Out of the Box

Mom Unplugged over at Unplug Your Kids, has offered
up the topic "box" for this week's group project.
So I thought I would take the time to talk about some boxes
that help me in my homeschooling world.

1. My Craft/Activity Box- this is an unattractive cardboard box left over from our library's book sale that sits under my computer desk.It is filled with large zip lock bags that I pre-fill with craft and activity ideas and all the needed supplies to produce said craft or activity to occupy Princess.Here is an example:The first picture shows a bag with a book "Five Little Monkeys", a print out of the same story with fill in the blanks and pages to color,a banana and monkey worksheet a box of small colored pencils nd a stuffed monkey.The second is really 3 bags, small holiday crafts and a bottle of glue..I move the bottle of glue from bag to bag and paperclip these bags together since they share this bottle of glue. *
2. Princess has a rack that holds bins or "open topped boxes" in her room that holds different types of toys.The first example are her "Mega Blocks".This allows us to easily carry the blocks to wherever we are to play and she can easily put them away on her own as well.She also has one for Dinosaurs,Polly Pockets, Puppets,cars and some other toys that can be grouped together easily.
3. For her puzzles and foam blocks we have 2 rolling plastic boxes on wheels that we roll around where we need them.The puzzles have been taken out of their original boxes and bagged and labeled and numbered.We just did not have room to store all those boxes of puzzles.
4. In one of my storage cabinets in my kitchen, I have 5 plastic shoe boxes.One of them has all the felt board pieces in separate plastic bags.Some are homemade,some store bought (OK, more likely Freecycled).
5. On another shelf there are two larger plastic boxes.One has all the Play-Doh accessories and one has the Moon Sand.These work well for her to keep a handle on all the pieces while she is playing and allowing her the ability to take them out and put them away on her own.
6. The other "box" that helps me a lot is a "litter box"..no, not the ones my cats use on a daily basis,but a clean ones that has only ever been used by Princess as her "sensory" table. I put water, shaving foam,rice or any type of dry grains,and let her play.Sometimes we take it outside, sometimes we use it inside.I also have a couple in a cabinet in the living room for storage of CDs and VHS tapes with felt discs on the bottom so they don't scratch the wood.They were the only container that met my height and width requirements at the time and they work really well.

*I use a similar bag idea in a plastic tote that I use to organize my school planning that I will talk about in another post another day.