kids activity corner makeover

hey all.  so, i've been on this kick lately where i am trying to purge our house of excess stuff, and simplifying everything.  also, part of that is making sure that the stuff we have is stuff we really like, and is functional, and we are not keeping it because we have always had it or because we feel guilty getting rid of it.  this stems from the minimalist documentary that i watched, but also inspired by a letter by the Bahai Universal House of Justice about the influence of materialism.  i want to go into this in more detail in another post, but for now, i'll just leave it there since this post is about the kids corner in our living room.

anyway, i have been re-evaulating space in our house, specifically for the kids; is it age appropriate?  does it promote learning and exploration?  is it useful?  is it too cluttered and distracting?  one of those areas was the activity corner in the living room.  if you have followed this blog for awhile, then maybe you saw the post from when Z turned one, and his present from us was a little truck, and the activity corner.  this included some Ikea spice-rack turned book cases, a 'z' with velcro so he could stick blocks on it, and eventually, the busy board that i made for him.  i had a felt board and a magnetic board with the alphabet as well.  over time, we learned that the most useful of these items were the book shelves, the busy board, and the z. the felt board and the magnetic board with the abc's turned out to be kind of annoying, with so many pieces, basically every kid that played with it would just throw all the letters or felt things on the ground.  after a year of picking the letters off of the floor multiple times per day, hubby and i decided to put the letters away, and then remove the felt board.

the original activity corner

recently, after staring at the empty magnetic board and felt board, and then realizing the z was kind of annoying, too, (basically the same thing would happen where the kids would just pull the blocks off the velcro and huck them all over the room) i pulled everything off of the walls.  i wanted to make the space fit the kids better.  so i thought about what i would like to have there, and perused my pinterest boards.  we had gotten the kids these little armchairs for Ayyam-i-Ha this year, and they have just kind of floated around the living room with no real spot for them.  so i thought this corner would be perfect.  and then i thought i could make them a little reading corner.  but the little shelves for the books would be right at a spot where they would probably bonk their heads on them all the time, so i decided to use those in ava's room and make something else in the activity corner.  i thought about doing a book sling, like this, because it was low profile, easy to make and wouldn't stick out.  and i liked the look of it.  but them hubby suggested to just put the books in the bookcase cubby where we keep our books and the bottom cubbies hold the kids toys.  so i did that.

the book sling i was going to make, maybe i will another time

the bookcase with cubbies for our books and for the kids' toys and books

then, i was at Target yesterday and checked out the dollar bin section, which i can never resist!  and i found these really great felt toys.  the ones i liked were the daily calendar thing and the world map of animals.  during preschool, Z always really liked the part in circle time where they would do days of the week and the weather.  and i was going to make him a chart like that at home, too.  but then, this one was at Target for $5!  and it's great!  it has the days of the week, the date and month, weather, "how i'm feeling today" and the season.  basically all the things i wanted to put on my chart.  and then the world map, which Z likes to check out and talk about anyway, but this has different animals that you place on the continent where they live.  i have seen some artwork like that before and i really liked it, so this is similar but interactive.  woooohoooo!  so i purchased those two things and then hung them up this morning.  and Z was super excited about it!  and ava liked it, too.  so i have this idea of doing our daily calendar together after breakfast.  this is great because Z can really learn his days, practice his numbers and seasons, and even talk about how we are feeling.

days of the week, weather, seasons, etc! so cute and only $5!!! cheaper than what i could have made myself

world map with animals

also, i had added this very simple twine to this wall so that i could hang some of the artwork that Z brought home from preschool and Bahai children's classes.  i will probably add the "A" and "Z" back to the wall (for Ava and Zabih), but the kids wanted to decorate their letters, so we'll do that first.  but other than that i think this area is done for now.  i'm glad that it can evolve based on the needs and interests of the kids.  oh, and i have that busy board in the garage and am not sure what to do with it now.  the kids still like it, but don't play with it all the time, so i may just give it away.