Creative storage bin and preschool flannel board ideas

This week has been full of changes in our home school.  I feel that I am finally (after months of throwing my hands up in the air) beginning to make sense of our home life and start to rebuild (after the moving).  Settling in has taken time and I am so glad that I didn't put the kids in school like I was tempted to a few months back.

Now I am really starting to catch the zeal for teaching my kids, investing in my family, and raising up Princesses for God.  It is actually an exciting journey (this homeschooling one), though it is a LOT of work to plan and prepare.  But the work I have put into preparation is worth every minute of the fruit I am beginning to see in my kids.  SO I love my job as a homeschool teacher.

Cubbies I made out of 6 storage crates I got from Walmart

Those crates above were purchased at about $4/crate.  I tied them together with yarn and stacked them on their sides to create a locker/cubby storage area for the girls' school work.  Here's  a YouTube video I filmed to show exactly how I did it.

I've also been busy creating a flannel board for what I hope will be the beginning of a new experience for my preschooler in our home - complete with "centers" and a "flannel board".  I have that all in quotes just so you know that this is not something that came natural for me in the beginning.  Over the past few weeks, though, I have really been turning it up on making our school at home something my kids can be proud of.  I think the flannel board will be loads of fun for my little Z.  Just so you know, I am planning to print out the pieces on card stock, laminate them, and put velcro on the back for pieces.  I am definitely not cutting out and creating individual pieces out of felt.

So here's a brief look at what I did.

All I needed to create my flannel board is:

1. a poster board (from the Dollar Store)
2. felt material (from WalMart)
3. a hot glue gun
4. scissors

Basically, all I did was:

Cut out the flannel to fit around the poster board

Hot glue the flannel onto the board's corners

Secure and dry

Voila!

You can also watch my video tutorial on how to create a preschool flannel board on YouTube.

Lastly, this week has been a growing experience for me as I am tapping into my past work with preschoolers and learning to apply it to my own kiddo!  Here we are doing magnet letters on a cookie sheet, learning to piece letters together to make words.

She loves her Curious George puzzle

Bible Memory was loads of fun, and we got this for $1 at the Dollar Store too!

An Evan Moor consonant sounds folder game

CandyLand- more fun!  Colors and counting.

We've also been doing more music together.  Ny loves to practice piano and wants to get better at playing.  I'm doing my best to help her until she passes Level 3 or so in the John Thompson's.  In my next post, I'll show you a clip of Ny and I singing a song together...

Until then...