Gift Ideas - The Mommy Teacher

Great Last-Minute Christmas Gift From Kids

I’m excited about today’s printable, but I’m even more excited to see what you artsy people will do with it.

If you use this Christmas Gift Template SHARE your child’s finished work on our Facebook page because our favorites will get a free link to their choice of Member-only Christmas Printables or playroom labels of your choice. 😉

I made a template as a gift for Grandparents:

And for parents:

But if you e-mail me with a specific request (aunts and uncles, cousins, special grandparents names like MeMe and Poppy etc.) I may be able to help out.

Casey had the idea to: take a crayola marker and paint your child’s thumb red and do thumbprints at the end of every line (tree branch)… make little “ornaments” out of the thumb prints. You could make them all red, or do different colors. Turn it into a thumbprint tree 🙂

My friend Allie had the idea to possibly have her kids paint this and modge podge it onto a small canvas.

I am thinking I might have my kiddos decorate it and place it on a frame with a clothespin glued onto the top so that the art could be interchangeable. I got the frame idea from Allie when I visited her playroom – I’ll post pictures when I make that happen!

Whatever you come up with, don’t forget to SHARE your work so that we can feature our favorites here (updating this post) and offer you our Christmas Printables or Playroom Labels for free!

December 18, 2013 by Jessica | 0 comments

Grandparents Day 2013

HEAD’S UP, MOMMY TEACHERS! This Sunday is Grandparents Day! My kids love their grandparents so much and wanted to make them a special gift for their big day!

My 4-month old niece, Marley Kate, recently sent me a cute letter and it inspired our Grandparents Day gifts.

Since our printer is broken, I decided to hand paint ours, and leave a spot open for my niece, Abby, to stamp her foot, too. This one below is on its way to Oklahoma right now.

Then I thought it would be a great idea to make a few hand print art templates for you to purchase and download so your children can make beautiful art for their grandparents too!

In addition to a “You Are My Sunshine” template for your baby/toddler’s footprints, I have also made a “You Are o-FISH-ally My Favorite” template for a sideways hand print and an “Owl Always Love You” template for a palm hand print and thumbprints for wings.

These templates are available to download this week for just $1 for all 3! Enjoy!

[purchase_link id=”4008″ style=”button” color=”blue” text=”Purchase”]

Happy Grandparents Day to all of you Grammy and Grampy Teachers out there!!! Thank you for all that you do! Your grandchildren love and appreciate you!

September 4, 2013 by Casey | 1 Comment

Newest Addition to TMT Family

Hey Mommy Teachers… this is TMT Jessica here.

We are so excited to welcome little one number three to our family….

Big brother and big sister are so excited!

As a Mommy Teacher, a lot has been going through my mind, and I wanted to share some of the teachable moments I have been purposing throughout the week with the NEWest addition:

1) I have set some clear boundaries for the older two siblings and I am trying to be as consistent as possible with the follow through for my expectations. They can touch her softly/gently but not on the face. They can hold her with mommy’s supervision, and I have set other similar physical boundaries. The kids also have to find something quietly to do while mommy feeds the new baby (typically, they each feed their own baby dolls during this time). We have also changed the baby dolls diapers EVERY time we have changed Kenzie haha.

2) They are learning so many great life lessons and teaching each other so many things… Sean Patrick is in charge of “reading” to Mckayla when she wants Mommy to hold her but I am rocking Kenzie to sleep.

reading to sissie — Sean Patrick’s version of the story…”Oooh Ooh a tiger”

3) We cant get out much right now with a newborn so we are doing LOTS of music and movement (I will write about what we are doing this week) and we are playing in the backyard to get all our energy and wiggles out as well as swimming in the plastic pool, playing backyard sports, singing and dancing, jumping on the trampoline, etc.

4) We are learning about the differences between babies and ourselves (how they eat, sleep, what they can not to that big kids can do like walk, talk, etc.) and we have compared the letters in the kid’s names now that we have a new name to explore (With play dough letter stencils and bath foam letters mostly).

One activity for older kids that I think is SO GREAT and I had to share as an idea for you to keep in your memory bank (or pinterest board) for when someone in your family or a close friend has a new baby is a “Tips for having a new baby” LIST. My creative niece came up with some humorous tips that I should consider now that I have three young kids. Her mommy teacher, my sister, supported her in this writing process and they even re-wrote it to make it more presentable – GREAT handwriting practice. The night she came to visit us, she read it aloud (great presentation for reading, speaking clearly, and practicing “public speaking”). It was REALLY thoughtful and adorable….It is now on my fridge. Read the tips below and enjoy!

Here is the re-written list of parenting tips ... from a 7 year old's point of view! — Here is the re-written list of parenting tips … from a 7 year old’s point of view!

June 20, 2013 by Jessica | 0 comments

Father’s Day 2013

Father’s Day is a big deal in our house because my husband’s birthday is on Christmas Day which, let’s face it, is never ever about him. So for Father’s Day we like to think of it as a mashup of FD and his birthday to make it extra special.

So, the kids wanted to show their daddy how much they love him…

Yup, that’s pretty much how the first round of pictures went. Let’s try this again to show Daddy that we REALLY love him and are so excited to spoil him tomorrow!!!

June 15, 2013 by Casey | 0 comments

Imaginative Play Gift Idea

This weekend we went to a birthday party for a big boy 4 year old! Now, since I have 5 and 3 year old boys, I am all too familiar with the likes and interests for little boys this age. It can be pretty frustrating, actually. You buy a gift that is say, $20, and they are more interested in playing with the plastic parts, twist ties and cardboard packaging that it came in.

Two Christmases ago, we hit the idea jackpot for least expensive Santa gift ever… a spy kit! I bought cheap canvas backpacks from Hobby Lobby for $10 a piece and ironed on letters that spelled Agent J and Agent L. Then I filled them with all sorts of random junk from the Dollar Store! $30 per child… not bad at all! So before I went to the store, I was searching the house, trying to decide what my boys’ FAVORITE toys are, and what did I see littered all over my messy house? The contents of their spy kits! I think a Mini-Spy Kit is PERFECT for Austin, the birthday boy!

And BONUS: the idea of a spy kit encourages imaginative or pretend play which is really important for your child’s Physical, Linguistic, Emotional, Academic and Social Education (PLEASE) and development. Here is a great article on the importance of Imaginative Play in Early Childhood.

Agent A is now an official member of SKIP (Spy Kit Imaginative Play)!

All secret agents need to have sole access to their kits via a thumb scan and number code.

Contents: bungee cords, tape measure, shoe laces, combination lock, glow sticks, flashlight, ear phones, watch, calculator, slingshot, mustaches (to maintain their secret identities), key clamps, safety glasses. You can add as many or as few items as you wish!

I taped this letter to the top and copied the text below. Feel free to copy and paste this into a word document, add your own agent names and print for your own use! You’re welcome!

Free for your own use to copy and paste in a word document. Remember to replace the bold words to meet your needs:

Agent A:

Congratulations! Now that you are 4 years old you are officially a spy for SKIP (Spy Kids Imaginative Play)! This spy kit will equip you with anything you may need to carry out your secret spy missions. Beware! Do not blow your cover! Inside your kit you will find mustaches so you can maintain your secret identity at all times.

Only you will be able to access the materials inside of your kit. You must first put your left thumb on the thumb scan on top of your box. Then you must press the access code. We will tell you this code once, and only once. Please memorize it and tell no one! The secret access code is 1 2 3 4.

Welcome to the club, Agent. We know that you will be a good spy and will have many successful missions.

Happy Birthday,

Agents of the SKIP Academy

Agent J, Agent Capital L, and Agent-in-Training lowercase l

May 19, 2013 by Casey | 0 comments