More crafts, and working with the littles

I never get tired of watching my big girls taking the initiative to work with their little brothers.  There are so many teaching moments there for both!  On this day they were working on sorting.

L had gotten out our Teach Me Joy preschool work for the 2 little boys... 

Here, L is coloring on some wonderful artwork from Wendy over at Living Creatively .  I think she is such a talented artist, and my girl loves for me to print of her ink designs for her to color. 

Do you see this wonderful teacher's aide I am going to have?  She gets so excited when I show her preschool ideas.  I had found a tutorial for preschool ideas on pinterest, and she looked at it, and decided to make a color sorting game for the little boys.  She is my girl that will just go look for preschool papers to work with them on the weekends, and I think she has done Zach's HIPPY work with him more than I have this year.  I remember when I was a girl and liked to play school...I guess it is fun to have real life students!

 Just a little more sewing to share....when L picked out her fabric for a patchwork skirt for her doll, I was looking at it thinking what a cute skirt it would be for her as well.  She had really wanting to purchase matching outfits at American Girl, but the $60+ pricetag changed her mind.  She was excited that I had enough fabric of hers to make something for her and her doll.

I found this sturdy canvas bag at Dollar Tree for my boy N.  I brought it home and told him he could decorate it however he wanted.  He LOVES Pokemon, so he drew these characters on with markers....I thought he did a great job!

Here is a photo of N's Lego bag.  I was so scared to try making it b/c of the large size...but cutting the fabric on my hands and knees in the floor was truly the biggest challenge of this project.  I made this entire thing in less than a naptime one Sat afternoon.  When it isn't tied up, it is a flat circle on the floor for him to work at.  When he is ready to pick up, he just grabs both strings and pulls...and it is all picked up!  He loves it, and I think I need to make him many, many more ;)  Just an idea...I found this tutorial on pinterest and also on the internet.  For me, the easiest way to make this is to buy a flat bedsheet from WM....or use one that you already have.  I also found a brandnew flatsheet at Goodwill for $2 the other day that will be large enough to make a couple of these I think.  Much cheaper than buying fabric by the yard.  You can customize this bag for whatever size you need.  N kept insisting that I needed to make it larger, but I think that any bigger, and he wouldn't be able to life it!  haha