Happy 4th of July!!!

While we are enjoying some much needed family time, I hope you enjoy a peak at my latest sensory bin.  R did not want his bugs taken out, so S is the only one we

who consented to Red, White, and Blue! 0

 It's not entirely wooden, but it's pretty close!  And I spent all of $.99 on a package of patriotic stars.  The rest is all re-purposed from other bins and my craft closet.  

It's the perfect time to discuss our country's birthday and our flag!

This blog works again!!!

So many things have happened since I've been unable to update the blog.

The biggest is: team Prelogar will be getting a new player this summer!  We have an unexpected bundle due August 28th-ish.  Stay tuned for updates!

We are all so very over winter.  Even for Kansas this has been a particularly hard and cold winter.  To say we have cabin fever is an understatement!

R is no longer in preschool.  We couldn't make it work (time wise and financially) with childcare for S, me teaching and working, and N working and going to school.  So we are working on things at home.  Since we are mostly inspired by Waldorf philosophies we haven't pushed letters or reading, but some of it is coming naturally, especially with the amount of books we read.

I'm still involved in swaps, but thinking about scaling back.  Currently I'm hosting a St. Patrick's Day Swap for BOG and a Tiptoes Lightly swap for a Facebook group.  (Tiptoes is a character in a series of books).  I was hesitant to stay in swaps with all the holiday dissappointment, but I want to have a stockpile of nature table goodies and more natural things for the sensory bins.  So I'm keeping up for a while longer.  I most certainly won't be doing anything for a while after the baby comes.  

Speaking of sensory bins... I put together my first one for Etsy.  And I already sold it!  It was for St. Patrick's Day.

Our own St. Patrick's Day bins look like this:

Since I'm trying not to spend money on "new" things for the bins, I'm forced to get creative.  It's especially hard to spread our goodies to two bins with the same theme, but I'm finding that helps with sibling contentment.  These bins are filled with green split peas and i think they still turned out fun despite the lack of "stuff".

Sensory bins

The weather is getting even colder and it's time to change up the indoor activities.

Here's our most recent sensory bins:

Sensory bins

The weather is certainly changing.  We've started spending more time indoors, which means it's time to start updating the sensory bins.

This time S got one about colors and R got some lizards to play with...

Sensory bins... a little late

These bins don't really have any new things in them, just recycled from last year...

Easter/Spring 

 

 St. Patrick's Day

Winter Wonderland Sensory Bin

Christmas Sensory Bin

Sensory bins

I realized I now have to equipt two sensory bins... especially since my little one thinks the cat box (once hidden in the basement is now in plain/play zone) is a sort of sensory bin.  So to distract her from the fun-box-with-the-sand-in-the-laundry-room, she gets her own bin each time. 

Not my best, but "farm" will have to do until I unearth the fall stuff.

R's bin

S's baby-bin

Dino bin

It was time for a sensory bin change, brought on by a really rainly (blah!) day. 

We went with Dinos!!!

Sensory bin

Under the Sea:

Complete with plastic fishing pole.  After Easter, I think I'm going to start working on the alphabet.

Sensory bin

For St. Patty's day...

And just look what the leprechauns left in the garage:

Can you believe the luck?   I wish they'd remodel my basement!

Sensory bin

Here's the Valentine's replacement...

I call it "On the Farm".

Sensory bin

Here is the V-day inspired sensory bin.  Complete with snakes and lizards.  We've been working on letters and he knows several of them.  But we also need to work on upper and lower case.  So on the hearts that spell out his name, uppercase is on one side and lowercase is on the other.  Hope this helps him learn!

Naps and other strange things...

So Saff appears to be transitioning to one nap.  But it's touch and go with the morning nap (or like today, the morning nap was all she got).  Since it is impossible for me to "parent down" one kid when the other is wide awake and also in the bed, R is missing some naps.  Actually, he's taking it quite well.  He's having a nap every other day-ish.  We've moved bedtime up to 7 for days when Saff only gets one nap and R misses his.  So far so good.  Tonight she was alseep by 7:15 and he was asleep by 7:30.  We actually had some time to do other things.  Yay!

Here is my silly monkey on the kitchen counter "helping" me make dinner. She is eating a chunk of left over pork loin. Choking hazard? Nah!

Back by popular demand:  The bug sensory bin!  Now with more bugs!

 Since we skipped a nap today, we decided to make a house/fort out of left over Christmas boxes.  Both kids really enjoyed playing in the boxes.  Guess I'll have to keep them around a little longer.

 Finally, I've been using my extra wool sweater bits to make V-day brooches and flower hairpins for the upcoming swap.  These are 100% upcycled wool with needle-felting and vintage buttons on some.  I'm liking them!

Sensory bin

Here's R sharing his bin with his friend O.  She asked to play in the "corn box"!  How cute is that?

 I decided to switch themes again.  We retired "Christmas" and moved on to "Winter".

Christmas Sensory bin

Sunday update

As you can see, the Sensory Bin went over well.  He even shared it with a friend Friday evening (it was difficult, but he did it). 

We've been inside a lot with the weather turning colder.  We've started building "couch forts"...

Finally, my latest Waldorf swap items came.  This theme was "baby".  I made my nursing necklaces, if you recall.  Here's the goodies I got back.  I am especially excited about putting the little baby in someone's stocking...

Sensory bin, take one

Here's my first attempt... bugs... a bit sparse but I want to see how he does with it before I go too crazy.