Fun Book Binder

Everyone has a stash of coloring books, maze books and other "fun" activity books for their kinders... Presents from Grandma, road trip left overs, costco specials,  etc....
I pick many up from yard sales and thrift shops because they are so inexpensive.


Then, what happens? Well in our house, out of sight out of mind. =) Even though my kinders love coloring, they are on the art shelf waiting to be colored and used... someday because one of us forgets they are there.


What about those printables online you want the kinders to do, but don't want to have random pages laying around... or you want to print but keep forgeting? That was ME!


So, I decided to make each kinder a FUN BOOK.

I took an empty notebook binder and a 3 hole punch and began taking each activity book apart by the binding and putting the pages into the binder.

          I labled the books on the sides, and then printed a personalized cover for the front of the binder.

Now, if I need to the kids to occupy themselves for a little bit.. All I have to say is "Go get your FUN book!"  When we leave the house and I know we have a Dr. apt or something that will require quiet patient kinders, all we have to do is grab our FUN book to go!

The kinders look forward to it, and they can choose anything they want to do in it. It's their choice. Sometimes I put it in the workboxes, and they love that too!

I made each kinder a Crayon roll to go with it... So easy to just grab it and Go! And their isn't a large mess on the dining room table, or in the van.

I also made the kinders reusable fabric covered notebooks. These are the mead compostition notebooks you can pick up for really cheap during the back to school sales.
I am learning to sew and have been enjoying making simple things for them. There are many tutorials online to make some fun notebooks for your kinders!

                                      One for JT. With a bag to carry his treasures around in. =)

                                                                Pen holders on some...

For the first week of school I gave each kinder their own notebooks and some new pen and pencils to keep in their workbox drawer. They were so excited! This cost hardly anything, and they can keep it for a very ...long...time!

Tutorials

http://mypatchwork.wordpress.com/2009/11/18/notebook-cover-tutorial/

http://www.skiptomylou.org/2008/12/11/diy-fabric-notepad-cover/

Now, go make your FUN Book!

Field of Poppy's

                              My Children love "The Field with Poppies" by Van Gough.

And one of their Favorite Stories is Katie meets the impressionists

From Publishers Weekly

On Grandma's birthday, Katie goes with her to a museum and encounters some of the subjects in five paintings: two each by Monet and Renoir and one by Degas. She closes her eyes in front of one painting and opens them to find she's a guest in Monet's The Luncheon. There she gathers flowers for a birthday bouquet to give Grandma, but they don't fare too well on the crossing back into the museum. Next, her mission whisks her into three more works of art, including Renoir's Her First Evening Out, where the girl inadvertently wanders onstage during a performance by, as the artwork soon reveals, Degas's ballet dancers. Though Mayhew (Koshka's Tales) offers a breezy introduction to this school of painting, the book's duplication of works by two artists limits the scope of the lesson. Mayhew's softly focused watercolors approach the precious and his renditions of the characters frolicking through the fields present a jarring juxtaposition to the subjects represented in the original works (reproduced here on the museum walls). Ages 4-7.

Every summer there is a Field of poppies  in our area. Something we look forward to now each year....And Here are some pictures of our day .....

This one is my favorite. =) I bought the chair the weekend before at the yard sale for $10! Love it.

Thank you visiting! =)