School year has started!  While I don't homeschool, I do some preschool teaching to my kiddos before they go to school.  (You can see some of my other preschool posts at the bottom of the page.)   With that, we use a lot of construction paper.  When I first started planning and making our projects to do, I realized how much construction paper we were going through, especially when there was a free day of crafting.  So I slowly learned some ways to save on that construction paper.

Have you ever seen a kid cut something out of a piece of construction paper?  They always cut right in the middle leaving a lot of extra paper left over.  This was such a waste to me and I wanted to do something to make sure we could use the construction paper to its full potential.  

One of the ways I've done this is by starting a scrap paper bag, any of the paper scraps that are left over from a craft we put in a designated ziplock bag.  This way we have scraps for them to use for other crafts.  This bag is my go to for when I need to cut out small little eyes, tails, or spots for our letter crafts.  

Another way we use this scrap paper bag is for gluing and cutting small pieces. When the girls were learning to cut I would give them the paper from the scrap paper bag and they could practice cutting it up.  Also, when Peanut was going through a gluing phase she would take the pieces she cut and glue them to another piece of paper.  This saved so much paper, because all she wanted to do was glue over and over and this paper was just paper that was extra. 

A second way I saved on construction paper was by giving them less.  That construction paper is so large and as I said before kids don't do the best at cutting on the edge.  So instead of letting them have the whole paper, I would first cut the paper in half.  This worked great for when my oldest was going through a book phase.  She loved taking books and then making them using construction paper.  She took Brown Bear Brown Bear for instance and then figured out what color each page would be, brown for the bear, red for the bird, yellow for the duck, etc.  I loved how she was learning to put things in order, recognize what color would be represented on each page and so forth, but one full-sized construction paper for a circle to represent the bear just seemed like a waste.  So we cut the paper in half, it made it the perfect size for a book and she could be creative and re-make the books while I could be content that we weren't using to much paper.  Some books we been cut the construction paper into fourths...make it go even further!  

 

Liked this post, you may also like the following

Preschool: Learning to write.              Preschool: Letter Art.              Preschool: Part 1


PreschooL: Part 2                                Preschool: Part 3                     Preschool: Part 4

Preschool: Learning to write

My little soon to be kindergartener....wait where did the time go?!  It's crazy to think that my oldest will be starting kindergarten this Fall.  Or as she likes to say in 8 days!  Well anyways, since she started learning to write her letters she has loved to make lists, or write out people's names or just write down letters and try to make words.  Now that Peanut is starting to write too (seriously, they are growing so fast), we go through even more paper.  But, learning to write is HUGE.  I want my girls to be able to write and being able to learn to write on paper is a privilege, really it is.  So I don't want them to be wasting paper and I want them to see the value of using the paper that we have because it's a privilege to have it.

I don't know about you, but my girls love notebooks.  They get it from me I think, there's just something about having a notebook to jot down your thoughts, feelings, ideas etc. I have multiple notebooks.  I'm crazy and like to have a different notebook for each subject area of my life.  Well, my girls love notebooks too.  My oldest is always asking for a notebook to jot things down in or have for her stickers, yep she has a separate one just for stickers, she definitely takes after me.

So two things; first of all right now it's Back to School time and all those notebooks are on sale, whoot whoot!!  That's the best time to buy any of those school supplies that you need to stock up on throughout the year.  You can check out my Savings on office/school supplies here for more tips on that.  Secondly, how many of you use a notebook ALL THE WAY THROUGH?  Be honest, how many times do you have a notebook that you used for awhile for said event and then the rest is just left?  We have lots of notebooks, my husband kept ones from college and high school...yes high school!  But,  going back to teaching out kids not to be wasteful we have that paper instead of just throwing it out.

 We also use those notebooks in two different ways.  First we use them as spare paper, instead of buying loose leaf paper, we just use the extra out of the notebooks.  That way we are using what we have and not spending more money for one and not taking for granted what we have for another.  But the biggest way we reuse them is to let the girls have their own notebook.  They love this! They feel so adult having a notebook that they can write in.  Sometimes they use it to write names, other times to try to spell words, other times they get it out before we go shopping so they can make their grocery list too.  I mean the possibilities are endless and we are reusing something that might not have been used.  Plus they are learning too, I mean they are practicing writing their letters and writing without the sit down and practice.  This is something they enjoy doing and as a mom we are always looking for ways to help them learn as they play right?

So next time you have a notebook that you're done with see if your little preschooler/elementary kiddo would like to have it.  You'll be amazed at what they come up with to use it for.