Flannel Board Fun

Here is a simple way to keep your kids entertained while learning shapes, colors, and practicing spatial reasoning. They get to be artistic without the mess of glue and the scariness of scissors. I bought a picture frame, took out the glass and glued flannel to the cardboard part of the frame. Wash the flannel first, using no fabric softener, and only glue the edges around the back (the part that wraps around.) If you glue the front, then the flannel will lose it's ability to keep static. I bought some of those cheap squares of felt and just started cutting shapes. I put a little thought into it and made something that could be used as a lake or ocean in blue, some green triangle for trees, light brown for skin tones- but mostly I just cut random shapes. I highly recommend that you DON'T let your kids carry the board around. Nail it to the wall- or better yet- get those 3M Command picture hangers and put it on the wall. That was my next step, but someone stepped on the board and it broke. I keep the small pieces in a zip-baggie and know that the pieces will be spread all over. The kids like it- and I need to make a new board this week. I was thinking that a mini version of this might be nice for church because there would be no noise. I think felt will stick to the back of the fabric cover pews as well. Ours are wood.