What great ideas! I've started a fairy garden for my nieces. I have some areas that I want to set up with the miniatures (they're so charming) and other areas where the girls can be the "fairies". I would love to find a little seating area for them that would mimick the fairy furniture. They are both four and love to dress up in their fairy outfits (mostly Tinkerbell dresses). I've included a few small blueberry bushes and strawberries for snacks, mixed in with the many cottage flowers, miniature rose and clumps of butterfly bushes. There is an arch on one end and a bird bath with violets under it. Behind the garden will be grapes on a split rail fence and semi-dwarf apple trees. I also have an area for my nephews (and nieces) which I'm hoping will be ready next year. In the vegetable garden with be a full sized bean teepee they can play under and a Cinderella pumpkin patch. I also want to include a miniature area, where mini vegetables, pumpkins, etc. can be grown with fairy tale characters included. I plan to use climbing beans on a smaller teepee with "Jack" climbing it and "the giant" on top. I saw the idea on a fairy tale gardening site. I also might try to put Linus and the great pumkin in a mini pumpkin patch. There are many fun ideas on the Gardening with Kids forum.

Bumble, you might be my DD's biological mom LOL. Her (self imposed) goal this summer is to cook more "real meals." She already bakes a lot, with some supervision, and makes pancakes independently. Her real obsession these days is duct tape. She has made a variety of wallets, purses, etc. She usually makes at least one a day. She has probably 25 rolls of various colors and patterns at the moment. I honestly don't think I could make one of those wallets myself, and I'm fairly crafty...or used to be! She has her own glue gun. Tish, like you say, she's not a great speller or much of a reader but she can read complicated directions or a recipe and figure it out no problem, so she's all set!

Ok- This comes from a teacher point of view as well as someone who has a degree in child development. You can take it for what it is worth: In Classrooms (like daycares and preschools and K room) kids are required to pick up at least two sometimes three times a day. The reasoning being that a. other kids play with the toys and the deserve to start fresh too b. kids can't think in clutter very well and neither can teachers. c. safety in that you can't walk without tripping etc. also is part of the reasoning here. I carry this into my house to some degree. I have three kids 5, 3, and 1+. Two boys and a girl. I let them play with what they want and they can play with how they want provided they are not taking away from each other-- playing nice. And now my home and my theory in practice--- We pick up daily - once before nap I expect everything to be picked up and once in the evening before their father gets home. If everything is picked up and if their father is not home yet, they can watch a video. This works great for my son who is a tvholic. The exceptions to picking up completely are this: 1. if they have some creation before nap- a tent house, a train world, polly pocket home whatever they can leave it out until dinner time, as long as it's out of the way. Not on their bed at nap time for example. At dinner time though, things are picked up. 2. If it is on the train table. We bought a big train table with the buckets at the end of the table. I rotate toys including what is in the train table buckets. - blocks, legos, little people, etc at any given time are in the train table buckets. IF they set up this elaborate train set or a great lego building, as long as it is on the train table, they can leave it there. The train table toys are usually building toys that typically get moved and torn down and rebuilt daily so those change pretty quickly and get put up to make room for other buildings. As for sorting out toys into the right bins daily- I don't do that. We have a big toy box in the front room where they play. Some toys are behind the couch in the plastic shoe boxes. Polly Pockets, etc - those things with small pieces. Those are the toys that they typially pull out from behind the couch, open the box and play with them in their room or on their bed- the little pieces typically get put back into the right box. But I don't worry about it. When we pick up, whatever is on the floor get thrown into the toy box. The kids help me pick up and if they want I do let them put the small pieces in the right bin, but if I'm helping I grab and toss. And because I rotate toys- once a week or every two weeks I dump everything out and the kids and put toys up, resort as needed, exchange toys. This is when the polly pocket shoe that got thrown in the toy box gets put back with it's mate in the right bin. Etc. I have also gotten rid of many toys. As I write this however I can think of train things I need to get rid of because my kids have never really played with it. Sigh. I kept it thinking one of the other kids would like it but so far- no luck. It really is that simple and really that complicated. I just make the time to rotate toys. Everything centers around that. When we rotate toys everything gets sorted out perfectly. Because we rotate toys not everything is out at once and that makes it easier to a. clean house b. pick up every day c. control how many toys are out with small pieces d. organize and make sure everything is in the right bin. As for your daughter dragging things out of the house - we take things out to the car but they stay in the car. When we go in the store- the toys stay in the car. As for all of her flat type creations- I also bought an art portfolio. IT's like a big envelope. I let my son keep all of his papers in there. He keeps every paper he touches. They all go in there. It sits at the end of his bed. When it is stuffed I go through it- sometimes alone, sometimes with him. It works for us. Big papers and small papers go in here. But only paper. We have also done some things like I sat down and whipped up some bags for toys. My two older kids love to fill things with things. A small bin may have five cars, three dinosaurs, four crayons and sixteen pieces of paper. They love to just stuff things in things. I made some bags. I whipped up bags and this makes it easy to carry things around. If my boy's snowbear needs crayons for the day (becaue my boy is like your daughter with an animal whose needs change) - then snowbear puts the crayons in the snowbear bag and off we go. I have probably 10 bags designated for things- blocks, small dolls, etc. I have maybe another 10 bags with drawstrings for anything. They just get thrown in their toybox empty at the start of two weeks and stay filled until it's time to rotate toys. So- based on my usual long winded response here are my thoughts for you: 1. Can you designate a place as a compromise- train table creations are ok, otherwise they go down? Can you set a time that they have to pick up? Daily? I do it when their dad comes home so they know exactly what their schedule is. Can you do it on a set day? Every other day everything is totally picked up? I lean to a daily pick up at a set time so it is routine. I agree that it is the process at this age - the process of making the creation is important not the creation itself. 3. Can you provide your daughter some place for her creations? This ties into question one but also for her small books for blueberry? for the small things he has to have? A bag? An oatmeal box with a string tied to it? an art portfolio? 4. Do you have to have all of their toys out all of the time? And after having said all of that- I think what you are really looking for is not the organizing help but more of the parenting help. Do you allow your children to make creations and leave them? And How do you tackle this as a mother? I'm not sure I helped at all. What I would say to you as a teacher if you came to me is Go for it- encourage the creativity. When you see them no longer playing with a toy or creation show them how to take it down and put the components up. Or if they can no longer play wiht a type of toy because all the pieces are spread apart and put in wrong places, help them sort them out. You are the mother and you know best. Ginger

Amen, Tally Sue! I would also really like to get my kids to rely on each other. If I'm cooking dinner, the 3rd grader has a math hw question, the 7th grader can certainly answer it! Teamwork. That's what I'd like to establish. I have a thing for the shoe organizers that go on the back of doors, with all the clear plastic pockets. I have one in the kids' bathroom, holds various items at age-appropriate heights. DD can see her hair things, and it's so easy to put them away. Brush and detangle spray in pockets right next to each. Easy to reach standing in front of the bathroom mirror. The oldest has his hair gel in the top pocket where littlier hands can't reach it. Kids' cold, headache medicine also in the top pockets, easy to find even in the middle of the night. Each kid also has the shoe organizer on the closet door. Not full of shoes. 9 y/o and 3 y/o share a room, 9 y/o keeps his gameboy, taekwondo belts, wallet with money, in the very top pockets where the 3 y/o can't get them. Now, if the kids don't put the stuff in that safe place, I can't help them. The closets have a shelf across the middle and the top. We put those sterilite drawers on the middle shelf with legos and other small parts, 3 y/o is less likely to get into them. When we have a playgroup of preschoolers at our house while the big kids are at school, I lock the bedroom doors and don't apologize for it. I bring down a variety of age appropriate toys and make sure there is plenty to keep the kids happy and busy. I don't let them into my kids' rooms, it would be a mess, and it's not fair considering they aren't home to defend their turf. It's wouldn't be safe, either, considering the choking hazards of legos and polly pocket dolls.