Spring Decluttering Challenge

The early March weather lately has definitely been affecting and reflecting my current mood.  

The sun is shining today, but tomorrow there will be rain and snow and yuck.

I warned everyone at the beginning of this school year that I would probably be a sappy mess by this spring with so many changes coming. Of course, there are so many extra frustrations and challenges and curve balls I never saw coming. It is actually worse than I exaggeratedly predicted.

I am ready for spring.

I have sort of fizzled out of my decluttering spree this year. My general ambition level has been pretty low, but honestly, I am in a funk. I guess it is my heart that actually needs to let go of some stuff... guilt, bitterness, anger, frustration, sadness.

I am ready to tackle this. I need to take some clear steps forward and I know that cleaning out the junk in our house will make our home more peaceful. One thing that I can do is to make a conscious effort every day to work on decluttering one small spot in my house.

Spring Decluttering Challenge

Last week I got out the Easter decorations. This morning I redecorated the website and took down those icky snowflakes. I don't care if it is the beginning of March- I am declaring it to be spring. I need the renewal of spring.

I think we all do better when we encourage one another, so I am going to try to check in with facebook more regularly, for those of you who follow me there. (They have changed the algorithm again, so I don't know if anyone will even see my posts, but I will try.) I will probably do some updates on my instagram story, too.

I am also starting a challenge for anyone who wants to join me. The goal is to declutter one area each day. Keep track of how many garbage bags worth of stuff you throw out/donate/rehome. Estimating is fine. On May 7 I will do another blog post with a giveaway. Each bag purged will count as one entry. I don't know exactly what I am giving away yet. I didn't think that far ahead. Any suggestions?

Oh, and I am going to use the hashtag #springdeclutteringchallenge to keep track of my progress if you want to use it, too. It is long, but it appeared to be unused so it doesn't get mixed up with something else. I am almost never short on words anyway.

Ready. Set. Go.

One Fish Two Fish Busy Bag

I had another cute busy bag idea and it only took 5 minutes to make, so I went with it. I know my daughter needs some work on her numbers so One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish was a pretty obvious choice. I just cut red and blue fish out of card stock, stacking a couple pieces together to cut a bunch at once. The red ones are marked with numerals and the blue ones have a corresponding number of dots.

I like creating busy bags that have a variety of ways to learn. We worked on sorting by color, creating patterns, recognizing and ordering numerals, matching numerals to the correct number of dots, and counting out fish to match the number.

One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish Game

Red Fish Blue Fish Patterns Activity

One Fish Two Fish Numbers Activity

red fish blue fish counting activity

Number Matching Dr. Seuss Game

It is pretty simple but I can get a lot of out it. I showed her how to start the simpler tasks and then it gave me a few minutes to work while she completed the sorting or pattern. She needs more help with recognizing numerals so we did that together. Then we worked on her numbers a few other ways.

If you want to pin it for later...

One Fish Two Fish Preschool Busy Bag

Also, here is the activity we did earlier this week:

Cat in the Hat Name Practice Activity

Kindergarten registration is quickly approaching. I am not ready. My summer baby is not completely prepared academically, either. Oh, I think she will be fine and I don't expect as much out of her because she is younger than the other kids. Still, I am feeling like a failure for not doing a better job of preparing her. I mean, it is the new standard for preschoolers to be enrolled in music, gymnastics, karate, ballet, swimming, art, yoga, and intermediate accounting classes. And speak 3 languages. Mine just stays home with me and makes messes.

I am probably wrong, but I am not pushing her too hard. I want her to play and have fun at home while she still can. Without making messes, of course.

Her name only has 3 different letters in it, though. Seriously. I think we could work on that.

Side note: We once considered the name Dominique but I pictured trying to teach a 4yo to write that and scrapped it from the list. #lazyparenting

Also, I haven't made any new busy bags for awhile. They usually keep her occupied so that she makes less messes. Double win.

Since Read Across America Day is coming up and I appreciate a good Dr. Seuss book, it gave me a starting point for some new busy bag ideas. This one is just strips of card stock with letters written on in Sharpie. On the back sides, I did a dotted version, then laminated the strips with packaging tape to make them dry-erase marker friendly. I even made an extra set for my nephew 'cause I am awesome like that and had extra paper strips.

If y0u want to pin it for later...

Here are some more busy bags I have made if you are looking for more ideas:

Use plastic eggs for a simple busy bag or learning center activity matching upper and lower case alphabet letters!