The Quiet Book: Shapes

I liked this page in concept, but I'm not sure it's gonna work. That makes me sad because it took a really long time to make. I saw an example of one online, just with 9 shapes instead of 12. The shapes are double layers of felt with jumbo snaps. The outlines and words are embroidered.

I think the major downfall of this page will be the snaps. I liked the look of them, and I liked the fine motor skill practice that it would make. Unfortunately, they're really hard to unsnap. Getting them on there is a piece of cake, but for now I'm going to have to unsnap them every time he wants to play with it. Not cool. I could have just done velcro, but that felt like the easy way out. I also wanted variety throughout the book. Oh well, we'll test drive it a bit and see if it works.

And this is a random picture of Madeline. She decided that she wanted to wear leg warmers. Who cares if it's 102 degrees outside? She absolutely refused to take them off until bedtime. LOL

Have a fashion-tastic day!

The Quiet Book: Cover

I ran out of embroidery floss, so in the meantime I made the cover for the book. It's basically a three ring binder made out of fabric. I used heavy weight fusible interfacing for a little stability, and 1.5" inch book rings. There's a pocket on the back for any extra pieces or little surprises I might want to tuck in it.

I originally meant to include a closure flap with some velcro, but I got distracted while I was sewing and forgot to pin it in before I closed it up. I may pick the stitches and add it later, but for now it can just stay open.

First of all, please ignore the huge red marker streak across Caleb's face. He's really into art these days. Anywhoo... while I was sewing, Caleb was writing on his little marker board. He said he was making a shopping list. He wrote "milk" and then asked me how to spell ice cream. I spelled it out (while I was sewing the cover and forgetting the closure... so much for multitasking...) so I wasn't really watching what he was writing until he was finished. He held it up proudly, and I just had to snap a picture. If you can read preschool-ese you can tell what the list says (except for the top line... which says "milk" by the way). It's milk, ice cream, peas. Maybe I should take the hint that he wants to write and actually teach him how to write some letters. At this point he's just making it up as he goes. I don't want him to make any bad habits that'll make it harder to write correctly later.

And here's Madeline... a little rumpled from nap, but very happy to have her cast off!

Have a great day!

The Quiet Book: Writing and Lacing

These two pages are probably the most boring to look at, but they're the most open-ended and will probably grow with him for a while. The first is just a pocket for a notebook and some pencils or pens. The entire book is going to be bound together with book rings, so I've also got a pencil pouch that will go next to this page to store crayons, stickers, stencils, or whatever.

This page was a bit tedious to make, but I think it'll be worth it. Most of the example books I've looked at had a page with a shoe that you could tie and sometimes lace. I want him to be able to practice tying shoes, but lacing is also a great fine motor skill. I thought a grid pattern was much more open ended than a picture of a shoe! I just spent half an hour hammering grommets and voila! The laces are some I found at Hobby Lobby. They're meant for use with lacing cards, so they're perfect.

Hopefully I'll have more pages to show you soon. I really want to get this project finished so I can sit back and look at it all together. Of course, that just means I'll have to start one for Madeline!

The Quiet Book: Clock Page

Here's the next page for Caleb's quiet book. The picture doesn't do it a lot of justice... it's much easier to see the numbers in person. Anyway, I chose one fabric to use for the cover and throughout the pages to give the book a little consistency. I just fused and stitched down the clock, and then I embroidered the numbers and title. The hands are from a cannibalized divider tab page meant for binders held on with a button. So far, so good... I might have this done before his birthday after all!

The Quiet Book: Weather Page

Here's the latest page for the quiet book. It's a weather report. (Yay for science skills!) The weather symbols are stored in the little pocket. They velcro onto the page, so he can display whichever one he wants. The ribbon on the thermometer moves up and down (it's in a loop through the back) so the red line can go up and down like a real thermometer.I'm eventually going to add a couple more weather options, (I haven't tackled a snowflake yet,) but this is enough to start with. I'm pretty pleased with how this page turned out. Most of the pages I've seen online and either copied or modified. This one is straight from my little brain, and I think he'll like it.

My New Craft Project: The Quiet Book

I decided a while ago that I wanted to try my hand at a quiet book. Caleb is at an age where he needs to sit still and be quiet sometimes. (aka, Sunday evening services.) I kept seeing these online, and I thought it would be something I could do. If you've never seen a quiet book, they're soft activity books for kids that usually have something to do on each page like buttons, zippers, velcro, etc. etc. Making one of these is very time consuming, so my goal is to finish by his birthday. I think I can do it faster than that, but I'm not making myself any promises. I have two kids to wrangle, and only one of them naps! Here is my first set of pages. This is a two-page spread with the numbers 1-10.

The numbers are fused on, but I also added a decorative stitch. The words are embroidered, but please note that I haven't embroidered anything since around junior high. I only remember one stitch, so no trash-talking my embroidery skills!

Each number has a cord with the appropriate number of beads. I was initially going to use pony beads for everything, but check out the adorable Noah's ark themed beads I found. Cute, no?

Educationally speaking, this set of pages enforces numeral-to-word recognition, fine motor skills (from moving the beads across), simple patterns, and counting numbers while corresponding to concrete objects. I know, I'm sorry, but I was a teacher after all.

Hopefully this will go well. I'll try to post my pages as I get them done, so you can follow along. Have a crafty day!

So If You're Wondering About the Speed Showering...

... no, I'm still not fast enough. If you ever think to yourself, "self, did you push that bag of flour far enough back on the counter?" Life lesson #49: always double check the flour.

Have a flour-tastic day!

Speed Showering and Rocking Chairs

It's always a risk when you decide to take a shower while the kids are awake. You have to weigh the pros and cons. Sure, you'll smell a little better, but how much of a mess are the kids making while you're gone? I'll show you! Despite my best effort at speed-showering, Madeline still had time to break into the cabinet and liberate half a bag of chips. She got the clip off, dumped them on the living room ottoman, and went to town chowing down. Please notice that Caleb is munching on a chip, too. This is amusing because the second I poked my towel-wrapped head into the room he said, "Oh no, Momma, Madeline got the chips out." Thus he tattled while eating some of the evidence.

On a different note, Madeline is now in her toddler bed instead of the crib. When we moved Caleb to a bed it took him months to get brave enough to get out of bed once we put him in. It was glorious. It took Madeline about 15 seconds to realize nothing was holding her in, and she's taken full advantage of it. Although she still hasn't realized that playing the toy piano is a dead give away that she's up. Heheh. Lately, we've often found her like this:

She loves to be rocked before bed, and she would prefer it if we'd just rock her until she was asleep each time. I don't want that to be the only way she goes to sleep, so I always put her in bed while she's still a little awake. Several times a week I'll go to check on her and find her fast asleep in the chair. She gets out of bed, grabs a blanket, and rocks herself to sleep. How cute is that?

Have a chip-filled sleep-tastic day!

The Aquarium

We took the kids to the aquarium today. As it turns out, my daughter is afraid of fish! Who would have thought? She spent the entire first half of our visit making faces like this:

and crying if we got too close to any of the fish. Luckily, she warmed up to them after a bit... as long as we didn't go too close. Caleb, on the other hand, loved it. He was right up front at each little exhibit.

We finally hit a turning point somewhere around the stingray tank. Caleb was standing on the bench looking in, and Madeline decided to join him. I think it was her favorite spot. We stayed there quite a while.

By the end of our ramblings Madeline had settled down into her normal, happy self.

Have a fish-tastic day!

Too Hot Outside?

Go spray your children with water!