We had so many questions about our Learning Shelf this morning after sharing in our stories on Instagram that I decided that I will start blogging about them more often. So here is our Week 1 share of our Learning Shelf. We have a shelf up for the girls always. There was a bit of time when Lucy was first mobile that I stopped doing them for Lilly Belle, but besides that time, we have been putting them up for her since she had just turned 3.
Last week we had a Dinosaur Shelf up. The girls had fun with it but we are in such a busy season right now as Lilly Belle started summer camp this week, I am working a ton, we move in a few weeks and…it’s summer! So I decided to keep it simple this week.
I set out three cubbies for Lucy and three cubbies for Lilly Belle. I did not have a plan for this shelf, I just went into our homeschool closet and started creating. When I make these shelves I think about their interests and things they are learning and go off of that.
Lilly Belle’s Cubbies (Age 4 Years 9 Months Old)
- Writing: She is super into writing stories right now. All day long we hear, “How do you spell _________?” I found this pack on Teachers Pay Teachers and grabbed it immediately. These cards have everyday words on them as well as some blank cards for you to write in your family’s commonly used words. I used the blank cards to write friends and family’s names for her to use when she is writing her stories. I also purchased a pack of seasonal handwriting pages for the whole year on Teachers Pay Teachers. She loves these cute handwriting pages. I put them on a clipboard for her and set the writing word cards in a little basket with a pen.
- Math: Lilly Belle is really into addition right now, so I set up a little addition station for her. We love the Addition Cards from From the Pond on Teachers Pay Teachers. I laminated them and put them on a binder ring. She uses them along with a beautiful wooden number set we got on Etsy from My Little Light Shop. I also put out a little container (from the Dollar Tree) with our Usborne Number Tracing Cards that go from number 0-100.
- Reading: We are working on CVC words right now so I put out two different resources for her to use. These are again both things she can sit and do on her own without me. I found these wonderful word rolls on Etsy from Array Creations. They’ve been a lot of fun for her to use! I also have out these little CVC books from Moffatt Girls (our favorite shop)! She loves making these into little books. We have math ones from her too.
Lucy’s Cubbies (18 Months Old)
- Straws & Felt Activity: I put out a basket filled with crazy straws. I then cut up squares of felt and cut a slit in each square. Lucy slides each of the pieces of felt onto the straws. She also likes when Lilly Belle does it and then she likes to pull them all off. It took me less than 10 minutes to make and she can use these for a while. As she gets closer to 2, I will have her do them on the right matching colors. At this time I just let her play and learn how to use them. Or use the straws however she’d like. It’s here for her to just explore.
- Road Chalkboards & Cars: These have been so much fun for both of the girls to play with. The set comes with 4 boards and you can put them into different designs to build a little city. Lucy is really into playing with cars and anything that rolls right now, so she is having fun with this so far.
- Name Puzzle: I set this out for her so she can begin exploring how a puzzle works and just so she is seeing the letters of her name. We say the letters out loud to her as we show them to her.
- Cheerios Book & Cheerios: She hasn’t quite figured this one out yet, but she loves looking at the book. I haven’t really sat down with her yet on this one, so we’ll keep it out for a bit so she can keep discovering with it.
- Color Matching Velcro Sticks: I found these huge craft sticks and immediately knew what I was going to do with them! I cut out little circles with colored foam and then added velcro dots to the back of each circle and on the craft stick. I have them all in a little basket for her. I will leave one circle at the top of each stick and see if she can match the colors. At this age I am just happy with her exploring how the velcro works and watching her fill them up and take them off. Also working on putting all the circles back in the basket when she is done playing.
I have found most of our baskets we use for our shelves at The Dollar Tree and also in the Target Dollar Spot.
We get a ton of questions about which printer and laminator, so here are links for all of those as well! We purchase our laminating sheets in bulk of 500 (we purchase over 3,000/month because of Book Club) I recommend buying the big packs at Target 🙂