Not sure why it took me so long to realize that I can draw on our play table.
But now that I have, Henry and I have created many road maps!
Roads are the biggest hit.
And since Henry can’t reach across the table, the road always goes around the table.
[Its a 4x8 piece of plywood, and for some reason is a smooth white on one side.]
[Any white board would work for this, too.
Or even just a sheet of paper, just tape it down on a table!]
Roads are the biggest hit.
And since Henry can’t reach across the table, the road always goes around the table.
[Its a 4x8 piece of plywood, and for some reason is a smooth white on one side.]
[Any white board would work for this, too.
Or even just a sheet of paper, just tape it down on a table!]
This is our first creation.
It started with a race track for Chick Hicks and Lightning McQueen to race around.
But Henry quickly wanted to add a road around the whole table along with some buildings.
Including the Blue Store, Green Store, Purple Store, the Bakery, and our house.
[His colored stores are all actual real stores and that's how he knows them.]
Henry took part in drawing the road as well.
[It's rare for Henry to want to draw or write, so I tried to stretch this out.]
Then it was onto the driving.
Lots of motor sounds.
“Did you hear my motor?”
[I don't know how I could miss it Henry.]
The semis were speeding around the roads… so I asked:
“Are you staying on the road going that fast?”
Henry’s answer?
“Nope.”
We played with this first road map for a few days.
Once Henry tired of it.
We simply washed it off.
I used Henry’s Crayola Washable Markers instead of dry erase ones. They wipe right off with a little water. [The dry erase ones didn't come off at all, with bleach or anything else I tried. It isn't a true white board.]
With a squirt bottle filled with water.
Henry started cleanup.
This proved to be as fun, or maybe even more fun, than driving on the roads!
He got a kick out of the cool splotches of colors the water made.
After everything was a little wet, take an old rag, or towel and wipe it off clean.
In the midst of cleanup, Henry ran the combine through and noticed the tracks it made.
Since our first DIY road map, we’ve made fields of corn and beans for Henry to plant and combine with his machinery.
We’ve also made farms of grain bins, houses, and more fields of corns and beans.
Every time with the road around the edge which always provides the most entertainment.
Now that I’ve seen a pop up city over at Kinderpendent, I think we need to add on to these DIY Road Maps!
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What kind of road maps
have you made with the kids?
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Henry is 3 years.
George is 10 months.
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About Jamie Reimer
Sounds like lot of fun! How exciting that we can erase and make a new one whenever needed!
Jamie, I saw this post at filthwizardry, they used sharpie pens taped to juice bottle for even spaced roads
http://www.filthwizardry.com/2009/02/shower-curtain-village-play-mat.html
I have done something similar with my kiddos and he thought it was an absolute blast. Looks like your kiddo enjoyed it as well. Thanks for sharing.
Fun idea! I love that you can clean it off & start over again.
I love the big canvas that the table provides for play and drawing!
That's really cool!
super fun idea! i'm a new follower/fb liker! found you on blogfrog! hope you'll check out my site and follow too! thanks
I made this DIY shower curtain playmat
http://readysetread2me.blogspot.com/2011/01/diy-create-playmat-from-shower-curtain.html
But I love how yours is reusable. I saw on Frugal Family fun blog that she lets her kids color on a shower curtain with dry erase and then just throws it in the washer. Maybe I could combine your idea with all of those and create a reusable playmat that way! hmmm… things to think about.