Family Friday: Transform a Cheap Shower Curtain Liner into a Floor Play Mat

Guest post by Anne Frank

 

Last fall, just before the start of Kindergarten, my oldest son brainstormed up a gem.  How about turn ordinary Fridays into Fun Fridays?  A special time to explore a new game, a new idea, or a new experience as a family.  Usually a special snack, too!  

 

 

It started with card games and cookies, Wii games and hide and seek.  We moved on to Lego robot building, root beer floats, and walkie talkie missions around town.  Well, we haven't missed a Fun Friday since.  I read once that any tradition you observe shows the outside world your values, spoken or not.  Our new tradition does just that.  We value our little men.  We value their ideas.  We value time together, just us.  It's a joy to plan and anticipate, and it's special memories in the making. Week after week and month after month.  We've had friends join our Fun Fridays, and we've even taken Fun Friday on the road.  The only rule for Fun Friday is you don't want to miss it!  

I'm excited to share one of my favorite Fun Friday ideas with you today--transforming a shower curtain liner into a floor play mat.  I can't help but love an idea that's big and bright.

What You Need

• a white shower curtain liner from your local dollar store
• sharpie markers {search your kitchen, junk drawers, or desk}

Method

• Spread out the shower liner and use a black marker to draw a scene.  You don't need expert drawing skills here.  We chose a town, including roads, houses, city buildings, zoo, park, and a lake.  Let your imagination guide you!  
• Other ideas could be a forest, a zoo, a medieval castle, a farm, a football field, or maybe a map of your own neighborhood or town.  Once the basics are drawn in black, let the kids start coloring it in and adding features as they go. (Note: crayons work, too, but the color isn't as vivid.)  

Our town was so big that our boys left and came back to it several times over the weekend to add more to the scene.

This project is big, inexpensive, and a very easy one your little ones are sure to love! 

Anne Frank is an elementary teacher turned stay-at-home mama.  She spends her time cooking for, caring for, and chasing three wild boys and one wild husband.   She is addicted to baking and rearranging furniture, and most of all brainstorming new ways for her boys to learn.  Her husband jokes that as soon as the boys go to school, she needs to go back to school too, for where else can she use her brimming ideas?  Anne writes about her thoughts and family adventures on her blog, Frankly Speaking. 


Let's Talk: What fun activities do you do with your kiddos? 


*The contributors for Family Friday are taking a Lenten hiatus. We'll resume again in April with the theme, Spring Cleaning Inside and Out. We hope you'll join us then.