December Holiday Calendar

 I can't even believe it is December.  In case your calendar isn't full enough or you just want a fun reason to celebrate I have 32 fun and unique holidays for December.  You can grab the free download below.  Let me know how you and your family celebrate this month.  Any new holidays you are looking forward to?  Have a great day!

Download your FREE Holiday Calendar here

November Holiday Calendar

 New Holiday Calendar is finally ready!  You can download it here. 

Free Come Follow Me Lesson Helps: I belong to The Church of Jesus Christ

 

These adorable activities are perfect for Come Follow Me!  Use that at home during FHE or your daily scripture study or in your primary class.  This goes along perfect with this week's Come Follow Me lesson covering Doctrine and Covenants 115-120. We will be focusing on the General Conference talk from Elder Anderson at this past conference and from President Nelson's talk in 2018 and learning about the importance of using the full name of the church.

Puzzle Activity: Below there are two ideas to use these boards. Print the desired puzzle and cut along the lines.  There is an optional number mat that is helpful when putting the puzzle together. There are also 2 levels.  If you have littler kids you may want to use the easier version with numbers located in the corner of each square. 

Activity 1: Use the colored version as a group activity. Hide the pieces around the room.  When a piece is found place it on the blank number board and share one of the quotes from these talks.  Continue until all of the pieces have been found and quotes have been read.

Activity 2: Use the black and white version and allow the children to color the picture.  Help them cut out the puzzle and mix up the pieces.  Help them glue the puzzle back together on the mat or on a piece of construction paper.  Share some of your favorite quotes or read one as they glue each piece in place.

There is also a coloring page included for an easy prep activity. 

Download the free printable activities here

Free Roll and Cover Sheep Craft

We finished the cutest little sheep craft during preschool. The best part is it's also a math activity.

The little ones rolled a dice and find glued a cotton ball on top of the number.  They continued rolling and gluing until all 6 numbers were covered.  

After they colored their picture.  They were pretty proud of their adorable little sheep.

 Download Free Sheep Craft Here

Free October Holiday Calendar

It's time for a new month and a new calendar full of fun and unique holidays to celebrate all month long. October is known for all things Halloween and spooky (so fun!) but there are actually tons of holidays that I know you and your kids will love.  I am excited for National Chocolate cupcake day and how fun would would it be to celebrate National Sports day or Make a Difference Day. You can find the free printable below and I'd love to know what holidays you and your family decide to celebrate this month.

Download Your Free October Calendar Here

Fall General Conference Activities

 Who is excited for General Conference this weekend? Me!!!  I have tons and tons of fun ideas for kids during General Conference  I've shared over the years but wanted to add in a couple more new ones this week.   This new download includes 3 new activities

1: simple board game.  Roll a dice and move the correct number of spaces. 

2: Matching game: for the littles print the mat and cards. Have them match the pictures.  For those ready for more of a challenge print just the cards and play like a traditional match game.

3: Listen and Color page.  Find and listen for the words written on the page.  When you hear the word color that part of the picture. 

Download Your Free Printables Here 

You can find more ideas for General Conference here, and here or use any of our past Come Follow Me activities.

Need a fun idea to prepare for Conference? Check out this post.

Let me know if you need any links or need anything else.

I can be a "Light unto the World" Come Follow Me activity and website changes

I need to apologize for disappearing on you.  It was not my intention to just walk away for so long without saying anything but I could not find the right words.  I needed time to think and sit with this decision before I shared it with you. Honestly I'm not really sure what this blog will look like in regards to Come Follow Me activities.  I did know I needed to take a break and have come to realize stepping back is the best thing for me and my family.  

Here are a few things I do know: 

• I will not be posting the same quantity of activities in a post but the quality will be same. 
• They will remain free. 
• There will be no promise of a schedule and I will not even guarantee I will be posting every week. However I will share any activities or ideas I am using for my family. This may come in one post or a couple throughout the week.  Basically I'm not committing to anything as I work to figure out the details haha. 
• These posts will be shared by topic and not by reading for the week.  This will help in the future if you would like to search past topics for a current lesson.  I have been doing this for a few years so there are tons of ideas on pretty much every topic.  I'll be spending the next few months going back and labeling past posts with topics to make searching for ideas much easier. I will also be updating the Come Follow Me pages with the list of topics and not dates/reading schedule. New posts with then be automatically linked up by topic when it's ready.  I'll keep you updated on this project.

My only plan is to get back to why I started my blog in the first place. That is to help others as I share my passions..new and old. If you read my intro on the side of my page it says "Here you'll find crafts and tutorials, kids crafts & activities, thrifty decorating, family life, and whatever else comes our way in our "cozy red cottage." I really feel pulled to share more of a variety of ideas as our family goes through life.  We've had a really busy year with some hard things (some we are still navigating through) and this is my way of allowing myself grace without deadlines and the freedom to create, giving my attention to my family, and being able to keep going with this blog that I love so much without it feeling like one more thing on my to-do list.  It's been a long road for me to reach this place of being able to walk away from what has been working and helping so many of you. Hopefully it will still be a place you find useful and will want to hang out.  I appreciate all of you so much and I'm so thankful everyday for your kind messages and that you take the time to stop by my little spot on the internet.  This has been an amazing and unexpected experience and I look forward to seeing where this takes me and my family. 

Make sure to follow me on Instagram (I will be more active there) and facebook for additional ideas and post updates. My goal is to start sending out weekly emails with post updates as well.

If you made it this far I have a surprise for you!  I created a fun activity based on this week's Come follow Me lesson that we will be doing tonight for Family Night. We are reading D&C 102-105 this week and I am focusing on the scripture D&C 103:9. We will be taking about what it means to be a "Light unto the World." The plan is to watch one of the "Light the World" videos (here or here). Ask how can we "light the world" this week? To help answer this question we are going to go on a hunt for our lightbulb ideas.  Have your family (or class) close their eyes as you hide the lightbulbs around the room.  Have everyone open their eyes and search for the lightbulbs.  When one is found share and discuss with the group.  I did not add words so the images can spark your own ideas.  When all of the pictures are found, spend a few minutes drawing or writing 5 things you will do to be a "light unto the world" this week.  Draw 1 idea on each lightbulb.  Display in your room so you can refer to it during the week. *Bonus idea: If it's dark enough turn out the lights during your hunt and use flashlights to find the lightbulb cards. Your kids will love it!

Download the free Printables Here

Additional ideas for being a light and a peacemaker here

Thanks so much for stopping by!