Friday, June 10, 2011

Reusable Activity Books

Not sure how many of you have seen this post at
with the fun way to keep kids quiet in Sacrament Meeting.
I loved the idea.



We did something like it with the older kids.
Just used regular crayons and it worked okay.
I'd clean the crayon off with a wet wipe or with glass cleaner once we got home.
(Just so you know, Hobby Lobby has the dry-erase crayons and I used a 40%off coupon to get a good deal. They are also at Smiths where they have been 20-30% off each time I've looked the past few weeks.)

I took the crayons, eraser, and sharpener out of the box
and put them in pencil bags we found at Wal-Mart for $1.



Anyway, we used this a couple of weeks and the page protectors were not easy to clean off for the kids.
So I decided to laminate the pages and punch holes in them.
Then I hooked them together with binder rings.

We love the rainbow ones the best.
Got them at Staples and Hobby Lobby.

Well, for our long drive to California, I wanted something to keep the kids busy.
I hate crayons (especially for the little kids) because they will get it on their seats and clothes while we travel.
But the dry erase crayons wash out of clothes so well.



So I bought a few activity books and took them to the
FedEx store to have the spines cut.
(That was more expensive than I thought.
The next little one I just cut with my paper cutter.
The next big one I had my Wonderful Brother-in Law cut with his miter saw.
It wasn't as smooth of a cut, but looked great and was fine once the pages were laminated)
Then I took them home and laminated them.
(That took forever!! But now they can be used over and over again.)



I was going to take it back to be bound, but ended up just punching holes in the pages with my Crop-a-Dile and used binder rings to secure them together.
The hidden picture book is the favorite of everyone.


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1 comment:

Pitterle Postings said...

Now that is a great idea! We had things like this when my older kids were growing up and one of the things I did was put them up when we got home again. They only came out for trips, so they stayed "new" for the kids to use over and over. I also bought some magnetic games and those colorform magnet things that come in a metal case.

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