Up-cycled Manipulative Storage Ideas

Earlier this week I introduced you to the many benefits of using manipulatives with your child. I told you about the many manipulatives we receive from Mother Goose Time and even set you up for a giveaway of two mystery bags of manipulatives you should hurry over and sign up for.

When you get manipulatives for your kids you may discover a small issue about storage. Ours got so far out of hand we could not find what we needed when we needed it. I was forced to find an economical solution. Lucky me I love to save containers so we used Up-cycled Manipulative Storage.

Candy containers. We have started buying Zoillipops in bulk for the kids. The containers are great and we have one just for holding our math counters featured in the benefits of using manipulatives with your kids post.

Laundry pack containers are great they are large and have sturdy lids. This is only safe if your children are older or you keep your container full laundry pods in a place your little ones can not reach. Our littles learned to open child-proof containers young so we keep things up or locked.

Large and Small Peanut butter jars are great because they hold a lot and have easy to open lids and large wide mouths. I often buy the large jars because we go through so much peanut butter. I buy smaller jars when I find a good sale.

Vitamin Jars are great for storing smaller chokeable manipulatives. While my littles can open them they did not learn until after the danger of choking on there school supplies was no longer an issue. With 4 kids we go through a lot of BIG jars of vitamins.

Tip for Up-cycled Manipulative Storage

Look for containers you can see through as much as possible. While you can make use of things like coffee cans you will find more of a mess as kids look for that one thing they want. To avoid that issue take a photo of what is inside a container and attach to the front so kids can see what is inside.