HALLOWEEN QUIET BOOK PAGES

When I started to make this Quiet Book for my son, my original idea was to make a book that he can play with anytime. But as Halloween is approaching, I decided that I would like to make pages for all of the holidays that I could add and take out accordingly.  So I have been coming up with tons of ideas for Halloween/Autumn pages for Colt's Quiet Book. Last night, I completed my first two Halloween pages and here they are.

CREATE A JACK-O-LANTERN PAGE
(The face pieces are stored in the fabric pouch.
This is a felt board page.)

PUMPKIN PATCH PAGE
(Pick and place pumpkins in the pumpkin
patch using velcro)

*Please, if you use my pages for inspiration for your own Quiet Book, please give me credit by linking my blog to your post. Thanks!

QUIET BOOK - PART TWO

I have been so busy with birthdays, relatives visiting, and completing tons of Halloween crafts and decorating that I have been neglecting my Quiet Book pages. I recently completed a few pages and figured that I would sit down and post them since it has been a while.

Here are my new pages:

SKIING PAGE
(The skier slides up and down the slope)

TIC TAC SCORE PAGE
(My hubby is obsessed with sports and he wants
my son to be too, so I thought that using footballs and
baseballs would be a cute spin on the traditional game.

FRUIT MATCH PAGE
(Match the fruit using the ribbons with velcro to
connect them.)

HANG THE LAUNDRY PAGE
(Hang the clothes on the line using the mini clothes
pins. Clothing pieces store in the laundry basket.)

**Again I do ask that if you choose to copy any of my pages for personal use, that you give credit where credit is due and link back to my page. I work hard to come up with ideas and to make my pages look great, and while I don't mind if people use my pages for inspiration, please don't pass the ideas off as your own. 

AUTUMN TREE PICTURE

I love having different activities for my son to do during the week so that he's learning and playing at the same time.  And to be honest it gives me a chance to have him sit still for a few minutes so that I can do the dishes, vacuum or get a load of laundry done. I also love that I always have something he created to hang on my fridge. :) I want to give him something to make that had to do with Autumn so I thought what says Fall better than a tree with different colored leaves?!

All I did was take a piece of brown construction paper and cut out the shape of a tree trunk and branches. I glued them onto a piece of white construction paper so that the bare tree was already on the paper.  Then I just took some strips of red, orange, yellow, and green construction paper and ripped them into little squares for the leaves.

I just took a glue stick and place a little glue on each piece of colored paper and let him stick the "leaves" onto the tree.  He loved decorating the tree. 

I think he did an awesome job and the cutest part is that he placed a lot of the leaves down by the bottom of the tree or down below the branches so it looks like falling leaves. 

Lastly, as I do with all of Colton's art work, I wrote his name, age, and date on the back and laminated it.  Now I have an adorable fall picture for our fridge :) 

MY QUIET BOOK - PART ONE

I've been working for a while on a Quiet Book for my son.  I have to admit that this is definitely a time consuming project but it's pretty fun at the same time.  I did a lot of "blog surfing" for ideas before I started and came across some really good pages that i wanted to include in my book.  I also pulled out my creative side and came up with some of my own ideas as well.

Here are the pages that I have completed so far. I have many more pages that I'm in the process of completing and I will post more as I finish them.

GUMBALL PAGE

(The gumballs velcro onto the gumball machine)

SHOE PAGE

(I love this page! One shoe has velcro straps and one has laces. Just like real shoes)

STOP LIGHT PAGE

(The lights on the stop light button on and off. I used buttons in the same colors so that its also practices matching colors. The words are also outlined in the matching colors)

MR. SPUD PAGE

(I really like how this page turned out.  However, you may notice that it's called "Mr. Spud", I read on another blog that there was a copyright issue for using the actual name. So this is his cousin. LOL.  All parts velcro on an off.)

PAINT PALETTE PAGE

(I'm not completely finished with this page yet. It needs a heading or something else. I haven't decided yet, but I wanted to share it because I think it's cute!  The paint color attach to the palette with snaps.)

BANANA SPLIT PAGE

(Create a banana split by using velcro.  The ice cream scoops are stored in the ice cream container and the banana goes in the banana crate. I saw a lot of ideas for making hamburgers and sandwiches, but i came up with this idea and I think it came out so cute.)

WINNIE THE POOH PAGE

(I just finished this page and I am so loving it! My son is obsessed with Pooh and so I knew that I had to make a page with them.  This was my own idea right down to the freehand drawing and putting together the characters.   Pooh's red balloon, Tigger's ball, and Eeyore's tail all attach with snaps.)

I was so happy with the way these pages turned out that I can't wait to share more with you all!  I can't wait to give the book to Colton and watch him play with it!  

If you choose to use my page ideas and share them on your blog please give me return credit since I spend alot of time creating and thinking up ideas :) Thanks! :))

MINI FELT BOARD

Every parent should make their child a Felt Board. Not only is it a fun way to teach a child about colors and shapes but it is definitely a great time passing activity.  I made two of these for Colton, one large one that i keep at home and this Mini one that i keep in the car for road trips or dining out at a restaurant.  Felt boards teach kid's about creativity.

Here's what you need:
*SHEETS OF FELT (multiple colors and 1 LARGE piece of felt in either white or black for the board)
*CARDBOARD (a sturdy piece for the actual felt board)
*GLUE GUN

To make the felt board you wrap the large piece of felt around the piece of cardboard and glue it with the glue gun.  I suggest using either black or white for the board since most colors will stand out against them.

To make the pieces, i just cut out multiple shapes and sizes of the felt. I bought lots of different colors of felt to make more variety.  The great thing about a felt board is that the felt pieces stick without needing anything.  Like i said before this is a GREAT activity for the car and restaurant.  My son absolutely LOVES this! I think i'm going to add more pieces for him to play with.

(Here's a picture of the mini one that we use in the car) 

ICE CREAM COLORS ACTIVITY

At 20 months, I am working on teaching colors to my son right now.  I love having multiple activities that are focused on colors.  I thought this activity was super cute. I saw a variation on a website and decided to make my own version for my son.

This activity uses ice cream and ice cream cones for color matching.  It's a really cute idea and one of my favorite color activities.

All i did was draw out ice cream scoops on different colors of card stock. Then i drew triangles (for the cones) on brown card stock.  On the ice cream scoops, i wrote out the  names of each color. Then i cut out a matching circle of card stock and glued one to each ice cream cone in order to make it a matching activity. I laminated all the pieces and now have a cute way of teaching colors to my son.  This activity could also be a great busy bag idea for the car or airplane. I will definitely be taking this one on vacation for a car activity. 

SHAPE SORTING ACTIVITY 1

Here's what you need:

*SHAPE SORTING GRID (i made mine using Excel. I laminated it for durability)

*FOAM SHAPES or FOAM SHEETS (i bought a package of foam sheets in multiple colors. Then i cut out the shapes that i needed.)

All i did for this activity was create a Shape Sorting grid on the computer, printed it and laminated it.  Then i took the foam sheets and cut out the corresponding shapes in multiple colors. I recommend using basic shapes that are very different from each other. I made 3 of each shape but you could do more. 

My son is still a little young for this activity but it is another one that i will be glad that i have once he's a little bit older.

CHARACTER PUZZLE

This is probably one of my favorite activities that i have made so far.  It teaches your lil one matching using some of their favorite characters!


Here's what you need:
*PRINT OUTS OF YOUR CHILD'S FAVORITE CHARACTERS (i googled images of my son's faves and then printed them big enough to fill about half of a 8x10 piece of paper)
*LAMINATOR (again this is optional but it really does make it more durable)

All i did was print out several pictures of Colt's favorite characters. I used ones with distinct bodies or outfits.  Once they were printed, i cut each one out, carefully separating their head from their body. Once they are all cut out i laminate all the pieces and cut them out.  Then you have a really cute matching game. You can even call out a character's name and have your child find the parts to build them.  

My son is 20 months old and he actually was able to build a couple of them.  Right now he mostly just finds their faces and but we are working on matching their bodies to the faces.

WIPES CONTAINER FUN!

If your little one is anything like my son Colton, then you know what it's like to have a child who is obsessed with ripping every single wipe from the container. No matter if i try and hide the container, somehow he finds it and pulls every one out and throws them around the room. So i decided one day to take one of my empty wipe containers and fill it with scraps of material instead of wipes.  This way Colt can pull them out to his heart's content.  He didn't know the difference and just loves emptying the container and then stuffing them all back in. (This is also a great car or plane activity)

Here's what you need:

*WIPES CONTAINER

*SCRAPS OF BRIGHTLY PATTERNED FABRIC

All i did to make this was cut different size strips of fabric and put them into the container. How incredibly easy is that??

I even added decorations to the outside of the wipes container (not pictured) to make it more appealing to Colt. He really loves playing with this and let me say that it is so much easier to clean up since Colt would rip up the wipes into little pieces. 

SENSORY BALLOON ACTIVITY

My son is at that stage where he has to touch, squeeze, and shake everything. So he absolutely LOVES these balloons.  Let you child explore with this activity to learn different textures.

Here's what you need:

*BALLOONS (You want to get the kind that are good quality, and thick. Do not use ones that are too thin like water balloons. They need to be of good quality to ensure that they won't break.)

*SALT, FLOUR, RICE, OATMEAL, AND POPCORN KERNELS

Fill each balloon about 2/3 full with a different item and tie. Then let your little one explore! This is probably the easiest activity i've ever made!! And besides the balloons, everything  you need is probably already in your pantry.  

SHADES OF COLOR ACTIVITY

Teach your toddler about colors and the difference between shades of colors with this activity using paint chips from your local hardware store. 


Every time I go with my husband to Lowes or Home Depot I always think about grabbing some of the paint chip cards and use them to teach my son about colors.  So last time i did grab some and came up with some fun activities to use them with.  

Here is what you need:

*SHADES OF COLOR ACTIVITY GRID (I made mine using Excel and it came out perfect. I also laminated it for durability. Purchasing a laminator was the smartest purchase I made. I laminate so many things since kids tend to be really rough with things!)

*PAINT CHIP CARDS (I used the cards that had multiple shades on each)

*VELCRO DOTS (optional, but it makes it so much easier for the child)

*GLUE GUN

Once you make the grid, cut small squares of each color and shade out of the paint chips. You don't want them to be too small, but small enough to fit into each grid square.  I laminated the little squares but it's not mandatory.  Next i glue one half of the velcro dot set to the activity grid, one for each square.  Then i glued the other half to the color squares.  This was very easy to make and this is how it turned out.

My son is still a little young to do this activity but i'm glad that I have it made for when he's ready.  Right now he just likes putting the squares on and ripping them off the chart. 

COLOR LEARNING ACTIVITY

Let your child learn colors and motor skills with this fun and easy to make button activity. They learn their colors by the brightly colored felt squares. And they sharpen their motor skills by practicing buttoning and unbuttoning the felt squares onto the ribbon. 


Here's what you need:

*Brightly colored felt 

*Thick width ribbon (I chose a cute Mickey ribbon)

*Large buttons in bright colors

First, cut a piece of ribbon to about 8-10 inches long. Then with a needle and thread, sew one large button on each of the ends of the ribbon.  After you finish the ribbon, cut the felt into squares about 4in x 4in. I cut about 4 squares of each color so that my son could do patterns.  

Fold each square in half and (on the folded side) cut a slit in the middle to make a small opening in the center of each square. (Just big enough for the button to fit through).  

Now your ready to let your toddler have fun learning about colors! :))

DYED PASTA ACTIVITIES

I'm always looking for neat new activities for my son that are both educational and FUN.  I came across a version of this activity one day while searching the web and so I decided to try it! It's super easy to put together and my son loves it!


Teach toddlers about colors with dry pasta that's dyed with food coloring!


Here's what you need:

*Food coloring (multiple colors, i used regular colors and the neon ones)
*Rubbing Alcohol
*Ziploc Bags (gallon size)
*Pasta (preferably rigatoni or another type with a large hole for stringing)
*Paper Towels and Newspaper (for drying)




First before you start I should mention one thing. While preparing this activity there might be a strong odor from the rubbing alcohol. So make sure to do this in a well ventilated area.  Don't worry about the pasta smelling like the alcohol. Once the pasta is completely dry it will be odorless.  




To start, line a cookie sheet with some newspapers and paper towels on top.  Add about 1/2 cup of rubbing alcohol to a Ziploc bag, then add one color of food coloring. I used quite a bit of food coloring for each bag in order to get a deep color.  Swish the food coloring and alcohol around in the bag to make sure it is combined.  Next add some dried pasta to the bag.  Zip closed and place on the baking sheet.  Continue with the remaining colors.  Place all the bags on the cookie sheets and let sit.  Don't expect an instant result. This process takes several hours to achieve a deep color, making sure you flip the bags around every hour or so.  

Once the pasta has achieved the desired color it is time to let the pasta dry.  Over the sink (with hot water running), cut the bottom corner off the bag, making sure the cut only makes a small hole so the pasta doesn't fall out.  Drain all of the liquid out of the bag then pour the pasta onto the paper towel lined cookie sheets to dry. 

Let the pasta dry completely before handling.  This process usually takes another few hours.  And once it's dry you have lots of brightly colored pasta for multiple fun activities!! 


Teach pattern making by having your toddler string the pasta onto a long shoelace with a knot tied in one end.

Teach about color sorting with the pasta too! 

There are so many activities that toddlers can use this dyed pasta for. I'm even taking some to the beach with us so that my son can make designs in the sand!