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Monday, December 28, 2020
Saturday, December 26, 2020
Pillow Fort Fun!!!
The Best Pillow Fort Activities
Building a pillow fort is a super fun activity that keeps your kids engaged while letting their imagination run wild. All you have to do is hunt down a few sheets, pillows and supportive furniture for you and your family to have fun for hours on end. Check out these tips and ideas from Apartment Guide to build the ultimate pillow fort where you and your kids can spend quality time and make treasured memories!
1. Have a tea party
Turn your fortress into a venue to host a lavish tea party. Dress up and make cookies and finger sandwiches to go with your fresh pot of tea. Have your kid send out these printable tea party invites to other members of your household along with matching tea and snack tags.
2. Play pretend
A fort is whatever your child wants it to be, like a secret cave in the wilderness or a pirate ship setting sail to find the lost treasure. The point is to let your kids' imaginations run wild and have fun. To help them create the ambiance they’re looking for, check out these printable fort decorations to transform their fun new space.
3. Watch a movie
Make some popcorn and break out the sweet treats and get ready for the ultimate movie night in your pillow fort! Make sure your fort is near a TV or set up a projector inside your fort to shine on a blank wall to make your very own movie theatre. Handheld tablets also work in smaller sized forts!
4. Crafting
Turn your pillow fort into the ultimate crafting station where you can let your children create pieces of art that can be displayed on the fridge. Try coloring, drawing or a crafting activity like these printable unicorn and puppy masks that can be cut out and worn using a string or wooden popsicle stick!
5. Read
Reading is a nice and relaxing activity for your kids to do in their new little fortress. They can hide away with a good book or comic or listen to an audiobook that will transform them to a different place.
Keep the fun going by making their fort a personal fortress that engages them in different activities that encourage creativity, imagination and leisurely fun! Whether you're cooped up indoors due to the winter weather or just looking for a fun weekend activity, pillow forts will help keep your kids entertained for hours.
Guest post by Apartment Guide in collaboration with the Twinkle Teaches Blog.

Friday, December 25, 2020
Merry Christmas!!!
My Christmas wish
for you is that even if you are spending it alone you are not lonely. I care
for all my readers even if I am wonky about posting on my blog. I wish you the
best holiday season and great, magical things!
A few days ago I
was wrapping presents. It took me 6 hours. Not because there were so many
gifts, but because this is how I wrap…
My husband got up
while I slept and wrapped probably double the amount of gifts in about thirty
minutes!
Instead of seeing
family, we all did gift exchanges on the porch. This year we opened gifts at
midnight just because we could.
And this was my
puppy Chinche’s first Christmas and first birthday! Yes, he really was a
Christmas baby. He loved it all… his new stuffed animals and his special peanut
butter birthday cookie.
Now my family is
sleeping. And I am reflecting on the good that really did come out of this
year. We got to spend more time together than we have in any other year. That
means so much. 💖💖

Wednesday, December 23, 2020
Printable Coloring Page-Stress Relief!!!
Despite the holidays being marketed as “the most wonderful time
of the year," many people still experience heightened feelings
of stress, sadness, and anxiousness during this time. These holiday
blues could be attributed to any of the following:
Loneliness
End-of-year career stress
The financial strain that can come with gift-giving
Unrealistic holiday expectations
Family gatherings
—not to mention, the added layer of stress that has inherently
come with the COVID-19 pandemic.
Taking time to clear your mind, slow down, and temporarily
remove yourself from the hustle and bustle of the holidays
can be an effective way to manage stress and feelings
of anxiousness. How, you ask? Try coloring!
Coloring is not just for children, and studies show
that coloring can actually relax your brain.
The simple act of coloring can temporarily take the attention
of yourself or the stressors in your life and help
you feel more relaxed. Print out the stress-relief coloring
page above or gift it to a loved one this season. This is
a great activity for a quick mental health break during
the day if you feel stress coming on or to unwind in the evening.
More information can be found HERE.

Working After Baby
Should a
woman work on maternity leave? There have always been 2 opposite opinions:
"yes" and "no", like black and white.
For those
who say "yes", here are some tips on how you can earn extra money on
maternity leave and even have enough time for your child:
1) Monetize
your hobby
If you
have a hobby, try to make money on it. Whether it's handicrafts, cooking,
painting, floristry, plant breeding - the list of hobbies is almost endless.
The more original the idea and the final product, the more chances of success.
It is important to find your kind of creativity not to start being annoying in
a week.
2) Find
a part-time job
If you are a sought-after specialist and, after the decree, are planning to continue your career, find a part-time job in your specialty. It will help you not to lose your skills and easier to join the process after the decree.
On the web, there are a lot of part-time jobs for stay-at-home moms.
3) Find
a part-time job that does not require special skills
It can be
tasks on the Internet or offline tasks. For example, on copywriting websites
with part-time jobs, you can perform one-time tasks: transcribe an audio
recording, leave a comment or review, follow links, analyze content.
4) Find
a new profession
Sometimes on maternity leave, mom realizes that she does not want to return to her previous job. Then you can think about changing your profession and enroll in courses.
Online education allows you to master a new profession at home. There are courses in different areas - programming, design, internet marketing, SMM, project management, photography, video filming, motion design.
If you decide to find an additional source of income, before searching, answer a few questions for yourself:
How much
time are you willing to devote to a part-time job?
Are you
ready to learn new things?
It will
help you to determine the preferred sphere of work and find your dream job!
This is posted in collaboration with jooble.org on Twinkle Teaches

Thursday, December 17, 2020
Pursuing Higher Education as a Parent Means Getting Creative
Guest Post by Erica Francis
Higher Education As A Parent Means Getting Creative
Going back to school as an adult is
intimidating, to say the least. But when you want to get ahead, there are few
better ways to do so than by earning your degree. As the founder of the Twinkle
Teaches blog, Tina Winkle knows the value of lifelong learning. Here
is how to pursue your own higher education while navigating life with a family.
Find funding.
First and foremost, you should know that
pursuing higher education as an adult looks a bit different from a
financial standpoint than going to college fresh out of high school.
Fortunately, while many scholarships and grants are earmarked for the younger
crowd, there are many lending opportunities available for older students. These
include grants made available to the US government
and, possibly, your or your spouse’s employer.
Decide on a major.
If you don’t already know what you want to do,
it’s time to sit down and take a close look at your options. Think about your
prior work experience. If you are tech-savvy, for example, you may consider a
degree in information technology, which can land you a career in analytics, cybersecurity,
or networking. Have you worked with children before? Maybe you’re ready to earn
a teaching degree. You may also consider easing into school by pursuing a
certification in an area such as dental hygiene or online marketing. According
to CNBC, there are more than a dozen professions that are expected to be in high demand throughout the next five years.
These include everything from nursing assistant to software developer.
Consider online classes.
Considering we’re in the middle of a pandemic,
in-person classes may not be available. Do not let this discourage you. Keep in
mind that your education is just as meaningful when you earn your degree
online. Something to keep in mind here is that your internet may need an upgrade. Many online
classes require that you watch streaming videos or log in to video meetings.
Because time is valuable, the last thing you want is for your classroom videos
to lag.
Photo by Pexels
Utilize audio textbooks.
As a parent, it’s often difficult to find the
time to sit down and study. Fortunately, there are many tools available that
can help you learn while you continue to handle your responsibilities at home. Audio textbooks are a great example of these.
There are services available that feature more than 80,000 textbooks. When you
need to clean the house, transport sleeping babies to and from the grocery
store, or your kids simply want in the room, pop in your earbuds and listen
away.
Share
childcare duties.
If your children are older, you can complete your education while they are at school themselves. But, when you have the pre-kindergarten crowd at home (or your children have transitioned to virtual learning), you may have to get creative. Even if you do not take a full load, going back to school takes time and lots of it. Plan to share childcare duties with your spouse or partner or, even better, swap days with your closest friends. One day, you have their children, the next, they have yours. This will ensure a quiet house at least a few days each week. On the days you have your children, give them a notebook and some crayons and let them “go to school” with you.
Having kids and going to school as an adult is tough. But, once you know that higher education is right for you, online classes, audio textbooks, and childcare swaps can help you get through it. Congratulations, and good luck as you begin your college-as-an-adult journey.

Tuesday, December 15, 2020
Christmas and Coding!
Snow, snow much fun! We had snow
start on Sunday and pick back up today on Tuesday. It is a beautiful, soft snow
with large flakes. Perfect for making snow people! We made a snow alien. Since
it was my dog Chinche’s first time to see snow he decided it was a tasty treat.
Today I have some Christmas door decoration/bulletin board decorating ideas for you and a *wonderful* resource for coding from AT&T! You can decorate your door or a window at home!
The door decorations are various ones I found on Facebook, so there was not original source cited after being shared several times.
Now onto the cool coding guide! It is a great interactive educational resource for children, the Beginner's Coding Guide. The free guide educates children on computer programming in an entertaining way that keeps kids engaged while learning. You can check it out HERE.
