Kidspired Creations: Cool School Kiddie Corner

School is out for the summer and, for most families, this is a time for a break between the craziness of school schedules. (I know for some that means count down until summer camp starts because the kids are already stir crazy). For my husband and myself, we just found out last week that our soon-to-be 4 son is on a "waiting list" for Pre-Kindergarten in the fall. That means that Bo and I have been having to think about school when the rest of the US is trying NOT to think about school. So we came to the conclusion that I will be homeschooling James until we get that super awesome phone call that there is an opening in the Pre-K class.

Since I used to teach Pre-K before kids, I kind of went a little bit crazy with the idea of homeschooling... crazy in the craft department! The past week, I have been super obsessed with creating a "school" for James. I bought a really cool dry-erase poster from Wal-Mart (see my guest post at The Mommy Teacher's blog), among other things that I will share with you below. All together, I spent around $30 (including the dry-erase poster), though I'm sure throughout the course of the year I will be adding more stuff because that's what I do.


Before...

Now what do I do when I want to craft? I go to Hobby Lobby, of course, and head straight to the clearance aisle!

I got this cute little chalk board for $10-something on clearance... normally $30!!! However it didn't match my purple kitchen where the kiddie corner was going to be, so I had a little fun with it... pass the screwdriver... a little Mod Podge, a little paint, put it all back together again and voilà!

After!

Here's a tip: I was trying to draw on the chalk board and something was seriously wrong with it! I was so bummed! I thought I bought a defective chalk board! The board was really gritty, the chalk wasn't writing well on it, and when I tried to wipe it off, it just made a big mess. I vented my frustration to Bo who said, "You have to break a chalkboard in. Take a piece of chalk and scribble all over the chalkboard then wipe it off. It'll be ready to use." Look on my face: "Um, ok... sure dude... whatever you say."

Yeah, totally worked. Just erase and it's ready to use!

Chalkboard done, but don't pick up the Mod Podge just yet! I wanted a cute way to display the boys' art work so I went to Hobby Lobby's OTHER clearance aisle in the back and found these awesome extra-large clothes pins regular $8.99 a piece (say what?!?) on clearance for $3.40!

Painted the sides, but not the inside because it was hard to reach.

After! I used the same scrapbook paper as the chalkboard.

What next? Oh yes, MORE MOD PODGE! I am seriously LURVING this stuff (Shout out to my cousin Varessa who does a hilarious Celine Dion impression ("The power of LUUUURRRRVE"). Bo has been on a strict don't-throw-the-cans-away regiment (shh don't tell him that I accidentally threw the enchilada sauce cans away tonight and had to fish them out of the trash) because I am re-purposing them!

Reduce, reuse, recycle, people!

EVENTUALLY, I will be attaching these to a magnetic strip on the wall by gluing a magnet to the can. I have yet to find the perfect magnetic strip, so this will have to wait. For now, they will still look cute sitting on the table.

After Mod Podging this adorable alphabet scrapbook paper.

By the way, scrapbook paper was on sale at Hobby Lobby this week for 50% off... JACKPOT!

So would you like to see the "finished" product? I say "finished" because, knowing me, I will keep adding more and more stuff and then rearranging it...but here is the "finished" product for now...