Random learning activities this past week...most repurposed materials or from yard sales!

These don't really have a category, but I wanted to share them anyway.  I haven't been to many yard sales this summer but I hope to start up again this week....I have a pretty long list of needs for the little mother's day out we're opening next month!

These are made of sturdy cardboard and are just like the wooden pieces you can get for Handwriting without Tears.  I love that program!  I stupidly sold my wooden letters about 10 years ago, so can't get myself to buy them again...these will do ;0)  You can make every capital and lower case letter w/ just these pieces.  I think Tweeters will move right to cursive in first grade, but this is fun and serves it's purpose for now.

Really into chalkboard art right now, on this larger yard sale find and the small HWT board.  The colored chalks are just from a yard sale, too, so not as brilliant as some, but again serve the purpose. 

Jam is loving this geoboard - he doesn't feel like he's really done til ALL 100 rubber bands are on!  Great yard sale find at a retired teacher's house :0)  Came w/ a book, too!

Not from a yard sale, but it was SO delicious I had to take a picture!  Flash the Chef made this for dinner one night...eggplant & zucchini deliciousness with fresh cilantro!!

Yard sale finds, homemade & saved

Home-made balance board - easy peasy w/ wood we had lying around. The 1/2 circle piece is just slab wood that we burn in our wood furnace!

I am a firm believer in reusing or making what you can - and that includes lots of thrift stores & yard sales.  Resisting the temptation to buy what we DON'T need is a little hard sometimes though!  Guess that's how we ended up with 'Mac' & 1/2 a dozen other characters from the Cars movie.  Jam sure loves them, but oh how I really don't like toys from movies!!  I would say normally that it kills the creativity & imagination, and perhaps he is just recreating scenes from the movie....but he has done this for hours and hours and hours. 

Yard sale: No way!  I was gearing up to learn how to make some beeswax candles - even planning a trip to a bee supplier for real beeswax!  Friday we went to some yard sales & voila!  A $2 pillar (the price tag said $45!!!).  We bought another pillar like this but round, and 2 small pillars (so $4 for all 4 candles!!!).

Saved!  HB & Flash's dress up clothes....I especially love the white cotton cloves & "The Butler Hat"....pics of our summer spaces including dress up area coming soon.  By the way, the gloves are from my great-grandma who HB & Flash got to know, but Tweeters & Jam weren't born yet when she died.  Flash got the hat in when HB pulled the sword out of the stone in Disney ages ago!

What are some of your great yard sale finds?  How about things you make yourself?  Do share!