Love Is In The Air

Happy Early Valentine's Day! In honor of St. Valentine's Day I found a really cool event in Katy where you can bring your loved ones of all ages! Bounce houses, hot dogs, face painting, music and BONUS!! It's at a Brewery so if your love for  your family has an expiration time, you can renew it with some adult beverages!   Make sure to register for the Family Night here on Eventbrite or contact them at allthingsloveevents@yahoo.com

So this is not free--but it's really cheap. The Houston Rockets has a Kid's Club program that gives you two tickets to a Rockets' game, a Rocket's backpack, headband and coupon for a free meal at Rain Forest Cafe-- all for the grand total $35. My son and I went and it was Clutch's birthday so we ended up getting free cake as well. There are limited game choices available, go to this link if you want to register: http://www.nba.com/rockets/kids-club

The Astros and the Houston Dynamo also have Kid's club and you can find more information on each of their sites.

Children's Museum along with other downtown museums are free every Thursday! Look below for more details on which museums you can visit for free!

Houston Museum of Natural Science 3 pm - 6 pm

Children's Museum of Houston  5 pm - 8 pm

Museum of Fine Arts Houston- All day!

Houston Museum of African American Culture 6pm - 8 pm

The Prelude Music School is hosting their free family Music Concert on February 3, 2018 at 10:30 am at Levy Park. Even if you aren't a big music fan, come to check out the park. There are lots of new age creatively shaped park equipment that your kids will really enjoy!  

Jung Do Tae Kwon Do is hosting a free family Tae Kwon Do class on Monday, February 19th. This event is for all ages and you can register here on Eventbrite. 

If you're fancy enough-- I mean fortunate enough to live near the Woodlands, check out the Woodlands Children's Museum on February 10 for their Chinese New Year Celebration from 10 am- 2pm. This is a perfect opportunity to introduce your kids to a different culture, or a great way to celebrate your own!

One of the most beautiful places to visit and take a few social media worthy selfies is the Bayou Bend Collection and Gardens.Every other month the Museum sponsors a family day for you to come out and experience the beautiful grounds and participate in music, crafts, jugglers and even some puppeteers. The Bayou Bend Family Day is a free event held by the Museum of Fine Arts at Bayou Bend Collection and Gardens. 

I found this next event to be super creative, so I thought I'd share it here. For all of you mommas that are breastfeeding and would like tips on how to keep the milk flowing, Mommy's Sweet Treats is holding a Launch Party on February 11th. The restaurant specializes in treats that help support healthy lactation-- check out the Eventbrite link for more information here.

I am a planner to a fault-- I have sticky notes on sticky notes all over my planner!  So if you are like me and you are already thinking about Summer plans, check out the Camp Fair on February 17 at First Colony Mall. This fair shares  lots of day camp and sleep away camp options for all of your kids from preschool age to the almost out of your house age!  

Free Tip: Don't be afraid to ask if the camps offer scholarships or discounts-- I have found that quite a few camps offer scholarships for low income families. For instance, Club Sci Kids Camp already has a scholarship application out for their camps that are targeted to kids from 4 years old to 12 years old!

As always, I have to shout out my top 3 favorite places for free family fun. All three of these places host events for you to bring your kids, learn a new skill or just have fun--- and its fFREE

Home Depot Kids Classes- Next one is coming up this Friday and it's Valentine's Day themed!

Houston Public Library - I would marry the library if I could-- books and crafts are my jam! And there's always a huge selection for you to choose from. They even have a free photography class for teens and tweens!

Chick Fil A Family Night- check the one nearest you for their calendar of family events, Here's what we did at their Family night last month!

Home Depot sponsored an Family Event at Chick Fil A. He made a wooden pencil case holder and painted a house on his hand. 

If you have anything you want to add for next month, please feel free to email me at teacherlady0117@gmail.com

Ice storms, Snow flurries, and Rain, Oh my!

Hey Mamas!

For those of you who have the luxury of working from home, or in a school, or in a company that was closed today because of the weather, I know we are all thinking the same thing! What do we do with these kids?

Well, I'm not an expert as I'm only 3 years in the parenting game-- but I have been teaching for quite a while so here's my perspective:

Use a schedule!  

This doesn't mean that you need to come up with 24 different things for your kids to do every hour. You can think of all of the things that they would normally do and block them into segments. For example, if you have an older kid they might want to: have phone time, watch tv, sleep, eat, etc. Now put a time to those events and Voila! You've got a schedule for the day.

The bonus of the schedule is two-fold. You can limit the amount of time they spend doing one of those items (i.e. sleeping for 6 hours or snap chatting it up for 10!) before the day begins. The second benefit of a schedule is you know the amount of time that you will have to yourself. Now of course this won't be perfect ( I'm currently at the bribing stage of my preschooler's nap time in our daily schedule), but at least it gives you a plan that helps prevent some of the stress that comes with the unscheduled flurry that is a Weather Day.

Here's my son's sample schedule

1.  Breakfast
2. TV Time
3. Numbers Worksheet- I made this myself by dotting out the numbers from 1 - 10 and having him trace them
4. Coloring  Time
5. Music Time 
6. Snacks
7. Outside/Game Time
8. Nap Time ( also known as roll around in the covers for 2 hours while repeatedly asking "Am I sleeping now, Mommy?")
9. Yellow Bag time- The Houston Library has an account with Flip Kit. This is a yellow mesh bag with all of the materials that you will need to run a themed lessons with your child- and you get a free Children's Museum Pass when you complete it. We usually check out 2 or 3 when we go to the library. You can read more about them and reserve them online at https://www.flipkits.org/

1. Outside/Game Time/TV Time ( he can choose)

Now if you don't have a job that allows you to work from home, or one that you can afford to take time off of work from you have to plan ahead. Think about neighbors, or friends who are teachers who might not mind watching your child(ren) for the day. This is also a good chance for you to do a tradesies with another mom/dad you know. You can watch their kids for one day, and the next weather day they can watch yours. #ittakesavillage

Also, if you have to sweeten the pot by offering to cook dinner for them or buy a bottle of wine, no judgement-- you know your friends...and you know your kids!!

PS. I love Houston, but I'm a Chicago Girl at heart..and this really isn't a Snow Day--ijs!

January Part Deux

Hope everyone is staying true to their New Year's Resolutions! Here are a few pictures to show that I am committing to mine!

I honestly organize my calendar based on Home Depot Kids Crafts-- I really feel like I have more fun than my son does. Well needless to say my son (mostly me) created a wooden desk calendar at  Home Depot's January event and we will be attending the one next month to create a Valentine's themed piece.  Register Here for next month's event!

We also went to Karaoke at the Alief Hennington library, which was followed by a Pajama Story Time! Check your library's website for their list of events, we will be heading back in a few weeks to make a puzzle with his own artwork.

Here are a few events that will be happening this month that I didn't mention in last week's post:

If you live or have students that attend school in Fort Bend, check out this Computer Coding Event. It's a free day of courses for kids ages pre k- 5th grade that help teach Coding and Programming!

Still holding on to the Holidays? Or maybe you love the Winter weather Houston has been having? Check out Pearland's Winterfest  on Saturday, January 27th at the Town Center. Or you can catch the last days of Houston Zoo Lights at the discounted rate of $9 per ticket.

***Bonus***

Looking for a cool way to celebrate Black History Month with your Family? World renowned poet Nikki Giovanni will be at the University of Houston for free! She will be sharing excerpts from her new book and tickets are first come first serve. Learn more by clicking the link below:
http://houstonlibrary.org/learn-explore/library-events/hplq

*** Bonus Bonus***

Did you know Teachers get free year long passes to San Antonio Sea World. Click here for more information!

Here's the link for your 3-5 year olds to get in free as well!

https://seaworld.com/san-antonio/tickets/preschool-free-admission/