Reusing Milk Bags

Here in Canada, we buy milk in bags instead of the gallon jugs that are common in the US.  Since we have two small children who are in perpetual growth spurts, we go through a lot of milk.  Right now we buy three of the 4L bags, or the equivalent of three gallons.  That's a lot of bags!  There's the individual milk bag, each is about 1.5L, and then there's the outer bag that contains three of the 1.5L bags.  So I'm trying to figure out ways to reuse these.  I have used them as freezer bags occasionally, but that's about all I can come up with on my own, and we don't have pets that we could use the bags as poop bags.  So I'm looking for some ideas, especially craft ideas if possible.  So far I haven't found any craft ideas for these bags but here are some links I have found:

The Milk Bag...Tired of Being Treated Like Yesterdays Trash!: an instructable showing you how to reuse the milk as a liquid container.  The only drawback I see is that if it's a liquid you intend to drink, -- or not, it doesn't matter -- since you do not open the bag from side to side as with other uses, the remnants of the milk will still be in the bag unless you clean it very well.

I am so sick of being sick.: blog post showing how this lady used her milk bags as potting containers for her tomato plants.  I like this idea.

Canadian Mats for Haiti and Recycling Milk Bags into Bed Mats 2011/12: Another idea is there are groups that use the outer bags that contain the three 1.5L bags, to make "yarn" that is then used to make mats to send to Haiti.

I'll keep thinking and looking for other ideas.  If anyone has any other ideas, please share them.  I'd love to know!

Quiet Time Box and Behaviour Punch Card

I've been on Pinterest a lot lately and there are so many cute ideas for bored jars or chore jars.  So I thought I'd use that idea to make something with ideas for things my kids can do when I'm teaching one or the other.  Because we don't have a lot of horizontal space, I'll be putting this up on the exposed side of one of our bookshelves that they can reach so they're independent about it.  I'm calling it a Quiet Time Box because it's a box where there are ideas of things they can do when I need them to be quiet :)

I've also started using a Behaviour Punch Card System I found on Pinterest; here's the link.  It's pretty simple, they do all the things they're supposed to do and they get one punch.  I'm pretty tough about discipline so they have to get through the day with very few mistakes in order to get a punch, but you can modify that to fit your situation.

Now here's the box I made.  I made it from a cereal box cut basically in half and I did it while I was helping my picky eater finish his supper, so it's not something that'll take a huge amount of time.  I made a divider for the inside of the box because I want both kids to use this sytem so I'll decorate one side pink and one side green or blue, whichever colour my son decides on.

You start with a cereal box and just open it up neatly, don't squish it too much or tear it.  Then, cut away all the little edges but keep the two halves together (see the picture).

Opened cereal box.

Cereal box cut up.

 Your two halves should look like the picture at left.  My box was 685g but I've used other 575g boxes (different brands) and they're exactly the same dimensions.  The less wide side of this piece of cardboard on my box was about 3.25" wide, so I cut it down to be 3" wide.  I then measured around the other edges of the box so that I ended up with something like the drawing below.  I forgot to take the picture, sorry! :(

The arrows indicate where to cut; cut only to the first perpendicular fold.  And the dots indicate where to add adhesive.  Then you just basically fold in the four corners that you've cut away one side of, and glue them into the inside of the box.  At that point you should have a neat little box that you made out of another bigger box :)

 This is what your box will look like once it's been put together.

 I also made a divider so the kids can each have a side.  I mostly did this because my daughter is not reading yet but my son is and I would like them both to participate in this activity.

And here's the box put together with the divider inside it.  I had originally decided to not glue down the divider in case I wanted to use the box for something else later on but it wasn't staying put very well, so I ended up gluing it down.

What happened to study skills?

 Interesting article about study skills and the lack thereof nowadays. I think, though, that asking universities to "do something about it" is not the right way to look at it. I mean, it's ok for profs to help students, etc, but by the time you get to postsecondary education, you're supposed to be at a level where you can work on your own. And should know to work on your own. So whose fault is it? Who do we pass this buck to?

What happened to study skills?

Introducing Google Play

I wish I got some sort of remuneration for advertising this, but I really don't.  Still, I think this is really neat and it makes me want to run out and buy an Android phone.  Any smart phone would be cool too, seeing as I only have a cheap $40 phone from Wal-Mart with a prepaid card on it!  :)  Still, Google Play seems really neat!  Lots of aps, some free, some for purchase, including a lot of children's books, games, etc.

Greek Mythology - Android Apps on Google
Google Play main site

Everything and Nothing

Please watch these videos on TVO.  They're each an hour long, but worth it.

watch this one first: Everything
then this one: Nothing
now chaos: Chaos