Summer Schedule

Variety is the spice of life, so they say. To that end, I decided to keep things spiced up a bit this summer with a summer schedule. 

There are so many great examples out there on Pinterest made by all sorts of crafty bloggers. I found one I liked from The Bradys, Lately. 

(Go ahead an pop over there because she is being so lovely as to give away both a filled in summer schedule and a blank file so you can fill it in yourself!)

I loved the look, but I definitely wanted to tweak the categories. So, I brazenly copied Lauren's original, but since I didn't have the exact same fonts and graphics, mine has a slightly different feel.

My days are as follows:

Make Something Mondays -- Arts & Crafts, Science Experiments, Build 

(It could be big or small. We have these little wooden locker kits they got at Lowe's, for example, so we will do that next Monday. Or we could do spray bottle painting, or Mentos and Coke geysers.)

Take a Trip Tuesdays -- Go to the Park, Visit the Gardens, Go to the Center for the Arts

(Any little excursion around town.)

What's Cooking Wednesdays -- Try out a new recipe. Go to the Farmers' Market

(Both my boys have expressed interest in cooking more, so this will be the day for that.)

Time Out Thursdays -- Stay home and free choice. Relax.

(Just what it sounds like. A day with no plan. However, I am using this day for chores as well. If we are here, we might as well tidy up.)

Fun and Games Fridays -- Board games. Yard games. Library movies.

(Game focused fun. I threw in library movies as the fun part of fun and games just because that is the day our library offers free movies.)

None of these things will take up the entire day and I will alter whether we do something in the morning or afternoon as need be. Much of the time they will still have open for free choice, but this way we have something to look forward to each day of the week.

If you want mine, click here. 

Tuesday's Art Adventure: Toad Houses

I don't know that this really counts as art, (unless we are looking at this from the whole art for life's sake instead of art for art's sake viewpoint) but it does involve paint and it's a good summer project.

If you have a garden, you want to encourage toads to call your yard home -- they eat slugs.

Toad Houses

Supplies:

• small terracotta pots
• tape
• hammer
• epoxy (you may or may not need it)
• acrylic paint
• brushes

If you already have a pot with a chip in it about the size of a silver dollar, then you can skip this first part. 


If your pot is in one piece then you need to make an opening.

To prevent the crack from spreading too far, I taped where I wanted the opening to be.

Cracked it with the hammer,

and yelled Doh! when the tape didn't really work as well as I hoped.

Then I used the epoxy to glue the pieces back together minus the opening.

Once the epoxy was dry, I handed them over to the boys to paint. Acrylic will stain clothes and stick to just about everything. Cover your work space, wear smocks or old clothes, and don't let the paint dry in the brushes. But you need acrylic so that the paint stays permanently. Just hover, and watch out. :)

Have them either paint it to look like a house, or just slather the paint on. Whatever they most enjoy.

Once the paint is dry, take them out and bury the edge just a little in the dirt and place a rock on top to help keep the pot in place.

Toads will prefer a shaded and protected place.

Enjoy keeping an eye out for any toad friends that move in to their new homes.

This post may be linked at the following parties (for their Blog Buttons see my Link Love page): (M) Mad Skills (T) Stories of A to Z, The Blackberry Vine, How To's Day (W) Whassup Wednesday, Blue Cricket Design, Beyond the Picket Fence (Th) Creative Juice, Somewhat Simple, Thrifty 101, Smilemonsters (F) Fingerprints on the Fridge, Furniture Feature Friday, SevenThirtyThree (Sat) Tatertots and Jello (Sun) Creative Blog & Hop