Laminated Flash Cards

Being a SAHM, it is difficult sometimes (more like all the time) to come up with new and creative things to do with the little one around the house especially when they are at an age where they don't completely understand everything and can't fully converse with you.  I was talking with my mom the other day and was asking her, what the heck did you do with us all day?  Her answer was that we all played together a lot.  Well, what about when it was just Sarah for the first three years?  What did you do all day?  We would read all day.  You would read ALL DAY??  Yes, some days we would just read book after book.  We also did flash cards and other games.   I think the excessive reading might explain Sarah's ability to operate an ATM, memorize quite a bit of lines, and enunciate like a 10 year old for a bank commercial when she was just three years old.  "If a three year old can use an ATM, so can you!  See ya next time!  *Wink* *Wink*".  That was just the last line of it.  She was a child prodigy.  I'm not sure what happened after that.  KIDDING.

But flash cards, ehhh??  That's a thought.  So, I googled "free printable flashcards" and was opened up to a world of free printable flash cards.  The first site I clicked on was amazing.  They have anything from letters, to numbers, to shapes, to animals, and just about everything in between.  I picked the four categories I mentioned because it was already quite a bit anyway and got them printed.  I immediately knew that the minute little man touched them, he would tear them to shreds.  I needed to either back them all with card stock, which sounded like an enormously tedious task with it being over 100 of them or I could laminate them.  I just have to put it out there that it was a childhood dream of mine to have a laminator.  We would always play with the one at the bank (after hours of course) and laminate just about everything.  It was the greatest.  We also played this clue game that I will totally be playing with my kids once they are old enough to understand it.  Wait for that post in about 7 years or so.

Click here for the printable flash card site.

So, I looked on Walmart's website and sure enough they had a laminator that got pretty stellar reviews for way cheaper than I would have ever thought a laminator would cost.  All of those years I've been missing out... So, I rushed over to Walmart and got myself the Scotch Thermal Laminator along with a 50 pk of the laminating sheets.  A 25 pk of the self laminating sheets that do not require a laminator cost just as much as the laminator, so why not just buy a freaking laminator?  And then I have a laminator.  Laminator, laminator, laminator.

Set up was a breeze, it took about 5 min for the thing to warm up and I was a laminating machine.  Not to be confused with the actual laminating machine.  I did about 20 sheets right after one another and it was sooo smooth.  It was also the quietest thing in the entire world.  That was even more of a plus.  So, I cut out the flashcards, laminated them, and then cut them out again.  I immediately thought of Happy Gilmore with the old lady saying "My fingers hurt."  Cause they did.  But it was worth it and they looked great!

I let Nolan play with them when he woke up from his nap and not one got ruined and he loved the pictures on them!  So, I think the whole thing was a good investment and now I have the ability to laminate things all willy nilly...or just when I need to I suppose.

FLASH CARDS!