Welcome to Boisterous Boys!!!

Welcome to Boisterous Boys!

Meet Noah and August, my inspiration for Boisterous Boys. These two keep me on my toes. They are very much what one would call "all boy." They are adorable risk takers that love to test boundaries. They also are very curious and love to learn.

What started as a few printable activities with Noah when he was three became an obsession of mine as I hunted down more and more packs and ideas to find topics, concepts, and skills that my boys would love. August (who is just shy of two years younger) caught on to these activities less than a year after I started introducing them to Noah. So, at the ages of 4 & 2, I could barely keep up with their demands for more.

I started with a few holiday packs, creating some sturdier reusable manipulative activities on card stock and compiling coordinating "workbooks" for each one based on their skill level. After a while, I decided I wanted more themes and activities to work on with them and became disappointed at not finding certain themes and topics. Holidays were easy enough, at least the big ones, but others were not so easy. I tried my hand at a few, almost completed one, but I was having some difficulty giving it the clean look that I wanted, so I abandoned the handful of the ones that I started.

When February 2014 came around, I wanted something to help teach not only the basic concepts and skills they were working on, but also to help teach about Groundhog Day. I found nothing (ok, that's not true, but I found sets that either weren't what I was looking for or they charged an arm and a leg for them). I was newly determined to create a set which became my first complete set. Then, it became two sets. I was hooked. I already had a love of clip art and this just blew it over the top. Think of all the things I could create!

I started creating more and more, some holiday based, some general themes. When Mardi Gras came around, I couldn't find a single set, so I set out to make one that could provide enough activities and interest for my munchkins. Usually, I put together pages and activities from different creators, but without other resources, I needed to create it all. This set became so huge. 5 preK packs, 1 tot pack, a set of number cards, dot marker pages, and even my own version of Uno. A little crazy? Maybe, but my kiddos loved it.

After I gathered quite a collection and managed to finish off the long abandoned packs I started off with, I decided I wanted to share these great sets that I had made. I was a bit nervous putting myself out there, so I asked some moms in my mom group if they wanted to try them out and give me feedback. The feedback I got was encouraging - ideas for new activities, a few error corrections, etc.

In the fall of 2014, I started a Facebook page to gain exposure. Soon after, I opened my Etsy shop to share my packs. I started with just a few listings, most notably, my Halloween Monsters pack that actually grew to include 3 preK packs, a mini preK pack (that I offered as a freebie), a tot pack, a kindergarten pack, plus a bottle cap activities pack. What can I say, I loved that clip art set (and the coordinating images I pulled from others sets from the same artist). Since then, I've just kept it up. I put together several fall themed packs, Thanksgiving packs, and now Christmas packs. I opened a TpT store in December to allow another avenue for exposure. Now I'm working on several winter packs and I have plans for other packs through to next year and beyond.

Thank you for joining me on this journey! This blog is just one more way I can share these awesome packs, and show some behind the scenes. I also want to share the packs in action and help with preparation tips for some of the various activities, a sort of "how to" if you've never done some of them before. I am so happy you are here and I'd love to hear from you!