Buying, Gathering and Scavenging: The Collection Has Begun of Materials for Back to School

Well, the collection has begun.  While I might have perhaps gone a month this summer without collecting/buying/scavenging anything for preschool, that lull is now over.  At this point I'm keeping my eyes open at all times to see what's out there that my new incoming set of Little People can use.

Here are some of the things I've found in the past few weeks:

In the "Buy" category: While in Texas last week visiting my parents, my mom took me to the Lakeshore store in Austin.  Now that is a fun place.  Among the hundreds of fun things I wanted to bring home, I found these new bulletin board borders and a few other fun things.  I'm especially excited about the "Peel and Stick" magnet dots - no more cutting little pieces from magnet rolls.  Well, at least until these run out.

Also in the "Buy" category are these containers from the Dollar Tree.  I am working on collecting sets of various items for free sorting and counting for each theme we learn about, and I'm wondering if these containers might be a good size for those.  I like that they close well, and are smaller than the plastic shoe boxes that would most likely be too big.

In the "Gather" category are these plastic containers that my mom has been saving for me from some pre-made meals that she and my dad sometimes buy.  Despite the fact that I had brought a fairly small suitcase, these had to fly back to California with me. (Thanks, Mom).

These cardboard tubes fall into the "Scavenge" category.  What's the difference between the "Scavenge" and the "Gather" category, you ask?  Well, in my mind the "Scavenge" category are things that I would gladly pull out of the trash.  Which I did in this case.  These tubes came with some glow sticks that we used this summer at church camp.  We were opening about 50 of these packages to prepare for our "glow stick fireworks".  (Which is when you shoot hundreds of glow sticks into the air out of some sore of hydraulic "potato launcher" to create a spectacular rainfall of color for the happy campers.)  When I saw the tubes, I exclaimed, "Oooh, I need these for preschool," and went into the trashcan for those that had been already thrown away.  I don't know what we will do with them, but I'm sure we'll think of something.  

And so the Back to School Collection continues.  Because Back to School is getting very, very close.