If you’re a mom keep reading because we have some wonderful fun ideas to inspire you with your little ones and family. My blogging friends are linking up craft ideas, fun in the kitchen, preschool & homeschool ideas, and ways to spend time as a family.

My blog is growing but I need your help, please like my facebook page and help spread the word about HappyandBlessedHome.com. Thanks so much!

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This week I’ve written a post about advancing your preschooler’s cognitive skills – things like shape, color, and number recognition. Cognitive skills are the building blocks for things like math and science. For some great early learning ideas you’ll want to check out my post Building Cognitive Skills.

And as always, on Fridays I host Family Fun Friday so you can meet all my blogging friends and get great ideas.

Just to let ya’ll know Diane will be taking a few months off of blogging. Diane has been my co-Host the past few weeks and her blog is MyLifeAsRobin’s Wife. She will no longer be co-hosting. If you are interested in co-hosting Family Fun Friday, please contact me. Depending upon the level of interest we may be able to rotate co-hosts. You can reach me via my Contact Me page. Any message you provide will be e-mailed directly to my e-mail in-box. I look forward to hearing from you.

Thanks to all my blogging friends for linking up last week at Family Fun Friday. I have a special YouTube Video for you at Thank You All My Blogging Friends! So many great ideas, crafts and things to do! If you link up, you permit me to use your pictures/ideas as part of future posts and/or social media. Once we have 200 links I will select a winner of some FREE jewelry. This will likely mean I’ll award a prize every other week. We had over 100 bloggers link up last week. You all are amazing – you bless my socks off with your awesome posts!

Some examples of the jewelry I am giving away. Your link-up and/or comment is your entry to WIN. BTW, I can make wedding party custom jewelry – contact me if you’re interested. 🙂

As always we had a wonderful turnout last week with SO MANY wonderful ideas. If you’d like to “bookmark” these ideas for later on PINTEREST I’ve created some handy buttons to help you keep track of these lists of ideas. To PIN a specific blogger’s post please click through and PIN their post directly from their site. Thanks!

This past week there were not only great ideas for family fun but also some delicious recipes and great ideas for teaching little ones. I’m going to highlight wonderful posts from each category. Now on to some fabulous posts for moms.

Featured Bloggers:

Family Fun

1. I found this post from Beauty through Imperfection titled Simple & Fun Chores for Toddlers very helpful. I have to remind myself that I need to be more patient in teaching my little guys to help with chores. For some great ideas you may want to read Paula’s post.

2. I am super excited about a new camera I just purchased so this post from Cropped Stories with a FREE Days of Summer Photography Checklist – check out this list and be inspired to take pics of your little ones!

3. I just had to laugh at this marvelous idea from Learning and Growing the Piwi Way – their family created a Piñata for their pet Cat. What a great craft to do with kids! Plus I love the tutorial on Piñata-making.

4. Chelsey from Life Unabridged shared some vital tips for Budgeting Success. My husband and I were nervous the first time we sat down to do a budget together, but you know what, it actually brought us closer together! Chelsey shares some great tips – don’t miss her fabulous post and FREE printables. 🙂

5. The Jenny Evolution shared 60 FREE Summer activities for Kids – it’s a great list and includes many wonderful ideas for sharing time together as a family. I’m with Jenny – spending time together doesn’t have to break the bank – check out her cool list of ideas!

6. As a mom I pray daily for my boys and I found this list on Character Corner of key traits and verses very helpful. Check out What Do You Desire for Your Children for some inspiring words about intentional prayer.

Featured FOODIE Blog Posts

Sometimes cooking in the kitchen is like therapy to me. I love making delicious things to eat that my family will enjoy. I hope you like these posts by some talented bloggers who cook!

1. Look What Mom Found and Dad Too shared a fabulous idea for making dessert with their kids – Dessert Quesadillas – Yum! It’s super easy, fun and teaches basic cooking principles.

2. Summertime is here and I love that this salad is served cold – great for hot days! Sourdough Native posted this Summertime Couscous Salad – a dish you can serve alongside almost anything.

3. Culinary Flavors posted an amazing tutorial on how to create Panorama Triangles. Her post also includes some Greek history and fun facts about the origin of the triangles. They look so delicious – I may try to create some at home 😉

4. Pressed for Time? Check out this Ridiculously Easy Creamy-Italian Chicken shared by A Pinch of Glitter – this one is on my PINTEREST board for future use.

5. I always have a hard time coming up with a great appetizers so if you’re like me you’ll love these Loaded Potato Skins by This Silly Girls Life.

6. Another great recipe for summer: check out these Cheeseburger Wraps by Six Sister’s Stuff and posted on My Recipe Magic. I loved that you can make these indoors and that they were a hit with little ones!

Teaching Little Ones

If you’re looking for some great resources for FREE printables and methods and techniques for teaching your little ones you’ve come to the right place. This week I’m featuring some of the best ideas shared from our link up last week. Keep following Family Fun Friday and you’ll never run out of ideas for teaching your little ones at home.

1. The Measured Mom posted a Printable Spelling Game – a fun and creative way to teach little ones.

2. Next Gen Homeschool shared a wonderful post about Real Life Homeschooling: Backyard Gardening. This is a great way to teach little ones about nature and gardening.

3. Crafty Moms Share posted on Sewing with Kids – check out the ultra cute Minne-Mouse Purse! Adorable – there are some little girls in my life who would love these I’m sure ;-).

4. Mom’s the Word shared a post that is about teaching more than book smarts – check out her post I’m a Mean Mom and I’m OK with that for her advice on training children to have manners and other important life skills.

5. Brainstorming the Castle created a wonderful themed birthday party for her son including a Castle made from Boxes – what a great way to promote creative play!

6. The Purposeful Mom shared her Top 10 websites for FREE Educational Printables – a great resource for any mom. 😉

Thanks again for all your wonderful ideas! I hope these Family Friendly and Fun ideas inspire you.

LINKING GUIDELINES

1. Link your blog post. Posts need only be family friendly and/or fun. To increase your chances of being featured at next week’s link party, link a post that is fun for two or more members of your family to do together.

2. Please follow Happy and Blessed Home on Facebook – I post updates for FREE books and other giveaways there that you’ll miss otherwise. Please leave a comment if you’re a new follower so I can follow you back.

3. ROLLING FACEBOOK LIST: If you did not link up last week, please add your link to the “Like My Facebook Page” party. This is a rolling list – you will not need to add to it every week.

4. Help other bloggers find this link party by either adding a link to your post or placing a button on your site. This is not required but very helpful.

5. Visit as many blogs in the HOP as you can! Try to leave a comment on at least two other posts.

6. Win Jewelry! Posts qualify for five entries and comments with an idea for family fun counts as one entry. After we have 200 ideas for family fun, I’ll use a random number generator to pick a winner of FREE jewelry.

7. Tweet, pin, Facebook, and help spread the word if you can.

I pray you are blessed by this effort to share ideas on having Family Fun.

In His Grip,

To leave a comment on any post, click “read more”. If you like my blog please like my Facebook page at: HappyAndBlessedHome – thanks so much!

I link up to over 100 parties every week. Click on Link Parties and you can add your party or find one to visit every day of the week.

P.S. Bloggers – If you’ve been featured and would like to add a button to show off how awesome you are, just grab the code in the text box below. You’ll want to retype the quotes too if you’re having trouble getting it to show on your page. 😉

LINK your Family Friendly & Fun Ideas:

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Here is the link list, please add yours below. Thanks for linking up! If you would like to subscribe to the e-mail reminder I send for this party please send me a note on my “Contact Me” page. Thank you.