Quiet Book: Tennis Racket & Pocket Page

The tennis racket was another Serving Pink Lemonade template.

Tennis Racket

Several of the quiet books I found online had page to practice weaving.  Most were just a rectangle of strips of felt, but I really liked the idea of using a tennis racket to incorporate this concept.
Educational value/skill... weaving, creating a pattern

Pocket Page

This page is nothing more than two pockets.  Since I forgot to put attach a pocket to the cover I did this instead.  I'd just printed off these "lacing" dolls (found here) and so we've got them in the pockets for now.

Quiet Book: Season Tree

I loved this template from Serving Pink Lemonade.

Season Tree

There are snaps on the tree where you can attach flowers or leaves.  The grass is a pocket to store the items not in use.
Educational value/skill... using snaps, learn about the seasons and growth cycle of a tree, count the flowers/leaves

Spring flowers

 Green leaves for summer

Colorful fall leaves

Bare branches in winter (I think I'm going to make some snowflakes to attach for winter).

Quiet Book: Purse & Caterpillar

Both of these ideas were inspired from pages I saw at April Girls.

Purse

Another "skill" I knew I wanted to incorporate into the book was a buckle.  After some searching I decided a purse with a buckle would be a fun page.  The purse is a pocket and I'm going to get a few little things to put in it for pretending.
Educational value/skill... how to use a buckle, pretend play, I'd like to put some pretend coins in the purse to practice counting

Caterpillar

Buttons were another skill I felt should be included in the book (although I'm not sure how easy these really are to get on and off...).  It was another thing I had a hard time deciding how to incorporate.  I saw several cute pages with flowers that could be buttoned on the page, but when I sketched it out it never looked quite right.  Then I saw this page with a caterpillar who was snapped to the page and figured I could do the same thing with buttons.  Claire likes the book The Very Hungry Caterpillar so I made this little guy looks sort of like him.
Educational value/skill... how to button, we can count the caterpillar's circles, talk about caterpillar life cycle

The leaf is also a small pocket where the caterpillars parts can be stored.

Quiet Book: Dress-up Girl

Doll and clothing template from Serving Pink Lemonade.

Dress-up Girl & Clothesline

I can't remember where I saw the idea for the clothesline, but I thought it was super cute.  Plus I already had some of those tiny clothes pins in my crafty drawer.  I made the grassy knoll a pocket to store more clothes (if I ever make them).

Educational value/skill... using clothespins, talk about how to get dressed (something Claire's finally learning to do on her own!), imaginative play

 

And she's dressed!

Quiet Book: Mail Box

Another template from Serving Pink Lemonade.

Mail Box

I plan to put some blank note cards in the pocket so that Claire can write letters to put in the mail box, too.  I made a couple envelopes out of pellon which turned out quite cute, too.  The flag on the mail box is attached with a brad so that you can raise and lower it.  I'd seen on some blog (but can't remember where) the idea to make felt envelopes each with a word on it so you could practice forming sentences (for example, I - love - Claire) which I thought would be cute, but I didn't get that far yet.

Educational value/skill... imaginative play, how to use the mail flag, practice writing notes

Quiet Book: Vegetable Patch

I got this idea from the blog Leafy Treetop Spot.

Vegetable Patch

Claire is such a good helper in the garden I thought she would think it was fun to "grow" her own little veggie patch.  I was afraid the veggies might get pushed all the way into the dirt and so I left an opening at the top of the hill, so it's really a big pocket.  I also added the little water can.
Educational value/skill... dexterity to get the veggies in/out of their spots, we can talk about how plants need water and sunlight to grow

We only grow carrots and radishes (or are those beets?) in this garden.

Quiet Book: Red Barn

I used the template from Serving Pink Lemonade for the barn and the template from Homemade by Jill for the finger puppets.

Red Barn

Claire likes this one a lot.  I added the buttons to create wrap closure to keep the barn doors shut and the little animals safe.
Educational value/skill... imaginative play, we can talk about animals that might be found on a farm

When you open the barn doors you find three finger puppets inside.

A cow, pig, and chicken

Quiet Book: Road Map

This is another template at Serving Pink Lemonade. 

Road Map
I added the trees and the lake.  The lake is actually a pocket that can hold extra signs.  I printed the signs on card stock and then laminated them and attached sticky velcro to the back.  Claire can move them all over the map (although they don't stick to the pellon that well, but they stick to the roads, which are felt, just fine).  I found a great database of signs that I was able to print here.  The little cars (in the garage) are also just laminated card stock.
Educational value/skill... imaginative play, identifying the signs, we can talk about going on a trip and practice decision making about which way to turn

I thought it was a cute idea to have street sign with the distance from our house to some of our favorite places on it, so I copied that idea which I saw here.

Quiet Book: Pea Pod

This is definitely one of my favorite pages and also the one Claire has been most excited to play with so far.  I knew I wanted to have a page with a zipper, and I did a lot of looking before I decided on this.  I finally found the pea pod idea here and then made my own template.

Pea Pod
Here's the pea pod all zipped up
Educational value/skill... zipping a zipper, imaginative play, we can talk about relative size (little, medium, big)

When you unzip the pod, you find a little pea family inside!  The Pea family was inspired by the book Little Pea - a favorite of Claire's.

Papa Pea, Mama Pea, and Little Pea

Claire can zip! 

Quiet Book: Cover, Artist's Pallet, & Ballet Slipper

The cover was actually the last thing I made for the book, but I'm going to tell you about it first.

The Cover

I liked the idea of being able to easily remove/add pages to the book, so I opted to use metal rings like a binder would have... I thought about just putting the pages in a binder, but that wouldn't have been as cute, now would it?  I also knew I wanted to have a closure of some sort and handles to carry it all.

I used red flannel which I bought at JoAnn's for $2.50/yard (I only bought 1/2 yard).  I found the metal rings at Craft Warehouse in the paper crafting section.  I bought a "large eyelet" kit for the grommets at JoAnn's.  It was cheap and really easy to use.  The closure is actually velcro and the button is just for decoration and happened to match the turquoise fabric I had left over from another project and used for the handles.  I meant to put a pocket on the back cover just to store random things, but I forgot.  Oh, I also forgot to attach the closure at first... thank goodness for seam rippers.

Artist's Pallet

This was the first page I saw that caught my attention and started the whole project.  I used the template from Serving Pink Lemonade (obviously).  The "paints" are attached with velcro (sticky velcro on the pallet and the felt just sticks to it).
Educational value/skill... identify colors, imaginative play (pretend to "paint" things).

Ballet Slipper

This is another template from Serving Pink Lemonade.  Claire loves to wear her ballet slippers (although they just slip on) so I thought she would be more excited about this than a tennis shoe.
Educational value/skill... how to tie a bow

Claire's Quiet Book

Several weeks ago I was inspired to make a "quiet book" for Claire.  I'm happy to report that I've finished it up just in time for us to take on our flight to Spokane tomorrow!

I did some research and compiled lots of ideas from various sites.  All of them mentioned that making a book like this would take a really long time, and I definitely have been doing a lot of tracing, cutting, sewing, and pressing, but it really wasn't that bad.  Plus I'm so pleased with the results and excited to share my project!  Here's a quick peak!

I first saw this idea at the site One Pretty Thing.  I really like this site - every day they post new ideas for all sorts of crafts and homemade projects from other blogs and sites on the web.  You can search by category through the archives if you have a specific project in mind and just need some inspiration, too (which I always do).

One Pretty Thing had a link to this blog - Serving Pink Lemonade.  I really liked the clean and crisp look of her designs... and they were so darn cute!  She also generously shared the templates for each page, several of which I used.  After I had decided this was definitely a project I wanted to do, I found many other sites with great ideas, too.

It also reminded me a book my mom had made when she was in college, and that I had played with as a kid but hadn't thought about in a long time.  It was made of felt and had buckles and buttons, etc. and I always thought it was fun.  I'm hoping I can find it when I am in Tekoa.

My goals in making this book for Claire were to create something that might keep her quietly entertained and also provide an opportunity to practice skills like zipping a zipper, buckling a buckle and such.

So now I'm going to share the book I made for Claire with you!  Stay tuned...