WFMW Entertain the kids at a restaurant

Our kiddos act famously awful at restaurants. The wait is too long, and my son is overstimulated by the noise. As a result, we haven't been taking them anywhere fancier than McDonald's lately.
I've got a couple of new tools though, and I thought I'd share them with you.
First of all, I'd like to recommend Brain Quest cards. They retail for around $11 a deck, but I've been lucky enough to find several of them at Goodwill for much less. They are graded by age, starting with 2-3 year olds. We own that one, as well as the pre-k and k versions. They consist mainly of picture puzzles like "which one of these animals could fly?" or "which one of these things doesn't belong?"

My second recommendation is for Usborne Activity Cards. (Several of them are pictured in this post.) We have the 100 Things for little children to do on a trip deck, but there is also a secret code version, a silly joke version, and several others. They retail for $9.99. The kit we have consists of 50 laminated cards, and a wipe off marker. The cards include prompts to draw pictures, mazes, dot to dots, find the hidden pictures, etc.
We were able to enjoy a fairly peaceful dinner at a real restaurant last night, as a result of the Usborne cards. My four year old son was entertained enough to sit down in his chair, and remain reasonably quiet until his food came. (At least 20 minutes.) That's virtually unheard of for him. We've had similar success with the Brain Quest cards.
The Brain Quest cards are available at Amazon, and the Usborne cards can be purchased through an Usborne consultant. (If you don't have an Usborne consultant, please check out my online store. The link is located in my sidebar.)
Eating in peace works for me. To find lots more WFMW posts, check out http://www.wearethatfamily.com/.

P.S. If you're wondering what 17 month old baby V was doing during the wait, she was coloring and trying to nibble on crayons when we weren't looking. She's recently discovered the joys of coloring, and has to be watched every minute...

The week that wasn't

This was supposed to be a major catch up week. I was going to catch up on some housework, catch up on a mountain of partially finished crafts, catch up on some back to school preparations, and most of all, catch up on some desperately needed R&R.
It hasn't happened. We've all been taking turns being sick, and baby V has been teething too. I'm not sure who's been grumpier around here, her or me.
I've been making a little progress here and there, and I hope to still get a few things done before my husband has to go back to work Sunday.
I decided to go ahead and turn the dining room into our "schoolroom." I originally dismissed the idea because I didn't want the first thing you saw when you walked into my house to be a bunch of clutter, and also because I'm not necessarily planning on being a "school at home" kind of homeschooler. I've come to my senses though, and realized that it makes more sense to put everything we are likely to be using on a daily basis in one spot, rather than all over the house. Besides, who am I kidding? I don't cook much. It's not like the books and maps are going to be in Martha's way when she comes over for a tea party or whatever. The dining room is probably the most under utilized spot in the house. As for the clutter, perhaps I was kidding myself there too. I'll just be swapping out the usual piles of sewing junk for school supplies. Anyway, that's a work in progress, and I"ll post pictures when I'm done.
I also started selling Usborne books last week, and I'm really excited about it. My primary motivator was to get a better price on the fantastic books for my own kiddos. I'll posting more about it later, but I thought I'd mention they're having an awesome deal this month on the sign up kits. This week, you can get 10 books, catalogs, business supplies, and a website for $30. It made this bookworm's heart go pitter patter when I got my kit in the mail last week. It's been really cool to see how the kids have responded to the new books. V has been sleeping with "That's not my frog," and L has been asking to read a really neat lift the flap anatomy book all week. ( I guess I don't have to tell you that his favorite parts of the books are the ones dealing with snot, poop and pee. LOL. ) If you're looking for some great books for your kiddos, check out my site, here. If you have any questions or are interested about becoming a rep, you can shoot me an email at iluvchrisnlevi@aol.com.
Finally, thanks again to everyone who found this blog through the curriculum clean-carnival. It's been cool to see all the new faces.
Hopefully I'll be back in a day or so with some fun show and tell pictures.