Magnetic Tangrams

I've been wanting to make a magnetic shapes game, and we got another large magnetic in with the junk mail recently. So, inspired by Delia Creates, I had a go at making my own. Actually making 2 of my own, I thought that would be more fun and peaceful.

I decided to paint the pieces, as the last time I made the triangular dominoes using magnets and paper stuck on top, I found they really needed to be covered in plastic contact paper to stay nice. I was hoping to skip this step (which I found I really couldn't... more on that later).

I used stick glue to stick the pattern on, and then once I'd cut the pieces out, I removed the paper. I painted the magnets in white first and then in a colour.

Done. Or so I thought.

I printed out some simple shapes, only to realise that the original game expects the parallelogram piece (the only one that isn't symmetrical) to be turned over when necessary. That doesn't work so well with magnetic pieces, and the kids were not up to making a mirror image of the whole design. So I had two choices, either print out only the designs with the parallelogram in the right orientation, or make a mirror image parallelogram. I decided the second choice was FAR easier. There's a bucket load of designs out there, and it's so much easier to know anything you print can easily be attempted.

So back to the making, I made two more mirror image parallelograms (one for each of the two sets), painted them, and then seeing as the original pieces were starting to loose their paint already, I covered them all in contact (which makes them a bit easier to pick up and they feel a bit nicer to handle too.

Done. Again. This time for real.

And the kids love it. Miss 3 likes to have help to do it. Mr 5 is fine with a pattern, but I haven't tried him on the shadow outlines yet.

Now I'm dreaming of making a nice little magnetic folder for them to be stored in and travel in.

Travel Activity Book

I really wanted to make some wipe-erase activity sheets. I first bought wipe erase pens, but although they wrote well on clear folder pockets and smooth clear plastic, I found they wiped off very easily. This made the drawings (and little hands) very messy. Not to mention that the ink didn't wash out of clothes. Meanwhile they wouldn't wipe off laminated pages at all.

It wasn't until I heard about dry-erase crayons from Crayola and found a $5 packet of them at Target, that this idea really started to take shape.

The dry-erase crayons don't work easily on clear folder pockets (too much drag), but they do work well on laminated paper. Even better, they rub off quite easily with the cloth that comes with them, but don't rub off on your hand.

So then, time to make an activity travel book. I wanted something that would be suitable for planes, restaurants, the back of the car, rainy days, etc. so I made the pages A5 size.

I first started with some scenes that could be filled in with crayons or stickers. Miss 3 loves finishing a scene, wiping it off and then drawing it again. Especially if she has some company to do it with. Her favourite is the scene with the people, but I also included a space scene, underwater scene and a road. I used ripped paper, stickers and crayons to make them.

I then printed out some spot the difference puzzles (Mr 4's favourite puzzle at the moment), and I drew in some activities like a maze, thumbprints to make thumbprint doodles, and make-your-own sums in the left-over spaces. The crayons unfortunately don't show up fantastically on the red paper. The kids love mazes which are like streets with a different picture at each dead-end. And the maze lasts longer because they like visiting each object in turn. They are a little too easy for Mr 4, but that just means he tells me how they are too easy while he's busy doing them.

Next I put in the classic travel games: battle ships and close the square.

I also put in a blank page with a few other suggestions of games like tic-tac-toe or hangman that could be played there. I wrote the alphabet along one side to make hangman easier.

Finally I put in a home made plane scavenger hunt.

Edited to add: I have now made a plane trip scavenger hunt you can download for free from here.

I bound the book together using ring loops. This way I can change the pages to add things like my homemade i-spy pages (if I decide to add them in), new puzzles, new mazes or a page to collect stickers on. I can also take out the plane i-spy, and put in a car bingo etc.

Homemade Wooden Jigsaw Puzzle

One day I was reading a board book to the kids about different tools, and trying to tell them about a jigsaw. Suddenly I decided the best (although perhaps not the quickest) way to teach them this was to make our own jigsaw.

I got a scrap piece of MDF, and we drew our pictures on in pencil. We each painted our own objects in the picture, and when the paint was dry, outlined the shapes with a black marker pen.

We took the picture outside and I cut it up with a jigsaw (while the kids mostly ignored me, except for occasionally asking me if it was ready yet). When it was all done, and dusted off, we got do do our own puzzle! 

It was a bit tricky to do as my inexperienced jigsawing made the pieces quite a loose fit, but that was definitely outweighed by the pleasure we had of making it ourselves.