Preschool in a box

This post is for all of you with kids who are reading my blog. At our last MOPS (Mothers of Preschoolers) meeting a wonderful woman by the name of Lisa gave us a demonstration on "preschool in a box". She is the mother of six kids and used to be preschool teacher. She has put together all these boxes of activities for her children and they are amazing. What is great about them is that they are nothing special! Feeling inspired today, I went on a dollar store run and came up with about seven of my own boxes. They include things like one filled with craft sticks, puff balls, and glue to create things with, a tupperware full of rice with measuring spoons and funnels to play in it with, buttons and string and pipe cleaner to make things with, zillions of erasers and cups to sort and arrange by color, a container of sea shells and a counting book to practice numbers, a magnetic fishing pole with fish so that the kids can fish for different numbers and colors....the list goes on. I think I spent about $20 on everything and each box is something different and special. The kids had a ball with all of it. I let Aubrey help me pick everything out too and she loved feeling included. Nathan uses the boxes in different ways but as Lisa pointed out, everything is learning! If you want to feel like a killer mom, go get some tupperware, rice, and a few colorful things, and ta da, you are mommy of the year!