It’s easy to buy small presents for my children.  Just give them anything related to coloring or drawing.  They like pens, pencils, crayons,
markers, stickers, tape, paper, labels, scissors, hole punches, etc.  They also like to leave those things all over the floor.  My vacuum bag is half full of paper bits and I can recognize the snap of a crayon three rooms away.

I used to be stingy with the supplies.  ”Here’s your two pieces of paper and your 5 stickers.  Be creative.”  I was the marker cap police.  Not anymore.  ”Here’s two stacks of paper and 5 pages of stickers.  Have at it.”  I learned that there are always more stickers.  Why not let them have the joy of creating?

My daughter naturally draws in a notebook in order, but my son just flips chunks at a time.  Sometimes he even draws in it upside down!  I’m the type of girl that carefully filled up each page of her notebook before turning to the next page.  I never tore pages out of the notebooks, and I lined up my stickers with a ruler.  I was often so afraid of messing up that I never even started.  

I was so stingy with my stickers that my children used up stickers this year that I had gotten in elementary.  [I know it wasn't that long ago, but still...] My 2 year old loves nothing more than sticking stickers all over her arms and legs.  Is it a waste or a happy time?

To them it’s not the notebook or the stickers that are important.  It’s the creation.

I used to tell my kids to save some stickers.  They always got a funny look on their face that seemed to say “Save for what?”  My “no” changed to “I guess” to “Sure, why not” to “try to use them nicely.”  But I still refuse to let them mix the play-doh colors!