This summer I’m trying to get my kids to do a bit of reading and writing everyday. The reading bit is no problem–I have a heathy addiction to the library. But I wasn’t sure what I could do for writing practice.

Turns out my children love worksheets, or in internet speak, printables. I am not a teacher and have no idea what my kids officially need, but I know what they like. They are engaged and putting pencil to paper. I think that is good enough for summertime.

I started a printables board on pinterest to keep track of the good ones I come across. Here are the ones that we keep coming back to:

for my 3 year old: You can customize this printable to say whatever you like. He’s just starting to learn how to write his name, so I plug that in most of the time and he loves it. The day I plug in P O O P to that worksheet is the day I become the funniest mother in the entire world.

for my 6 year old: This is not the most exciting printable, but it is my six year old’s favorite. There is a space on top for drawing or pasting a picture and enough room on the bottom for a super short story.

for my 7 year old: My daughter loves to read, but sometimes she reads so fast I’m not sure the all words have time to reach her brain. So I’ve started giving her book report sheets to fill out. She likes the ones where you get to draw a picture. I like these printable book reports that focus on separate things: one for characters, one for researching the author, there is even one for writing a new ending!

I’ve only just scratched the surface, I’m sure. If you have any suggestions for writing work or cool printables you’ve found–please share! My kids will thank you!

If you are like me, you’ve waited until the last possible moment to say good bye to google reader. Like so many other crafty blogs you can follow my blog with Bloglovin. I hear Feedly is another option that is easy on the eyes and easy to use. But my favorite reader has to be the Old Google Reader. It looks like, you guessed it, the old google reader. They built it for those of us who can’t deal with change, even when change is thrust upon us. Where are you reading your blogs now that google reader is gone?

Now that it’s officially summer, elsie marley is officially in summer mode. Like last year, I’m going to keep a simple summer journal. Post will be a bit shorter, a bit slap dash, just a peek into our summer days really.

If you like the idea of a simple, summertime blog I would love it if you played along! If you have a blog, use summer journal as your title. If you are more of an instgramer/twitterer/tumblrer type use the #summmerjournal hashtag. Leave a comment if you’d like to play along, so I can follow your summer journal!

The other afternoon, we played a game of Simon Says, Draw! Jean from the Artful Parent, posted about this game years ago and I’ve been meaning to try it ever since.  It’s just like the Simon Says game you played when you were little only with drawing instead. So Simon says things like:

• draw a dot
• use a blue crayon
• draw a squiggle
• pass your marker to the left
• draw three eyes
• draw seven legs
• color something purple
• color with two markers at the same time (this one was a bit hit)

You can say Simon says at the beginning of the sentence or not. That part of the game got lost and we just had fun telling each other what to draw. Everyone’s picture ends up completely different. And it’s a great game to wake up your creativity on a hot summer afternoon.

I mentioned last week that I was thinking about making a summer passport. And would you look at that: I did! It was super easy and I’m going to tell you how to do it.

diy summer passport

materials:

• a small moleskine plain journal with a kraft paper cover. They are called Cahiers and are sold in sets of three (for 7 bucks).
• crayons, markers, pencils, whatever
• a list of activities (see below)
• stickers, or a date stamper

directions:

1. Make your cover. We went with the basic, Summer Passport 2013. You could get a little more exciting, like THIS IS GOING TO BE THE JONES’ BEST SUMMER EVAR!

2. Write something fun to do on every right hand page. This ends up being about 30 activities, which I think is doable for summer. It also leaves the left page open for writing about when you did that activity (optional, obviously).

3. Draw a box under the activity. This is where you will put the stickers (or stamp the date) when you do that activity. If you plan to do something often, make sure to draw a big box. My daughter seems to think we will be going to the pool a lot this summer. :)

4. Go do something! Here’s a list of 40 things to get you started:

list of summer activities

1. run through the sprinkler
2. blow bubbles (last year, we made super big bubbles!)
3. eat watermelon (in star form maybe?)
4. make a giant fort
5. make grape sculptures
6. eat corn on the cob (and make your own awesome holders!)
7. buy a treat from the ice cream truck
8. go to the farmer’s market
9. sign up for your library’s summer reading program
10. play in the rain
11. write a letter to Grandma
12. make your own gummy treats
13. wash the car
14. find a new park in your town
15. go swimming!
16. make paper airplanes
17. learn cats cradle
18. paint with chalk paint
19. build a fairy house
20. feed the ducks
21. get your face painted
22. watch fireworks
23. play sidewalk simon
24. catch fireflies
25. play badmiton
26. sail boats down a tin foil river
27. water balloon fight!
28. be a super spy–make invisible ink
29. make ice cream or popsicles
30. make your own stickers
31. exploding paint bombs!
32. go to a local fair
33. have a magic potion lab
34. make saltwater taffy
35. have a lemonade stand (or a tattoo stand!)
36. camp in the backyard
37. go fishing
38. go bowling
39. see a concert in the park
40. pick strawberries

What are you doing this summer? Add your ideas in the comments!

This shorts sew-a-long came right at the perfect time. My children were pretty much shortless before Carla asked me to be a part of this amazing event. Now I’ve got a few made and more cut out. Carla and Rachel have even lined up some awesome prizes from Jo-Ann, Pretty Prudent/Pellon®, and Hawthorne Threads this year and all you have to do is sew some (much needed) shorts!

Here are my shorts I made for my daughter, and on the line to boot! The pattern I used comes from the Japanese book, Happy Homemade vol. 5

The actual pattern for both pairs of shorts is the same, only one is longer and one is shorter with added cuffs.

They are both of the super skinny variety. The pattern is nicely tailored with a simple elastic waist, two rounded pockets in the front, and two typical jean pockets in the back.

I call these her Fruit Stripe shorts. If I was a more organized mom, I would have put a pack of fruit stripe gum in the tiny pocket!

The fabric is by HGTV I think? It is an outdoor fabric I got at Joann’s and I knew it would become fruit stripe shorts the moment I saw it.

What I didn’t think about was matching all those fruit stripes: four patch pockets and separate cuffs. After much sweat and swearing, they [almost] match! Woo Hoo!

The second pair is made from a striped fabric too (I never learn). I scored a yard of this railroad striped denim at the thrift store. I’m usually not a fan of the jean short, but I think these work.

I made these shorts for my daughter last year (paired them with wellies then too!). They got a lot of wear and no wonder–they are comfortable and durable. She is a rough and tumble gal and needs shorts that can keep up.

Those are my shorts on the line! Check out all these amazing sewers to see more: