When my daughter was a toddler she was obsessed with Blue’s Clues. However, I refused to wallpaper her room with a blue dog I knew she would lose interest in by her third birthday. Still, I wanted to spruce up her bedroom with something associated with her beloved animated character. The solution: A large felt board ala Freddie the Felt Frame Boy.
Not wanting to drop a bundle on a pre-made felt board I decided to make my own by visiting a craft store and purchasing an extra large foam board, which I covered with felt myself. I then bought several felt sets from our local educational toy store and went to work in her room. I mounted the felt covered board on her wall roughly 30 inches from the floor. I wanted it to be low enough so she could reach the felt pieces. It really came together nicely. Not only was it decorative, but it also doubled as a play piece. She spent hours arranging and rearranging felt dinosaurs, trains, planes, planets, stars, letters and numbers.
I also added a couple other highly effective pieces to her room: a 27-inch, three-tier toy shelf and a 54-inch, 16-pocket shoe organizer. The three-tiered shelving unit was just the right height for her to access her toys without yelling for assistance. I put her books and puzzles on the bottom shelf, Fisher-Price Little People toys on the middle shelf and stuffed animals on the top shelf.
The cloth shoe organizer I tacked on the wall so the bottom of it skimmed the carpet. By doing so my daughter was able to reach most of the pockets. I filled the pockets with her smaller toys, stuffed animals, hair accessories, and plastic jewelry. It’s still hanging in her room now, even though she’s a preschooler. The pocket organizer allows her to see her options and frees me from constantly having to assist her in opening boxes and containers.
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