The Sun Will Come Out...Tuesday? And a Giveaway!

First if you are all about a giveaway go read this post and leave me a comment with your guess of my newest dresser's name!

Now, onto the latest Toile news...

You all know I am a teacher. Well, my poor kids don't stand a chance.

For example, Little Man really has no concept of time. The words "today," "tomorrow," and "yesterday" allude him.

If you ask him "What is the day after this day called?" He will say "Tuesday?"

Now, everyday he sits at the "Morning Meeting" in his class and they go over this concept. But because I know that he is easily distracted I don't really think he has paid attention during this apparently crucial concept. I also know that his nonverbal, visual skills are much stronger than his verbal skills so I came up with something to may help him "see" the concept a little better:

I just used a scrap piece of chalkboard contact paper and wrote (in my liquid chalk markers) the days of the week (actually one of the other kids wrote the days) I bought some chipboard rectangles from Hobby Lobby for like $1 and mod podged some scrapbook paper, added another piece of chalkboard contact paper and wrote the words "today," "tomorrow" and "yesterday" on them.

Every day Little Man has to physically move the magnets to the appropriate day and then say "Today is ______," "yesterday was _________," and "tomorrow will be ________."

In a week or so I will start the morning with only one magnet left in the place it was the previous day and he will have to figure out what day it is and where the magnets go. If you are feeling sorry for my kids you should. Keep reading...

One night at dinner I asked Little Man if it was stinky having a mom at your school. (I teach at their school).

He simply said "yeah."

I couldn't leave well enough alone. I had to probe deeper.

I said "Is that because I am on you all the time?"

Little Man replied, "Like stink on a monkey."

Let the "feeling sorry for" feelings commence.

Mighty Warrior

Welcome to my first post of "M" week.


I have mentioned "Little Man" in previous blogs and today I am going to show you a project from his room.
First of all, he is called "Little Man" because he is very small for his age (he is 5 1/2 and looks about 3). I try to encourage him with "big" talk and expect more from him than a lot of people do. That being said, he is IN LOVE with Star Wars
(but, heck, what 5-105 year old man-child isn't).

I love vinyl quotes, but most of the time I can't find the quote I am looking for.
Yes, I know I could get some custom stuff, but I like the embellishments and variety of fonts the pre-designed stuff has
(plus I don't have the patience to create from scratch. I am a tweaker, not a creator).

I LOVE the quote from Judges 6:12, referring to Gideon,
"The Lord is with you mighty warrior."
That is PERFECT for little man. He is my mighty warrior, even in his size 7 (toddler) shoes. And that quote fits wonderfully in a semi-Star Wars theme room.
(I am also not a "theme-y" room person. That means I do it subtly-no Star Wars bedding or curtains, just little touches here and there.)

Here is how I created this quote for my little man:

Step 1:
I decided how much of the wall I wanted to take up, then drew level lines using chalk. (I did top and bottom lines to make sure my letters were somewhat the same size.)

Step 2:
Write the quote on the lines also with chalk.

Chalk is super easy to erase and you can easily paint over it. I used to use pencil, but could still see the pencil marks under the paint.

I free-handed this design. Now, first let me tell you I am no professional by even a stretch of your imagination. I just have pretty decent handwriting and a fairly steady hand. I simply found a font on the computer that looked "kiddish" and used that for my inspiration. This is doable for just about anyone, but you could print this out and create a stencil if you'd rather.

Step 3:
Step back and make sure it is large enough, centered, in the proper scale, etc.


Step 4:
Paint over the chalked-in words. I just used craft paint (the kind you can get for like $1 at Walmart, etc.)

Step 5:
Erase the lines and step back and enjoy.

Here you can see the chalk lines. You can even see where I don't write EXACTLY on top of the chalk. I almost always write bigger with paint than I do with chalk--another sign that I am no professional.

The sweetest thing was just this week I was putting little man to bed and he was staring at the quote. (He is in kindergarten and learning to read). He asked me what the last two words were, so I told him and he then read the whole thing to me.
I told him that meant he was strong and brave.
He just said "I know."
Awwwww...

Linking my warrior to: