Make Your Own Trading Cards: Perfect For Children

Kids of all ages share a unique fascination with trading cards, from baseball cards to Pokemon decks. Why not boost your child's imagination and creativity by having her design her own deck of trading cards? Your child will even practice division and measurement to prepare this special deck. From royal kingdoms to local pets, a trading deck can follow any child's interest, and if her friends get involved too there's no end to the fun!

What You Need:

• 4 pieces of heavy paper or card stock
• Ruler
• Scissors
• Lead pencil
• Colored pencils or markers

What You Do:

1. Using your pencil and ruler, divide each piece of paper into thirds along the short edge, and into five segments along the long edge. You should have 15 card-sized rectangles on each paper.
2. With the help of your ruler, now draw a slightly smaller rectangle within each rectangle that you've drawn out. This is so that there is a small bit of room around each card when it comes time to laminate and cut them out.
3. Brainstorm what kind of trading cards you want to design. Is it the cast of characters from a favorite book or series, such as Harry Potter? Is it your friends, family and teachers? Or perhaps a set of imaginary creatures with fun names? The sky's the limit!
4. Once you've decided on a theme, it's time to get drawing! Using colored pencils or markers, draw out what you want in each rectangle. Be sure to include a name on each card. Don't forget the back of the cards, either: here you can put stats or details about the subject or character.
5. When you've finished, Mom or Dad can take the card sheets to your local copy machine to be laminated. If you prefer, you can leave the cards unlaminated or use the clear plastic binder sheets with card pockets instead. This will ensure that they last for a long time.
6. Cut out your cards, and get ready to get trading!

Learn More at https://www.education.com/resources/division/

*Information and image provided by Holly Jachowski at https://www.education.com/

Five Ethics Of Life...Do You Follow These?

Free Things To Do In Connecticut

Who says nothing in life is free?! When you do a little research it's amazing what you can find to do and FREE stuff to do is even better! No excuses not to go out and have a little fun! How many of these places have you visited?

50 free things to do in Connecticut this summer http://www.thehour.com/living/article/50-free-things-to-do-in-Connecticut-this-summer-11233629.php?cmpid=fbsocialflow&cmpid=twitter-tablet 

What Are They REALLY Missing Out On....

Summer is long yet so short and all I wanted was to live each day on a whim. No plans. Dinner together at night. Swimming. Adventures in the morning. I work every afternoon so take the mornings to be with my girls. Some camps lined up but really just wanted to have fun. No major commitments and then we signed up for All Stars. 

Now don't get me wrong, it's awesome to see your kid playing and having fun and trying exercise and learning BUT it's a lot of work. It's nights and you drive places and it's unpredictable. So I gave it some time and finally sat down tonight for dinner as a family - which don't remember last time we did-and said no more. Next year we will not be doing this. There's nothing to prove. It's fun. Yes. But missing Birthday parties and gatherings and get together because of tournaments is not my thing. It's not. You sit at the field almost four times a weeks for over two hours and well I enjoy it but temporary. 

I am grateful my daughter is good. She does love it and hasn't Struck out in three seasons. She's only girl on her team and players are really good to her. But this is her youth. She plays sports during school year. Summers should be off duty. Time to be a kid. Stay up late, sleep in, not rush around making sure uniforms are clean and snacks packed and at field on time. Dinner in the car.  We rush during school year and rather not at summer. 

Parents who enjoy that so be it but this Mom says no thanks. Grateful she had the experience. And happy to finish the season but won't suggest this again next year. I enjoy doing things with my kids and believe it helps build character. They learn. They are sponges. Even if it is walking on the beach at night or doing crafts. Every year they are older. Why wouldn't I want to embrace all our time together?! 

So parents before you think about committing to something so time consuming this summer look at what you are really giving up. You are probably missing out on a lot more than you think and your kids are too. Look back on the past years of their life. What memories remain? What memories do your kids bring up? What adventures did they get to explore?