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DIY Toddler Felt Play Mats [For All Those Plastic Animals Lying Around Your House]

kid play mats for plastic animal toys

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Do you have a box of animal figurines in your house that looks like this?

 

what to do with plastic animals

 

Or perhaps they’re not even in a box like this. They’re simply sticking out of the nooks and crannies of toy boxes and bins and bookshelves everywhere in your house.

Momma, I feel ya!

I literally feel ya. Every time I step on one of those pokey plastic weapons? Yeah…

 

That’s why I racked my brains to figure out a way for my daughter to actually play with them in a productive way.

Hey, productive play. I like the sounds of that…

 

One of my first thoughts was…felt play mats! That’s an easy, space-friendly way to incorporate all the animals. Something that wouldn’t take too long that we already had the supplies for.

So , I did a quick search on Pinterest for felt play mats and drew a few really sophisticated sketches (ha!) like this based on some of the little features I wanted to add:

 

felt play mat planning sketch

A little cave here…

A pond there…

A few removable tufts of grass…

 

And I made a mental plan for the various “habitats” I wanted to create for our animals.

We have different “types” of animals, so I designed the play mats to roughly suit their appropriate habitats.

For example…

  • I made a water mat for the sharks and fish.
  • I made a farm mat for the farm animals.
  • I made a jungle-y, volcano-laden land for all the dinosaurs.
  • Oh and a random Smurf village for our little Smurf collection. Ha!

So, take a look at the animals you have lying around to decide what type of habitats you want to create with your mats. Then, create a rough idea for your mats like I did.

The next step is to gather your felt and embroidery thread and get to work. I used the materials we already had at home.

I just used a pretty wide straight stitch to sew each part to the mat. I’m horrible at straight lines, so if you are too, don’t even worry about it.

Let me show you what we ended up with and how I put them together.

 

Farmland

The farmer’s field is an extension of the barn.

First, I started with two patches of crops. I stitched yellow lines across a brown rectangle to represent one field and red circles with green “stems” to represent more crops.

 

Then, we added the animals, a fence, and a tree to complete our farm setup.

 

DIY felt play mat farm

Smurf Village

For the Smurfs, I created mushroom and log homes with stepping stones. I intend to add fake flowers, decorative embroidery, and floof to make it even more idyllic.

Each stepping stone is anchored by a single stitch and I made a bush that’s made with just rectangles stacked on top of one another with a single stitch down the center.

 

For the base of the mushroom, I simply stitched the sides of one long rectangle together…

 

Then, I made the top of the mushroom by stitching together two red circles with polyfill in between and white circles on top. The top of the mushroom just sits on top of the base so the Smurfs can go in and out.

 

DIY felt play mat smurfs

For the brown log, I just stitched two sides of a rectangle together again and cut out three sides of a square to make a little window.

 

Aquatic life

I used a blue mat for the sea and added a cave, lily pads, and an island. Any sea animals are welcome on this play mat.

Start with a blue mat

 

Add the island and the sea cave. Stitch in place. I added a little bit of fiberfill inside the island to give it some elevation.

Add some greenery. The bush on the island is another stack of green rectangles. I also stitched the lily pads down with one green stitch each.

sea life felt play mat

Add all your aquatic animals. If you have rocks and seashells at home, add them for another fun dimension (if your child is over 3 and won’t choke on them, of course).

 

General Wilderness

We sort of put all the leftover animals here. With a pond and a cave, this habitat could be anywhere.

I started with a green mat and added a pond, a cave and another bush.

DIY felt play mat for plastic animals

I made several of the standing grass pieces you see in the center there. I just cut two rectangles, snipped out some fringe, and stitched them together about a half-inch from the bottom so I can make them stand.

 

Prehistoric Dino Land

I don’t really know much about dinosaur habitats, but from the other example play mats I saw, I figured a volcano and some tropical greenery seemed appropriate.

 

Rectangle bushes. I like them.

 

For the volcano, I created a cone out of brown felt, stitched it together down the back and wrapped a piece of red “lava” around the top.

 

DIY felt play mat for dinosaurs

 

The Entire Wilderness

Here’s the finished product with all the play mats. You can see how a toddler could have endless fun with this right? It also offers you an educational opportunity…

 

DIY felt play mats for plastic animal figurines

Educational opportunity

This project is all about imaginative play and being resourceful. However, this process has several great teaching opportunities built into it. If you have a toddler or older child at home, you can use the animals and their homes as teaching moments for your kids.

 

You can teach your kids about:

  • Animal noises: What does the lion say? What does the cow say?
  • Animal names: help your child learn the names of familiar and new animals.
  • Animal habitats and homes: teach about land and sea animals; help them figure out where the animals live (farm or jungle); explain why you put the bear in the cave for hibernation, etc.
  • Animal babies: use big and small versions of animals to name animal babies.
  • Colors: colors are everywhere here; point out and identify them with your child.
  • Numbers: count the fish, the dinosaurs, the lily pads, etc.
  • Art and sewing skills: older kids can help make the mats for younger siblings.

I’m probably forgetting some educational opportunities too. I just think there’s so much you can teach here!

I hope this activity gives you some inspiration! Thank goodness we can make use of all these random animals now, right? We keep our animals and mats together in a plastic bin. That way, they’re not scattered everywhere throughout the house and puncturing our bare feet.

I don’t think my daughter ever played with the plastic animals until we organized them and gave them an entertaining purpose like this.

This little mat world opened up so many new possibilities for these toys I would’ve otherwise eventually pitched.

 

So, tell me…

Did you ever play with felt play mats when you were a kid? Are you going to try these (I’d love to see them!)?

Kids’ Entrepreneur Series: Vision Boards

Kids Vision Board

One of the first things Kayne and I did for our Kid’s Entrepreneur Series was make vision boards.

I just love making vision boards, don’t you?

I’m a visual person, so I like to see my goals in color, in different fonts, in pictures.

And I wanted my son to have a clear vision of what we were working for. It’s not just to make money for money’s sake. We set goals for a reason.

Otherwise, what’s the point of having a business and making money?

Here are the final products:


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IMG_2262.JPG

 

Mine’s all “Do work that matters” and “Let’s find our way with words” and “Let’s elevate the moment” and “for the love of leaves” with Scripture dead center.

Meanwhile, Kayne’s is all tractors and girls and dogs.

It cracks me up a little. Clearly he’s a boy and I’m a girl. And clearly there’s a value difference.

We’re still working on the materialism with him.

But I think the main point here, the main point of creating vision boards, is to set goals and to give yourself something to work toward. To give real visible life to your dreams. To provide motivation.

For a good half of my life, at least, I never really sat down to figure out what I wanted. I didn’t know what to “want.” I didn’t really know I had permission to “want.” Now, they are the driving force of so much that I do!

All of my “wants” are pretty abstract and value driven, but they are very clear and this vision board so perfectly represents them.

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I want my son to dream. And pursue dreams. Right now they are to “have a girlfriend,” “being rich,” “having 100 cats and 100 dogs,” and “be a rockstar like Dierks Bentley.” And apparently…tractors. Who didn’t have those kinds of dreams when they were 8?

It’s an exercise in dreaming as big as you want to.

I’m still working on “values” with him. We’re learning about setting aside money to give back and being generous. We’re also learning about how much work it takes to build a business. We’re learning about practical money saving ideas. Not everything can be about fast cars and girls (sorry guys!).

This is such a fun, eye-opening project to try with the kids. It’s a great way to get their imaginations going and start creating some goals with them. It’s also an illuminating project for you to do alongside them to bring your own goals into vision.

Here’s something to distract you. This Pinterest board is all things Vision Boards if you really want to get into it.

So, let’s hear it…

When’s the last time you created a vision board? Did anything stand out to you?

Personal Thoughts on Weaning

Rayna is my last baby. Everything she learns is the last “first” I’ll get. Her first steps, her first word, her first wave bye-bye are the last firsts our family will get to experience, making them absolutely delightful and incredibly bittersweet at the same time. It’s a weird feeling knowing the next baby we’ll have in our family will be our grandchildren, so many years from now. I try not to think about that.

This month, Rayna completely weaned. We have only been doing nighttime feedings since she turned one because I wasn’t ready to let go completely, but these past few weeks, Rayna was ready to let me go completely. The last few times I nursed her were a little more forced than I would’ve liked, so it was time. She doesn’t reach for a drink or eagerly cuddle up anymore. My good ole pump that saw me through two kids is long gone. I’ve gone through the last of our storage bags. I feel a little like I’m deserted on the side of the road…

At the same time, I am very proud that we made it this long, that we had a relatively successful journey that many women aren’t able to or don’t get to experience. But this letting go is hard…

See, nursing is a war. It takes profound persistence and pain, extensive google searches and middle-of-the night questions in mommy nursing groups. It takes complete unwavering dedication from just one partner. It takes excruciating pain going into it for the first couple weeks. It takes tons of reading and preparation and research. It takes working around pumping schedules at work and disappointment when someone steals your time slot in the pumping room. It takes memorizing dozens of rules about the where’s, when’s and how long’s of milk storage. It takes constant worry about how much baby is getting, if we have enough stored, if she’s drinking enough while I’m gone, if she’ll even take bottles, and on and on. It takes being the only one getting up in the night for feedings. It takes puddled shirts and let-downs in the middle of Walmart. It takes shopping for a new upper body wardrobe to suit the endowment. It takes nights of getting soaked and more pain. It takes not going away from home for more than two hours at a time for awhile. Rayna and I, we fought like bandits with bloody knuckles to get to this point, so it makes my heart bleed again to have to let it go.

Nursing offers the opportunity to stare into that beautiful face every few hours, every single day. It offers healing touch and the beautiful companionship of unconditional love. It offers nurturing and relationship building. It creates indestructible bonds of trust. It fine tunes a mother’s instinct and intuition. If offers wisdom about and complete immersion in the life of another person. It gives you those sweet moments of sleeping babies in your arms. Not to mention reveling in all the wonderful benefits of that milky medicine. (I was even able to contribute 278 ounces to the nourishment of another baby when my freezer got too full!)

If you study the science of breast milk, it truly is one of life’s miracles. The content of milk alone is enough evidence for me of God’s existence. It changes as baby’s needs change. It pumps out antibodies when it senses baby getting sick. It produces more fat when baby needs to grow. It just automatically produces exactly what baby needs with complete and utter perfection. And I won’t get to experience or appreciate this again.

This week, right now even, there have been tears. There have been heavy-laden sighs. There has been one incremental move away from my daughter’s dependency on me. It’s been much harder than it was with my son since I know this time I won’t get to do this again. I wasn’t ready for this…

The phrase “they get big so fast” is so overused and yet no one can stop saying it or ever will because of the heavy truth and continual astonishment behind it. They really do grow so fast…

New Family Tradition: Jesse Tree

So, in years past, I have put together a fun Advent calendar for Kayne to make the countdown to Christmas meaningful and intentional. You can see some of our activities HERE and HERE. This year, I didn’t know if I’d be able to maintain that level of involvement with our big move and everything. We’ll still do a lot of those activities anyway, calendar or not. I was also thinking about how to make the countdown a bit more meaningful to the reason for the season.

So, I hopped on Etsy and typed in “Jesse Tree.” My final decision came down to this set of ornaments. I just LOVE them. They came all wrapped up in a burlap sack with a printed scripture guide.

We’ve been sitting down every night, reading the verses in the guide and discussing the themes. Then, my son will place the ornament on the tree wherever he wants.

I can’t wait to keep this tradition going. I’m thinking of buying the kids each their own set and tucking them away for when they move out of the house. I’m hoping that this is one of those traditions that they take with them for their own families and find comfort in the familiarity of the “back home” tradition.

Does your family do any sort of countdown to Christmas traditions? I love hearing stories about them!

A Trip to Battle Creek Michigan

A few weeks ago we visited some friends in Battle Creek, Michigan. I was a little leary of taking a 1-year-old on a 5-hour trip. But a few stops to stretch our legs and a few cat naps broke up the trip into manageable legs and we had very little resistance.
Chicago skyline
We didn’t make any set plans for the trip and just played it by ear because we’re casual vacationers like that:) So, what we ended up doing was perfect for us. A few museums, lots of swimming and plenty of downtime.
One of the days we were there, we went to a children’s museum. The children’s museum in Kalamazoo is amazing!!! Their learning centers are so incredible. There are sections that teach about the weather, braille and blind learning, alternative energy, night creatures, music, pretend news stations and a lot more. They even have a special section devoted to tiny kids, so that’s where Rayna and I spent a good chunk of time while daddy took Kayne on adventures through the building. It’s so impressive to me that this museum is completely free! If I lived there, we’d be going all the time.

They had little sections in the baby area
with different animals: amphibians,
butterflies, bugs, jungle animals, etc.
Little wooden farmyard.

Old-fashioned general store
Kayne was learning about the stages of a butterfly life cycle in school at the time.
They had these Eric Carle felt boards where he showed me the entire life cycle of a butterfly.

Wind energy
One of the other days we were there, we visited another museum that was right up my alley! It was a museum about Dr. Kellogg (whose brother is the name behind the Kellogg’s brand) and his research into health and fitness. He ran a huge sanitarium that was basically a cross between a medical center and a health resort. For a good read about some of his contraptions, read this.

This contraption here was a leg vibrator thing
that was supposed to increase circulation in
the legs from sitting too long.

Sitz bath
Here is a picture of the gym on-board the Titanic that was designed by Dr. Kellogg. Cool, huh?

Dr Kellogg believed in the healing powers of the sun and fresh air. So, he brought
the powers of the sun indoors with different light baths, much like today’s light boxes for SAD.

There are a few other historical buildings on-site as well including a one-room schoolhouse and a church.

But, we had to leave the Kellogg museum tour early due to some mini crabby person that needed a nap;) On our way out, I got to see a little weasel that had made a home under a museum outbuilding.
While in Battle Creek, we stayed in a decent motel and so for some of our downtime, we had fun using their pool and fitness equipment. We invited our friends to enjoy pool time too!

On our last night there, we had one last big group dinner with our friends at a Big Boy. We haven’t been to a Big Boy in probably 15-20 years. Even though Hubster had some really bad luck with his meal, but it was fun to go back in time a bit.

After dinner, we hit up the Battle Creek mall for a little while. I found some clothes and a bamboo wind chime at an import store. I also found the most adorable bedtime yoga book and a few other things at Barnes and Noble. I love having a meaningful bedtime routine for my kids and myself, and this book is absolutely perfect! Kayne loves going through the little vinyasa and the pictures are swoonworthy.

We had a great time just doing these easy things on a whim. The trees were changing color and the sun was out, so the timing was perfect. We planned the trip so we’d return on a Saturday and still have Sunday to rest before going back to work.

Lavender Earache Compress

Kayne complained one day when he had a cold that he had an earache. Unsure whether we needed to call the pediatrician for antibiotics yet, I thought I’d give a home remedy with essential oils a shot.
First, I consulted my book about essential oils for children. Did you know many essential oils that are safe for adults are not safe for children and especially babies? Do a little extra research before you use them with abandon. I also consulted the book for advice about earaches.
Out of the essential oils I already had in my cabinet, what I found was that lavender and tea tree (melaluca) are great for children’s ears. So, here’s what I did:
Supplies:
Sweet almond oil (or other carrier oil)
Lavender essential oil
Tea tree oil (optional)
Washcloth
Warm water
Directions:
  1. Pour a small pool of oil in the palm of your hand. Drop in one drop of lavender oil. Add one drop of tea tree oil if you wish, too. Use your finger to stir the mixture in your hand.
  2. Rub the mixture around the outside of the child’s ear. DO NOT put any inside the ear.
  3. Dip a washcloth in a bowl warm water (you can add a drop of lavender to the water too) and have your child rest their affected ear on the washcloth for about 10 minutes. You may want to put a plastic bag underneath so the wetness doesn’t get on your furniture. Re-warm the washcloth if necessary. Alternately, you can have the child rest their head on a low-heat heating pad.

My son said his ear didn’t hurt anymore after using the heating pad method. So, it worked! Some of the cure might have just been the coziness and tender loving care from his momma, but that just comes with the recipe:)
Any other home remedies for earaches that you’ve tried with success?

Baby’s First Birthday

Oh my goodness, I know no other mother has said this before, but how did an entire year go by already?

This girl has brought more joy to our lives than I could ever have imagined. I never felt the desire to be a stay-at-home mom until she came along. I cried almost every day thinking about returning to work and begged Hubster to take a different position so that I could stay home, but it just isn’t in the cards for us. I just had such enjoyment spending those first 9 weeks of her life with her. I so enjoyed reading her books, cuddling up with her for naps, taking her for walks, and letting her watch me sew and work on projects from her bouncy seat. I was at a different place in my life when her brother was born and I didn’t have those same desires, although it cut me deep to leave him every day.

This girl was a champion sleeper right from the beginning (she’s regressed a bit recently, which is odd), and for that we have been so blessed. She has been such an easy baby. She only cried when she was tired or hungry, never for no reason.

She surprised us with her shocks of bright red hair when she was born. I didn’t think she would be born with any hair at all. And the fact that she did and it was RED just blew me away.

She is a very active, curious, smart child. Forget toys! She wants to investigate nooks, crannies, books and…well…everything. She is also a huge garbage picker. I mean, I know babies like to stick everything in their mouths, but this girl will find the tiniest hair on the carpet or piece of dust on a windowsill and try to taste it. And she literally loves to pick out of every garbage can in the house.

This girl also skipped right over pureed baby food and went straight to table food. She would literally have NOTHING to do with purees or baby cereal. I even made some pea and squash purees from scratch for her that may never be used. She wants what we’re eating. So, we started her on soft things, but she pretty much eats what we eat already.

She is a water baby, loving baths and sticking her own head underwater. She’s super funny, like the times she puts clothes on her head and crawls around laughing. Or when she clunks heads on purpose or blows raspberries on momma’s belly. She is a huge daddy’s girl and she especially loves her Auntie Jenny and her daddy’s friend David.

She beat her brother with not only hair and birth weight, but also teeth. She has had four for months where her brother cut his first on his first birthday.

I love the place she is at now. She understands many things and she rushes to meet me when I get home. She waves and gives hugs. She’s easy to make laugh. She has quite a personality, even though she can’t really talk yet. And she always gets her way. If baby ain’t happy, ain’t no one happy.

Her nicknames have been Raynaliscious, Rayna Pants, Dolly, Miss Thing and currently, Booga. She is also the prettiest girl in the world:)

Her brother made me a mother. And she is the one who completed our family. They both have such a special place in our family and lives. I am so elated that I get to have both a boy and a girl. I can’t wait until she’s a little older and we can do girl stuff together. We’ll probably get our nails done together by the time she’s 3, haha. I just looooooooove this little girl and thank God for sending her to me.

Happy Birthday Booga!

Baby’s First Pumpkin Patch

Seeing as Rayna was fresh out of the baby factory last year, we never made it to any of our normal pumpkin patches. It somehow seemed like an unfinished fall without a hay ride and a glass of cider. This year, it was perfect because she was so interactive with the animals. Her face lights up and she has this high-pitched screech sound she makes when she sees animals. She tried to pet the baby chicks like she pets our big moose of a dog.

My workplace is amazing. They sponsor a day for their employees every year to check out Mulberry Lanes Farm. Rayna’s due date was the exact date that the trip fell on last year, so we obviously didn’t RSVP.

Mulberry Lanes offers hay rides, horse rides, and a bunch of petting zoo stuff. You can try to catch a chicken or a turkey. You can feed the goats and hang out in the pig pen. We always spend way too much time in the little cage where they keep the kittens.

Momma, you didn’t save me any coffee!
Dunkin Donuts has the best.
Our favorite spot
No, you can’t bring one home
After you’re done petting all the animals, each person gets to choose a pumpkin from the pumpkin patch to take home. 

My cabbage patch kid

And my cool kid

The weather was absolutely perfect for this trip. The kids were wearing flannel and I was in long sleeves and we got a bit hot, but it was a perfect day. See you next year Mulberry Lanes!

Milwaukee Zoo Trip 2015

Every year Hubster’s work sponsors a picnic at the Milwaukee zoo and we always try to make it. One year Hubster was in a wheelchair due to an injury to his knee. Last year he insisted I stay in a wheelchair because I was only a few days away from my due date.
That yellow sign behind me says “Baby on Board”
They always do such a great job providing lunch, drinks and attraction tickets. One of the attractions we went to was the dinosaur exhibit. We tried that about 3 years ago, and Kayne was just as scared this year as he was then. 
Our first stop was the petting zoo. Rayna gave the goats hugs as is normal for her with animals. She has this high-pitched squeal she makes when she sees an animal and she pats them really nicely. She’s already an animal lover.
My boys tried out the ropes course this year, which was so cool to see too. Rayna and I hit the air conditioned shops for some souvenirs while they were doing that. Kayne got a necklace with an encapsulated scorpion. Just up his alley.

Then, we walked through all the requisite exhibits.

At one point, Kayne excitedly pointed out a momma peacock walking across the path with her babies. After the video, the momma peacock decided to fly over one of the motes around one of the bear exhibits. Everyone stood around and watched to see if she was really just going to abandon her babies. But actually, after hesitation, unsure of themselves, they each flew, one by one, to momma.
A video posted by Jessica Collins (@boun_seejess) on

After that, we headed back to the petting zoo and had one last run through the ice cream shop and headed home. Another amazing summer day!

Monarch Butterfly Migration

We had a magical day last weekend at the Butterfly Gardens in Appleton, WI. A friend suggested that place after I told her that we missed the big beautiful migration that happened in Stephen’s Point.

Baby caterpillar

It just so happened on that weekend, they were also participating in the Monarch Migration. Each family was given a monarch. We got to tag our own monarch and release it outside. They check each butterfly for OE and identify it as male or female. We got a female. The cool thing about tagging is that if any other nature centers that participate on their way to Mexico find your butterfly, they will give you a personal call or email. 

My mom and sister also came along, so we both had butterflies to release.
We took our envelope with our butterfly outside to their butterfly gardens. They have an amazing field of butterfly-attracting flowers with a mowed path in the shape of a butterfly. There’s a lookout tower over the field, which is where we bade farewell to our flying beauties. It was a neat moment.
Next, we explored the trails and looked at more butterflies in the wild. It was about 95 degrees and humid, but we didn’t care.

After the trails, we headed inside to the butterfly house. They have a greenhouse-like house where you can go inside with hundreds of butterflies. They give you a Q-tip dipped in Gatorade so you can try to catch them. It was so cool to have the butterflies right in your hands. We spent a lot of time out in that house.
My nephew Amadeus was complaining about not being able to catch anything. When he finally did get one on his Q-tip, he actually caught two of them! They were “cuddling.”
There was also a little pond with turtles and frogs. 
We happened to find a few butterfly wings from some dead monarchs (they only live about 6 weeks). I’m hoping to figure out how to make something neat out of them. The boys want something too, so I’m trying to figure out what to make with them that won’t be too girly.

Turns out Kayne’s first science unit in school will be about butterflies. I have a feeling he might be ahead of the game:)
I really loved our day with the butterflies. It’s such an amazing memory.