipe–so dig right into this one and start making your own. You won’t believe how easy it is!

You might also be interested in our granola bar recipe which makes a perfect on-the-go breakfast or snack.

 

This recipe for Crunchy Granola makes about 15 cups and stores in an airtight container for several weeks. Add it to fruit cobbler, as a topping for pie (if you omit the dried fruit) or have it like a bowl of cereal. By the way, this recipe can be altered any way you like by exchanging or omitting any of the ingredients–just be careful to reduce the honey if you omit anything.

Crunchy Granola

Ingredients

• 7 cups rolled oats (uncooked!)
• 1 cup shredded, unsweetened coconut
• 1 cup almonds, slivered
• 1 cup coarsely chopped nuts (pecans, walnuts, etc)
• 1 cup sunflower seeds
• 5 cups dried fruit (craisins, raisins, apricots, prunes, dates, etc)
• 1/2 cup olive oil or melted coconut oil
• 1/2 teaspoon sea salt
• 1 cup raw unfiltered honey (or plain)
• 1/4 cup molasses (blackstrap is best)
• 1 Tablespoon pure vanilla (not imitation)

Preheat oven or electric roaster to 250 F. Spray 2 baking sheets or the roaster liner with cooking spray. In a very large bowl stir together the rolled oats, coconut, almonds and other nuts, and sunflower seeds. In a smaller bowl combine the olive oil (or melted coconut oil), sea salt, honey, molasses, and vanilla, stirring vigorously. Immediately pour the liquid mixture over the dry mixture and stir well to evenly distribute everything. Bake for around 90 minutes, stirring every 15 minutes to evenly brown the ingredients. Allow to cool on baking sheets or in roaster pan for about 30 minutes and then add the dried fruit. Stir well and cool completely. Store in an airtight container for several weeks or in the freezer for about 6 months.

 

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What Your Child WILL Remember

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If you want to raise a grateful kid who does not feel entitled, please know at the end of the day, your child will remember a lot of things but NOT the money you spent on them…I can guarantee it.

Growing up, from about the ages of 5-10, my family lived in poverty.  I mean, no one told me that…but even as a child, I knew.

You know there is a problem when your whole family is sleeping in the living room because there is no central heat and only one kerosene heater to warm that one room.

You know there is a problem when you watch your mom eat small, homemade biscuits for lunch every single day because a neighbor brings them…and that is all she eats.

I remember looking for random change in the house as a child to buy day-old bread at our local bakery (for about 25 cents) and a ravaging fire that destroyed 90% of our belongings just in case we needed to add insult to injury.

And while those memories are obviously still hanging out somewhere in my mind, they aren’t the ones I really REMEMBER.  They aren’t what I associate my childhood with.

And as much as my parents wish, like all good parents do, that they could have provided me with so much more, I only tell them this one thing. 

“You provided me with SO MUCH MORE than money could have ever bought.”

I remember special weekly visits to the park when my mom would pack us all a picnic lunch, complete with oatmeal cream pies.  If it was a real treat, we were allowed to invite a friend.

I remember how special they made my birthday – no ridiculous parties worth $40,000 (how I wish that was a joke)…

No, I remember inviting one special friend and my mom making us whatever we wanted for our dinner and dessert.  For me, it was her lasagna and homemade banana pudding (something that to this day, I’ve never made because cooking that pudding takes some serious love).

I remember that Christmas when I knew things were incredibly tight…but they found a way to buy my sister and me a $10 handheld game from Radio Shack and a pair of doggie slippers.  I remember feeling, even at 7, that a whole lot of love went into those gifts.  A lot of sacrifice.

A LOT of love.

I remember my mom taking me shopping for an Easter dress and how my heart was set on this beautiful, simple pink one from the department store.  And how I knew we didn’t have the money, but how she somehow bought it anyway.

I remember my Dad giving my mom these beautiful things at Christmas…a new dress, a pair of shoes, a necklace.  And my mom “oohing” and “awwing” over them.  Only to pack them all back up the next day and return them for the money he spent.

I remember the way my mom dressed me for school, braided my hair, volunteered in the classroom.

I remember never feeling ashamed…or unimportant…or in any way “less than” anyone else.

You see, there are no feelings of loss…or of missing out…or of wishing we had more.

We didn’t take vacations, and I never missed them.  My parents filled my life with so much joy and love that as as child, that was all I needed.

I didn’t need a new Barbie or a remote control car or a game system to know I was loved.

I felt love every moment of everyday.

Trust me when I say, what your child will remember years from now is not what you bought them or the money you spent.  They will remember the time you gave them…the way you made them feel.

And now, with my own children, I am faced with a very different dilemma.  Perhaps an even more difficult one than that of my own parents.

As my own mother put it:

“You know Hillary, it was hard for me to raise you with no money.  There were so many things I wanted to give you but just couldn’t.  And it will be hard for you to raise your girls because you have the money to buy them more things than I could.  But you will have to teach them about the value of a dollar and show them that money doesn’t equal happiness.  And I think you will have the harder time.”

And I’m learning she is right…the world is full of entitled kids.  Of dare I say spoiled children.

It is hard to find gratitude in a world of “too much.”

And the problem begins and ends with us…their parents.

And the journey might be rough.  And the “no’s” may not come easily.

But here’s to all of us trying.  Trying to raise grateful children.

Here’s to all of us showing our kids that love comes in many shapes, sizes and forms…but a dollar bill just isn’t one of them.

For more parenting articles like this one, be sure to follow along on our Facebook page!

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Preschool Scavenger Hunt to Find Colors

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If there are two things that I know about preschoolers it is this: they love scavenger hunts and they love sticky notes.

Really. I have never met a preschooler who didn’t love a good scavenger hunt or one who would not cover a room with sticky notes with a smile ear to ear.

This preschool scavenger hunt to find colors is bound to be a hit!

We made this a color scavenger hunt, but of course it could easily be changed to be a number, letter, or letter sound scavenger hunt as well.

My preschooler, Ben and I spent the better part of a morning enjoying this scavenger hunt. And it was super simple with next to no set up.

I wrote color names on sticky note pads in the proper colors. (Get some colorful sticky pads and matching colorful markers, affiliate links.)

Of course, I could have just drawn the color onto the sticky note, but I love introducing words in playful ways any chance I can.

See our five ways to introduce language through play.

I left the sticky pad in tact and just gently lifted the pages to add the words/colors onto each piece. I think I did about 20 (which was not nearly sufficient – we likely did 80 before our hunt was done!)

I then passed the sticky pad to Ben who hunted for that color around the house and stuck the sticky note onto the object he found with that color.

Nothing was safe from this scavenger hunt!

Not even me.

This scavenger hunt was a great chance for us to practice colors.

Ben is pretty good with most basic colors, so it gave us a chance to compare colors. Two things could be blue but look very different from each other.

We were able to practice terms like dark and light, pale and bright. He even found some neon yellow and hot pink in big sister’s room.

After he gathered all the sticky notes and put them on the ground and played again all on his own!

An added bonus is that he saw those color words 80 or so times, turning them into sight words for him. He can now easily identify the words ‘blue’ and ‘red’ when he sees them.

Not too bad for a pad of sticky notes and a morning of fun with a scavenger hunt!

Preschool Scavenger Hunt to Find Colors on handsonaswegrow.com

Preschool Scavenger Hunt to Find Colors

Hands On As We Grow http://ift.tt/1OHTXWx

If there are two things that I know about preschoolers it is this: they love scavenger hunts and they love sticky notes.

Really. I have never met a preschooler who didn’t love a good scavenger hunt or one who would not cover a room with sticky notes with a smile ear to ear.

This preschool scavenger hunt to find colors is bound to be a hit!

We made this a color scavenger hunt, but of course it could easily be changed to be a number, letter, or letter sound scavenger hunt as well.

My preschooler, Ben and I spent the better part of a morning enjoying this scavenger hunt. And it was super simple with next to no set up.

I wrote color names on sticky note pads in the proper colors. (Get some colorful sticky pads and matching colorful markers, affiliate links.)

Of course, I could have just drawn the color onto the sticky note, but I love introducing words in playful ways any chance I can.

See our five ways to introduce language through play.

I left the sticky pad in tact and just gently lifted the pages to add the words/colors onto each piece. I think I did about 20 (which was not nearly sufficient – we likely did 80 before our hunt was done!)

I then passed the sticky pad to Ben who hunted for that color around the house and stuck the sticky note onto the object he found with that color.

Nothing was safe from this scavenger hunt!

Not even me.

This scavenger hunt was a great chance for us to practice colors.

Ben is pretty good with most basic colors, so it gave us a chance to compare colors. Two things could be blue but look very different from each other.

We were able to practice terms like dark and light, pale and bright. He even found some neon yellow and hot pink in big sister’s room.

After he gathered all the sticky notes and put them on the ground and played again all on his own!

An added bonus is that he saw those color words 80 or so times, turning them into sight words for him. He can now easily identify the words ‘blue’ and ‘red’ when he sees them.

Not too bad for a pad of sticky notes and a morning of fun with a scavenger hunt!

Preschool Scavenger Hunt to Find Colors on handsonaswegrow.com

Did You Know There’s A New Safe Google For Your Kids?

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It’s true! It’s called Kiddle and after spending the day testing the ins and outs of it yesterday I’m happy to report that it’s pretty much the coolest thing the Internet has ever given the ten and under set, with the exception of Minecraft.

So what IS Kiddle, exactly?

Kiddle was designed by Google and by some of its top editors to be a search engine that not only filters out adult content, but offers pre-filtered content that’s more understandable and relatable for younger kiddo’s. I say younger because while you still may want to use adult-filtering with tweens and teens, you also want them to have access to certain content that isn’t accessible on Kiddle…but I’ll explain that later.

The first thing you need to know is how to get there. Kiddle is a .co address, so just type in: www.Kiddle.co. I’m telling you this because when I first tried to go there I tried .com and then .org, and neither of those are correct (which you probably already inferred, but ya know). So just remember to bookmark the .co and you’ll be good.

The layout is adorable and perfect for kiddo’s: it’s a robot on a planetary surface, just hanging out ready to answer questions.

Everything else looks pretty much exactly the same as Google. Same search box, same options for Web, Images, News, and Videos, but once you start searching that’s where things change. Just check out Google’s explanation below!

Cool, right?

Now let’s get down to what you really want to know: how well does the filter ACTUALLY work. Well…I tested it for you. Here’s what happens when you type ‘butt’ into the Kiddle search field:

Or let’s try one of the favorite swear words in my house ‘dang’:

Trust me, I tried LOTS more, but I think you get the picture. These filters are perfect for younger kiddo’s and since you (the parent) can submit other words or combinations that your special little someone’s might come up with for review, you can help safeguard the site in the future.

As for the older kiddo’s, if they try to write a report on ‘flower reproduction’ but just type in ‘reproduction’, that comes up as a bad word, too. So if they’re using Kiddle, they just have to be more specific in their search, or else come to you to access regular Google.

So my review? I am blown away and completely happy with what I’ve been able to find (and not had to see) on Kiddle. I think this is a fantastic, accessible, and age appropriate tool to help keep those internet-savvy littles searching without having to see Kanye’s wife’s tuckus.

Not saying you should let them run wild on the internet, but if you’re cooking dinner and they’re searching on Kiddle, you can rest assured Google has your back.

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Spaghetti Squash with Meatballs

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Spaghetti Squash with Meatballs is such a fun and yummy meal to cook for kids–and for grownups too! You won’t believe how super easy spaghetti squash is to cook and you’ll love that it is nutritious also. Once you learn how to cook spaghetti squash you’ll be adding it to all sorts of recipes.

Just in case you fall in love with this recipe here’s our super easy Spaghetti Squash Casserole recipe to make.

Just like the name implies spaghetti squash, once cooked, resembles strands of spaghetti pasta. All you have to do is use a fork to fluff it up out of its shell. Our kids LOVE helping us make spaghetti squash for dinner. Plan on 1 large spaghetti squash serving 4-6 people with this recipe. The flavor is mild enough that you can use it almost anywhere you’d use spaghetti or angel hair pasta. Try it with a creamy alfredo sauce or pesto. Mmmmmmm!

Spaghetti Squash with Meatballs

Ingredients

• 1 large spaghetti squash
• 1 cup grated Parmesan cheese
• 1 27 oz can spaghetti sauce
• 1 32 oz bag of frozen Italian style meatballs prepared according to package instructions (or you can make your own)
• basil, for garnish (optional)

Directions

How to Cook Spaghetti Squash

Preheat oven to 350 F. Cut spaghetti squash lengthwise and scoop out seeds and fleshy inner material. Wrap in foil and place on center rack in oven. Bake for 1 hour 15 minutes. Remove foil and using hot pads to protect your hands from heat (or allow to cool first) use a fork to scrape and fluff up the inner spaghetti strands. Scoop out into a serving bowl.

How to Assemble for Spaghetti Squash with Meatballs

Place 1-2 scoops of spaghetti squash into center of plate. Top with a ladle of cooked spaghetti sauce and top with prepared meatballs. Sprinkle with Parmesan cheese and garnish with basil, if desired.

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DIY Chalkboard Branch Circles

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I am always looking for fun ways to encourage and motivate children in developing their fine motor and writing skills. I made these DIY Chalkboard Branch Circles for my Pre-primary class (5 year olds) to create an exciting new canvas for children to draw and write on.

 

There are countless ways that you can use the DIY Chalkboard Branch Circles, such as, writing letters, numbers, shapes, words and names. The ideas are endless!

 

What you will need?

You will need, branch circles, black chalkboard paint, paint brush and chalk.

 

When applying the chalkboard paint, you will only need one coat of paint.

 

Shapes

Some ideas:

• Sorting – matching – classifying shapes into groups, pairs, etc.
• Play Memory: Draw the shapes twice on each branch circle and turn them all over. Children turn over 2 branch circles at a time to expose the 2 shapes, if they match children keep the pair, if they do not match, they turn the shapes back over to have another try.
• Drawing shapes – fun canvas to practise drawing shapes. We started with basic shapes, circle, square, rectangle and triangle. You can extend this to other shapes too.

 

Numbers

Some ideas:

• Writing numbers – depending on ability this can be numbers 0-5, 0-10 or 0-20.
• Place one number on each branch circle and order the numbers from 0-10 or 10-0.
• Create a jumbled number line, children un-jumble the numbers and place them in the correct order.
• Play Memory: Write the numbers twice on each branch circle and turn them all over. Children turn over 2 branch circles at a time to expose the numbers, if they match children keep the pair, if they do not match, they turn the numbers back over to have another try.
• Matching Counting Game: Write the number on one chalkboard branch circle and on another to match draw on some dots. For example for the number five, write the number 5 and on another branch circle draw 5 dots. This becomes a counting and match activity for children.

 

Alphabet Letters

Some ideas:

• Write all the letters in the alphabet onto the branch circle chalkboards using chalk.
• Order the alphabet from a to z. Use an alphabet chart to assist if needed.
• Add props beginning with each letter in the alphabet such as toy car for the letter ‘c’. Children place the toy car on top of the chalkboard branch circle with the letter c written. Continue this for all the other letters in the alphabet.
• Use only the letters SATPIN to create small CVC words such as pat, sat, nap, sap, pin, tin and so on.

 

For more Alphabet Letter Activities and Play Ideas click here.

 

Names:

Some ideas:

• Children write each letter in their name onto a separate chalkboard branch circle.
• Un-jumble the letters in your name and place them back in to the correct order.
• Extend the learning by adding the letters in the child’s surname.

 

For more NAME Activities and Play Ideas click here.

 

SATPIN and CVC Words

The SATPIN letters are the first 6 recommended letters to teach children in the Jolly Phonics synthetic approach to teaching reading and writing programme. It is a well-known synthetic phonics method of teaching the letter sounds in a way that is fun and multi-sensory.  Children learn how to use the letter sounds to read and write words.  The letters are not been introduced in alphabetical order. The first group (s, a, t, i, p, n) has been chosen because they make more simple three-letter words than any other six letters.

Some ideas:

• Move the S, A, T, P, I and N letters around to create words. Write these words onto a mini white board, student work book or paper.
• Make flash cards with CVC words or SATPIN words. Children work with a partner, one child calls out a word for the other child to create using the letters on the Branch Circle Chalkboards. Each child takes it in turn to complete the different tasks.

 

Take a look at our PRINTABLE CVC Word Bundle Activity Pack

 

Let’s Learn

Learning Opportunities

• Fine Motor Development
• Hand-Eye Coordination and Control
• Language development – shape names, numbers, alphabet letters, CVC words
• Mathematics – sorting, classifying, matching, number recognition, name and draw basic shapes, counting

 

Click here for more FINE MOTOR activities & play ideas

Click here for more PRE-WRITING activities & play ideas

 

Available in our Learning 4 Kids online shop:

Please click on the product names to view full product details.

Chalkboard Paint Black 250ml

Coloured Pavement Chalk Bucket 24

Natural Wooden Tree Cookies Set of 30