Spending time with My Children with Minutes With Me
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As a stay at home Mom I often find myself wondering “what are we going to do today?”. It’s hard and I sometimes find myself in a rut. Days when the weather is bad is especially hard which happens a lot in Northern Minnesota. I recently received Minutes With Me and it is a lifesaver for those rainy/snowy day blues.
Minutes With Me was created by Michelle C. Kendall former preschool teacher and mother of 4 who was looking for a “lesson plan” for her children. She created Minutes With Me, “Monthly parenting kits with activities for young children, helping parents to spend meaningful time with their child at a minutes notice.”
Offered as monthly kits, you can order them as individual months, a season “3 boxes”, or an annual subscription. I received the months of January and February to try out with my kids.
Each monthly kit contains:
- Weekly Activity Cards
- Bingo Game
- Game Cards – 3 different games
- Subway Art with easel
- Chit Chat Value Cards
- Additional month-themed activity
They recommend that you use the kit at least twice a week to get the most out of it. I will admit that hasn’t happened at our house. I need to do a better job of using it. On the days we have used it, my kids have all loved it. Their favorites by far are the Bingo cards, the Fairy Tale Story Starters game cards (included in January), and the Stamp Set (included in February).
The Fairy Tale Story Starters is a great game for bringing out the kids imaginations. The cards are dealt out and they have things on them such as “Unicorn, Queen and Castle”. The person with the “Once upon a time” card starts the story by playing the card and everyone continues the story with their cards until they are all used. It was very fun to see the stories they came up with and the level of their creativity.
My kids all love stamps so they stamps were a huge hit. They made valentines cards and we mailed them to their Grandmother. This was great all the way around because the kids loved making the cards and Grandma loved receiving them. Even my 2 year old Delaney loved it, though she ended up just putting her fingers in the ink and making fingerprints on her page. Oh well. That was cute too and it made her happy.
I love that each set comes with playing cards. The cards are used for multiple purposes. They are what you use for the Bingo game, but can also be used for Go Fish, Concentration (Memory), and sequence matching. I would also think they are very educational for beginning readers as the cards have very nice illustrations on them, but also have each word labeled for reading.
The conversation cards are great to get your family talking about things such as special days, science subjects, families and values. They will be perfect for car rides and dinner conversation. The February Kit had my entire family talking about Outer Space. How cool is that?
I have to admit the one thing I haven’t used yet are the “Kitchen Time” recipes and ideas. They go along with the monthly themes and are some great ideas. I know I need to get my children involved in the kitchen more and hopefully these kits will prompt me to do so.
As I used the kits I couldn’t stop thinking about what a great gift these would be for my nieces and nephews. It would be the gift that keeps giving as they would receive a new box of fun surprises each month and the activities can all be used over and over. I will admit I thought the price was a little high if I was giving as a gift, but when I considered that it is less than a dollar a day, it really is worth it as the entertainment and educational value is definitely worth it.
BUY IT!
The Minutes With Me Kits can be purchased as an individual month for $29.95, a season which includes 3 months for $99.95, or a year with 12 kits for $324.95. Visit MinutesWithMe to learn more and check out their great free printables while you are there.
Disclosure: I received samples for purpose of this review however all thoughts remain my own.
These are really cute kits, we could of used these during all those snow days!
What a awesome way to get the family together and bond, discuss important things. This is really cool.
These kits look so educational and fun! This would be a fun way to spend time with my grandsons!
The kits are great for helping children learn and I would like to get one for my nephew-he would love to play the bingo game and do the art work!
What a great idea! These kits are really cool, would have enjoyed these when my son was growing up! 🙂