Are you looking forward to the Olympics? Here are several color by number sheets for the kids to enjoy while watching the events. Click here for the volleyball and here for the swimming sheet.

There are two blue and two pink bags, and all you have to do to enter is to leave a comment on this post before midnight (CDT) August 16th, with your kid(s) ages and which color you’d like if you win*. Knowing the ages of your kids will help me as I think about future content for this site.

*you must include a valid e-mail address so I can contact you, and I’m very sorry, but I cannot ship to anywhere outside the US.

If your kids enjoy print and build toys, you should definitely check out Cubecraft.com. Each toy is designed to be printed on a standard piece of 8 1/2 X 11 A4 letter paper, and features interlocking tabs for construction - eliminating the need for tape, glue or other messy adhesives. There are lots of cool action figures to choose from- even Batman, Indiana Jones and Hellboy!

US Independence Day celebrations are just around the corner. Do you have plans to see some fireworks? Here are some puzzles and games for the kids, including crosswords and trivia quizzes, and here’s a link to our 4th of July word search from last year, in case you missed it.

By the way, in case you’ve forgotten some of what you learned in school about this time in American history, check out this site for a summary of the events surrounding Independence Day so you can explain the significance of the holiday to your kids.

Once again Char at Casual Keystrokes comes through for parents as we look forward to the summer with kids at home, with a custom summer chore chart. It was very popular last year, and this year she’s made it available in two downloadable formats to make it even easier to organize the chores this summer.

For a little help in deciding what chores are appropriate for each age group, check out this list of age appropriate chores.