Five Years Old

Our boy has had a great fifth year of life.   So much growing up, getting bigger, expanding his independence - it's been so wonderful (and challenging) to see him grow into his own.  

Newities of this past year:  Reading, writing, and arithmetic! Pre-K,   ;)  

Yes, this year has been another great year of learning for Ace.  He really has come into his own in understanding and writing.   This past Christmas he took the time to copy out words from the Toys R Us catalog to create his first Christmas Wish List and practice his writing skills then.   He's getting very good at writing his full name (quite the feat!) he writes whole stories on his own by sounding out how he things the word should be written - so of course there are words that aren't spelled correctly, but he's doing it 100% on his own and loves to do it.   He recently read an early reader (level 1) book that had 76 pages and he read it start to finish over 45 minutes.    Ace can count to 100 with ease and in fact has written them out as well.     He's so intuitive and his vocabulary quite expansive.

Ace loves his video games - often on MANY mornings it's the first thing he asks to do.   He practices and gets so excited when he accomplishes a new level or beats a boss that was previously an impossible feat.   It's so fun to see his joy and while mommy doesn't share in this enjoyment of video games -he and his dad bond over it quite nicely and love to play together.      He and his dad still love to go on walks and collect a walk rock each time they go. 

Ace found many friends in Pre-K this year and along with his sister made some great friendships and had many playdates to parks and outings with all of them.  It was fun to watch him make friends and desire to spend time with them and seek out opportunities to do so.    He's had the early heartache of saying goodbye to friends that have had to move away and while he's still young already has felt the impact of missing someone.    He lit up when his good friend Lu (who moved away at the end of June) drew him a picture and mailed it to him for his birthday. 

Ace and Mae continue to navigate through life as siblings and most of the time he's a wonderful big brother.  He grows impatient at times with her pestering and he has had a real wild-hair for antagonizing her.    He pushes her buttons - especially in the car - to be 'right' or to get her to see the 'truth' or whatever it may be.  We constantly are trying to tell him that you can't change everyone's mind and that you just have to let things go sometimes when they don't want to see truth, reason, or your opinion.    He doesn't often see it that way. 

Four was challenging in many ways.  He often was mouthy, talking back, and wanting to do his own thing in his own time and not always listen - but he still has that deep seeded desire to please others and wanting to do what is right, so while it was a more challenging year it was still quite rewarding.  

Ace had swim lessons the whole month of July and was a fish!  He loved them!  He learned to actually swim a short distance, regained his knowledge about back floating and overall just had a lot of fun and had no fear of water, putting his face in it or any hesitation to hop right in.   Although he was a good rule follower and always obeyed instructions! 

Sleep for Ace was again great - he occasionally would have a nightmare about "a noise" that would awaken him and scare him.  Sometimes he was simply wanting extra attention and seeking to come into our room on the rare occasion, but overall he was a great kid that slept through the night.   He loves bedtime and very often takes the time to spend a lengthy time talking to his dad and getting quite philosophical with him at those times.  It is definitely a special time for those two. 

Ace loves Jesus and very much wants to know more about him, to understand him and is quick to inform his sister that "Everything belongs to Jesus!" (she doesn't quite agree yet and thus the battle of YESSSS and NOOOO takes place often on this sticking point.)    He still more often than not wants us to pray and he listen but he loves to read the Bible, do devotions and hear more about God.  He loved going to VBS and learning about Jesus.   I took his friend Em with me in the car to and from and after one of the days I asked them what was your favorite part  - Em responded "I liked hearing about Satan"  and Ace quickly said "Em, I think you missed the point."    haha  he's witty, blunt, and often a step ahead in some areas.

Eating for Ace is a standard 4 year old feat - sometimes he eats more than mommy and other days it's a painful drawn out repetitive 'eat your food' type of event.    He doesn't like spicy food and generally will eat anything else. 

Favorites of Ace in year four - still loved the song Stronger by Kelly Clarkson and was always excited for it to come on.   He loves to read stories, watch shows on Netflix, play on the xbox, run around at the park and go to Em's house at every available opportunity he can.   He is always seeking something fun to do and asks to do school.   He's dabbled in some addition and subtraction and has a pretty good grasp on the general idea of adding and subtracting - which for 4 is impressive.  I've introduced him to money and what they are and he loves to learn new things about the planets, geography and about our presidents.   He does have this desire to not fail and as a result sometimes it means he won't try in fear of failure, but as we're aware of it we find ways to work through it. 

Ace is a kind hearted and super thoughtful kid who often says thank you without prompting multiple times after we've done something for him.  He seeks out flowers to pick for me any chance he can and he loves to do things for others than he thinks would make them happy.    He loves to spend time with all his grandparents and see or talk to them whenever he can.    He adores his Uncle Kai and Auntie and generally wants to be with family.      We love him and can't wait to see what five will bring as we embark on this journey into kindergarten and beyond!    We love you, Bear!

Interview at Age 5:

1. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE T. V. SHOW? Wild Kratts

2. WHAT DID YOU HAVE FOR BREAKFAST?  (Skipped this question as we were still in bed and had yet to have breakfast and I wanted him to focus and finish... mentioning breakfast would have not worked in my favor.)

3. WHAT IS YOUR MIDDLE NAME? Yep got it right!  ;)

4. FAVORITE FOOD? Cinnomon Spice [Cereal]  (Mae's favorite food is 'cake' brother asked what her favorite healthy food was and she answered peanut butter and jelly... no REALLY healthy?)

5. WHAT FOOD DO YOU DISLIKE? The food that I dislike is Macaroni and Cheese without hotdogs.. kind of.

6. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE COLOR?  Every color.

7. FAVORITE LUNCH?  That kind of stuff that has turkey with the cheese and the English muffin.

8. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE THING TO DO? My favorite thing to do is usually... to... um... play outside usually.

9. IF YOU COULD GO ANYWHERE IN THE WORLD ON VACATION, WHERE WOULD YOU GO? I would go to California!

10. FAVORITE SPORT? Soccer.

11. WHEN IS YOUR BIRTHDAY? August 24th!!!!!

12. ARE YOU A MORNING PERSON OR A NIGHT PERSON? A night person... what do you mean a night person or a morning person?? 

13. PETS: Yah, Pixel.

14. ANY NEW AND EXCITING NEWS YOU'D LIKE TO SHARE WITH US?   I'm five years old now.

15. WHAT DO YOU WANT TO BE WHEN YOU GROW UP ? I think a fireman! (Why?) Actually someone who works at ____ (we don't disclose that information on the blog, but he got it right)  like dad.
16. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE CANDY? Maybe a lollipop or something... or maybe actually every candy is my favorite candy. 

17. WHERE IS THE FURTHEST YOU'VE EVER BEEN FROM HOME? Mississippi!  That's pretty far, mom... Right? (Yes.)

18. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE BOOK? The King and His Six Friends  (Second year running with this answer. He and his dad do read this one together.)

19. WHAT ARE YOU MOST PROUD OF?  Once that I got one of the boats in one shot (Um what do you mean?)  Like in Battleship - I sunk the boat in one turn.  (Oh exciting!)

20. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE MOVIE?  Maybe Cars.  I like the music from ... I like some of the songs come on the radio usually.

21. WHICH CAME FIRST, THE CHICKEN OR THE EGG? EGG!  (Why do you think that?)  Because chickens start out... baby chickens start out as eggs first.  What do you mean the chicken or the egg first?

Summer Time with Toddlers!

I love that my kids are at an age to enjoy an activity - sometimes for great stretches of time even!   So while my blog has been pretty dern quiet this summer - don't fret lots of fun is going on!  Need a sampling?   Lots of ideas for you to enjoy with kids of all ages coming up!

SLIME

This activity from creation until it was time to eat lunch kept him in one place, entertained and fully engaged for over 90 minutes.  He probably could have gone longer, but his father had brought home lunch and so he reluctantly put it all away.   I got the recipe from our slime at Tot Treasures.  I got my liquid starch online at Walmart with shipping of only $0.97!

It was more sticky in the beginning but eventually worked itself together into almost rubber ball texture. 
Stored in a ziplock, the next day it was a bit stickier, but after working it again was back to 'normal' :)

ROADWORK 

Yes, playing with oatmeal is a huge hit in our house!  Break out the splat mat and go to town.  This time I dropped in a set of Cat trucks (they sell them at Target/Walmart/BRU for about $6) and while they played I had Ace attempt to follow the 'directions' in the book Roadwork.  The book is chalk full of onomatopoeia that are fun to listen to.  Ace was very patient when his sister was anything but a helper on the building part - she did great with demolition though!
 

On a different day we broke out the black beans and playdough to read through the same book and build different roads.

PAINTING

I recently invested in Colorations Liquid Watercolors and some blotter bottles (bingo markers?) and I absolutely LOVE these paints.   It doesn't take much paint to go far and even if gets all over them and they look like they'll be permanently stained - give them a bucket of water (or a bath) and they're squeaky clean without any scrubbing.    We've made several signs for birthdays, welcome homes, and the one below was the one they worked on for the 4th of July!

FIREWORKS!

Yes, what summer is complete without them!  This year Ace was super excited to be able to light some of his own.  Mae enjoyed a little action with her father, but for the most part was a sideline observer.   Overall it was a nice quiet 4th of July and while it was chilly - Ace's coat is a bit overkill, but he seemed happy enough. 

GARDENING

Breaking out the black beans again and this time they're building a garden.  Using some 'clay pots' that are actually silicone cupcake holders I found on clearance somewhere they played with some silk flowers, garden tools, some seeds (acorns) and some other garden friends.  They had a great 45 minutes spent with all this sensory fun!

BUBBLE BLOWING

Big bubbles, make your own bubbles, no spill bubble buckets!   They are a favorite and they are endless and pretty clean fun. 

MANIPULATIVES

Ace didn't have school this summer and so we still wanted to keep him busy, but not always requiring an elaborate project that requires a ton of prep or clean up work and so I invested in a few types of manipulatives for the kids.    Ace and his fancy headgear are working on tangrams.  I got the pattern cards and then foam magnetic shapes from Amazon, the white board I got at Target - it's back to school season so they're everywhere - I recommend 11x17 or somewhere around there... an 8x10 is too small to really make the pictures.  Mae is playing with some dominos, which she matches colors, stacks, and generally throws around.  :)  Ace uses them to count, set up and knock down (old skool, hehe) and match.

He REALLY likes that red/white shirt... these pictures aren't taken all on the same day. :)

 RAINBOW RICE

I was really excited about this one! :)  Just so much fun.  First after much pricing the Dollar Store is by far the best price to buy rice. I was a bit skeptical at first since they are 1.5lb bags, I though surely a giant bag at the grocery store would be cheaper - nope.  I used about 3 bags so about 4lbs of rice to accomplish this project.  I used the above mentioned watercolors to dye the rice - simply tossed in a bunch of rice into a sandwich bag, dumped in some watercolor (less than a teaspoon at first) and mixed until it was all mixed.  If the color wasn't vibrant enough I dumped in more and so on until the right color was achieved.  If I managed to put just the right amount of color in I was able to reuse the same ziplock over and over to complete the dying process.  I stored them individually in a ziplock tupperware.  I'm told you can use food dye also but then you have to use alcohol (or hand sanitizer) to 'lock in' the color.  We had no color transfer with mine - and some of my rice was dyed within an hour of play.   The tub is a '32 quart' tub that I simply used a piece of cardboard to divide it off so I didn't need MORE rice.

Before the kids started to dig into the rice they sat with great anticipation and read through Planting a Rainbow and pointing to all of the colors that matched.  Ace correctly pointed out that the "red" wasn't red at all but rather pink... I know, bud... sorry the red just was NOT happening.  It would have been ready to eat rice if I had added TOO much 'water'color! After initial presentation and mixing occurred we 'tore down' the fence (I saved it for another project.) 

GEOGRAPHY

When Loving Husband is away on a mission Ace typically is allowed one sleepover night in our bed.   This past mission I saved it for a particularly exciting and important night.  The Opening Ceremonies for the Olympics!   I broke out the fabric panel that I have of the world map along with his placemat of the world and he watched the Opening Ceremonies eagerly awaiting the country of Russia to walk in - it was the biggest! As the countries walked in we looked for them on the map.  I would find it on my map and point to it and then he would try to find it on his.  :)  He did a pretty good job considering the size discrepancy between the two maps! 

Alas in the Opening Ceremonies the countries walk in at the end and it was nearly 10:30 when the M-Countries were parading in and he was fading fast.   He was out by the end of the Ms and I shook him awake (he sleeps like the dead once he's out!) and he acknowledged it - but the thrill was gone.   He still enjoyed popcorn, candy, and lemonade in bed WAY past his bedtime though! :)  Looking forward to doing it again with him for the Closing Ceremonies when the Olympians walking in FIRST! :)

SPLISH SPLASH!

What's more fun that water!   Sprinklers, pools, you can't go wrong!  Got a little play slide, throw it in at the edge of the pool and you have a water slide!  The kids had a great time with theirs!  Happy summer, everyone!

Ten on Ten - July

This month marks one year that I've been participating in Ten on Ten - officially June would have marked a year, but I didn't get around to participating in June's because I was busy doing my first newborn photo shoot!   Which was sooo fun!  :)   I'll eventually blog about it.  Maybe.  

Today was a typical Tuesday.   Ace is no longer in preschool for the summer so we're doing school at home.   We got a new puppy a few weeks ago (yah I need to blog about that too!) so life keeps us busy and on our toes!  Today also in Mae's half birthday! Our little girl is 1.5 years old!  Impossible! (and of course there will be a blog about that too!)   Our days start early and time escapes me so my 10 on 10 is throughout the day as I remembered so within the 13 hours I was taking pictures, I managed 10 of those hours to get at least one shot.  :)  Not too shabby!   Happy 10 on 10 everyone!

Ace decided he was still tired so he went and climbed into our bed... he was shocked to find me photographing him.

Awake and joining the rest of the family downstairs, Ace was less than thrilled to share his blanket with his sister.

Yay our second Boon arrived (we have a LOT of stuffed animals!) Time to stuff it!

School time!  Sight word fun!

A little reading application of those newly learned sight words with some pen action!
Also I was really impressed that both kids sat in one place for over 90 minutes without needing wiggle time.

Mae Mae is 18 months old and time to take her traditional (or as this picture depicts) not so traditional photo in her chair.

Blogging World meet Pixel our little cairn terrier and tea cup (or mini) Australian Shepard mix.  More on him in another post.

It's 80 degrees!  This is so much fun!!!

Bliss: eating cantaloupe with salt in the backyard on a warm summer day... really makes me miss my dad.

Bath time after dinner!   This picture was snapped and then one 'page' was read before Ace bellowed
"Moooom, sister pooped in the tub!"   No rest for the mommy... I needed to clean the tub anyway.

To see more visit A Bit of Sunshine...

Leapin' Lily Pads!

Today we started off our morning with some unscheduled  snow fall.  This allowed the kids some fun snowball throwing, snowflake licking fun in first part of our morning, but aside from that I had other kind of fun planned for our day.   You see today is of course Leap Day!   While us adults understand it (the best we can) to be some extra day to make up for extra daylight the space time continuum (that's not it?... well sounds good to me.)   For kids it is a fun opportunity to learn more things about the calendar and frogs.   Yes frogs!

I found a fun idea while trolling Pinterest!   To make lily pads and have the kids jump around.   The idea of hopping around on lily pads comes from Toddler Approved (she has a template for the lily pads too.)  I went a little more freestyle with mine and made some 'smooth' and some 'wavy' lily pads to throw in some additional instruction options.   I numbered them and we began our fun!

Before we began jumping we looked at a calendar from last year and one from this year.   Showing him the extra day and then talked about how that happens every 4 years.  In fact the year he was born and now once again! (I can't believe he's FOUR this year!)   After that I asked him what animals jump and he excitedly said FROGS!    So from there we did some Bing image searches and looked at frogs and then moved into the lily pad elements.   Marry the two lessons together by talking about synonyms.  Yes, yes I did in fact broach the subject of synonyms with my son (and yes in fact spell check had to correct every attempt at my spelling of synonym.)  I told him that synonyms means that two words have the same meaning and it's an alternate word that can be used.  (Yes, I use words like 'alternate' also with my children.)   He said 'oh ok' and then I prompted him to see if he knew a synonym for jump... and he thought for a moment and said "leap?"  BE. STILL. MY. HEART.  YES!!!!   Hooray!  So we lept around the room some for the connection there!  

Next up was the activity!  Ace started the activity jumping in a row from 1 to 5.   He had a lot of fun (but mommy forgot to get her settings right for 'action' before we began, so alas the quality is less than stellar... but you can get the idea!)

After some in a line jumping I moved the lily pads to a more open space and moved them around and out of numerical order.   I had him jump from 1-5 again.  Then I had him jump on the lighter colored ones and then darker.   Then jump on the 'smooth' ones.   There was many different combinations that we tried out and he had a blast throughout.  

Mae even joined in on the jumping which was adorable... and her outfit is living proof that I don't stage all my photos.  Isn't  her outfit just smashing?   Yes, that's post snow-wear while her matching pants dry.  She had a good time cheering on her brother and jumping, stomping on the lily pads herself.  It was cute and adorable and an excellent energy burning indoor activity!  

Happy Leap Day from our lily pond to yours!

The Planet Box

It's been a while since I've posted about Ace's schooling with mom - honestly because it's been a while since we've done much of it.    We moved back to the NW, then sickness and holidays arrived, and preschool began - so we're just now getting back into the swing of things with our new routine.  

I have been putting together some continent boxes for Ace to begin to understand and learn about geography and then different areas of the world.  I am working to have a relatively extensive box for each continent that talks about: plants, animals, foods, and landmarks that are indigenous to those continents.   Various things to expose him to the cultural eccentricities of the various places of the world.   It's rather ambitious endeavor - one that is currently a significant work in progress.   However, in order to understand all that - he needs to get the big picture first and thus we have "The Planet Box"

I began with one of my favorite resources ETC Press and downloaded their free nomenclature cards for: Continents, Oceans, and Cloud types.   They can all be found here.   I dabbled in sewing a container for them, others I simply used a pencil pouch to hold them in.     I then acquired a few books from the Rookie Read About Geography Series (which I love!)  They are really simple, but informative and great for my 3.5 year old to help him understand just enough information for now.   I got The Seven Continents and The Four Oceans.   The third book actually was acquired from Chic Fil A.   Also in the planet box is his passport - which I got at a school supply store - it basically is just blank pages awaiting stamps.  I ordered a 7 continent set of rubber stamps similar to this, I got mine off eBay.   Each of his continent boxes will contain the corresponding stamp - and we'll always have the 'Planet Box' with us when we study each continent so his passport can get stamped each time we study.  :)   Toss in a $1 blow up globe (a favorite) and the final item to complete the Planet Box is the VTech Spin and Learn Adventure Globe which I got for a steal of a deal around Christmas time.  :)

Ace is always excited to do school and to learn things - he is really excited to learn more about Australia.  That seems to be the one he is most fixated on - I'm not entirely sure why.   Mostly what he's learning is that there are seven continents and a simple fact about each one.  He knows we live on North America and thanks to his loyal fans who have sent him post cards from literally around the world, he is able to explore where those postcards have come from as well.   The VTech globe is great for telling him about music from other cultures, where places are, and even sports that are often played in those places and if nothing else - he loves to push all the various buttons!

We use the nomeclature cards for matching, putting them in size order, and various other things to help instill the facts about the continents.  I am looking forward to introducing him to the North America box soon (figured it was best to start with the one he lives on!) after that it sounds like we'll dive right into Australia - as it's the favored one.  :)   

I love putting together new fun and exciting 'school' type things for Ace.   He really enjoys to play and learn - and says that doing school with me is one of his favorite things - which really makes me smile because it's one of my favorite too!

Linking up to: Imagination Tree,  Mom to 2 Posh Lil Divas

School - Fall Themed

Ace is loving this latest installment of school: fall!  We're learning about pumpkins, leaves, skip counting, and a smattering of other fun filled things along the way.    He's really enjoying all the colors!  

One of Ace's trays is sorting.  He has leaves and pumpkins and he puts them into their respective bin using the tweezers.   It takes him a few tries to really be able to do it properly with the tweezers but he's working on that fine motor skill with great determination.   Always has his tongue sticking out while he works.  *All these supplies can be found at Hobby Lobby*

Ace really enjoyed the matching game last month and so I wanted to reincorporate that into this month's trays as well and along with the simple matching game I wanted to pair it with some science and teach him why the leaves change color, so I ordered Why Do Leaves Change Color?.  It is a bit too detailed for him, but he can grow into the book and understanding - which I prefer to an over simplistic version.     I then found some free leaf printables from PreKinders (along with a lot of other great resources!)  They were a bit more detailed and Ace had to pay a bit closer attention to really match up the different ones.

We took a walk that day and also gathered leaves to look at the various color (which here in Mississippi isn't a terrible color variation since it doesn't get very cold around here.)   We collected them and brought them home and decided to see if we could match them to the ones in the book.   On another day we did some leaf rubbings and that was met with minimal excitement.  Well I enjoyed it.  ;-)

We are also learning about how pumpkins grow and in general how things grow from seeds and into plants/flowers/etc..   I located some nomenclature cards for the life cycle of a pumpkin via The Wonder Years  and the cards are free from Montessori for Everyone.   I coupled that with the book From Seed to Pumpkin - which was more at Ace's level of understanding and he really enjoys that story.    I wish that we were staying here longer so that we could plant a seed and watch it grow.  Perhaps we'll do this next year!

Our focus on 'math' this month was on skip counting - getting Ace one step closer to counting to 100.   He can do 1-10 pretty easily and 11-19 are a bit touch and go.  So this month I introduced to him to counting by tens - he figured out pretty easily how it works which is why he after saying 'forty'  says 'fivety' and 'one-y' (100)   He's not got them memorized but he's doing well.   He's not quite got that once he's got those down that counting to 100 will be a breeze, but he will.  :)

There are other fun items still to come including an introduction to the mayflower and the first Thanksgiving!  Looking forward to being back in the NW for a more colorful backdrop to our fall themed school!

Phonetic ABC Box

Ace is getting really good at recognizing his alphabet thanks to the moveable alphabet box.    However, that is only one part on the road to reading; he needs to learn what sounds those letters make.   I came across another great idea via Pinterest on Pink and Green Mama to create an ABC Box.  I knew that Ace would love it. 

What is essential to make an ABC Box is choking hazards  small items easily identified and we had quite a few around the house.  To kick start the box (which I got from Amazon for $15) and I ordered a bag of doodads from HighPie on Etsy.  She also has a listing for 26 doodads that are every letter of the alphabet, but I chose a 50 piece set for more - that and I'm a sucker for grab bags.  :)   Between the grab bag and  previously owned item  I was still coming up short on some letters the standard Q, X, and Y and to my surprise A, I and J.  This is when I got to searching on Bing for images of things, printed out a sheet of various items.   I then laminated and cut them and they were ready to go in each of the boxes.  
 

A, a: alligator, avocado, ant, anchor, axe, acorn, arrow, apple



P, p: penguin, puzzle piece, polar bear, pom pom, purple peanut, paperclip, pencil

S, s: stamp, scissors, sun, snowflake, star, shell, stingray, soda, shark, stroller, sandal, snake

Things that I used for other hard letters included a lot of Bing images but I did have some items:  I,i: igloo, ice skates, ice, and ice cream; J, j: jar, jacks, and jam, Q,q: queen, quail, quarter and qtip; V, v: velcro, vase, vacuum, violin, and volcano;  X,x:   xylophone, and xray; Y, y: yak, yarn, and yo yo; and Z,z: zebra, zigzag, and zipper.

I bought a sheet of scrapbook alphabet stickers and put them on each of the drawers and with my son we began to sort in various sittings through the different items.  Helping him from the get go to see what items sounded like.   A few items I let him decide what they were: the cup with the straw could have been a coke, a soda, a drink in his eyes and so I wanted him to tell me so that I wasn't fighting the title of the object in the middle of a phonetic lesson.   With everything sorted I then grabbed one lower and upper case of each letter from his moveable alphabet box and put them each of the drawers.   Finally his alphabet box was ready to begin working with.

He LOVED it from the start - in fact he was loving it so much that he would sneak down in the morning before we were awake and 'do school' with it.   Which would be ok except for the choking hazard items and while I had a good idea on what was in each box I wasn't totally positive of each item.   So that created the need to create a cover for it - which has proven to be just what I hoped it would be 'out of sight, out of mind'  and so he only does it when I am around and working with him. 

One of the ways Ace enjoys working with his ABC Box is that we take out two drawers and he sorts through them on his felt and he place them under the correct letter.   He enjoys this - and even does well when certain letters switch sounds like  C for cat and C for chalk.  

Overall it's been a good tool that he's enjoying using and as I find new items (those miniature erasers are GREAT for these boxes) we'll continue to add, replace, and change up the various items in his box.   Start up costs for our box: $15 for the box, $3 for the letter stickers, $5 for the doodads, and another $2 for a set of erasers that I picked up. A grand total of $25.   Well worth it - we've certainly gotten our money's worth already.

Linked up at:  Living Montessori Now, Mom to 2 Posh Lil Divas, Imagination Tree, and Classified: Mom