The school district we live in is trying to pass a levy.  While I’m not a fan of the property taxes I pay, I am a fan of my kids’ school so I always vote for the levy to pass.  But I think I may have stumbled upon the answer taxpayers are looking for when it comes to a “yes” vote:   quit having 4 day weekends. 

For some reason, the schools tack on a free Friday whenever there is a Monday holiday.  Isn’t a 3 day weekend hard enough on us parents??

Oh, I was a teacher.  I know the reasons for these plans:  teacher workdays, extra snow days…  TEACHER MENTAL HEALTH DAYS.  But I am not a teacher right now; I am a mom.  A mom who is paying exorbitant property taxes so you will give her a break educate her children!

Fridays aren’t bad.  I host a women’s bible study at my house so the kids have lots of friends to play with and they are happy.  Saturdays and Sundays are still fairly manageable.  But come that Monday…yikes.  So this past President’s Day weekend, I knew I would have to have a Monday plan.  I had no extra money and it’s getting more and more difficult to find an activity that both the 11 year old (shopping) and 23 mo. old (pooping) enjoy doing.

I turned to Pinterest and here is what saved the day:

First, I made a bin of ?something?  I’ve seen it called cloud dough among other things.  Quite simply it is just 8 cups of flour and 1 cup of baby oil.  Mix together well and it will maintain the dry soft consistency of the flour, but will be moldable. 

I put a few cups, bowls, and cookie cutters in the bin and put it on the middle of the floor on an old blanket.  The kids loved it (and they smelled so sweet)!  Now this will make a mess:

 …but it was worth it for the 2 hours they played with it!  And it was easy to clean up with my Swiffer, and I’m SURE I will get to the mopping today.  I’m certain.   And the bin still has a lot of the mixture in it, so it’s sitting in the garage waiting for the next time I need a break!  Thanks, www.jugglingwithkids.com!

For the second half of my day, I turned to www.designdazzle.blogspot.com.  She had made lightsabers out of pool noodles, duct tape, and electrical tape!  (all things I just happened to have on hand)  I used a serrated knife to easily cut each pool noodle into thirds.  I then duct taped one edge and then made the handle of the lightsaber.  The black electrical tape was next, and then little pieces of duct tape for design.  She was much fancier on hers, but my kids LOVE these things!

 4 days later, they are still the most popular toy in the house.  **We have had to institute a “lightsaber to lightsaber” only policy  to avoid some of the “lightsaber to body” contact that was causing some problems.**

All I can say is, “bring it, spring break!” 

This entry was posted on Thursday, February 23rd, 2012 at 3:10 pm and is filed under diy~why not?!, just life. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.