One thing I do to keep my sanity...

alternately titled: My kids don't die because...

I burn my DVDs.

That's right, if you open any kid-related DVD case on our shelf, you'll find my kid-like friendly writing staring back at you.

I've found it basically impossible to keep Easton from touching the DVDs and since I like to pretend that I am smarter than him, I decided to see what I could do about it.

I found a program online (www.dvdfab.com) that does the conversion/compression stuff for you.  When I first found it, you could do everything you needed to do with their free trial, and it was awesome.  Then, they up and got smarter than me and now you do have to pay for the service.  But really? $25 a year is worth it to save hundreds of dollars in DVDs.  After you have that program, you just need to have a DVD-burning capable computer and DVD-burning software (we have Nero).

And then, WAH-LAH!  Kid-proof DVDs.  It will make you sleep easier at night, I promise.

Notes:
*In the DVDFab program you have the option of burning the entire disc or just the main movie.  I recommend burning just the main movie.  Not only does your kid not really care about all of those extra features, but if you do just put the main movie on the DVD, you don't have to wait around to press the play button, the DVD just starts playing.  It is the greatest thing ever.
*If you remember, unselect the subtitles option when you burn your DVDs.  For whatever reason, the default on the burned DVDs is to have the subtitles on the screen and while Easton doesn't seem to care, it drives me batty if I ever sit down to watch a movie with him. [you can turn them off, but the default is that they are there].
*Because I only burn DVDs that I own and I only burn one copy at a time [if one has worn out (ahem, Incredibles) I break the unusable kid DVD in half and burn a new kid copy] this is legal. 

Singing Time

I mentioned a while ago that I had been asked to serve with the children at church.  More specifically, I led them in singing. 

It may be the most favorite calling I've ever had. And that's saying a lot, considering I was ward chorister for a while in high school and that was absolutely fantastic.

I only ended up having this calling for about four months before we moved, but there are definitely some things that the kids love/have worked better than others, so I thought I would share.

1. Using popsicle sticks for fairness in picking children. [imagine these popsicle sticks have kids names on them and are red on one end and green on the other.]

I took every child's name in both senior and junior primary and wrote them on a popsicle stick.  Then, I colored one end of the stick red and the other end green.  Each primary has their own can of sticks.  When I am in need of volunteers, I draw a green-ended stick out of the can.  The stick then returns to the can with the red side up so I know that child has had a turn.  Everyone gets a turn and then all of the sticks are turned back over to the green side.  This works especially well with my junior primary since they have a harder time understanding "turns" but can see the visual of the colors on the sticks.  Note: I use the sticks of kids who are not there to call on any visitors we have for the week.  That way, no one is left out.

2. Bean Bag Number Toss.  My mom saw this idea years ago with an old shower curtain, but we didn't have one of those, so a cheap plastic tablecloth did the trick.  I drew on the lines and numbers.  Before Sunday, I write up the list of 20 songs for each singing time (different songs for different ages) making sure to have some be "Child's Choice." and give them to the pianist when I get there.  That way we both have the songs and page numbers ready to go.  The kids get to toss a bean bag on to a number. Note: I use four hymn books to hold down the corners and mark where the kids have to stand with the container I keep the bean bags in. [DVD on the mat for size reference]

3. Temple Flower Picking.  I got my set up on a CD I purchased with singing time helps, but this would be incredibly easy to duplicate on your own.  One picture of the closest temple and hand cut flowers.  The kids (both young and old) love to pick a flower and hope that they find one of the six bees hidden that tell them how that song is supposed to be sung. (Standing on one leg, eyes closed, arms folded, etc.)

4. Numbers.  Numbers are your friends.  Every special help I use I put numbers on the back of the flowers, animals, etc. and have those numbers assigned to a song ahead of time.  I don't have to redo any of the items, just rewrite the list I give to the pianist.

5. Name That Tune. Again, this technically came from a singing time help book, but it couldn't be any more basic. Type up songs with the page numbers and place in a jar. You have the opportunity to add songs they already know, or songs that you want to work on. One child comes up and picks a slip of paper and takes it directly to the pianist (I don't even get to see). That child then decides how many notes the pianist will play. The rest of the children guess the song and then we sing it. The child who guessed correctly is the next one up to choose.

6. Letter of Each Word. This has been a great help with songs that don't have obvious "picture" helps. Even the junior primary kids that can't read yet understand what is going on. I write down the first letter of every word of a new song. As we sing it, I cover up one row at a time (usually I let the kids choose) until we don't have any letters showing.

7. Chimes. This is really for "free" weeks, but the senior primary LOVES it. My parents gave me a set of pipe chimes for Christmas this year. [Instructions and songs here]. Using the notes assigned to each pipe, I wrote out several songs and had the kids sing the song once (to get the tune and rhythm in their heads) and then we played each song twice.  All it took was taking away pipes if they played when it wasn't their turn and they did great.

Any brilliant ideas you have to add?

Tag Blanket Tutorial

Remember a long time ago when I made a tag blanket for Easton? Well, the little tutorial I used for it was on a blog that has since gone private, so I can't refer people there anymore.

Time to make one of my own.

And don't you worry, I don't expect you all to hurry up and make these in the middle of your holiday season. It's just something on my to-do list that can now be crossed off. heavenly.

A glimpse of the finished project before we even begin.
Supplies:
12" x 12" square of cotton fabric
12" x 12" square of minky fabric*
24" of 4 kinds of ribbon
12 buttons
thread
pins
scissors
sewing machine

1. Cut your two fabrics to be 12" x 12" squares
2. Cut six (6) 4" strips of each of your four ribbons.

3. Gather your 12 buttons.

4. Begin by sewing (I machine sewed, but you could also hand sew) your buttons onto the right side of your cotton fabric. I do four groups of three buttons each.

5. Sew all of your ribbon strips into loops with your sewing machine. My machine allows me to do this continually with a space between each ribbon loop (see second picture) but check your machine before attempting this as some machines won't sew the empty spaces.

6. Pin your ribbon on the right side of the cotton fabric with the loop of the ribbon facing the middle. I put 6 ribbons on each side and attach them in an "order."

7. Sew around the edge of the cotton fabric to attach the ribbons. I triple stitch each ribbon (go over it once, reverse over the entire thing and then continue forward again).

8. Lay your two squares of fabric, right sides together and sew along three edges with a 1/4" seam. On the fourth side, leave a space open so you can turn the entire thing right side out again.

9. Machine (or hand) sew your opening closed.

10. Ta-da! A completed tag blanket. (You'll see my machine stitching on the bottom right corner of this blanket, I'm no perfectionist, that is for sure).

*Really, you can use any fabric that you want to use. Minky is really, really soft fabric (I don't know how else to describe it). Most often, you will see it with the dot pattern (as in this post). The blue I have here just happens to be plain. Soft flannel, or fleece would also work great.