Zen

Saturday night Natalee and I accomplished one of my short term goals and went off to Kirksville by ourselves...just us two girls!  She got to be an active participant in choosing healthy items for her school lunches and we got some much needed mommy & me time.  We spent the majority of our time at Hy-Vee but also ran to the Dollar Tree and Wal-Mart.  I'm doing less and less grocery shopping at Wal-Mart (which means spending less time there, which makes me smile).  I'm so appreciative of Hy-Vee's health food section and their all around healthier choices.  They even have dye free go-gurt (yogurt in the tubes) which are a huge treat for Natalee!
At the Dollar Tree we were looking for some specific items.  Based on this blog a friend linked me I realized that with some inexpensive staples we could quadruple the level of our craft station play and keep busy hands and minds active instead of tugging at mama or squabbling with one another.  We were on the hunt for ice cube trays, pipe cleaners, and a couple other items for preschool and found all we were after.  Something not on our list but that I couldn't pass up were these cute miniature Zen gardens.  I saw them and dismissed them, then realized that for a dollar they really were a pretty good sensory experience...so I got 2.  Not buying duplicate of everything is something I need to work on, and I'd like to think that had these been larger or more expensive I would have settled at one and made sharing a priority for this activity, but as it was each child got their own with $1 of their Valentine money from Grandma Num & Papa and Natalee was quite pleased to pay for hers herself. 
I got them out today and already they've paid for themselves with the level of activity they've gotten from the child. 

Not just that they've kept the children busy but that they've given them: (1) a new experience...indoor sand and (2) lots of discussion with each other.  I was surprised at how much my children conversed with this little activity. 
 
Originally I had Natalee at the dining room table and Xavier at the craft table, but she asked to be moved by him so I let her.  They talked and talked and traded rocks, raked each others sand, made mountains, roads, and the list goes on. 

I'm not sure what the storage will be for these little Zen Gardens but I think I can easily throw them in Ziplock bags and put them up for another day.  I do recommend setting them down in a pan or tupperware or something unless you like sand all over your house...it's very hard to expect little people to keep the sand in that tiny little box with no spilling!  The bins and sand will also make a great sensory tool for writing letters, drawing shapes, etc.  I think we got a pretty good buy at $1 each and our house is now feeling quite Zen (you know, without all the Buddhist brainwashing and etc!). :)  Maybe calm and collected is a better phrase! :)