Small Spaces: A play corner in England

One lovely thing about blogging is how you get to meet, and sometimes chat with people from all over the world. Since the start of our "Small Spaces" series, I've had readers writing in to share the spaces they have designed for their children, and during the last run of this series, we had a mum all the way from Japan sharing her child's play space!

To end of our train, I thought I'd post about this lovely corner that was shared by Chelsea, who resides in England. Chelsea happened to chance across our Small Spaces posts, and said she would love to share her corner. The corner was such a neat and cheery one that I asked if it was ok for us to share her space on the blog. She said yes, and sent us more pictures!

Chelsea is mum to a three year old girl, whom she calls Boo. Here's what she has to share about this learning corner:

"I see an opportunity in every corner and on every wall. Living in a small house meant I had to utilise my space. This picture shows the back wall of my kitchen, which is an ideal space to enjoy water, paint and messy play activities, without having to worry about getting a mess on the carpets or walls." 

"I am a single parent, so it pays to be clever with up-cycling your furniture, and using everyday materials for storage and creative craft play. Thank you, and I hope this inspires you to create some of your own small spaces! Love, Mum Chelsea."

I just love how everything has a space of its own, and is neatly corralled in various boxes and baskets. Thanks Chelsea for sharing your space! (If you'd like to take a peek at more of her home, you can find her sharing photos over on her new FB page here.)

And that's the end of our "Small Spaces" blog train. It has simply been wonderful following through the blog train this round, and I've been inspired by all the spaces that were shared! I hope you have been too. If you'd like to browse for more posts in this series, please click the button below.

Small Spaces: Our learning corner

Hello! Today it's our turn on the "Small Spaces" Blog train, where you get to have a glimpse into various real spaces designed for children. Since we homeschool, the boys are home for a large part of the week. This means that our home spaces have to work very hard for us! You've probably read about our reading corner, and have seen part of the boys' bedroom… and today we'll be showing you the learning corner that we've carved out of our entryway. 

The entryway was actually corridor space, which the previous owner bought over. This used to act like our "garage", and there used to be shoes, balls and umbrellas scattered all over (you can see part of the mess in the before photo!). The space was doing nothing much, aside from being a catch-all for all our outdoor stuff (like the boys' bikes and scooters), so I decided to clean it up and use it as a learning corner. Here's how it looked like before, and after the clean-up:

We have a bench in the entry that nobody sat on (because it was usually piled high with stuff!), and I cleaned it up and used it as a nature table for the kids:

The table contains natural materials that the boys' get to play with: tree blocks (which the boys' Ah Kong kindly helped to saw for us), pebbles, as well as various things that the kids pick up on their walks. I use all sorts of wooden bowls, baskets and recycled fruit containers to keep these things organized. Sometimes, we throw in various animal figures (from these Toobs) for the kids to play with. 

Part of the nature table is lined with faux grass, which we purchased from Daiso. It gives an added sensory element to their play.

Their clay salamanders. More details here. 

To the right of the bench is a larger basket where we store their balls, as well as more nature materials. The baskets are from Daiso, as well as from the market at Sungei Road (which is a gem resource for baskets!)

Above the nature table is a picture ledge from Ikea, which we use to hold all the boys' smaller natural materials, as well as their magnifying glasses. The boys love picking all sorts of fruit and leaves and what not when they go on walks, and we sort and keep the stuff that doesn't decompose easily. These are held in Rajtan spice jars (from Ikea), as well as empty baby food jars (we sometimes use baby food when we travel, and I save the jars). 

Some of their nature-related artwork is displayed above the shelf, such as Junior J's painting of beetles, Lil J's veggie stamping on canvas (the canvas is from Daiso), and the butterflies that they've made. I also put up some vintage educational postcards on plant parts (from here). 

There was space to the right of the nature table, which I used to display the boys' aquariums: cardboard pieces painted to look like the sea, containing various sea creatures which they've made. We add new creatures to their aquariums occasionally. The toddler loves looking at these!

Top aquarium by Junior J, bottom aquarium by Lil J. Junior J's one even has a key!

Below the aquariums is an old Ikea frame that I've repurposed to allow us to display pictures. I'm planning to use this to introduce artists and their paintings to the kids, but for now they will just hold postcards from various parts of the world. Making this was easy: I just cut twine and pasted it to the back of the base of the frame using washi tape. The postcards are held up by wooden pegs from Daiso. 

We managed to squeeze in our sensory bin below that display. This is a Torkis clothes basket from Ikea, and by far the best container I've found for sensory play. It's tall enough to reduce spillage, and large enough to give all 3 enough space to play. I've found most other trays too shallow or small, or much too large. Best of all, it costs less than $8!

Right now the bin is empty, save for some tools that were from the kit from My Messy Box. 

The wall opposite to the nature table was empty, so I put up an adhesive blackboard strip (from Joli Petite). We have a blackboard wall in the house, but the boys mainly get to doodle on this one instead, as it is "outside" the house. This way, the dust gets more or less contained.

The boys use both regular chalk, as well as sidewalk chalk. I love the colors of the sidewalk chalk, as well as how these are nice and thick (which means they do not break easily!). This mini crate from Daiso is perfect for holding the chalk. 

On the side opposite to the main door is our mini garden, which sits atop of our shoe cabinet. The boys help to water the plants, but this is another area I would like to tidy and do up! Above the garden is our enamel tray display, which greets us when we enter the house (you can read more about this display here). 

All in all, this learning space is working well for us. Since this is "outside", the mess is more or less contained, which means I don't need to fret so much about dust (from the chalkboard) and sand (from the sensory bin). Also, the boys are trained to leave any natural materials at the nature table and not bring them indoors, so we are not so worried about soil and bugs getting into the house. There are just two drawbacks though. While this area gets plenty of sunlight, it also means it can get pretty hot, and we are thinking of installing a fan here. That aside, since this is just inside the main door, the boys sometimes get so distracted playing here that we can't get them to leave the house when we are headed out! 

~~~~~~~

This post is part of the "Small Spaces" series that is hosted by this blog. Please click the button below to take a look at more children's spaces!

Next on the blog is Danessa Foo from PrayerFull Mum. Danessa is enjoying the new season in her life as a Stay-at-Home Mum, now that they are back in their homeland Singapore after being overseas for 2 years. Head over to her blog tomorrow, to find out how Danessa dealt with smaller spaces in her new "old" house after enjoying spacious living in America.

{Small Spaces} A child's corner in Japan

Hello! Packing has been crazy (I put books in boxes, and the boys decide those are the most interesting titles and take them out!), but I'm popping by to share a child's space with you. 



Today we have Michelle, to share her son's space. Michelle is a stay-home mum to a two year old boy, and has been residing in Japan since 2010. She blogs about her life here, and she's letting us take a peek into her son's play area.

~~~~~~~

In our small cramped rented apartment , we racked our brains so hard to have a small area for the son. Initially, we put all his toys into those big plastic containers. But we realized that he only played with whats on the top layer. So we decided to find something to display his ''properties''.

Here's an overview of his small space inside our bedroom. We also have charts and artworks all over the wall.

We went to Baby R US and saw these colorful shelves on sale. We bought one in the first place and later on added the second one 6 months later.

Here are the details of the two shelves. Most of his toys are cars..(BOYS) we arrange accordingly to the types. Balls, mini cars,big cars, trains, flash cards, puzzles etc. The second shelf , you can notice I overturn one shelf case to act as a base for the radio.

By the side of the shelves is a big plastic box where we keep those baby toys he doesnt play anymore. We also use the box to act as a table top for his Tomica Thomas toy set.

Besides this is his book shelf. We also use the shelf top as a base for his lego box and some other toys.

Next to this is his activity table. On the table, we place his crayons, drawing blocks and coloring books as well as other stationary.

Below the table are 2 plastic drawers. Here what's inside, some craft material and wooden blocks. On top of the drawers, we place plastic tray to house his xylophone set and some other craft materials too.

~~~~~~~

Michelle says that this area is usually in a mess when her son is awake. However, I think its pretty well organized, don't you think? 

{Small Spaces} A homeschooling space

Hello! If you can remember, we had mothers sharing their children's spaces over here last year, and I'm excited to share a few more with you! 

Today, we take a look into a room used for homeschooling, and you will be impressed how neat and pretty the room is. Jean is a homeschooling mum of two, and she blogs over at "Jean Stitch". I'll leave you with her to introduce her kids' learning space!

~~~~~~~

Hi! I am Jean, a homeschooling mom of 2 kids who love to sew, craft, bake! Today, I will bring you around the room that we spend most of our time together from morning till late afternoon. We call this room our "Study and Play Room"! And what do we have in there? C'mon in!

This little corner here is where G and J will take turns to read or flip through books (for my 4 year old J who is not reading yet). They love this space and the little sofa (sometimes they 'fight' over it). We have another bookshelf in the children's room. A smaller one where they get to read during their free time, when they are awake in the morning or just before nap.

Every morning, G has to follow a timetable during school time. This timetable is not valid now since she has taken her year-end exam for this year and now pretty relax where she gets to do what she likes to do after completing a few pages of her workbook during the holidays (oops! no idle time lest the brain works slower).

Schedule for 2013 coming out soon with new outdoor activities and I am going to include visitations to her great-grandma into it :)

Since we are into this home-learning space, let me talk about it a little bit more. We usually start our day around 7.30am, actual learning starts around 9am after morning devotion. It will last till noon time with 5-10mins break in-between. After lunch, she gets to rest a while before practicing her piano for 45mins. A short break before starting her second half of her schooling. We usually end the lesson around 4pm. Our Fridays though is still a schooling day, we do minimal so that we can have some outdoor activities. It can be out to library, park, museum for next year or mummy's favorite place (can you guess where?) :)

Little J's timetable is slightly different, he at the moment has no official timetable maybe... next year :)

A small table for J to do his writing and occassionally, G will use it to do her schooling too but most of the time, she will share a table with me where I get to score her worksheets while supervising her.

The other side of the wall, we have a map, pinboard where all of us are sharing, whiteboard for learning, charts.

A little corner for myself. A cupboard full of fabric. Pretty suitcases for some craft tools, stamp pads, rubber stamps. I am not into scrapping but little girl likes to make cards. And I have plenty of love notes from her :)

This is the table that I mentioned where G and I do our work. When we are done with our schooling or she doesn't really 'need' me, I will do my sewing while little boy naps. She gets half the table too for her craft! Over here, she made some marble magnets while I worked on my key holders. And yes! that's my sewing machine there :)

How do we keep our workbooks and worksheets? We have plenty of these. We heart these transparent holders that we bought from the bookstore. They make looking for workbooks easier. Worksheets will be in the files :)

Almost done! Just to share a verse from the Bible which I slowly cut out 8 years ago when we first decided to homeschool our children. This verse keeps me on the toe whenever I look at it, almost daily because it is just right in front of me up on the wall :) A good reminder as a parent.

{ Proverbs 22:6 ~ Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it. }

That is all. Thank you for coming by! :) ♥ Jean

Saturday Surfing: Smart storage (and a giveaway!)

After seeing all those Trofast and Toyogo boxes in our "Small Spaces" posts, I thought I'd share three storage ideas that I've seen floating around in cyberspace for your kid's craft materials:

:: Paint cans to store art supplies that can be taken down when required:

Photo source: Chasing Cheerios

:: Spice containers to store all the little bits and bobs (this post also has many storage ideas for paper crafters and scrapbookers!):

Photo source: Creating Keepsakes Blog

:: A box and toilet rolls to keep pens and markers organized:

Photo source: Aunt Peaches

And speaking of storage, how about a storage box giveaway? JED Packs! is generously giving away one Tyrrell Katz storage box to one blog reader!

These sturdy storage boxes come in a variety of designs that would appeal to both boys and girls (I think Junior J would be ecstatic if he ever received the dinosaur one!). The front snaps shut and is held there magnetically, so there are no clasps that might catch on little fingers. 

These boxes measure 33 x 22 x 14 cm. Just the size for keeping all sorts of stuff, from ballet accessories to being a train shed!

To enter in this giveaway, you would have to carry out ALL the following steps:

1. Like the JED Packs! Facebook page.

2. Like the Mum in the Making Facebook page, if you have not already done so.

3. View the designs available and "like" the design that you would choose if you win.

4. Leave a comment on this post to share which design you chose, and why!

This giveaway is open only to those residing in Singapore, and the winner would need to self-collect the box at a location in Holland Village (as its too heavy for postage!). The giveaway will end on the 12th of Dec, Wed, at 12 midnight Singapore time.

In addition to this giveaway, JED Packs! would be giving a 5% discount to all readers if you purchase any of these boxes. Just drop an email to orders@jedpacks.com with your order and quote this blog! 

Happy shopping and all the best for the giveaway! (Oh, and don't forget to enter in our other giveaway, for vouchers to online bookstore Flip for Joy. Its the last day for this giveaway, so hurry, go enter!)

Updated: Congrats Claire T! You've won yourself a nifty storage box... do drop me an email at john(dot)jus(at)gmail(dot)com with your details!

[Disclaimer: I did not receive any compensation for this post. Photographs of the boxes courtesy of JED Packs!]