Visual Shelving

      So I saw this pin on Pinterest and thought it was a great idea. (below is a pic of the pin, click here to follow the pin to the site)

 

      I wanted some shelving in my living room area for some books for the kiddos. However, standard shelving, where all you see are the spines of the book, don't seem to entice the kiddos that much. Especially thin books that all you see is a color because the spine is too small to write the title on. Plus my kiddos are currently too young to read, so even spines with titles offer little to no excitement.

      They really need to see the front of the book to get a feel for if they want to read it. (we have a standard, "spine view" type shelf in the playroom, and they rarely look at those books.) I wanted shelving that would allow a front view of a variety of books to be seen all at once, so the kiddos could pick some at their leisure to look through themselves or bring to mommy to read to them. This shelving was it. I installed this shelving at their level, so it's always right in sight, and most importantly within reach and visually appealing to lure them in for a closer look. I change the books out regularly so that they don't get bored of the same ones all the time, and in turn end up not looking at books at all.  I did go through some trial and error when building and picking my shelving,which i will get to later.

      I also wanted this shelving to display photo albums and scrapbooks for both company, and the kiddos to be able to go through anytime they wanted to. We don't have a coffee table for albums to sit upon or under, and I hated that they were up in my room, or in a box, never being looked through. What was the point of making the albums/scrapbooks if they never got looked at? Now they are displayed, and easily gotten to.

(for the 'how to' and my trial and errors, click the 'read more' button below)

Learning Colors and Counting Game

I made this game because my 3yr old is proving to be a bit more diffficult to teach colors and counting to than my first child was (now 5yr). So I have decided to have a "color of the week" on the wall, so that every morning we come down stairs and look over our color of the week (it is next to our letter of the week). We say the name of the color, and think about what things are that color. Then we can each take one of the smaller cards from the envelope and walk around the playroom and see what things are that color, and what things are not that color- believe it or not, that is important too(that is the 'beginning stage' of thg game). Then occasionally throughout the day (when i actually think about it) we talk about it again. The more you talk about it the more it'll be on their mind right?

After my son started to understand what we were doing, and what i was talking about when i would talk about the word 'color' and once he started to actually guess what color it was (even if he was wrong) we went to the 'second stage of the game'.

In the second stage I would color dots on the laminated smaller sheets with a wet erase marker. Then we have to count how many dots each sheet had, and they take their card with them and have to bring me that many items that are that color. So if they get a red card with 3 dots on it, they have to bring me 3 red items. If an item they bring me has more than just red on it, they have to tell where red is on the toy, just to be sure they are not just bringing me stuff and not understanding the consept.

Each kid gets their own smaller card, with a different amount of dots than another kid. Learning to count works better if they all watch each other count how many dots they have, so that they are hearing the correct counting order as often as possible. With that in mind, after a kid brings me a toy, i cross off one of the dots, and we have to count again how many dots are left, then they hear how to count several times in a game. This works well for my older son too, because he is learning subtraction. I'd cross off one, we'd count how many are left, and then i say thats right, because 4 minus 1 is 3, so there are 3 left. or 4 minus 2 is 2, there are 2 left. etc. NOTE: I'd say that is a more advanced part of the game that was an afterthought once i started playing this game. I do not to that part of the game with my 3yr old.

Another aspect of this game being good for my older son is that each color sheet has the written name of the color at the bottom of the page so my 5yr old and I can sound out the letters and see how each color is spelled and sounds of the letters to make it a word. That way every morning he also gets to be involved in this game. In the beginning I didn't do this (because we had not gotten to letter sounds and how putting letters together are what words are made up of) and he would often say the color when i was asking my 3yr old, even though he knew this game was for his brother, because he wanted to be a part of it too, and he was feeling left out, and wanted to show he knew it, and get mommy's 'proud attention' (or so that is what i assumed. lol).

(To read more on how I made it, and my trials and errors click the 'Read more >>' button below)

My Intentions

Hey Everyone, I’m Ashley...

 

 

and this is my first ever blog post on my first ever blog. I’m not very tech savy, and I’ll definitely be learning as I go, but if you bear with me, I think you’ll like what you see. I have created this blog to share the things I have learned, done, made, made into my own, or got “pinspired” and made my own original idea, because of pins I have seen on Pinterest. I’m pretty versatile, so essentially this blog is for everyone. I can woodwork, sew, craft, cook, bake, organize, create, etc. People often ask me where I got something, how I came up with the idea, how did I make it so they can make one too, etc. It almost always has come about because of some sort of "pinspiration".

 

 

I’ll post things I’ve done, how I did them, and how it worked out for me and my family. Also of course I’ll credit back to the original pin/website I got the pinspiration from, whenever it is not my original idea. I’m not here to take credit for things that are not my own. I hope you enjoy my Blog. Seeing how I’m new to the blogging world, if you have any constructive criticism for me, feel free to contact me.

Thanks for spending some time here. Hope to see you again soon.