Sharla Kostelyk

12 Days of Holiday Giveaways 2021

Last year, I started the 12 Days of Holiday Giveaways as a way to say thank you to you, my awesome readers and I’ve decided to continue the tradition this year. I hope that in this time of busyness (and sometimes stress), this can be something light and fun to give.The most popular giveaway last year was on the day I entitled “My Favourite Things”. This year, I decided to make that the theme for every day. I can’t wait to share them with you!

My Favourite Things 2021

I’ve chosen 12 things that I love or are special to me in some way to share with you.

You can enter each day until midnight pacific time on December 12th. I’ll be adding one new prize each day.

Enter to win just one or all 12 and you can come back again each day until the contest closes.

Winners will be notified personally via email the day after the contest ends, so be sure to use an email where I can reach out. Good luck!

(Please Note: Some giveaways are open to anyone worldwide, while others are only open to those in the U.S. and Canada due to shipping. Please note that as you enter the various giveaways).

Another Gift for You

In addition, as a thank you, you can also save 30% off anything in my shop for the duration of the giveaway by using the coupon code HOLIDAY2021.

Day #1 – Click & Grow Smart Indoor Herb Garden (3 slot size)

I’ve had my Click & Grow Herb Garden for just over 2 years now and I love it! I’ve grown many things in mine (lettuce, wild mini strawberries, cilantro, dill, basil, chives, rosemary, and mint). With practise, I now have it down to a science of a rotation of the herbs we use the most.

When I first add the pods, I like to mix them up so I don’t know which is which. Then I have fun guessing what they are as they begin to grow. I’ll admit that I even sometimes talk to them in the morning!

“Oh hello my little cilantro!”

The things I love most about my herb garden:

it’s a way to bring some life and greenery into my house, especially in these cold Canadian winters!
it’s so easy to use (the grow lights are one a timer – all I need to do is add water when it gets low)
adding fresh dill to perogies or potatoes, fresh basil to pastas, fresh mint to sparkling water or salads, fresh rosemary to gravy, chives to eggs and dips, cilantro to homemade guacamole or to top our dinners

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Day #2 – You Are Special Today Celebration Plate

One of the best gifts we’ve ever received was a red plate. This plate says “You are Special Today” and it has become a treasured family tradition in our home.

We received this gift after bringing two of our kids home from Ethiopia twelve years ago. Since that time, our entire family has used it to celebrate each other.

You Are Special Today Red Plate

On birthdays, the birthday person has this plate set out for them at their birthday supper. We have also put it out to honour special days such as one of our kids getting their first job, getting their driver’s license, graduating, or even for facing hard things and overcoming.

The red plate symbolizes being cherished and being part of a family who is there to celebrate you in the good times and support you through the bad.

My hope is that the winner of the red plate giveaway uses it to start their own family tradition of making each member of the family feel seen and celebrated.
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Day #3 – Cup of Té London Luxe Silver Starter Kit

I discovered Cup of Té last year during the holidays. The company was featured on Oprah’s Favourite Things last year and I was intrigued by their backstory and impressed by their founder so I ordered some of their tea to try.

I start every day with a mug of hot tea (with sugar), but I’m pretty picky about my tea. After trying many of their selections, London Calling is my favourite of theirs. I’ve chosen that as one of the teas I’m including in the giveaway.

Their founder, Taylor Lindsay-Noel was a former competitive gymnast who was paralyzed in an accident on the high bar. Her mission to find a new dream and to pursue that is very inspiring.

Cup of Té donates $1 from each starter kit to mental health initiatives. Mental health has been something that has dramatically shaped our family, so that is all the more reason for me to love this company!

What’s in the Luxe Silver Starter Kit?

tea infuser
luxe tin
luxe spoon
100 g loose leaf London Calling tea
100 g loose leaf Cream of Earl Grey

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Be sure to check back tomorrow for another prize and another chance to win!

Family Conversation Starters

By Sharla Kostelyk

Taking the time to ask questions and listen to their answers is a great way to get to know your family members on a deeper level and spend some quality time together. With the help of these printable conversation starters for kids, you can start having meaningful discussions with your family on a regular basis.

Using conversation starters with your kids can be a powerful tradition to start. The connection in relationship grows as communication gets stronger.

Conversation Starters for Kids

Supplies needed:

Printable conversation cards
Cardstock
Basket or jar
optional: laminator

Instructions:

Download the conversation cards and print them out on cardstock so that you can use them over and over again. If you want, you can also laminate them to make them more durable.
Cut out each card around the outer border.
Place the cards in a basket or jar.
Pull a card from the basket and let each member of your family answer the question.

Where to Use Conversation Starters

These simple cards can be used in a variety of places to get your kids talking!

Around the dinner table
In the car
Before tucking your kids in at night
At a sleepover or birthday party
Between homeschool lessons or after school
At the grocery store

Benefits of Conversation Starters

These printable family conversation starters are a great way to improve your family’s connection with each other. And while you might not need to use conversation cards to get your family talking, sometimes they’re helpful in starting a new conversation. There are a variety of great benefits to using talking points on a regular basis, including:

Getting to know your children better. Your kids are constantly growing and evolving. And that means they may like something one day and hate it the next! With the help of these fun questions, you can constantly learn more about your kids’ daily lives, their hopes and dreams, and the emotions they’re feeling.
Creating a stronger family bond. The questions on these printable cards are perfect for starting a conversation between family members. That means they can be the start of a deeper discussion among each member of the family. As you interact with your kids during these discussions, you’ll be showing each of your children that their opinion is important and valued, helping strengthen the overall family bond and encouraging connection.
Cultivating gratitude. Helping your kids practice gratitude is important as they grow older. You can use conversation starters to help steer your family’s conversation toward topics that center around thankfulness, allowing you to incorporate gratitude into your daily life.
Developing imaginative thinking. Using their imagination is a great tool for helping your kids improve their creative thinking skills. Not to mention that conversations centered around imaginative thinking are fun! Fun conversation starters are a great way to help your kids practice using their imagination each day.
Increase vocabulary and communication skills. The art of questions and answers is a learning opportunity for children both in terms of expanding their vocabulary and developing their communication skills.
Managing emotions. Kids can often feel big emotions. So learning how to manage their emotions, regulate their thoughts, and practice empathy are all important lessons to teach your kids. Conversation starters that center around emotional events are great ways to help your kids work through their feelings and understand how others might feel in a similar situation.

Create Your Own Conversation Starters

My printable conversation cards for kids come with 30 fun and thought-provoking ideas for sparking a conversation with everyone in your family. But you can also create your own conversation starters with blank cards. If you’re struggling to come up with additional questions to ask your family members, try these fun topics and ideas:

What do you look for in a friend?
If you could make a new family rule, what would it be?
What is your favourite thing about your siblings?
If you could create a new school subject, what would it be?
What is something you don’t need, but you’re happy you have?
If you pet could talk, what would it say?
What is one nice thing you could do for someone tomorrow?
If you could change one thing about the world, what would it be?
What feeling makes you the most uncomfortable?
If you could create a new holiday, what would you celebrate?
What are you good at?
What do you wish you were good at?
When was the last time you made someone smile?
What would your dream house look like?
If someone wrote a story about you in the newspaper, what would the headline be?
What is your biggest goal in life?
Who is your best friend? Why?
What do you like to do at recess?
Would you rather be forced to whisper or scream all day?
What is your favourite chore?
Could you go an entire day without talking?
What do you think about before you fall asleep?
If you could build your own zoo, what animals would you have?
What is your favourite day of the week? Why?
What is something kids understand better than adults?
When you make a new friend, what’s the first thing you ask them?

For a limited time, I’m offering these conversation cards for free. Simply enter your email below. They are also available for purchase in our shop.

Check out some of our other family connection ideas:

Indoor Photo Scavenger Hunt

By Sharla Kostelyk

Coming up with fun ways to keep your kids entertained while you’re stuck inside is the best way to keep them off their screens. And when I’m looking for a way for my kids to have fun on a rainy day, there’s nothing better than a scavenger hunt. Instead of printing out a traditional scavenger hunt to entertain your kids the next time they’re stuck indoors, try doing an indoor photo scavenger hunt instead. This fun game is perfect for keeping your kids occupied on a hot summer day.

Indoor Photo Scavenger Hunt

Supplies Needed:

Printable scavenger hunt sheet
Camera or cell phone

How to Play:

Print out the scavenger hunt sheet and give it to your kids.
Ask your child to use a camera or cell phone to take pictures of the things around the house that represent each of the words on the list.
Place a check mark next to the item after it is found.

How Do You Do an Indoor Scavenger Hunt?

Creating an indoor scavenger hunt is as easy as setting up a hunt outdoors. Since each of the items on the printable list are open-ended, your kids shouldn’t have an issue finding something to match everything on the printable. The printable indoor scavenger hunt for kids includes 16 clues:

Noisy
Bumpy
Squishy
Delicious
Garbage
New
Beautiful
Loved
Light
Old
Precious
Build
Sock
Piece
Writing
Button

As your children search around the house to find matches for each item, they’ll need to think about different things that could match the descriptive words. If you think your kids might have a hard time coming up with something to take a photo of, it might be a good idea to come up with some suggestions for them. Or set out items that match the words in plain sight so they can be found more easily as your kids are searching.When your child finds an item that matches the word, they can take a picture of the item and place a check mark in the box next to it. After the scavenger hunt is over, you can sit down with your kids and look at all the photos they’ve taken. Let them explain why they chose the item in each photo and how it matches the word on the list.

As your kids play this fun game, you’ll notice that they get to practice a variety of skills. Scavenger hunts are a great way for your kids to hone their:

Creative thinking skills. The open-ended clues on this printable scavenger hunt are perfect for encouraging your kids to think creatively. And if you have more than one kid doing the hunt at the same time, you’ll get to compare their answers to see how creative each child can get. It’s fun to see the different perspectives each player has on the clues provided to them.
Observation skills. Since this scavenger hunt will take place in the house, it’s likely that your kids are pretty familiar with their surroundings. That allows them to use their observation skills to match items they know are in their home to the clues on the list. Before the scavenger hunt starts, let your kids look over the list and come up with some ideas for each picture. This will allow them to think critically about each clue and give them time to come up with a create picture idea for each item on the list.
Photography skills. Taking pictures isn’t just a fun way to play the game, it’s also a great skill for your child to learn. From making sure the item they want to photograph is in the frame to figuring out which buttons to press, there are several aspects of picture taking your kids will need to learn. These basic skills can help them develop their photography as they grow, which may even lead to a new creative hobby down the road.

Tips for a Fun Indoor Photo Scavenger Hunt

This simple game can be played just about any time and without much prep work. But to help the game run more smoothly, try some of these simple scavenger hunt tips:

Laminate the sheets. With the help of a laminator, you can use your scavenger hunt worksheets over and over again. Run the printable sheets through the laminator, then let your kids use dry erase markers to check the boxes as they find each item. If you don’t have a laminator, try using plastic sheet protectors to hold the worksheets instead. Your kids can check the boxes using dry erase markers on the plastic page protector instead of on the paper itself.
Use child-friendly cameras. If you’re not comfortable letting your child use your phone or camera to take photos, consider investing in a child-friendly camera. These kid-safe cameras typically feature a hard case that’s durable enough to withstand drops without breaking.

Grab your free printable indoor photo scavenger hunt checklist. Just enter your email below.

Check out some of our other fun family scavenger hunts:

Summer Bucket List for Families

By Sharla Kostelyk

Ever since my kids were little, we’ve done a summer bucket list. I find that it’s a great way to keep me accountable to being in the moment and it gives the kids something to look forward to.

In the past, some of the lists we’ve completed include the Summer Bucket List for Moms Who Want to Engage and the Bucket List for a Simpler Summer.

For this summer, I’ve decided to focus on things for the family. This is meant to improve family connection and time together, not add to the stress, so do this in whatever order you want and feel free to change or omit activities that don’t fit in with your family’s needs.

I chose activities that were low cost or free and don’t take a lot to set up. I want this to help you enjoy time with your family, not become another must-do list. This is meant only as a tool for family connection.

Summer Bucket List Ideas:

Go berry picking.
Eat watermelon.
Practise cotton ball throw painting.
Paint with freezies.
Tent in the backyard (or living room).
Build tin can stilts.
Make lemonade oobleck.
Fly paper airplanes.
Make an ocean sensory bag.
Make homemade popsicles.
Run through long grass.
Play in rainbow soap foam.
Press seashells in playdough.
Pull some butterfly slime.
Have a three-legged race.
Explore in a summer sensory bin.
Participate in a library reading program.
Squish a mermaid sensory ball.
Build sandcastles.
Dig up worms.
Get messy with melting ice cream playdough.
Draw with sidewalk chalk.
Pretend play with lemonade sensory soup.
Have a sack race.
Hula hoop.
Skip rocks.
Have a water fight with sponges.
Have a picnic.
Play with bubbles.
Run through the sprinkler.

Download your free Summer Bucket List and print it off today. Simply enter your email below.

Fluffy Fish Slime

By Sharla Kostelyk

Pretend you’re playing underwater with this fluffy fish slime. The consistency of this fluffy slime lends itself well to imaginary play and the fish add another adorable element.Slime is pretty popular in our house and fluffy slime is the favourite. Everyone loves the texture that the shaving cream gives to it. Plus, it’s got that really nice stretch to it.

Fluffy Fish Slime Recipe:

Supplies needed:

⅔ cup white Elmer’s School Glue
1 1/2 Tbsp. contact solution containing boric acid and sodium borate
¼ cup water
½ tsp. baking soda
3 cups foaming shaving cream
10 drops neon blue food colouring
mixing bowl
mixing spoon
fish toys
baby oil (optional)

Directions:

Pour the glue into a large mixing bowl.
Add in the water and mix well with a spoon (we find that a wooden spoon works well).
Drop in the baking soda. Mix.
Spoon in the shaving cream. Fold into the mixture and mix.
Add the blue food colouring drops. Stir well until the slime is blue all over.
Slowly add in the contact solution and stir.
Continue to stir to get a fluffy slime consistency.
Finish by kneading the slime with your hands. The slime is going to feel sticky at first. But don’t give up. Keep kneading! If you like, you can use a small amount of baby oil on your hands to keep the slime from sticking to you.
After kneading for several minutes, the slime should be nice and fluffy!
Add the fish toys and fold them into the slime.

Adult supervision should be used with this and all other sensory play activities.

This engages the visual, proprioceptive, and tactile sensory systems, making it a great sensory play idea. You can find more easy ideas in our Sensory Play Recipes eBook.

Be sure to check out some of our other fluffy slime recipes. These ones are our favourites:

Unicorn Fluffy Slime

Edible Shark Fluffy Slime

Heart Fluffy Slime

Replacing Teen’s Negative Self Talk Using Affirmations

By Sharla Kostelyk

Teens are under more pressure than ever before. The teen years have always been a time of rapid change. They carry with them the pressures of sports, part-time jobs, keeping up with family obligations, chores, and school while adulthood and the decision of what to “do with their life” looms ever closer. But teens are now also dealing with the challenges of social media and having every choice, outfit, and word live on forever online. The stresses are real. Teens often struggle with negative self-talk which can be a contributing factor towards low self-esteem and even depression.

Affirmations can be centering and help encourage and inspire.

They are not an automatic fix, but they can help change their mindset over time, especially when positive self-talk becomes a habit and begins to drown out the negative internal voices.

Speaking positivity into your child and teaching them to speak positivity into themselves can lead to more confidence and improved self-esteem.

Why use positive affirmations with teens?

Positive affirmations can also help to reframe negative self-talk into positive self-talk. For example the card, “I forgive myself for my mistakes,” can help someone who devolves into self-loathing and negative self-talk when confronted with a mistake. It can also help your perfectionist child work on opening themselves up to learning from their mistakes instead of working triple hard to avoid every mistake.

Affirmations can also help your child build their self-confidence. As they practice speaking these affirmations to themselves, they are reminding themselves that there is room for growth and that they are always changing, growing, and improving.

If your child is reluctant to use the affirmation cards, try modelling using the affirmations yourself. Let them hear you speaking them to yourself. You can also tape them up on bathroom mirrors, inside of kitchen cabinets, bedroom walls, and anywhere else your child can’t help but see them.Affirmations work with continuous practice over time, so the sooner they can get on board, the quicker they will see the changes in themselves.

You’ll find that these cards also help foster a growth mindset.

Affirmations can help your child rework their negative self-talk and help them to build self-confidence to conquer all the challenges that they face in their walk through adolescence.

Today, I’m sharing these downloadable affirmations cards. They can be used with teens or for older children or even adults.

Get your free affirmation cards for teens. Simply enter your email in the box below.

You may also be interested in reading:

Unicorn Affirmation Colouring Pages for Kids (free!)Why Kids Need Positive Affirmations