The Great Lego Clean Up

Haven't I done this before?  I am sure I have!  And I am pretty sure I said I was done with Legos!  At least once in our child rearing, I swore off Legos because of the heartache they caused.  Then I said no more sets were coming into our house No. Matter. What.

And still, they are everywhere.  And now only one kiddo is playing with them.

One very unorganized, spread it all out, kind of kid.

I cannot take it!

Last week I went on a mission to gain control of his room.  It want a Pottery Barn look.  I have a
Lego factory look.  I will settle for a slightly picked up look.

Hey, that's big for me- you know how I like organization.

So we sorted,

  and sorted,

 and sorted,

and sorted,

and "built" a table.

I am sure there are better ways. I am sure there are cuter ways.

But at least for now the chaos is contained.  And momma is happy.  Mostly. ;)


Linking up with Caroline at The Modest Mom!

Blessings,

Zonderkidz Faith Builders Bible

Do you ever wonder if a family can have too many Bibles in their house? Or if a child can ever have too many Bibles?  Is there such a thing?

I certainly hope not because thanks to Zonderkidz, a subset of Zondervan Publishing, we have recently added their Faith Builders Bible to our collection and are loving it!

Our boys did not NEED another Bible.  Truly, we have more than our fair share.  But there is just something about a Bible that calls my name.  And let's face it, there is something about a Bible that has a Lego looking front that calls most kids' names.  As soon as they saw it, even the 14 year old was intrigued.

As soon as this beautiful hardback Bible showed up at our doorstep, it was whisked away.  It is lightweight and the perfect size for child sized hands and is printed with an easy to read 9 point font that even my old eyes could see!  This version is the New International Reader's Version, (NIrV), making the translation slightly easier for younger readers to comprehend.  One of the highlights of the Faith Builders Bible are the 24 full color pages, many depicting memorable scenes from the Bible.  Each picture is accompanied by a summary of the verses regarding the scene as well as a "Building Block" verse for your child to memorize.

In addition there is a small Bible dictionary in the back as well as a list of more well known Bible stories for quick reference and ease of looking up for your kids!

And of course, there are the blocks!  Whether you are using Legos or another similar building block, the pictures are bound to grab your child's attention and inspire them to build their own creations. For younger children there are simple ideas shown, while older kids will be inspired by some pretty elaborate scenes.

And what do you do when inspired?  Build of course.

I thought my boys, ages 14 and 8, would try to replicate exactly what they saw in the pages, but instead they decided to go off on their own and create.

Colby did a scene of the last supper.  Yes, we will have to review how many disciples were actually there.

And this is his Jesus!  Not sure about the beard, but hey, it works! ;)

Salem made a scene of the crucifixion.  (Did you know you can take those little arms off and re-position them?)

Later on they joined forces and built Jesus coming before Pontius Pilate.

The sky's the limit now, and this is only the beginning of the Bible coming to life in our house.

My thoughts-
Honestly, I did not expect to like this Bible as much as I do.  I mean, building bricks and Bible are not your ordinary pairing, BUT, I do really like it.

-I love that it is colorful!
-I love that it encourages children to memorize scripture!
-I love that it is lightweight and easy to read!
-I love that it is engaging for kids!

After all, isn't that what we want- our kids to be engaged with and in their Bibles?  If the Faith Builders Bible creates a desire to read more, I am sold.  If it creates a desire to base play off what was read, I am sold!

Now, to just convince the 8 year old it is not an excuse to take Legos to church!

Blessings,

Project Organize- Kid's Toy Storage- Step 1 in Decluttering

Welcome to Project Organize!

 

 Let's face it, we will probably be camped out here for a while...but I hear through the grapevine that some of you have joined me on this mission.  I am thrilled to have you.  Leave a comment and tell me what you are doing and HOW you are doing so we can encourage each other!

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I had grand visions when my oldest was first born.  Only wood toys.  Only educational toys. Only the book classics.  Only open ended toys.

ummmmmmmmm, right!  That lasted not even the first few months.
Then came the barbies, and the plastic toys and the electronics and the stuffed aniamls and on and on and on.  No wonder the grandparents laughed at my lofty ideas.

So I tried harder to limit.  OK, then only a few themes.  Yep, that didn't work either.  Do you KNOW how many Barbies are out there.  Or American Dolls?  Or My Little Ponies?  We wouldn't want to break up a set, you know.

Do we honestly think that playing with 20 of something is better than playing with two of them?  Even this morning my five year old built a "castle" out of pegs and rubber pieces AGAIN and used his dollar store army men as the characters.  Despite the fact that he has two brand name castles upsatirs.

Don't worry, I am not throwing it all out, but I am on a mission to pare down and organize. 

 

My solution for the 5 year old...

Yep.  That's it.

Easy.  Nine cubbies, nine toys.  (come on, they play with the same things over and over again regardless of how much they have and you know it!) You can pick which nine.  The rest are out of here.  Now, before you panic, there are a few bigger pieces that 'go" with these sets.  Those are now stored in his closet on the floor where he can reach them easily.  Pull out castle stuff and need the castle?  It's in the closet.  Playing cars and need a track?  It's in the closet.  Decide to use the animals?  The jungle tree house is in the closet.  You get the idea.  The little things hanging were a simple way for him to see what is in each basket.  He's five- he can't remember.  My oldest thinks it's tacky, I think it is really smart of me!  ;)

Our one exception-

Yes, the dreaded Legos.  We have tried to keep that stash small for the little guy, because honestly, at his age it is not about the building, but just the playing.  So he has a lot of cars and people mostly.  But I found that everytime we put them away at night into one of the baskets they came out a jumbled mess, and quite frankly the 11 year old was growing weary from having to come to mom's rescue and find the missing parts.  Now they all just get parked on the shelves each night.






Ok, so 10 things.

Plus books in a basket.
And a few stuffed animals.

And a new rule- No toys bought unless it is your birthday or Christmas!

At least one of us is going to bed happier! ;)