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Printables

Babysitting Ideas To Create Your Own Babysitting Kit

Create Your Own Babysitting Kit includes free printable babysitter checklist

By Sharla Kostelyk

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When I was growing up, we had a babysitter named Karen for a short time. I always looked forward to her coming over. She would bring a babysitting bag with her, much like the one that Mary Poppins carried, full of all sorts of magic. She would pull out of her babysitting kit all kinds of crafts and activities for us to do and it seemed like no time at all until my mom was back home and Karen had to leave and take her bag of fun with her.

 

Create Your Own Babysitting Kit includes free printable babysitter checklist

When I started babysitting for my neighbour’s three little ones, I had been so influenced by Karen that I packed a babysitting activities bag of toys and games to bring for them and they waited expectantly to see what treasures were in store for them.

Our kids have been fortunate enough to have a babysitter who brings special treats and activities for them as well.  Rachel is a wonderful babysitter and her bag of goodies only adds to the fun. The kids always look forward to her coming over.

Earlier this year, our daughter Miss Optimism took her babysitter course and is now officially old enough to babysit. She has created a babysitting bag for herself that she brings with her when she goes to the two families that she sits for. The kids at both homes look forward to her coming and finding out what babysitting games they can play.

Babysitting Ideas For A Babysitting Kit

Creating a babysitting kit is not complicated. It helps both, the children being babysat, the parents of those kids, and the babysitter. It helps create better safety as the kids are likely being more closely supervised during those babysitting games.  It makes the time pass more quickly for the kids and babysitter, it makes the time easier on the babysitter, and it cuts down on behaviour issues.

Babysitting Checklists

I’ve made a simple printable for you to include in the kit, The Babysitter Checklist. You can put the two pages back-to-back into a plastic sleeve and use a dry erase marker to update the information.

the Babysitter Checklist

What to include in your babysitter kit:

  • simple first aid kit with bandaids, cleaning wipes, safety pins, and tweezers
  • Babysitter Checklist in plastic sleeve and dry erase marker
  • board games that are age appropriate for the kids
  • puzzles that are age appropriate for the kids
  • books
  • craft supplies or craft kits
  • colouring books and crayons
  • homemade playdough
  • Busy Bags
  • good quality toys – when I was babysitting, I would often bring Marbleworks along with my kit and it’s the exact same Marbleworks that my kids still play with! It’s a nice one because kids of many different ages can all enjoy it together.

The thing that kids look most forward to playing with in my daughter’s babysitting kit is the busy bags. I think the main reason for this is that it is something novel and new for them. They are great for the babysitter as well as they really help keep kids productive and busy and they are wonderful tools for learning colours, numbers, shapes, letters, patterns, and reading. This aspect of them will really be appreciated by the parents!

Example of a Babysitting Bag

Here’s a sample of some of the fun babysitting activities that go in my daughter Miss Optimism’s babysitter kit. She will swap out the busy bags most times so that she is always bringing fresh things and she changes the books and puzzles depending on the ages and interests of the kids she’s babysitting.

 babysitting games for a babysitting kit

Babysitting Bag (in the image above):

  • three busy bags
  • three books
  • a colouring book
  • bag of crayons
  • sticker pack
  • Progressive Puzzles
  • Playful Patterns.

First Time Babysitting

Helping your child to create a babysitting kit when they first start as a babysitter will help them to feel more professional and confident. It will also help them to stand out from other sitters and do the best job possible. While creating the kit, I would suggest taking the chance to talk about other responsibilities and safety measures for when they are babysitting.

Babysitting ideas

I know that nowadays, it can be very difficult to get a babysitter and parents don’t have high expectations, but I believe in teaching my kids to work hard and go above and beyond. Babysitting will be the first job many kids have and the habits they form there will help shape their future work habits.

Here’s what I tell my daughter about babysitting…

Babysitting Tips:

  • being on time means being early (this also gives the parents time to explain their expectations and the routine).
  • leave the house cleaner than you found it.
  • when in doubt, ask.
  • the kids and their safety come first, but if they are sleeping, tidy up or try to bless the family by finding ways to help.
  • call your own parent if a behaviour issue arises and you don’t know how to handle it.
  • children are precious and caring for them is a big responsibility.
  • do things in such a way that you will feel proud of yourself.
  • you are an example to the children you are watching so be a good role model.

If you are looking for more fun babysitting activities to include in your babysitter kit, check out all of our busy bag ideas.

There is also a more detailed Babysitter Checklist included in our More Calm in the Chaos Printable Planners for Moms.

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Filed Under: Printables

Charlie & the Chocolate Factory Notebooking Printables

By Sharla Kostelyk

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Our family really enjoys Roahl Dahl books including Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. It is such a fun book to do as a read-aloud. We read it earlier this year and did a small study to go along with it.

Here are a few ideas to accompany the book Charlie and the Chocolate Factory:

Homeschool Share has a Free Chocolate Unit Study.

We made a Candy Sensory Bin just for this unit.

Making our chocolate playdough recipe would be a great activity to go along with this book.

This chocolate tasting activity from Homegrown Friends looks like it would be fun.

The Imagination Tree has Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory playdough.

I have created a free 15 page printable pack to accompany a Charlie and the Chocolate Factory unit study. It contains notebooking pages, a word search, a vocabulary words worksheet, and some fun writing activities.

By downloading these Charlie & the Chocolate Factory Notebooking Pages printables, you are agreeing to the Terms of Use.

Charlie & the Chocolate Factory Printable Notebooking Pages PackIf you are looking for other activities to accompany book studies, you may be interested in following my Book Activity Ideas board on Pinterest.

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Filed Under: Homeschooling, Printables

A Monster of a Printable

By Sharla Kostelyk

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Monster Printables Free

My kids have been talking almost non-stop about the new Monsters Inc. movie coming out soon called Monsters University. They loved the first Monsters movie and really want to see this one. I thought it would be fun to do a whole monster theme unit with them. I have all kinds of ideas planned for next week…crafts, fun food and some learning activities all with the theme of monsters.

I made some monster themed printable sheets for my kids and decided to share them with you too in case any of your kids might like to get in on the monster fun! I of course made cute monsters that look like they are friendly, not scary monsters that kids would want to run and hide from!

If you are linking to these printables or sending friends over to nab them, please link to this page, not directly to the pdf file. Thanks!

For more fun monster-themed ideas, you may be interested in following my Monsters Board on Pinterest.

I hope you and your kids enjoy your Monster Printables!

monster printables

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Filed Under: Crafts and Activities, Homeschooling, Printables

Inexpensive Date Night Ideas

By Sharla Kostelyk

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With Valentine’s Day approaching, I thought it might be an opportune time to talk about something I’ve become quite passionate about…dating your spouse.

The Importance of Dating in Marriage

For many, many years, my husband and I did not go on dates regularly. We went out just the two of us usually on our Anniversary and sometimes on our birthdays. I guess we figured that since we were already married, we didn’t need to date anymore. We were so wrong. With the pressures of our life as parents, we needed to date each other more than ever.

If you think of a marriage relationship as being like a car, consider regular dating like doing maintenance, changing the oil, getting tune-ups. If you don’t do maintenance, you could be heading towards a breakdown.

Regular dating creates shared experiences, improves communication, helps you to grow together and feel like a team. It also sends powerful messages to your children about the importance of your spouse and putting work into your relationship. This will help your kids to have more successful marriages themselves. We have discovered many times how much it means to our kids for us to date each other.

Dating Without Breaking the Bank

There was a point in our marriage when the lack of maintenance caught up to us and stressful life circumstances took a toll. One of the things we decided to do to salvage our relationship was to implement date night. At that point, given the circumstances, we began dating at least once a week. Obviously, if all of those dates were dinner and a movie, we would have run out of money quickly, so we got creative!

Creative Date Night ideas for couples. These are fun suggestions and most are inexpensive or free.Sometimes the dates that are the most memorable are the ones that cost nothing or very little. I am including a printable list of over 60 Date Night Ideas.

I would encourage you to give some a try. You could even cut the ideas into strips of paper and pull one out next date night for a real adventure!

Create a Rich History

When your dates are things that create a shared experience, you have more to draw on as a couple in hard times. You feel like a team, have inside jokes, have more to talk about, and get to know each other in a different way.

We found that once we started dating again, we laughed more and got along better. Some of our more creative dates have included doing olive oil and vinegar tasting at Evoolution, walking around the beautiful Legislature grounds in summer, eating from food trucks while listening to live music in the city square, going to the Italian market, touring Showhomes to look at wall colours and bathroom designs, and going indoor rock climbing which was not only a shared experience, but also a good trust building exercise.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

What are your most memorable date nights with your spouse?

Read our Date Night Rules and how dating each other has saved our marriage.

The Date Night RulesIf you are looking for more fun date night ideas both for going out or staying in, here are 175 more ideas.

175BestDateIdeas_therealisticmama_frontcover_300-2-665x1024

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Filed Under: Marriage in the Chaos, Printables

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