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CatholicMommy
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| Posted: June 20 2007 at 12:22am | IP Logged
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I just have to share a wonderful blessing: my 3 year old and I just spent the last 4 hours making and painting the geometric insets - and they actually look NICE. We used foam board, I think it's called (two very thick pieces of posterboard, with a layer of styrofoam in the middle), patterns from JMJ, and acrylic pink and blue paints. I used the x-acto blade, but he helped with everything else, including painting (he even 'helped' to trace some of the shapes before I cut them out).
I think total cost (including the 2 blades that I completely dulled) came to under $10 - perhaps closer to $5 - but would I ever do that project again? We'll find out Wednesday evening when I plan to make the geometric cabinet - I may need to buy some stronger blades first.
We've been using thinner cardboard, posterboard or cardstock for everything, so I'm needing to update - and all the Montessori topics lately have prompted me to use this suddenly low-key week to focus on making new materials, before I'm tempted to buy all new.
Thursday evening is the constructive triangles out of sheets of fun foam - and Friday is new sandpaper letters (these ones will be cursive). I have the wood for the red rods and red and blue rods, but need to get to a friend's farm to use the saw before I can paint them (we just use strips of cardboard for now).
Thank you all for letting me share - and if anyone has any ideas for making the above materials easier, please let me know!
God Bless!
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Erin
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| Posted: June 20 2007 at 5:30am | IP Logged
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Don't suppose we could have some pictures?  I'm always interested in what we can make ourselves.
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KackyK
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| Posted: June 20 2007 at 5:55am | IP Logged
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As an alternative to sandpaper letters, we have used glitter glue. We put them on index cards. We used a decent amount, so there was a bit of drying time for sure. After I (well, I'll be honest, my dh  ) made the beading pretty thick, he'd use his finger gently to "smush" it down some, made it a bit flatter, but not even with the paper. He put capital letters on one side and lowers on the other sides.
My kids have used them for years. I (he!) might need to make more soon as they are getting beat up.
KackyK
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Mackfam
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| Posted: June 20 2007 at 5:59am | IP Logged
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Wow - those are great ideas for homemade geometry materials! I would love to see how your insets turned out CatholicMommy - any way you can share?
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Jen Mackintosh
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CatholicMommy
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| Posted: June 20 2007 at 9:46am | IP Logged
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Mackfam wrote:
| Wow - those are great ideas for homemade geometry materials! I would love to see how your insets turned out CatholicMommy - any way you can share? |
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I'll post a picture as soon as the second coat of paint dries. My son has already used them this morning - I couldn't stop him. The funny thing: he knew just what to do with them with no presentation (at least the tracing the inside part - I did then show him how to make straight lines across, which he's not so good at, but he'll get it).
We are definitely having too much fun over here.
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Meredith
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| Posted: June 20 2007 at 10:39am | IP Logged
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WOW!! Thanks so much for sharing this!! If you want to post your pics here, email them to me and I can load them!!
Wonderful!
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Meredith
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SuzanneG
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| Posted: June 20 2007 at 5:42pm | IP Logged
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I can't wait to see these....this was one of the things I wanted to make but hadn't put all thedetails together.
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Meredith
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| Posted: June 20 2007 at 8:57pm | IP Logged
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Here are the insets from CatholicMommy- Thank you so much for sharing these, they are very inspiring!!
She adds: "I will be making the geometric cabinet this evening as far as I can get, using the same method."
Materials I used:
*templates from JMJ publishing (I cut only one square to trace all ten; then cut out and set aside only the center shape of each one, line up each square and trace on the inside (same way the kids would be tracing) - cut out all lines with the knife (I didn't try scissors); then sort of shaving the sides to leave lots of space when the centers are put back in - after painting, this space will be used up
*1 sheet of foam board (20"x30"x3/16")
one small bottle each of pink and blue acrylic paint (most of the pink, not much of the blue - 2 coats each - I did not paint the backs)
*x-acto knife (I used a fine blade because it's what I had - I'll be using a stronger blade tonight)
*10 blue pony beads
*nail to poke center holes
*short length of wire thread - threaded through each pony bead, twisted to form a "line" of sorts; poked through center of each piece then through piece of fun foam
*tiny strip of sticky fun foam (one piece under each inset to hold the wire ends down)
Total cost and time: about $6; 5 total hours with the 3 year old hands-on helper
:)
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Meredith
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CatholicMommy
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| Posted: June 20 2007 at 9:21pm | IP Logged
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Thank you for posting the pictures, Meredith.
The colors didn't show up well on my camera - they're actually much brighter.
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Mackfam
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| Posted: June 21 2007 at 7:00am | IP Logged
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wow CatholicMommy these are great! I'm sooooo not good with an exacto, but I might try this! Or, more than likely, dh will see me struggling, be concerned for my fingers, and take over  Thanks for sending the pics! I really appreciated the details about the wire and the sticky foam. Helpful.
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Jen Mackintosh
Wife to Rob, mom to dd 19, ds 16, ds 11, dd 8, and dd 3
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4Real Forums : Nurturing the Years of Wonder
Topic: Geometric Insets: Homemade
