Dyed Clothes Pins

I have been making preschool stuff for the girls for a week now, moving things in the house around and getting stuff ready.  They are bursting with excitement.  Each time we sit down to "learn" they ask me "Are we going to learn to read today?"  They are certain it will happen all in one day.  I love their excitement, it's really contagious and I'm excited as well.  I am so happy I am not passing this off to a stranger to experience, that I get to do it myself! 

So, back to supplies.  I needed some clothes pins for an activity I printed from 1+1+1=1 and as I gained consciousness Saturday morning (about 20 minutes after I started waking up) the first words I said to my husband were "I wonder if I could dye clothes pins different colors with Easter egg dye?"  He looked at me like I was nuts (mostly because I still looked like a zombie until a second before I started talking) (also, I'm not sure why but for some reason all my best ideas come to me when I'm half asleep!).  He did agree he thought it would work.  So after a cup of coffee I was off to Target to hit the clearance section.  I picked up 2 Easter egg dye kids for a whopping total of .60. 

All in all it did work, let me give you a warning though - gloves are not just for thieves... you are going to need some.  My fingers are still blue.  It's not pretty!  I started them out in the kitchen and moved outside after the first batch.  I figured it was just much more safe.  Also, I thought the neon would work best - wrong.  Thank goodness I bought a regular set of dyes too.  Those worked the best, I just added the tabs to the neon ones to get a better color.

Other things we will use these puppies for -

• I am going to try to make a few puzzles out of them, with photos on the tops, stay tuned
• A few will have letters on them so the girls can learn how to put their alphabet in order!
• We will use them for sorting
• We will use them for pattern work.  Example: I'll put a blue, red, yellow, blue red yellow, and ask the girls to continue the pattern
• Etc.... I'm sure we'll think of more!  For our foster kids that come in we'll also use them to learn colors!

Here's some photos of the project. It's pretty self explanatory - prepare dye as you would for an egg. Stick wooden clothes pin in said dye. Flip over if needed. Dry. Viola!