Quiet Book

Quiet books...activity books (whatever you call them) have been around for years. My kids had one and that has been years ago...more than I care to admit! Anyway I made one for my grandson's birthday. I followed the patterns here plus added some of my own. There are scads of tutes on quiet book pages...some of them quite elaborate. I used wool felt for my pages because I wanted something sturdy, but it did make the pages really bulky. On the plus side the cut edges don't need to be finished, but next time I think I will look for a heavier flannel and use it. These books are terrific for working on fine motor skills and expressive and receptive language concepts.

I made my tepee bigger than the Modest Maven's and added a little stuffed face of my grandson that could be put in and out of the tepee. The number page is my creation. I cut wool felt dots and put them on white felt squares. I cut out two squares...one for the backing that I sewed the velcro on and one for the front to cover the velcro strip up. Initially I glued these squares together with Aleen's Fabric glue, but it didn't hold and I ended up sewing them together. Great activity for counting and number concepts.

A close-up of the tepee and the stuffed figure...yeah, not the best picture of T, but it was the most current one I could get on short notice!

I made my shapes in all the same color. That way the child is learning and matching shapes and not just matching colors...which would be the case if each shape were in a different color. The shapes have snaps sewn onto them. Snapping requires more developed fine motor skills, but with practice kids will figure it out. The right side teaches textures. It's hard to tell in the picture but the scratchy material is a stiff netting; the smooth is silk; soft is fleece; and rough is another type of netting.

The stoplight page can be used to learn top, middle, bottom, red, yellow, green and first, second, third. Fine motor skills are developed in learning to tie a bow.

Fine motor skills are developed in buttoning and unbuttoning the flowers since the ladybugs are buttons. Just make sure your stems are long enough to allow some manipulation. The balloons develop color matching and color naming.

Clothing concepts and body names are targeted with this page. I added a little pocket to keep the clothes contained since they could easily get lost. The shirt, pants and shoes velcro onto the boy.

I created these pages. I cut out a pair of pants and made a belt out of the smallest buckle I could find for buckling and unbuckling. The belt is attached at the sides but left long enough to practice the buckling. The A, B, C page was made with pockets for a stuffed apple, banana and carrot. I cut the shapes out of felted wool, each with a front and back, sewed them closed leaving an opening and stuffed them with batting, then finished by sewing the opening closed. The top leaves of the carrot were added with a fabric marker.

For the little boy and girl on the tuck me in page, I made my hair for the boy by cutting strips of yarn about 2 inches long. Then I put them together and stitched down the middle 3 times to secure.

See the rows of stitching?

I ran a bead of tacky fabric glue down along the stitches.

Then I placed the hair on the back of the boy's head.

Then I stitched the hair by hand down along the stitching rows to attach it to the boy's head.

Then I gave the boy a haircut!

For the little girl I wrapped the yarn around three fingers to form a circle.

Then I stitched down the center 3 times.

I attached the hair to the girl's head in the same manner as the boy and cut all of the yarn loops.

I added a little yarn bow to the little girl and drew in the eyes, nose and mouth with a fabric marker.

Aren't they cute all tucked in their beds? This page emphasizes the language concepts for girl/boy, one/two and in/out. You can also develop language concepts for eyes, nose and mouth on both the dolls and by having your child point to his eyes, nose and mouth or naming them as you point to them.

As you can see I put in a loop closure, but haven't added the button yet. I could have made the loop a little longer because this is one fat book! T loves his quiet book which just thrills me! Seriously your imagination is the limit for coming up with ideas for pages to suit the special child in your life.