Teacher Appreciation

My twins started preschool this fall.  And thus we entered the {new to us} world of teacher appreciation.  Since I have been in a big winter crafting mood lately, I decided rather than giving the "typical" food or gift card holiday present to B&K's teachers, I would do something a bit more personal.

I'm a huge fan of this blog.  Like, addicted to it HUGE fan.  And a while back they had this great tutorial for a box of teacher goodies.    LOVED it!  So I set out to create something similar.  I entered the world of my blog partner, Jenn, and hung out in the scrapbook aisles at my local craft stores.  I found the boxes to be cheapest at JoAnn's.  I purchased the scrapbook paper (my minds eye), alphabet thickers and butterfly embellishments (martha stewart) at Michaels.  The goodies inside I picked up mostly at WalMart (which is a total shocker from me since I'm a self proclaimed Target girl.  But I digress).

I'm super pleased with how the gifts turned out.  And we've already received thank you cards from each teacher with major kudos for doing something so "different".  It was super simple and all three boxes were completed in under an hour.  Easy-peasy!

Simple Reward Chart for Toddlers

I started searching for a potty reward chart for my soon to be 2.5 year old twin boys.  Then, I decided just a reward chart would be nice, something similar to a the chore charts you see.  You know, for those rare times when they listen to Mommy.  I needed something super simple since it would be covered by stickers in the near future (we hope!). 

My search quickly found that reward charts were 1) cartoon-y, 2) all things primary colors, or 3) boring.  I wanted something fun.  So, I threw this together, literally.  I kept it simple.  Not only did it not need embellishments, since stickers were in it's future, but it had to be 2 year old proof (if that's possible). 

Here they are, one chart for each boy:

I used 12" x 12" sheets of My Mind's Eye 2 sided cardstock from the Out Out collection, leftover ribbon, 1 1/2" circle punch, 2" scalloped rectangle punch, thickers, and my favorite....

kraft paper [sighs]. 

I wanted 6 across, but the scalloped punch was too large.  If the two charts hung side by side weren't symmetrical, it would have drove me insane. 

My plan is to have a big reward when each "row" is filled with stickers.  Big rewards will consist of $1 items from Target or Dollar Tree.  Items like books, dinosaurs, or cars will make excellent bribes rewards.  Stickers will be rewarded upon using the potty, following directions, or not throwing fits every 3 seconds.

Now to implement the reward system and stock up on rewards.....