Clearance Isle

I've taken teacher training classes at the Intermountain Suzuki String Institute and the Idaho Suzuki Institute with Cathy Lee, a wonderful Suzuki Pedagog. She is very "cutesie" and kid friendly. I have heard her say on multiple occasions that when her children were younger, SHE would be the one to go to the toy isle to find toys that she could use in her teaching - and that her little boys would say "Mom, do we have to go to the toy isle?!" haha I am grateful I know this, because I find myself spending the most time in the toy isles thinking, "How could I use this in my teaching?" A perfect example was on Saturday - my husband and I were at Target. I told him I knew exactly what I wanted and I'd be in and out, so he stayed in the car. Well, that's what the plan was until the dollar isle sucked me in. I was in my own little world when I heard from behind me a voice that sounded familiar, but somewhat funny sounding man saying "Ma'am..." I can't remember the rest because when I turned around to look at him, all I could focus on were bunny ears that he had on on his head. Unfortunately, I didn't take a picture, but I do have these ones...

Elmo on his head at Halloween

Gobble, gobble, here's our Turkey from Thanksgiving

I asked him how he knew where to find me. He told me that after sitting in the car for 20 min, he knew that I was scouting out the dollar isle and had come into save his wallet. Oh my sweet husband! Although this post isn't about him, I will say, he's a good man. He sure puts up with a lot!

So here ya go folks, the point of the Elmo and turkey hats is to get you to GO TO THE TOY ISLE and to the DOLLAR SECTION and the SALE/CLEARANCE SECTION! There are AMAZING things to get there both for the teacher and the parent at home trying to get creative to create a practice friendly environment.

These are my Target finds - they are squishy balls. My plan is to have my students understand that they can HOLD them with out SQUEEZING them = no tension :)

Beautiful felt flowers from the dollar bin at Michael's

Walmart had this cute little Mr. Frog

...and these sports ball Easter eggs!

Now, how perfect are these for little boys (I think it's SO hard to find stuff to entertain them) and your sporty girls. Just think about the possibilities of games you could play during each one of these sport seasons. 

Even if you don't end up finding anything you can use for teaching, you'll have a great time - especially if you take your husband along ;)