Right Start Math Review

We have been using Right Start Math this year, and are loving it! Right Start takes a unique approach to math that just makes sense to me and I love seeing my son do well with it. (Here he is with little brother tagging along.)

Here is a glimpse into their philosophy:

•  "Informal mathematics should precede paper and pencil work. Long before a child knows how to add fractions with unlike denominators, she should be able to add one half and one fourth mentally." Instead of putting lots of abstract worksheets in front of a Kindergartener, we're working hands-on with quality manipulatives. A lot of them. 
• "The only students who like flash cards are those who do not need them." Amen to that. We use games, not flash cards, for practice. 

Luxury Baths in a Bottle!

I've never been a big "bath person", but one of the perks of our new house is a nice big bath tub. Since it seemed like a pity to let it sit there unused, I thought I'd give the bath thing a go. After doing some intense research (you know, Pinterest style) I found all sorts of recipes for bath salts and bath soaks. Although it seems nice to make all that, I've got plenty of projects on my plate right now and wanted something simpler, and this is what I came up with...

Luxury Baths in a Bottle!

If you want to take a relaxing, skin-nourishing bath without lots of chemicals (which are pretty much every store-bought bath product), you need to look no further than the following basic ingredients: baking soda, milk, salt, and oatmeal. If you really want a treat then add in some essential oils too.

You can find lots of recipes for specialized bath salts and other concoctions on Pinterest, but for the most part, the good ones all utilize some combination of those ingredients. So I decided to just make some Bath Bottles instead. Here they are:

As pretty as they were in glass, I later opted for plastic containers because they're easier and safer to use with wet, slippery hands. (If you decide to make these, I share my free, printable labels at the end of this post!) Here they are:

To use them, simply grab what you need. Here's what each one is good for...

I Heart My Laminator

How do I love thee? Let me count the ways...

I love that you save, protect, and shinyize my stuff. 

I love that you turn any document into a dry-erase board. 

The Color Swatch Ring

 Would you like to know what's in this cute little beaut?

We recently moved and have been painting and painting and painting some more, ever since. I wanted to do something handy with my swatches, and have wished a couple times that I had them with me when shopping. And so I present to you, the color swatch ring:

I cut the paint color cards to the same size, made divider cards for each room in the house, laminated and hole punched them, and stuck them on a ring. And now I can flip right to living room and see both colors used in that room, or bedroom and see the colors used in that room. I even laminated a swatch of each fabric I used to sew bedding items and curtains, which was handy when choosing my paint colors.

Now if I'm shopping for something for the house I can take my colors with me, which is rather handy! 

Did I mention that I love my laminator?