Building Box

This one was a favorite project of mine. I wanted to make Baby J a building table, like the ones I had seen on Pinterest, with an Ikea end table and a flat lego platform glued on top. But I found a black wooden crate for free in a Craigslist curb alert, so decided to make it into a self-contained building box. The box was already black, but after I cleaned it up, I had to spray paint it too. I used our interior paint samples (3 bucks at Lowes, enough for a good sized project) for the sides. The most difficult part was finding a glue to use on the Lego pieces. Hot glue did NOT work. :)

Top of the box, looking down. I decided to only have one flat piece on the top, and make the other half into a parking lot. My first idea was to put flat pieces in the center and have a driving road around the edges, like I'd seen online. But I couldn't find a flat lego base piece that fit the box right - this one hangs over the edge, the small pieces were too small to make it work. So I put this large red one on the top because I realized that since we stored the blocks inside, he wouldn't be building with the box shut until he's old enough to take out some pieces for the purpose of doing a specific project.  I figured most of the play would take place with the box open, and I was right, at least so far. 

Inside. I glued a couple of flat pieces on the inside of the top of the box. I am intending to get more, but these are the only ones I had right now. Keeping the box open was a problem. It didn't fall open all the way, because of how it was built, but it also didn't stay flat. I didn't want to add pieces to make it stand up, and its solid wood, so making a hinge out of something for the inside seemed like an awful big project. I put some black weather stripping pieces on the side of the box where the lid meets it when its open. You can barely make them out in the picture. Two pieces about filled in the gap, so now the box stands open ALMOST at the right angle. Also, because its just foam, he can push on the top without ruining the entire box and the foam is easy to replace if I need to. 

Fall Sensory Items

Sensory play is big around here. We host a sensory play party every couple of weeks with friends from classes and kids we've met near where we live. I put together a theme and let the kids cut loose. We have a big playroom in the house we have right now, so there's lots of room to play.

Here are some of our Fall Sensory things!

                             Fall squishy bags... I used clear hair gel from the dollar store and food coloring. Then I put in small objects I also found from the dollar store. These were a big hit, but don't use items that are 3 dimensional  I put some jewels in one bag, and they poked through after Baby J decided to try to get them out. 

Fall Sensory Tub. I found this sandbox and lid free on Craigslist. It always amazes me what people will give away. Its lightweight plastic, easy to move around. It was super dirty but it cleaned up VERY nicely.  (We also found a turtle sandbox with a lid, which is just waiting to be cleaned up and used as something else) This one is now our seasonal sensory tub, a permanent fixture in our basement playroom.  I have been making sensory tub bags (full of items to put in sensory tubs) but I don't have room to store the plastic tubs yet. So, I've been keeping everything in reusuable shopping bags, hung on the wall. I can take the items out and put them in the seasonal tub. It works really well. Its big enough for the kiddos to get in and climb around, and shallow enough so they can reach items from the outside. 

Repurpose, Curb Alert Kitchen!

I have just been dying to find the time and materials to make Baby J one super-awesome toy kitchen. I plan on using an entertainment center and even have the paint and handles and things purchased. I just haven't found the time or the right unit, yet. So in the meantime, I hit up a curb alert for a toy kitchen. It was super old, and very, very dirty. But with a lot of freezing-cold-garage-cleaning-time, I was able to clean it up really nice. I put it in a temporary spot, and used the dishes and play food I'd been gathering. I also used a small end table and two of his wooden chairs from his bedroom to complete the kitchen. Remember, just because something is free doesn't mean it isn't worth it. And just because something is dirty doesn't mean it isn't worth the time to clean. These things look terrible, but underneath, they weren't so bad!

Art Display

I'm influenced by a lot of things I see on Pinterest. This was an art display project, made out of old frames. I didn't have time to find frames, nor means to paint them. But I did come across some standard brown painted frames at the dollar store. I took the glass out, and put a couple of layers of foam (again from the dollar store) in each frame. I covered it with contact paper (dollar store too!) and hung them up on the wall. The sign above the display says "In a world where you can be anything, Be Yourself!"  We just use regular tacks to put up pieces of art in our hallway.

Felt Tree

Awhile ago I saw a post on Pinterest about a felt Christmas Tree for toddlers to decorate. I thought, why not turn this into a year round thing?

Our tree is in our hallway. Its a large brown tree made from cut up felt strips glued to a flannel backing. I just used a staple gun to make sure it stayed on the wall.

We have a bunch of different colored leaves for the seasons. Light green and dark green work for spring and summer. We have a whole collection of reds and oranges and yellows for fall. I will be making a large Christmas tree to put over it for the holiday season, and will update when I do!

Drawer Full of Drop Boxes

We are a big fan of drop boxes around here. They're cheap, simple and easy to make. Basically, you find a container, clean it out, and then figure out what you can put into it. We've made so many that we have to have a drawer for them in our living room. We have one for feathers, a couple for pipe cleaners, one for colored clothes pins, a couple for poofs (big and small!), one with plastic links in it, and another with juice lids. Sometimes we go to the trouble of using contact paper and markers to decorate the boxes themselves, but more often we just clean them out and find items to put into them. Around our house its common to hear "Hey J! We have an empty container! What should we put in it??"  We keep most of them in a drawer in our living room entertainment unit, and others spread through the house.

Repurpose!

We bought Baby J a dinosaur kit at Target ($5) for his Halloween pumpkin. The paint portion didn't work so well, and the pumpkin we bought for it from our local Super Target was too small.

The pumpkin wasn't the best. The foam pieces fell off, and the paint didn't stick really well. BUT when it was time to throw the pumpkin away, I decided to salvage the pieces. I used superglue to stick them to an old food container, cut a hole in the top, and filled it up with clothespins. Dino Dropbox!

Magnet Letters

If your fridge is going to be full of magnets anyway, you might as well insert a a little learning into it! We found this at the dollar store. Magnets came from a garage sale, they came along with a LeapFrog magnet alphabet player. I've seen them used at places like our local Saver's and garage sales all the time.

Tactile Feet

Hardware stores are one of our favorite places to go. It doesn't cost any money to ride around in the big fun carts and pretend to drive. Paint sample strips open up a whole world of opportunity. You can cruise the lighting aisle and gawk at sparkly things. We like to walk up and down the aisle and point out items of different colors, look for shapes, and listen to people saying "Thank you!" on the intercom. A new item we found last time, however, were samples. Any hardware store (Lowe's, Menards, Home Depot, etc) that sells flooring will have samples to give away. They don't have these out on display, though. You have to hunt around in the flooring section. We found ours  behind the large swatches hanging on display in the floor section.

We put them in a bucket in our living room, and take them out when we need a moment or two of quiet or exploration.  You can talk about thickness and thinness, hard and soft, smooth and bumpy. Walking on them is one of the best ways to explore tactile differences.