DIY Teacher Jean Jacket

I knew I wanted to do something special to celebrate the first year at my new school.  It felt like a big accomplishment to return to teaching after 11 years away.  I saw lots of ideas for dresses and aprons, but a jean jacket seemed like the best option for me.

I grabbed this jacket when Old Navy was having a big sale and bought all the paints/patches/supplies on Amazon to go with my school colors.  I tried to thrift a jean jacket, but they were all so stiff and not st stretchy.  Old Navy always comes through with soft, stretchy jean jackets.  Then one afternoon, I got my class list and worked my way through the list painting my student's little hands one at a time.

They thought it was so tickly and then I walked them right over to the sink to wash their colorful hand. 

Each student got to pick their paint color and hand print location.  I explained the project to the whole class and then we got busy stamping during brain break.  I let it dry on my back table.  Then I took it home to add the patches and the polka dots.

My students LOVED when I wore my teacher jacket.  I didn't add names or identifying details.  I just painted 2025 inside the jacket and will always remember my very first kindergarten class.  

It's the perfect jacket to wear on school spirit days or any teaching days, really.  I can't wait to wear it again this year and see my former students in the hall.

Another day, during brain break, I had my class make my assistant a personalized end of the year gift.  I found a big canvas bag on Amazon, used the same supplies from my jacket and helped them paint fingerprint hearts on one side of her bag.  She was a big crafter so she loved having a new craft bag from our class.

Teachers - you'll have to try to make something fun with your class this year!  I've seen dresses, head bands, aprons, skirts and jackets.  Find something that works for you and have your kids personalize it.

God's Plan for Me to Return to the Classroom

I have a good story for you today.  One of God's faithfulness to my family.  It's full of surprising twists and turns and has turned out better than I could have hoped.

Let's rewind back to the Spring of 2024.  Kevin and I were started to talk about what it would look like for me to return to teaching.  I had every intention of going back to work when Leo went to kindergarten in the Fall of 2025.  We'd both go back to school together.  Great plan.  Right?  I had him signed up for PreK 3 days a week at our church, plans of attending Bible studies, story times and playdates with friends. It sounded like a great year to me, but God had a better plan.

Kevin thought it would be a good idea to get the ball rolling - work on my resume, update my teaching license, etc. ASAP so that I could start seeing what kinds of jobs were available and what kinds of schools were hiring.  He also wanted to make sure that I landed at a really great school and didn't just have to take any job that I could find when I went looking.  I reluctantly agreed because my original plan sounded pretty good to me.  Haha.  I applied to a public school position and was notified pretty promptly that the position was filled.  No problem.  I kept doing some behind the scenes work to get the ball rolling.

We saw a variety of job positings at a variety of public and private schools, but not many that piqued my interest enough to apply.  

Kevin spotted a job opening at Evansville Christian School.  The school had been on our radar for some time for a variety of reasons.  The job description was vague so I wasn't even sure I wanted to apply.  At the last second I got the lengthly application pulled together.  This involved a lot - meeting with my pastor, contacting some of my favorite women coworkers from Utah, women from organizations I volunteered with to quickly write me letters of recommendation and making sure I was ready for an interview if one was offered.  It's a great school and I didn't know if I even had a chance at getting an interview.  

Remember that post about seeing 8 rainbows in one day?  This was about the exact same time that I was needing a sign from God that this timing was right for our family.  He sent me 8 rainbows in one day to confirm that I was heading in the right direction with applying for this job.  Wow!  

The principal quickly reached out to say there actually wasn't a teaching position open in April of 2024.  They loved my application and wondered if I'd be interested in a full time assistant position.  The job wasn't a good fit for me so I asked them to keep in touch if anything did come up.  Door closed.

Mid May I got a phone call asking if I would consider interviewing for a kindergarten teacher position?  I listed 1st-5th on my application, but said that I would love to interview for the job.

I figured it would be good practice to interview since I hadn't interviewed for a job in almost 20 years.  But I was skeptial about kindergarten.  That was never a grade I had imagined teaching.  I loved 2nd/3rd grade and figured I'd try to go back to that.  I knew that despite being licensed to teach K-8 that my heart was with the younger kids.  Kindergarten was always a favorite grade for my big kids so maybe God was nudging me to the perfect grade to make my teaching comeback.

The in person interview was set on Olive's birthday.  I was told to come with questions so I did resesarch ahead of time.  I came with a list of questions which they seemed to appreciate.  The interview went so well.  I knew all the right answers and really felt like God gave me confidence to tell them that I was now even more qualified to be a great teacher because I spent 9 years in the classroom and 11 years as a full time mom.  Now I understood what it was like to be the parent doing homework at home with the kids, wanting clear and open communication with taechers, I know how to better relate to kids after having my own kids and I was confident that I would be a better teacher for all of that combined experience.  They seemed to love my answers.  I felt like I aced the interview and then they said they had a weeks worth of interviews to do (yikes!) and would keep me posted.  I felt less confident after hearing that because I knew I had a lot of catching up to do after being away from teaching for a while. I  figured anyone with a current license, kindergarten background or more early ed experience would get it.

A week or more of no news.  I didn't stress.  I just prayed that God would open doors for us when it was time for me to return to the classroom.

The principal reached out to schedule a phone meeting.  Of course as a mom of 3 kids home for the Summer, I had the meeting in my quiet van.  I assumed it was to tell me the position had been filled or that I could reapply down the road.  BUT she had a few questions for me and we had a really good conversation.  She told me that they were impressed with me, that I had all the intangibles of a really great teacher, they saw qualities in me that you can't teach people, they loved my experience and my desire to build community in the classroom and with parents. They also said that they got so many letters of recommendation for me.  ALL of the friends I've made along the way from teaching to community work came through to write me the nicest letters.  Then she told me to watch my email for a formal job offer later that day!!

I was shocked.  God was giving me the green light.  All of my experiences and connections along the way as a stay at home mom helped prepare me for this job.  Every hurdle I encountered was met with a quick solution - PreK for Leo, details for the older kids, schedules, routines, etc.  We were excited.  And could hardly believe our ears.

We prayed about it.  I panicked about things.  Made a million lists.  I asked lots more questions.  I got my licensing ducks in a row.  And I accepted the position about a week later.  We waited a bit to tell the kids and a bit longer to tell family and friends.  Kevin rearranged Summer travel plans so that I could attend new teacher trainings and our Summer was busier than every trying to make plans for me to return to the classroom.  The kids ate too much Chick-Fil-A and we traveled more than we would have if we had known I was going back to work.  But we did it!  We had a wonderful Summer together.

I signed my contract on Kevin's birthday to make the job official.

I felt nervous and excited to return to a job that I loved.  I knew loud and clear that this was God's plan for our family so that gave me confidence when I felt uncertain.  My kindergarten team is wonderful and God has put many people around me to help make this a smooth transition.  Some teaching things came back to me right away and I've had to learn lots of new things about teaching a new grade.  It's been an adventure of highs and lows and I'm thankful for the opportunity for my family.  My kids have new school options going forward and that feels so good.

A little photo timeline of my journey to return to teaching:

Interview with my pastor went great.

Late night prepping for my interview.

In person interview at the school.

God sent some rainbow encouragement to us on our Summer vacation.

My first day back to work.  Teacher training day.  I felt very official!

Hours of work in my classroom and work in general brought me to the first day of school!

God really did take care of all the details - a wonderful, welcoming K team, an experienced assistant, a new opportunity to experience private education and much more!  This all came together about a year before I expected it to and I am trusting that God's plan is better than my plan today and always.

Ask for Help with Dinner

I don't know about you, but it is daunting to come up with delicious dinners every night.  It's a lot of extra decisions to cook dinner most nights that your family will enjoy.  It requires grocery shopping, organizing, planning, prepping and preparing and some times that feels like too much work.  We grab dinner out (Door Dash or take out on the weekends) and then I cook most nights.

We started something new in February with our dinner routine and I have loved it so much!

I started asking for help with dinner.

I assigned each person a week and when it is their week, they help me come up with the dinner menu.  We look in the freezer, fridge and pantry to help come up with the menu and then I add new items needed to the grocery list for the week.  So far each person has loved helping me with the menu.  They haven't always loved being my kitchen helper for the week, but I kind of expected that.  When it is their week, they are in charge of setting and helping clear the table, getting drinks, helping me with dishes and helping prepare dinner.  I don't think anyone would call those fun jobs.  They're just absolutely necessary life skills.

My formula is super simple.  

Print out a free monthly calendar online.  Assign each person a week.  Pick a day to work on the menu for the week.  Pencil in dinners & maybe even a special treat for the week.  Penciling everything in allows for you to make changes as things come up during the week.  Shop and prepare like you usually do and ask your kitchen helper for a little extra help on their week.  I hung our menu on the week and the whole family is paying attention to dinner.  They're noticing and getting excited to put their favorite meals on the menu. We have had good conversations about seasonally appropriate foods, not having ground beef every night and meals that would work best for busy nights.

Chicken Quesadillas

Homemade Hibachi

White Chicken Chili

It has been so nice to have extra help in the kitchen!  I have enjoyed this routine and will continue it in the months to come.

How do you do your weekly menu planning?  Would my routine work for your family?

10 Play-Doh Favorites

Happy Friday!  We're wrapping up our second week of summer with some highs and lows.  We are still acclimating to having everyone home for summer break.  Our schedules have needed adjusting.  Lots of things didn't go as planned.  Plans got cancelled.  Last minute things popped up and home projects were more complicated than expected.  But the good outweighed the bad and we made it to Friday with smiles on our faces.

Today I'm going to share some of our favorite Play-Doh activities with you.  I've been doing Play-Doh Week over on instagram this week.  Follow me @polkadottyplace if you don't already!

Play-Doh is so much easier to clean up than slime or kinetic sand.  It's fun and my kids ages 3-10 all enjoy playing with it.  It's great for art, fine motor skill building and it's fun.  We're big fans.  Some days I give the kids Play-Doh challenges to do and other days they create their own challenge.  I hope you find an activity or two to do with your kids for a cool, indoor activity this summer.

1. Play-Doh Sight Words //

Give your child a list of their sight words, vocabulary words or just some challenging words and ask them to spell the words in Play-Doh.  My 2nd grader loved practicing words this way.

2. Play-Doh Chef //

Make a delicious food, name it and serve it.

Then award the food with fun titles - most colorful, most textures, yummiest, wish it was real, etc.

3. Hidden Colors //

The big kids had the best time hiding layers of color inside of their creations.  It took some practice to get their technique just right, but they found a way to hide the best surprises inside.

4. Texture time //

Use any tool or kitchen tool to make interesting patterns on your Play-Doh.

5. Dinosaur Eggs //

Give your kids an empty egg carton, some tiny toys like Hatchimals, small dinosaurs or tiny cars and have them hid the toy in a Play-Doh egg. 

6. Tiny Beds //

Give your kids a mini muffin pan, small toys and ask them to make the tiny toys a comfortable bed in each muffin spot.  Add Play-Doh pillows and blankets for fun.

7 // Fossils

The kids had so much fun doing dinosaur fossils in their Play-Doh.  This would be fun to do with cars, costume jewelry, Hatchimals or anything small.

 

8 // Who made this foot print?

Grab your little animals, characters, dinosaurs, Barbies with shoes on or trains to see who left marks in your Play-Doh.

9 // Make tiny things

Olive cut out circles and made lots of tiny pancakes.  They love to make tiny food or tiny statues or tiny scenes with Play-Doh.

10 // Make Your Own Cupcakes/Desserts

Give your kids a muffin pan and ask them to create desserts for you.  Cupcake liners are fun to play with and make the desserts look even more official.

I hope this post inspires you to put Play-Doh on your Summer to do list!

I'm taking a blog break for the next week or so to enjoy some extra family time!  I'll be back soon.

I hope you have a wonderful week!

Teacher Mom: 4 Ways to Turn Your Kids into Lifelong Readers

We love to read at our house!

Kevin is always reading several books and I'm working hard to pick up a book instead of picking up my phone when I've got some free time.  I try to always keep a book with me.  The kids love to be read to and the older two are really enjoying reading on their own.

We have some good book routines in place that I thought might be helpful to share with you.

 

1. Go to your local library or book store regularly.

We go to the library regularly and each kid gets to pick out a stack of books.  Sometimes I'll tell them to grab a certain number of books, but I usually just tell them to pick up any books that look interesting to them.  I put books on hold and pick them up for my oldest and myself.  All the kids (ages 3-almost 10) love looking through the library shelves to grab books that look interesting to them.  I don't stress about reading levels or supervising their book selections too much.  I just ask them to find books they're excited to read and learn from.

My MIL invites the kids to Barnes and Noble and lets them each pick out some new books.  They love that!  We've done this on vacation so they have new books to enjoy that week and also at home.  The kids have enjoyed both so much.  Check out your local thrift stores for some really affordable book options to build your home library.

2. Surround them with books at home.

We have books in about every room.  I keep our picture books and a basket of board books upstairs in the playroom.  We've got a shelf for library books in our family room.  Leo has a shelf down low for his books in our family room.  My oldest keeps books on her nightstand and the kids have a shared bookshelf of chapter books.  I keep my books on my desk and Kevin's books are everywhere :)

 

3. Read to your kids.

I'm always reading a chapter book out loud to my big kids.  We're currently reading The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane by Kate Dicamillo.  I read most nights at bedtime.  

I think kids of all ages benefit from being read to and I think every parent should be reading to their kids every day.  I said it.  It's such a fun way to bond and connect over books.  It gives you something fun to talk about and tie into your everyday lives.  Even your older kids can build their vocabulary and comprehension skills when you read to them.  We all take turns reading books to Leo.  He knows we have a hard time telling him know when he brings us a stack of books. 

Olive recently requested that we do a bookclub where we read the same book together!  So we're both looking for good book ideas to read on our own and discuss together.

 

4. Model reading.

Show your kids what it looks like to love reading.  Read books.  Keep books around and show them that reading is important.  I try to read in car line, on the patio or in our playroom as the kids play nearby or bring a book with us on vacation.  I love for my kids to see me reading and learning from books rather than scrolling on my phone.  I wish the same for them as they grow up!

How do you set your kids up for success with reading at home?

Teacher Mom: Water Painting

Water painting.  It is just like what it sounds like - painting with water!

We have been water painting lately and it is a big hit with my toddler.  

He loves to paint, but painting with real paint is so messy right now.  He paints everything but the paper, licks the paint and I have to watch him so closely.  Painting with water gives us both freedom to enjoy the painting process without any stress.  We'd 10/10 recommend it!

 

Supplies:

small bowl of water

paint brushes of varying sizes

a kitchen towel or two

toys to paint - cars, trucks, construction trucks, dinosaurs, zoo animals, Barbies or anything that can handle water.

Directions:

Model painting the objects - carefully dabbing the toys with water and short/long strokes with the brushes.  The kids will imitate them.  Change water often.  I like to to small bowls of water to contain the spills vs giving him a huge bowl of water.

Warning: Animals might end up taking a "bath" in the water bowl :)

This is really fun to do outside when the weather is nice or at the kitchen counter while you're making dinner.  We've done both!  

It's a great time to name colors, name dinosaurs, point out heads, tails, spikes and butts! haha  Or to line them up in order from biggest to smallest.  Line them all up head to tail or to make a line of animals.

Older kids: I'm hoping to include the older kids in water painting with paint brushes on the patio this Summer.  They can paint whatever they want - write words, practice math, draw or do art with water on the concrete.  It would be really fun to add some sidewalk chalk into the painting process to see what kind of art the kids could make.

 

Car Wash & Nail Salon.

Leo loves to wash his cars and paint finger nails with water :)  Both are fun and minimally messy.

Happy playing!!  What things would your kids enjoy painting??

Best Chapter Books for Kids in 2023

Happy March!  Let's kick off a new month with new books!

I love reading chapter books with my big kids.  And several of you have messaged me asking for book recommendations!  These posts take a long time to put together so I'm excited to finally share my list of current favorite chapter books with you.  

I've gotten into a good routine of reading to them at bedtime.  Olive sometimes reads to Fletcher after I head downstairs and we also read picture books during the day.  Today I'm going to share our very favorite chapter books!  These are books that the kids have really enjoyed.  I'll try to give you a few details about why we love them and then I'll put my Amazon link with the description.

This stack of books makes me smile!  It's my favorite record of all the books we've read recently.  It makes me proud to see on hard parenting days and I hope these books will be books that the kids look back and remember fondly.

 1 // The Wild Robot & The Wild Robot Escapes

This set of books is so interesting!  Roz, the wild robot, is endearing, interesting and always learning.  She's very smart and she works so hard to make new friends.  She's creative and we were all invested in her wild life.  We read these months ago and still talk about them regularly.  There are sweet illustrations that help you love the characters even more throughout the books.  Book #3 comes out in September - we can't wait!!

 

2 // Dog Man Series

We are new to Dog Man by Dav Pilkey.  It's the same author/illustrator as Captain Underpants, but we like this graphic novel series better.  They're silly, are filled with sight words for early readers and both my 1st grader and 4th grader enjoy them.  My new reader feels confident reading pages aloud because of all of the familiar sight words.  These are more fun to read together when you're sitting side by side.  You won't want to miss these cute illustrations.  Everything is very child like - crossed out words and doodles for art.  There are even drawing lessons in the book of book 1 so that you can write your own Dog Man story.  There are at least 11 books in the Dog Man series.

 

3 // Cat Kid

These go along with the Dog Man graphic novels, but have more of a cat focus.  My kids love them for all the same reasons that they love Dog Man.  The illustrations and text are really approachable and interesting.

 

4 // Frindle

This is a classic novel that I always loved reading to my 3rd graders.  Nick Allen might be labeled a troublemaker by some, but really he's creative and interested in doing new things.  He's a friendly guy full of creative ideas that he likes to try out on his teachers and classmates.  Why do you have to call a pen a pen?  This was a fun one to read and discuss.

 

5 //  Hotel Flamingo

We loved this animal packed series.  Anna inherits Hotel Flamingo and is set on revitalizing it as a booming hotel on Animal Boulevard.  The hotel workers and guests are the most interesting animals.  We really enjoyed learning facts about the different animals and loved seeing what jobs they did around the hotel.  Anna is a very hard worker and loves to handle any animal challenge or adventure that comes her way.  The illustrations are darling and the whole series is so cute.  We loved the whole set!

 

6 // The Zebra Wall

This is another classic that I always read with my students.  The Vorlob family is so interesting.  They do everything their own way.  They have unique family traditions and seem to make a splash wherever they go.  Their oldest child has lots of big feelings about adding a new baby to the family.  The family dynamics are so interesting.  This story gave us lots to talk about - everything from home decor, to embarrassing situations, to things we're scared of and naming a baby.  The Vorlobs are the most interesting family around as illustrated by their family car - a retired school bus!

 

7 // Kitty and the Moonlight Rescue

We loved reading about Kitty's adventures rescuing a cat in need.  She was brave and bold and the neighborhood knew they could count on her.  The illustrations are precious and very detailed.  It would be a fun book to read side by side so you don't miss any of those details.  This book feels geared to a 1st/2nd grade audience, but my 4th grader didn't complain about listening to it.  There is a whole series if your kids enjoy book #1.

 

 

8 // Clementine

For those of you whole like silly kids, Clementine is your girl.  She's got the best of intentions, but her plans often go wrong.  She has an incident with hair cutting, marker messes and little brother troubles.  Her mom is an artist.  Her dad is the building maintenance man and there is never a dull moment with Clementine.  These are much better than Junie B Jones and leave room for lots of discussions about how Clementine could handle things differently or how she was misunderstood.  Both kids love Clementine.

 

 

9 // Who Was... Series

4th grade Olive loves these biographical stories.  She's probably read about every female she can get her hands on.  She says they are interesting and she loves to read them independently.  She is always talking about them and things she's learned from them.

 

10 // Who Would Win...

1st Grade Fletcher loves to read this series.  He's still an early reader and can use the pictures + the text to read these on his own.

 

 

I hope this gives you some new book options to read with your kids!!  Let me know if you have any questions or any tricky readers are your house.  I'd love to help connect you with good books!

Teacher Mom: Toddlers

Hey Friends!  I hope you had a nice weekend.  We had a good weekend here.  I've got a fun new series to start with you today - Teacher Mom.  I'm going to be sharing homework tips, toddler learning tips as well as fun learning activities that you can do at home with your kids, your friends or even your grand kids.

I hope to encourage you that learning at home can be fun and that you don't have to rush your kids into preschool unless you really want or need them to be there.  We typically wait to send kids to preschool until PreK at age 4 (even though there is lots of pressure out there to start formal preschool ASAP).  We enjoy lots of fun learning opportunities at home and in our community.  You can definitely do the same if you aren't interested in starting formal school with them just yet.

I've got 3 favorite toddler learning activities to do with little ones today.  I'll link as much as I can with Amazon affiliate links below each activity description.  Thanks for supporting PDP!

Teacher Mom: Toddlers

1 // Flash Card Fun

All of my kids have loved looking through flash cards.  It's always been a fun naming game for us and never anything strict or stressful.  The big kids love this Guess in 10 animal clue game and Leo uses the cards to learn animal names.  He initiated it and gets it out often.  

All of my kids have loved these Touch and Feel Flashcards.  We have every set they make.  They're on sturdy cards and the kids love feeling the textured spot on each flash card.  They last for years or for multiple children.   We have used and loved our sets since Olive was a toddler 7+ years ago.

These would be the perfect addition to your child's Easter basket, too!

 

2 // Play-Doh Playtime

Leo loves to play with Play-Doh.  Now that he's almost 3 I can trust him to play and not eat the Play-Doh.  He loves to roll out snakes, chop with butter knives, match Play-Doh balls with the right lid colors and create.  He also enjoys driving cars through the Play-Doh or stamping dinosaur foot prints in it.  Can you see the flag that he made and was so proud of?  This is such a good fine motor activity.  It builds those little hand muscles so well.  Especially since he wants zero help opening the containers and removing the Play-Doh.  He isn't really into the tools yet.  He just loves using plastic knives or butter knives to chop.

I buy this big set of Play-Doh regularly and all the kids enjoy creating with it.  DO NOT BUY the Play-Doh Easter eggs.  They are so difficult to open since each egg is completely sealed shut and the Play-Doh is much more like clay than Play-Doh.  My kids hated them and I hated that I wasted money on them.

 

3 // Kinetic Sand

This is a little messier than Play-Doh, but it is so fun to hide little treasures in.  Leo will hide, find, rehide and squish this stuff for hours.  I make sure he sits at a place that is easy to sweep up and then give him an assortment of tiny dinosaurs, gems and such to find.  He uses a butter knife here, too.  You can use plastic spoons and knives, but they always seem to snap easily for us.

My big kids and toddler are obsessed with these tiny treasure boxes of Kinetic Sand.  They come with a shovel to dig and several tiny gems to find.  They're gems the size of the kid's fingernails (not the tiny pink dots pictured here) and all the kids enjoy them.

 

4 // Walk and Talk

Leo and I love to go on a walk and talk about everything we see.  That's getting easier now that the weather is getting a little nicer and there is more sunlight.  It is a really great free learning opportunity.

We name letters on signs.

Name numbers on houses.

Name car colors.

Wave hello and chat with neighbors.

Watch construction equipment work.

Stop and look at bugs and critters.

Collect sticks.

Talk about the planes that fly over, the clouds in the sky and the birds we see.

We practice directions - Do you want to go straight or right?

We practice the names of our neighbors.

We name nature things like pine cones, hawks, bunnies and farm equipment.

Enjoy your busy toddlers!!