Toy Swap Tuesday

or whatever day of the week you want to do your toy swap! I do mine just between the toys my kids already have, but you could also swap out with a good neighbor or friend.

To get the kids involved, I have them pick up one basket of toys that they are ready to trade in for a "new" one. They aren't too interested until I say things like "Wow! Cool! Look at this!" or "Oh, look, Little Pet Shop!", then they get a hustling! Once they bring me the old toys, I give them a basket of new toys. I usually keep 4 blue baskets on the shelf. 2 are new toys and 2 are "old" toys, then the next swap, they can get two more "new". If I swap everything, sometimes people get mad that their Barbies are in the garage ; ) Swapping toys every couple of months keeps the kids happy and the living room cleaner!

Here's the storage in the garage:

Here are the happy kiddos playing with their "new" toys:
You can see the blue basket just behind the "new" toys. If I can get the camera to upload, I'll add a picture of how nice the shelving unit looks after!

Indoor Obstacle Course

Trying to beat the heat, we made an indoor obstacle course. We used benches, stools, couch cushions, a cooler, and some pillows. Someone was a cow jumping over the moon...listen for her mooing!

Making Human Cookies

We call this activity "making cookies". Basically we go through all the steps of making cookies on a big scale. The ball is the rolling pin. We "chop" the cookies with light karate chops. "Sprinkles" are tickles, and "eating" refers to pretending to nibble on the cookie. The activity is good for both tactile perception and sequencing because they have to remember the order of events.

This Place is a Zoo!

My 4 year old has great ideas. She found a rope in the backyard and started linking it between different things in the yard to create a "zoo". The zoo has created a few hours of entertainment because we take turns being different animals in the cage, a zookeeper, or a visitor to the zoo. Plus it can be reconfigured at any time. This is the set-up yesterday. Today we moved the ropes around and made it have more "cages".


Here are my baby pony and my baby zebra. You can tell which is which because the zebras like popsicles...well, at least they do at our zoo!

I call it French Toast Sticks....and they eat it.

Maybe I'm a frugal mama, but I don't like to throw out the crusts from the bread. So when I make cookie cutter shaped sandwiches, I save the crust and either use them in meatloaf or I make "french toast sticks".


My kids don't notice and have fun dipping their french toast sticks in syrup. What kid doesn't love syrup?!