Tuesday, July 31

Printable Quiet Book

Crew's curiosity and desire to learn has just exploded lately. I was a bit surprised, as I was not
expecting to start teaching him his alphabet, numbers, colors and other skills quite so soon! But as soon
 as I realized he was ready and I started buying developmental activities and puzzles, his appetite for
them has been insatiable! He will practically beg me to do his "alphabook" or other activities all day
long and we have had many a tantrum because of it. 

It all started with putting together a few quiet books for church. You know the kind; the oldies but
goodies that are in file folders with velcro. He loves them. He loves them so much that I wanted to
make some more so he wouldn't get bored of the ones we have. After looking around online for 30
minutes or so, I determined there are really no good printable quiet books out there. So I decided to
make one.

I haven't quite gotten mine finished but I wanted to share with you mommies out there. Here is the
book, and a simple tutorial on how I'm putting mine together.


(A sample of the pages)


 It's currently on Etsy for $4.99 but you are welcome to follow the link and download it for free.




Ok, so here is a simple explanation to how I'm putting mine together along with a couple of links:

After using the velcro quiet books in church, I wanted to go the magnetic route. It's not that velcro
is super noisy, and probably no one but me noticed but I was still self-conscious about it. Also,
I think it's fun for a little toddler to play with magnets because it's a new sensory experience.

My sister-in-law, Kirstin, had found some decorative boards at a store that were magnetic which
she just glued paper onto to use as a quiet board. She was kind enough to give me one but I also found
these magnetic boards for $10 online that I think would work just the same. 

I got my two copies of the PDF printed at BestValueCopy.com. Your first 50 color prints are free.
They charge you an arm and a leg for shipping, but it was still almost half the price of getting them 
printed locally. I had them printed on 65# Cover Laser White paper which is a heavy cardstock 
and it didn't cost anything extra! It also came really fast, so I would recommend them.

After cutting out and laminating all the pieces, I plan on attaching 4 magnets to the corners of each
original pattern so it will stick to the magnetic board, then one self-adhesive magnet to the back of
each corresponding piece. That way, you have one magnetic board, then just one other folder
with all the other templates that can be switched in and out. I hope that makes sense.

Here is a listing for 200 self-adhesive magnets on Ebay for $7.99. There are about 175 pieces in this
Quiet book, so 200 magnets will be perfect with a few left over. I'm a little worried that after
laminating the cardstock, these magnets wont be strong enough to stick through, but having
them self-adhesive is a big selling point for me! I can't imagine glueing 175 magnets. I'm hoping
they will be fine but I'll update you once I finish my book.

SO...there was the not-so-short version of my Quiet Book story. I hope some of you will
download it and that your children will enjoy it as much as Crew has!