Play Space Extras

I call these ideas play space extras because they can easily be added to any play area.  One of my biggest obsessions is trying to come up with great play space extras!

In the patio, under the windows, we added a a dry erase sticky sheet to the wall and applied two round, pink, sticky dry erase sheets on top of it.  My daughter loves this and it has been a great way to encourage her to color inside the lines/circle as she is developing better muscle control.

Under a different window I nailed three 9x9 inch cork board pieces to the wall.  When she was littler she just liked to touch them but now that she is getting older I allow her to practice using tacks to hang stuff on her cork boards.  She uses it as an art gallery.

We had a sheet of metal left over from some project so I bought some chalk board paint and added about 5 layers of paint to the metal sheet.  My husband mounted it under a window in the patio.  He used left over trim from the bathroom remodel to make a frame.  The frame makes it look ten time better and ensures that there are no sharp metal edges that our daughter can touch.  I'm a little disappointed in the chalk board paint.  This is the first time I have used it so I wasn't sure what to expect.  The board works great but is hard to wipe clean.  I have resorted to just giving my daughter a damp cloth to use as an eraser and it works good.  I love that this is magnetic.  My daughter keeps a bucket of letter magnets next to the board and enjoys added the magnets to the board after she has finished drawing her chalk picture.

This is a little unique thing I came up with one day while going through things in my husbands shop.  I found a lazy susan type bracket (I have no idea what it's really called)  There's two square metal pieces with circles in the middle, the two pieces are attached at the circle and have ball bearings that allow the two pieces to move independently of each other- I wish I would have thought to take a picture of it.  If I find one at the hardware store one day I will try and remember to take a picture and load it.

My husband attached a square piece of wood onto one side on the bracket and mounted it onto the wall in the play area.  I attached Velcro to the middle and came up with a number of different fun objects that can be Velcroed to the square.  My daughter can spin the square around just like a lazy susan.