Our Art Corner

The linky at Teaching My Little Bookworm this week is about art spaces in our homes. Really, if I participate in any more linkies, my entire blog will be made up of link-ups to other people’s blogs, sigh. Yet, how can I resist such great ideas?! They can’t help that they (the other bloggers with these links) are such creative geniuses, right? ;)

So, here goes… our art corner is mainly in our kitchen, although there are other art areas throughout our home. We have a small eat-in area in our kitchen and this is what you normally see pictures of when M is doing art that I post about. Here’s what it looks like from a couple of different views:

Yep, we hang his art up here. Not only is that a little tacky (although we really don’t care, except I have been known to fly around taking it all down before *important* company comes), but it’s pretty much all hung up there with masking tape. Ugly, ugly masking tape. This is one of the many ways I’ve changed since having a child. Once upon a time I would never have allowed my walls to look like this! But I can’t help myself when those blue eyes look at me and say “where can I hang my art up, Mommy? I made it just for you!” So, there it hangs.

We also have a corner of our living room where M has his “desk” with crayons, scissors, lots of paper, stickers, colored pencils, etc. He does what he wants here as long as it stays in this area and he uses it all properly. Like, for instance, smearing the glue stick on the carpet means it will be taken away. ;) This is what it looks like – pretty messy:

There is also an easel in the kitchen. It has a chalkboard on one side and a white magnetic board on the other. He has markers and chalk here, more paper, magnets, and more stickers.

We also have a homemade outside easel that he paints on pretty regularly.

I store most of our art supplies, paint, stamps, do-a-dot painters, various things to paint with, freezer paper roll (we use this a lot to paint on) oil pastels, modeling clay, glue, etc. in a drawer in our entry closet:

I have a big bunch of newsprint and our paintbrushes in the kitchen.

I have a lot more crafty, artsy stuff in our basement in another plastic drawer organizer. This is where I keep our occasionally used items – faom sheets, foam stickers, sand paper, glitter, feathers, colored sand, extra glue, pom poms, and all the grown up craft stuff for me. :)

And I have 2 more of these drawers (I love them!) for miscellaneous stuff that I just can’t throw away. This is where we keep cardboard tubes, jars, bottles, etc.

So, there you have it. It seems like it’s spread out all over the house. We have a tiny home, so we have to make do with putting things where we can. My dream home would have a room dedicated solely to crafting and sewing.

For more posts about art areas go here!

Have a beautiful day! :)

ABC Book – Letter H

It has taken me more time than I planned to get back to our ABC Book, but I have finally finished the pages for H. I haven’t shown it to M yet, I’m planning on doing it with him during our normal Tot School time this week. So you are getting a sneak peek!
The inside:
M has really been asking for help drawing letters lately, so I’m going to start including some sort of tracing activity for each letter from now on. For H – our letter template, with dashed lines, and laminated so he can use his window markers to trace the letters, then wipe them off and trace them again!
Next, a Tic Tac Toe game using Hammers and Hard Hats:
Two songs about the letter H (sorry only one song is pictured, but both are included in the printable file):

An envelope full of things that begin with H:
Heart pattern strips to match:
And, on the back, a shapes House to color, glue, and build:
I decided to use velcro dots instead of glue for the shapes house, so M can put it together as many times as he wants. I also use velcro dots to keep all the envelopes in the file closed.
Click here for the printable file of all the activities – Letter H.

You can print as many pages as you want and of course use them however you want. You do not have to make an ABC book. :) If you just want the tic tac toe game and the shapes house (or whatever), print only those pages. You could make them into activity bags.
If you use any of them, let me know – I’d love to see what you’ve done!


The instructions for putting the activities together are written on pages of the file, as well as information about where the graphics were found, which sites I used for the letter templates or songs, etc.

Have a beautiful day! :)