July's Favorites
This month’s round up newsletter is HERE and I am excited to start sharing these monthly! I’ve rounded up 6 blog posts (including poll the people results), back to school shopping, movie reviews, game reviews, & the best social posts from the month! As always, I hope this is a great resource for you! xoxo, Emily
Blog Posts This Month
Costco Must Haves: You asked for everyone's Costco Must Have on Sunday's Poll the People & the community answered. These 31 must haves are some of the best and they don't even include the muffins.
Family Vacation Ideas: Another Poll the People blog post. You told me you were ready to start planning next years vacation and asked the community to share their favorite spots.
Mom Hacks: This pin is such a lie, there are way more than 10 little nuggets of gold here. Be sure to add your favorite mom hacks to the comments.
Mocktail Recipes: Poll the People is officially my favorite thing ever, y'all created this list of pure goodness. Listen I love a good drink, but a good mocktail is also pure gold. I have been playing around with them more since sharing this post.
Domino Activities: If you are still in summer mode for the next few weeks, grab a set of dominos and do some of these activities to get your kids playing and add a laid back "school" routine to your days.
August Dinner Menu: School is starting and I am so uninspired to cook, but we have to eat. This month's menu is real similar to July's which is fine because we loved the food in July. I did decide to try Hello Fresh this month to help with the craziness of back to school and sports. I'm not going to lie, I am not fully impressed with the menu options. But the trial price was $25ish dollars for 2 dinners a week, so I figured it was worth trying.
Back to School Shopping
School starts back up in 1 week and let me tell you the count down is on. I have reached the point where I am over summer. Thankfully that hit at week 9 and not week 2.
I can't stress this enough as a former teacher, if your child's teacher is asking for brand name or multiples of an item it is because she knows that is what is needed for the classroom to run smoothly. She has tried other products and other organization systems and THIS is what works best for her classroom & your child.
This is the BEST price you are going to see on things like crayons, markers, glue, & pencils. Crayola crayons are 50 cents right now, in a month they will be $1.49. You can get 3 packs now for the price of 1 pack in September.
And the more basic the better. Slap bracelet rulers and pop it pencil boxes are a distraction not a tool. If your child needs a fidget, talk to your teacher about the accommodation, I promise she will not suggest it be their pencil box. Not to mention you can save about $100 that way.
Last bit, your child's teacher is your teammate. Both of you have the same goal of helping your child succeed. Going into every conversation with the teacher with this attitude will make for an amazing year.
Walmart made the back to school shopping even easier, you can look up your zip code and school name. They have uploaded every school's list and you can add it all to your cart in one click.
My backpack theory is to get a good backpack (Jansport), it will last you 3+ years and you personalize it with patches.
Movie Reviews
This was not our best month for movies, most of them were just okay if not flops.
Inspector Gadget: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Derek didn't blink, he didn't fidget, he sat still the whole movie. That is a HUGE win and indicator of a winner in our house.
Parent Trap: ⭐️⭐️ ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Always a winner. A childhood favorite. But Derek has started to hit the point where he says it is a "girl" movie and is not interested.
The Big Green: ⭐️⭐️⭐️
I love a good 90's sports movie, but they are a little slow. This wasn't our favorite, but not the worst either.
Playing with Fire: ⭐️⭐️ ⭐️⭐️
This was at Regal for $2 Tuesdays. It was a super cute movie, that even made me teary, it is totally cheesy and predicable. Your typical kids drama.
8 Below: ⭐️⭐️
Derek wanted a dog movie and Eric didn't want a repeat. The kids had a hard time following it. We didn't finish it before bed and the kids haven't asked to finish it.
Favorite Social Media Posts This Month
Airplane Banners
@sandboxacademy Morning activities for your preschooler = deinking your coffee hot! #preschoolactivities #activityideasforkids #preschooljournals #prekactivies #easyactivitiesathome #easyactivityidea #bustoddleractivities #preschoolmomsoftiktok #brainbusters #brainactivities ♬ original sound - Emily | relatable mom life
Map Tracing Color Matching
@sandboxacademy Preschool activity focusing on colors, tracing, fine motor skills, and pre-writing. #preschoolactivities #preschoolmom #preschoolathome #learningathome #easypreschoolactivities ♬ original sound - Emily | relatable mom life
Draw a Rainbow
@sandboxacademy Need a preschool sorting activity? Try this and let me know how it goes. #preschoolwriting #preschoolfinemotorskills #finemotorskills #prewritingskill #prewritingactivity #prewritingpractice #easyactivitiesathome #easyactivityidea #bustoddleractivities ♬ original sound - Emily | relatable mom life
Dancing Corn STEM
@sandboxacademy Stem activities are my favorite way to get kids interested in learning, especially Preschoolers, who just not ready to sit down and do pen & paper work. Preschool science activities, encourage our kids to ask questions and think critically. there are so many benefits to STEM and this is a basic activity using supplies that are already in your pantry. ##preschoolstem##stemforkids##stemforpreschoolers##preschoolsctivities##momofpreschooler##preschoolmomsoftiktok ♬ original sound - Emily | relatable mom life
Nail Painting Activity Journal
All of these activities are from The Preschool Playbook
5 Things Your Kindergartener Needs to Know Before School
At-Home Date Night
@sandboxacademy At home date night Date for new parents Date your spouse Dates when your broke Budget date #datenightideas #valentinesdatenightideas #athomedateideas #youngparents #budgetdateideas #dateyourhusband #dateyourspouse #momoflittleones #whiskeytastings #desserttastetest ♬ original sound - Emily | relatable mom life
Chicken Parm Sandwiches
@sandboxacademy Chicken Parm Sandwiches are legit! 4 ingredients and minimal cooking skills required but the whole family will love them! - #easydinnerideas #realisticdinnerideas #dinnerformykids #familydinnerideas #momswhotiktok #sahmsoftiktok #dinnerideas #momofyoungkids #momofschoolagekids #familydinners ♬ original sound - Emily | relatable mom life
Candy Salad
@sandboxacademy vote: fun or dumb I saw candy salad a few weeks ago and thought it was so dumb and then I was influenced 🙃 It is basically like going to the bulk candy store, filling your bag with all your favorites, and shaking it up a little and then calling it salad to feel good about your choices. 🤪 The only bad part is you get annoyed when someone steals the last nerds cluster that you planned on grabbing for your next bite. #viralfood #candy #candysalad #funmomsoftiktok ♬ Boom Boom Pow × Tiesto Boom - Younglee
Ending this post off with a video to make you smile
I hope these are helpful for you and at the very least make you smile. I am so grateful that you are here and part of this community. xoxo Emily
