DIY Alphabet Box

 

As a mother and former preschool teacher, I'm always on the lookout for great activities that will help children learn to recognize letters in the alphabet and their sounds.  In preschool we focus a lot on this, so I'm excited to share the Alphabet Box I made.

Thanks to Counting Coconuts for inspiring me with this idea. Check out her blog for ideas on she uses her Alphabet Box. It's quite easy to put together. 

For the box, I used a plastic hardware box with plastic drawers. I found this one at Wal Mart in the hardware section. It was black with clear drawers so I jazzed it up a bit with black and white polka dot washi tape around the entire outside. I also used two different  gray washi tapes on the drawers. Then used my cricut to cut out vinyl lettering for each drawer.          

Now for the fun part, gathering a bunch of small objects to go with each letter. You can find a lot just laying around the house but you can also find some on Etsy,  Lakeshore Learning, the dollar store, or a party supply store. I tried to get a least 6 objects for each letter. Some letters like X are harder to find that many objects for.  For this letter I found objects that had the letter x in them like ax, fox, box, wax.

Here is an example of the objects for the letter B. I'm excited to keep adding objects to the drawers because it's fun for the kids to  open each drawer and see what's in there!

DIY Fishing Activity

Every day I'm on the hunt for some kind of activity to keep my little guy entertained. He's so busy moving from one thing to the next, especially if it involves climbing. With the other kids in school all day, I'm lucky to have a lot of playing time with him.

I made a go fishing activity that he could do now as well as when he gets older. Each fish contains a small super strong magnet in the head to make it easier to catch with the larger magnet hook that's on the pole.

I was going to wait and give this to him for Christmas but I couldn't wait. As soon as he woke from his nap, we went fishing!! (Opps, I didn't even take the time to comb his hair for the picture). 

Materials needed:

Variety of fabrics
Fish template-found HERE 
Sewing machine
Poly Fil- I used one bag for 10 fish
Magnets-(I used Super Magnets for inside the fish and larger regular magnets for the hook on the pole).
Wooden dowel-What ever length you want
Paint- for painting wooden dowel, optional
String- I used bakers twine but any kind of string would work
Glue Gun

Instructions
*After choosing your fabrics, trace the fish template onto the wrong side of the fabric. You'll need 2 pieces for each fish. Then cut each fish out and place right sides together for sewing.  

Magnetic Hook

To make the magnetic hook, you'll need a piece of scrap fabric, a large magnet, string, hot glue and ribbon. Tie one end of the string to the magnet. You could always glue the string to the magnet as well. Wrap the fabric around the magnet and hot glue fabric together. This is so the little ones can't get the magnet out. Then tie a ribbon around the bunched fabric and tie the other end of the string to the pole.

Happy Fishing!

 

Plastic Tub Turned Toy Bin

A couple of weeks ago I found this fun plastic flex tub at Target for only $5.00 and knew exactly what I would use it for. It's a perfect container for all of the little guys toys.

Today I pulled out the Silhouette and cut some fun vinyl shapes to give the tub some character and make it fun for the little man to look at. 

Isn't the robot so fun!

I also tied a bunch of ribbon to the handles to add another element of fun.

I love this solution for his toys because when he's following me around the house, especially the bathroom, I can grab it and bring it in with us and he can pull out all his toys from the bin instead of all the toiletries from the bathroom drawers.

Fabric Applique Boy Onesies

Just within the past few weeks I've had family and several friends that have had babies. All of these babies have been boys! Crazy huh? I needed some quick but cute gifts to give so I made these darling fabric applique onesies. 
Supplies needed:

Baby onesies

Fabric Scraps

Heat n Bond Ultrahold (NO-SEW)

Various templates-the sky's the limit with these. Just google a shape you want. Print and cut out. 

Iron

Love this stuff! 

Trace your template onto the smooth side of the heat n bond then iron onto the wrong side of your fabric. Cut out your fabric shape. Peel off heat n bond paper then place on onesie where you want it and iron on. That's it! You can also add embellishments like buttons or ribbon. So fun! I can't wait to make some baby girl onesies!

Boredom Box

I'm back!!! After a much needed vacation with the family I'm back to blogging. We set everything aside and spent a fabulous week in beautiful Hawaii. This was the view from our rental home, isn't it heaven? 

It's been hard getting back into the day to day routine after returning, mainly because of a very clingy baby who we left at home with family. He won't let me put him down. I missed him like crazy while we were gone so I don't mind the extra snuggling but nothing is getting done around the house which means not much blogging this week either.

I did manage to finish this summer boredom box though. I brainstormed to come up with a bunch of activities that the kids would enjoy doing. When I think of more, we'll just add them to the box. A lot of the activities can be used over and over again.

I had a tin box lying around so I decorated it with washi tape and ribbon. Added some vinyl lettering and placed all the fun activity ideas inside. Hopefully the Boredom Box will help cut back on hearing "Mom, I'm bored", probably not but I can hope right?

What kind of boredom busters are you using this summer?

I made the cardstock circles on my Silhouette. If you have a Silhouette you can download the activity ideas here:

Boredom Busters page 1

Boredom Busters page 2

Boredom Busters page 3

Boredom Busters page 4

No Silhouette? You can download an activities list here:

I Spy Pouch

I've seen a few different versions of these I Spy bags floating around and thought how fun it would be to make some for the kids to have while we're waiting at the dentist office, karate lessons, older kids sports events, church.....  you get the picture right?

These are so simple to put together. Here is what you need for this project:

Binder pouch-Walmart for .97 cents

Plastic Pellets-Hobby Lobby-in the doll making section for $3.99/bag

30 or more small objects-you can find a lot in your kids junk drawers:)

Hot glue gun

Ribbon-optional

After collecting all of the small objects, I laid them out onto a piece of white paper and took a picture so I could print this out as a picture key of what to find.

Fill the pouch with all your small goodies and pellets. One bag of these pellets will almost fill two pouches.

Zip up the pouch and put hot glue along the whole zipper so it can't be opened.

Along with putting glue onto the zipper, I took some ribbon and glued it over the zipper so you couldn't see the zipper anymore.

Print out your picture of the objects and laminate for durability. I also made a written list and placed it on the back before laminating. Use a binder ring to attach to pouch.

Simple Alphabet Book

The preschool teacher in me is always on the lookout for fun ways to teach those basic concepts especially with learning the alphabet.   Learning can be fun and when you can add a little cuteness in there it's even better. So when I came across this great idea from Everyday Creations I became giddy with excitement. 

K&Company sells these darling animal alphabet cards that have facts about the animal on the back of each card. 

Here are a what some of them look like. I ordered mine from here.

It's quite simple to put the book together and  LeAnne from Everyday Creations has a great tutorial to follow. I'm making a few to give as gifts and personalize each cover with their names.