Yep, that’s right. I’d like to say it’s always been the plan, but back in December my husband and I decided it was probably a lot less chaotic to send our oldest to brick and mortar traditional kindergarten. So we enrolled her in Pre-K in January, and she did great for 8 weeks! Then COVID shut everything down. And well, now here we are.

Christmas is almost literally right around the corner. I say this with joy and excitement because I LOVE this time of year. I love giving gifts, I love shopping for the right gift, and I enjoy the expectant excitement of the preparation of the season.  I love celebrating Jesus’ birth and the season of Advent is even more fun with little children. Their excitement and innocence is yet untainted by the commercialism of our culture.

I’m so excited about this guest post from my friend, Leighanna. I’ve known her since 2011; I met her in the first small group we joined after being at our church for nearly two years. Leighanna has 3 little boys (and is due very soon), and she is an example to me in so many ways. While I don’t get to see her in person anymore as much as I’d like, I’m thankful for Instagram and text messaging so that we can keep in touch. 

When she shared her “Thankful Chain” idea the other day, I was super excited to try out this activity with my own kids. But rather than reinvent the wheel, I figured I’d let her tell you all about it herself! She’s inspired by Psalm 106:1, “Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good” to teach her boys about thankfulness using a paper chain! Read on.

Well, Hurricane Florence got me motivated to prep my house and hunker down, and as a mom of two little kids, that means more than making sure we have enough water, bread, and batteries. The more I started to think and prep for losing power, the more I began to realize how important it is to have activities for the kiddos. And I realized how easy it is to assemble new, free/cheap, fun activities for little kids with things you probably already have in your house!

This makes hurricane prep, power outages, sick days, or a boring afternoon just a little more fun and exciting. You can pack them away for the car or a trip, or only take them out in times like these to keep them exciting. Who doesn’t love a few cheap (or free) and activities that double as learning and fine- and gross-motor skill development?! Here are the top busy bag activities that I either had the supplies on hand to make already or found easily at the grocery store/pharmacy while I was out and about.