Frugal Fun - Stone Soup

Today we're featuring another idea from our Frugal Fun series - Stone Soup.  While it may sound weird a little unusual, it's a lot of fun and a frugal way to entertain your kids and their friends.  This is a great project if you host a playgroup or just want to have a fun party. 

Either purchase or borrow from the library the book Stone Soup and read it with your child. Invite your friends to a Stone Soup Party. Have each of your friends arrive at your home with an ingredient that you have told them to bring in order to make Stone Soup. When your friends arrive, go on a walk and collect the stones needed to make Stone Soup. When you arrive back home, read Stone Soup together and prepare your own Stone Soup.

Have a Blessed Thanksgiving from Bear Hugs Baby Boutique!

It's almost Thanksgiving!  Can you believe it?  It seems like it was just summer - somehow fall flies by faster than any other season!  Thanksgiving is a great time to do some fun projects with your kids - and they don't have to be complicated or expensive.  Here are a few ideas to help get your children (and entire family!) in a fun and thankful mood -

• Having guests for Thanksgiving? Make a large turkey out of construction paper to put on a door or wall with removeable double stick tape. Think in terms of a brown, unshelled peanut shape for the body. Add eyes (you can even go one step further and buy some wiggly eyes to glue on - always a favorite!) and stick legs. As your guests arrive, hand them a construction paper turkey feather and tell them to write down one thing they are thankful for and sign their name. They can then tape their feather behind the turkey's body.
• Play the Thankful Turkey game with your child. This game helps with manual dexterity and color recognition. Draw large feathers on construction paper and help your child cut them out. Put the feathers in a bag. Have your child pull out one at a time and say the color and name something he/she is thankful for that is that color. (*Bonus tip - When I was a Pre-K teacher, I had a learning center set up for cutting practice. I would fill a large box with scraps of paper and the children could cut as much they wanted. This was a favorite activity!)
• Make handprint turkeys! Paint your child's palm and thumb brown and his/her fingers 4 different colors. Place his/her hand flat on a piece of paper. The turkey head and body is their thumb and palm and the feathers are their fingers.

These are just a few ideas of fun projects that you can do with your children for the holidays.  This is a great way to get your children involved and turn the focus from food to your many blessings!

Make sure you subscribe and keep checking back - we'll have fun Christmas projects (and more!) featured soon!

Organizing Baby Clothes

Last time we touched a little on organizing baby and children's rooms.  I wanted to go into a little more detail about ways to organize baby clothes.  For such small items, they can provide a real challenge, especially when you're dealing with hand me downs.

A good place to start is by organizing your clothes by size and season.  If you're going through hand me downs, this is a good time to go through everything and weed out any stained or worn out clothes.  After you have everything sorted, each off-season category can be stored in it's own box/bag/drawer.  Another option (if you're lucky enough to have lots of closet space) is to hang all the clothes, but to sort them by size and/or category.  To do this, simply make your own version of the divider tags you see in stores.  That can be as simple or as detailed as you want.  Just start with a piece of cardboard and go from there.

To organize dresser drawers, make use of baskets and drawer organization systems.  Because baby clothes are so small, organizers that are designed for adult socks can even work for this.  If you're working with different sizes of clothes, make sure to label each section.

Over the door organizers are also a great option.  Not only can they help keep track of tiny shoes, they can be used for socks and onesies (even diapers!).

Don't let baby clothes overwhelm you!  With the right tools, baby and children's clothes can be organized quickly and easily.

Organizational Tips for Children's Rooms

Babies and children come with a lot of stuff - diapers, toys, clothes, strollers, blankets, loveys, etc. (did I mention toys?)  Organizing all those items can be a challenge.  But, there are a few techniques that you can use to help you get control of all the clutter.

Make use of ALL your closet space.  Children's and baby's closets have the potential for a lot of extra storage.  Because their clothes don't take up as much space as adult's clothes, that extra space can be used to store other items.  The picture below is a great example of using extra space to store toys and other assorted "stuff."  If you don't want something quite this elaborate, consider a simplified version - install another hanging rod in the closet.  Because that can be used as your child grows up, this reduces the need to tear down shelving when your child's clothes need more space.  Then, install a shelf right above the bottom rod.  You'll be able to place baskets or drawers on the shelf while your child has small clothes.  Once you need the full length, simply move the baskets to another place.

Picture from BHG.com

Another good way to make the most out of your closet space is to remove the doors.  This allows you to maximize the useable space because you are able to reach the ends of the closet more easily.

If you prefer to keep the doors on, then consider adding storage to the door itself.  Over the door shoe bags don't have to be just for shoes.  You can use them to store all the small things that seem to get lost so easily.

Shelving is an excellent way to add storage space to a child's room.  It also encourages organization and makes it easier for children to help tidy up.  Shelves are a great option for small rooms as well - they make use of vertical space without taking up much floor space.  Adding baskets to shelves can provide a good place to store items that you may not want in plain sight.  (*Bonus tip - put pictures on the front of baskets to make it easy for your child to find the correct place for items.  As they get older, write actual words on the baskets to help with their reading skills.)

You can even cover an entire wall with shelves, as you see in the picture below.  This provides more storage and organizational space and also provides a place to display decorative items.

Picture from BHG.com

When you buy furniture, make sure to keep storage in mind.  For example, buy a bed with built-in drawers.  Or, instead of a traditional nightstand, buy a small dresser.

Just remember, storage doesn't have to be "magazine perfect."  It's about what works for you (and your budget).  Don't be afraid to think outside the box and find ways to use what you have.