Art trays are fantastic! What’s an art tray you ask? Well, once you use one, you’ll wonder how you ever got along without one. An art tray is any tray you can use to contain mess and define space while the little ones work on their creations. You could get the fantastic ones from Oriental Trading that I have (click on the picture above to link to their site), or use old cookie sheets or plastic trays from your own collection or your favorite thrift store. Just choose something that is leak proof and large enough to contain your general project size, yet small enough to accommodate the space you are using. Set the art trays down, put the supplies on the tray, and let those little fingers go to work!
The advent of writing is a momentous time in any child’s life. It is important to realize that the process preparing a child to write begins very early in life; long before she puts pencil to paper. I view the development of writing as having three major components: 1. Fine motor control, 2. Understanding that print carries meaning, and 3. An increased awareness of the alphabetic principle, leading to more conventional spelling. 
Tell me I’m not the only mother with a two year old who thinks the best thing to do with five boxes of puzzles is to put them all into one bucket together. Luckily for me, I learned at a university lab preschool, that it is very handy to number the backs of your puzzle pieces to help out in just such a situation. Each time I get a new puzzle, I write a number on the box and then write that number on the back of each piece. Then, say when I find two random puzzle pieces mysteriously stuffed into the only VCR left in our house, I can quickly determine which boxes to return them to. Now if only fixing the VCR was that easy!
It’s colorful, cheap, and a little bit slimy. What’s not to love? Goopy goop, is pretty much colorful paste. Get a few of the plastic bottles they sell for hair dye. Fill them about 1/2 full of flour. Add water and food coloring or water color powder. Adjust the flour to water ratio if necessary so that the goop is thin enough to be easily squeezed out, but thick enough that you can basically write with the stream that comes out. I used it in my 
