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Building a Kids Front Facing Book Display

April 9, 2018 by Andrew Leave a Comment

Shae and I strive to impart a love for reading in our children.  As such, books are one of the primary activity areas in our house (the other is a Lego table).

Unfortunately, kids are pretty awful at picking up and neatly shelving books when they are finished.

I’ve watched both Frugal Boy and Frugal Girl grab the bottom most book and yank it out causing everything on top to come avalanching out.  We have neatly arranged the books standing upright with the spines facing out and less than 24 hours later it looks like the above picture again.

The problem was simple.  There were too many books and they were not visible enough.  A little kid wants to see the front cover of a book.  That is how they judge it!  The title and author on the spine mean very little to them.

So I started looking around the internet for ideas on how to corral the bookalanche and make it a better experience for everyone.  I really liked Simple Families method.

It is simple, practical, and easy!  What’s not to love?!

First I looked at clear plastic folder holders like this, but they are $8-12 each and only hold one or two books at most without stacking them two or more deep (which utterly defeats the purpose).

Then I saw the Tidy Books – Original Kids Bookshelf.  It looks great and is sizable at 30″ x 45″ but it also costs a whopping $151.

There are some smaller, cheaper options like this sling rack.  It measures 24″ x 24″.

I couldn’t help but think that I could build something myself.  Thankfully, Ana White already did the heavy lifting by publishing some plans for a book or magazine ladder shelf (link here).  I’ve used her plans before when I built a changing table.

For about $35 worth of materials, I was able to build a custom sized piece to exactly fit the intended space.  48″x48″.

I assembled it in the garage.

You may be able to scrounge up the materials from leftovers of other projects.

I brought it inside to test it out with the kids.  They seemed to respond very well to it.

It is important to note that the unit leans against the wall and ultimately has to be fastened to the wall to keep it from tipping over.  I used a 10° angle on the feet per the original instructions.  Ana recommended in a note afterwards that 5° might be more appropriate.  However, I have some networking equipment that I wanted to hide behind it, so I stuck with the original 10°.

Frugal Boy is tall enough to reach the top shelf with ease.  We can put one or two of his jigsaw puzzles up there and no longer have to worry about lil sis dumping them out all over.

I finished the project up with two coats of paint that I had.

I didn’t see the need to plaster the bookshelf with bright colored alphabet letters.  Maybe it is just me being a miserly old man, but I don’t think every surface in a child’s line of view needs to be a shade of neon bright.

SO MUCH STIMULI

Besides, the emphasis should be placed on the books themselves.  I think it really comes back to the Simple Families blog post about teaching children some reverence for books.  These are treasures that should be cared for, not dumped into a heap.

So far Frugal Boy has adapted very well to the new system.

How do you manage books in your household?  Do traditional bookshelves work or have you tried something else?

Posted in: DIY, Frugal Boy, Frugal Girl, Parenting, Reading Tagged: book, library, reading, tips, Toys, woodworking

The Only Toy Your Child Needs

July 26, 2017 by Andrew Leave a Comment

I will be the first to admit it.  My children have WAY WAAYYY too many toys.  The kicker is that most of them only get played with a few times before they are tossed aside and ignored for weeks, months, even years at a time.  There is one toy though that has persistently been used time and time again by Frugal Boy.  I used it as well when I was a kid.  It costs nothing and takes up zero space.  The more it is used the better it becomes.  There are no batteries that need to be changed.  It can be used anywhere at anytime.  Every child in the world already has it.  What toy could possibly check all of those boxes?  Imagination.  Imagination is the only toy any child needs.

Kids can use their wonderful imagination to keep themselves entertained wherever they may be.  It is always with them, never gets dirty (that comes later in life), and is wonderfully adaptable.  Here is Frugal Boy jumping off a tall cliff into the sea.

The ever popular, “Floor is Made of Lava” seems to be imprinted in human DNA.

A little bump in the topography is all that is needed to be King of the Mountain.

A small drainage stream is HOURS of entertainment for an active imagination to work with.

You can pretend that you are a famous person by putting your hands (or feet) into wet concrete.

A pile of busted up concrete provides a wealth of possibilities.  Frugal Boy was happy to imagine himself as some big shot builder.

Toys that you buy at the store can help an imagination, but when that imagination has extracted everything it can from a particular toy, it gets tossed aside.  That is why toys such as Lego, blocks, and dolls have such a long play time.  They are good enablers of imagination letting the child play out a wide variety of scenarios.  The more your child practices using their imagination, the better they will get and the fewer aids they will need.

Posted in: Frugal Boy, Parenting Tagged: Toys

Let’s Play Swords Daddy!

February 4, 2017 by Andrew Leave a Comment

It was a sunny day yesterday, so I took Frugal Boy outside to get some of the wiggles out.  It didn’t take him long to find a scrap piece of wood and come swaggering over with a big grin on his face.

“Let’s play swords daddy!”

I found my scrap piece of wood and we commenced playing swords.  My knuckles got rapped a couple of times before I decided to upgrade my sword with a guard.  Of course, as soon as Frugal Boy saw my superior sword, he wanted to be on equal footing, so I ended up making two.  A few quick cuts on the miter saw and six nails later and we had a pair of excellent play swords.

En garde!

 

Posted in: DIY, Frugal Boy Tagged: Toys, woodworking

Neglect-o-matic Version 2

January 27, 2017 by Andrew Leave a Comment

We are another day closer to having a tiny helpless human being in our house again.  Umm, is there a timeout button somewhere that I can push?  Shae has been nesting, er collecting some of the infant paraphernalia that we shed when Frugal Boy outgrew it.  One of those items is a new, used neglect-o-matic.  For all of you normal folks out there, I believe the politically correct term is ‘Excersaucer’.

Frugal Boy was all to happy to help set it up and test out all of the different dingle dangles.

I’m wondering when he will grow tired of it.  He has been playing with it the entire time that I wrote this post.  Did I mention that it makes a lot of noise?  At least the price was right.  FREE!

Posted in: Frugal Boy, Parenting Tagged: baby, Toys

Celebrating Two Years

February 29, 2016 by Andrew Leave a Comment

We have been doing a slow burn birthday celebration for Frugal Boy for the past week that culminated with a trip to his grandparents house.

On Friday night we made sugar cutouts.

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Then on Monday he got a cupcake.

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That night he also got to open a few of his cards.

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Then we built a snowman.  His name might have been Olaf.

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Olaf is about the size of a snowball now thanks to the warm weather we have had over the last couple of days.

Then the real fun began when we went up to Grandma and Grandpa’s house this weekend.  His Aunts helped make a four layered cake.

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It was a pretty awesome cake.

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It even came with a side of ice cream.  How *cool* is that?!

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Frugal Boy had fun experiences, such as the train show we went to on Saturday.  His striped bib overalls fit in perfectly.

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There were three gymnasiums and a cafeteria all filled with train setups and trains for sale.  Many of the displays were interactive and included buttons that kids and adults could press to activate different models and gadgets.

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Other highlights included playing with the dog, going for tractor rides, and playing by Grandma’s rules (which are far more lenient than Mom and Dad’s)  😉

Here he is with Grandpa.  He was really upset that he didn’t get to say bye to the tractor, and Grandpa was nice enough to take him down to the shed so he could.

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Shae and I did the boring birthday things, a basket of fruit and a 529 contribution.  Thank you to everyone that helped make his week a little more jovial.

Posted in: Frugal Boy, Parenting Tagged: birthday, Toys
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