Mother's Day Coupon Books

Coupon books are an easy present for kids to make and give their mothers.

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I work with the girls at our church, and with mother's day coming up, I wanted to make a small gift with their girls that their moms would enjoy. We made these small coupon books and they were a hit!

To make your own, print out the coupons (or make your own) and cut apart the coupons along the lines. If you want to attach the coupon books with brads or ribbon, you can print on card stock. If you want to sew your books together, just use a nicer paper; not as thin as regular printer paper, and not as thick as card stock. I found some old nice resume paper that we've had for 15 years and never used. 

Now take the thread off your sewing machine and run your coupons through on a setting that puts the stitches close together. Do it about 3/4 inch in from the side. This will create the perforation so the coupons can easily be pulled from the books. 

I put 8 coupons together for my books. I cut a piece of card stock that was 2 inches by 12 inches, folded it in half, and stuck the coupons inside. With the nicer thin paper, I was able to sew along the edge to make the book. With card stock, punch holes and string through ribbon or brads to make the books. 

Now I've gotten coupons from my kids before, and sometimes they've been pretty lame, like "I'll do the dishes for you!" or "I'll make my bed!" And I'm thinking, "Wait a minute. I'm the mom. And if I ask you to do those things then you'll do them whether or not I have a coupon." So I asked some moms I know and came up with a list of coupon ideas that are not chores or expected responsibilities and might be things mom's would actually have fun using. Here is the list:

- breakfast in bed

- clean out the car

- make mom's bed for a week

- backrub or foot massage

- play with/brush mom's hair

- be in charge of meals and dishes for a day

- speak in a british accent for an hour 

- babysit siblings

- day with no complaining/whining

- day of doing things before being asked

- an hour when the child sings everything instead of talking

- a day when the mom is always referred to as "your majesty"

- perform a song for your mom

- find the good in every situation all day long

- play games or read books with a sibling for 30 minutes

- tell mom a story you make up with her as the star

- make mom her favorite treat or meal

- for a whole day, all questions/problems/arguments go to dad first!

I told my daughter I wanted her to give me the british accent or singing one, and she said she wouldn't because I would probably try to redeem it when she was out with her friends. She knows me too well. 

What coupon ideas would you add to the list?

Thanks for reading!

The Chore Olympic Games

This is a fun way to teach kids how to do chores around the house.

This activity works great to teach kids how to do chores and let them practice in a fun way. You can have kids compete against each other, or your family could invite another family to compete, or it can be used with a church youth group. I used this with the activity day girls in my church (ages 8-11).

To begin your chorelympics, divide the kids into teams. Let them come up with their team name and color a flag. Play some music and have them march into the room and take their seats.

With any of these chores, some kids will need instruction and practice before competing. You can either do training right before the event or have a separate training time.

Here are some ideas for events:
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1. Sweeping - Spread bits of paper around the room. Make a square out of tape on the floor. When you say "go" the kids will start to sweep their pieces of paper toward their square. First team to sweep their area clean wins.

2. Sock Matching - set out one laundry basket for each team. Spread single socks around the room. When you say "go" the kids try to match and fold the socks and get them in their basket. The team with the most matched and folded socks in their basket wins.

3. Table Washing - teach the kids how to scoop crumbs into their hand while washing a table instead of pushing them onto the floor in this game. Spread bits of paper on a table. Give a child a dry rag. Start a timer and see how quickly they can wipe all the bits of paper into their hand. Add penalty seconds for each piece of paper that falls on the floor. You can either have the team choose one child to participate or let each child have a turn and combine their scores for the final score. Whichever team has the lowest score wins!

4. Towel Folding - This can be a more creative competition. Choose music all the kids will know (I used "let it go") and give the teams a few minutes to work out their routines. The idea is to fold the towels while dancing. The girls had lots of fun with this one! They were tossing towels in the air and catching them while spinning and being very graceful. Kids will be judged based on how neatly the towels are folded and on their dance routine, just for fun. I let the kids who were uncomfortable dancing sit this one out and just cheer on their team.

5. Toy Sorting - You will need buckets and lots of toys on the ground. Assign each team a toy category (such as cars, dolls, blocks, etc . . .) then see which team can pick up their items and fill up their basket first. Or you can have one team go at a time and do all the categories, and just time how quickly they get things picked up. Add penalty seconds for things put in wrong baskets.

6. Bed Making - You will probably need to be home for this game. Teach the kids how to make the bed nicely, then see which team can do the best job in the shortest time. Bonus points for artful pillow arranging.

7. Table Setting - Teach the kids how to set a table. Set this up as a relay race. Each team has a box with items needed in it. (You will probably want to use plastic dinnerware). When the whistle blows, the first player grabs out the placemat, runs to put it on the table, then runs back and tags the next player who runs over to the table with the plate, and so on. Which team can get their place set first?

This list is longer than what we did at activity days. I only got through 3 activities in the hour, but the girls had lots of fun. At the end they each received a gold medal made from a candy necklace with a chocolate gold coin taped on.

You can make up games for chores you have your kids do around the house, such as mirror washing, toilet cleaning, mopping, etc . . . Once the Chorelympics are done you can continue the fun each chore day by checking their work and giving them a Chorelympic score and see which child rates the highest, or give your whole family a score and track your progress as a family to see if you can improve your house cleaning score from the week before.


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Making Thank you Cards - Activity Day Girls

Since it is November, for our activity this past wednesday we talked about the importance of gratitude in our lives.  We pointed out to the girls that people who whine and complain aren't happy, and that people who are grateful usually are.  We found examples in the scriptures of the people showing gratitude to God even when times were not ideal.  Then we made cards to tell people thank you.

I supplied paper, stickers, and pens and the girls wrote notes to family members, teachers, and friends.  We also encouraged the girls to write at least one thank you note to send out to our service men and women who are serving our country.  Operation Christmas Cards is an organization that will send the cards out to the troops for the holidays.  This was an easy way to help the girls do some service.

A few girls at a time also went and made these cute turkeys in the kitchen.

Fun Get to Know You Game (or Pumpkin Pile-up)

At our church, I help lead bimonthly activities for a group of 8 to 11 year old girls, called Activity Days.  This past week, we did a fun get to  know you activity since many of the girls hadn't met each other before.

In this game, the girls found out about each other and laughed, a lot.  I called it Pumpkin Pile-up because I put the all the slips of paper in a plastic halloween pumpkin, and because the girls end up sitting on each other.  

To play this game, you need one chair for each player and a list of "if" statements.  Here are some things from my list:

if you like to listen to Christmas music in September

if your favorite color is blue

if you have a pet

if you’ve ever visited another country

if you like cake more than ice cream

if you play a sport

if horses are your favorite animal

if you play the piano

if recess is your favorite subject in school

if you love to cook

if you are the oldest in your family

if you’ve lived in another state

if you get scared easily

if you are grumpy when you don’t get enough sleep

if you complain when it’s time to take a shower

if you like to buy things at yard sales

if you are afraid of spiders

if you sleep with a stuffed animal or blankie

if you have a nickname

if you have super powers

if you’d rather have a pet monkey than a pet dog

if you’ve been on a roller coaster

if you’d rather go swimming than bike riding

if pizza is your favorite food

I added more as I thought of them.  The game goes quickly, and most girls wanted to keep playing even after we had run out of questions.  

Everyone starts in a chair.  The leader picks up a slip of paper and says "move over one seat" and then reads the paper.  So you get "Move over one seat if pizza is your favorite food".  If it applies to you, you move over one seat.  But, if someone is already sitting in that seat and isn't moving, you just sit on their lap.  You end up getting several girls sitting on each other.  If someone on the bottom needs to move over one seat at some point, you just get up and let them move, and then sit back down on your seat again.

We'd ask the girls to elaborate on some of the things, like telling us their nicknames as they moved over, or telling us what things make them scared.  Girls who weren't moving also liked to chime in with their favorite food or favorite color, so there was a lot of talking among the girls, and I think everyone left feeling happy and feeling like they had made some new friends.