Back to School Activities

The boys start kindergarten and Pre-K in one week. I'm counting down anxiously, rubbing my hands together in well, maybe not exactly glee. OK, glee - I admit it. Not that I'm not happy to have them at home, I am, but given a summer of 100-degree temps and more recently everyone coming down with summer colds leaves us housebound and somewhat irritable.

The bottom line is that we are ALL ready for school to begin.

In celebration of school starting, here are some cute activities to get them ready for school:

~ Back to School Word Searches from DLTK.

~ Back to School themed coloring pages from Preschool Coloring Book. This is my favorite bus.

~ The Magic School Bus website from Scholastic.

~ Back to school crafts from Family Fun.

~ Lots of back to school ideas from Kaboose.

Ok, this isn't school themed, but these game templates from Microsoft look really cool, especially for the older child.

Feel free to add any links you've found.

Easter Coloring Pages

We went to the new playground to explore this morning and were promptly run off by a worker - it seems that it's not quite done so no one is allowed on it yet. Something about safety and liability, blah blah blah. Funsuckers.
And then we went to the grocery store, but once there I discovered that I had left my credit cards and ID at home. I had the checkbook, but fat lot of good that does without a driver's license. So we carefully spent the seven dollars I had with me and came home.
So they are coloring now. I found a stash of coloring pages at Activity Village you might want to check out. If you scroll to the bottom you can get to this page which links bazillions of coloring pages and appears to be regularly maintained.

Even if you don't have children of crayoning age, you might print a few for yourself. If you are anything like me, you secretly like to have a go at coloring now and then.

Valentine's Day Mazes

Here's a really cool Valentine's Maze courtesy of Family Fun. They have a whole passel of printable stuff to keep your little Valentine busy.

Here is a heart-shaped Backyardigan's maze from Nick Jr. and the rest of their Valentine's printables.

Blackdog has some increasingly difficult heart-shaped mazes for the child who likes a challenge. Or, make your own maze.

Here is another and another and another. Can you tell my kid really likes mazes? And more.

This one is interesting - you have to count your way through the puzzle. This one is simplest, buy they have others counting by 2s through 5s.

The thing is, my 5 year old broke and dislocated his arm today at the elbow, so instead of him running about like normal, I'll need to keep him calm and busy and he will stay put for these. I got them each a book of mazes before Christmas and he had done the entire book within 24 hours, but my goodness it kept him quiet!