My eldest has just turned five and is becoming a bit of a mini-me where writing is concerned. She likes nothing better than to sit and write letters to people. Most of the time she doesn’t let me look at the letters she is sending. Although I did get one sneaky peek at a letter to a school friend which went along the line of, “Dear John, I really wish you would be good. You should try not to sit on the thinking chair. I hope you will not be naughty.” Hmmmmm….. maybe she’s destined to follow me into teaching as well.
Our problem was although she had lots of things to write with she had no where in the sitting room to write. She could go in the dining room but she hates to be in a room on her own. So I decided to make her a fun writing table with all her writing materials on it so she could do homework or do some writing whenever she wants.
We had an old ikea table which had seen better days. I forgot to take a picture of it but it had a few stains on it and one part was a bit cracked but other than that was fine.
To make a writing table I used:
- black and white pictures of the girls
- letter and number stickers
- Clear plastic
- Gun tack
I enlarged lots of photos and printed the off in black and white.
I want to be able to change the photos regularly so I stuck them down with a small piece of blue tack. I covered the whole surface of the table with pictures.
I added letter and number stickers for the girls’ names and the alphabet and a small number line.
Over the top of the pictures I put the clear plastic. I bought this from a shop which sells laminated table coverings. I folded the edges down and used a gun tack to secure them. The staples need to be tucked under the table out of reach of little fingers.
The girls get so much use out of it and I’m really happy with how it turned out. It doesn’t matter if they get felt tips on it because it washes off so easily.
Here are the girls getting down to some writing.
It’s also perfect for doing jigsaws.
Of course the best thing is I can change the pictures whenever I want. Next time I might have some coloured animals or one of their favourite cartoons. Anything which gives them something lovely to look at and encourages them to sit down and enjoy a quiet few minutes, with a bit of learning sneaked in.