Caitlyns Craft Area

I know this isn't a typical post, but I wanted to talk about the craft area we have set up for our kids. This is important because it shows that we try to make all of the supplies available to them. We trust our eldest to be responsible with her things. This takes some patience and sometimes some gentle correction. But over time I have gotten  more comfortable with allowing Caitlyn to have full-time access to these items. I should have started this sooner, and I always have had certain things within her reach, but it has only been the past few months or so that I have really started to give her more to explore with on her own. It builds self-esteem and confidence when children are allowed to be in control and know they are trusted. It is also an important part of Child-led play to have everything they need available to them. How can they lead in an activity if they do not have access to the materials? So this is what our (ever-evolving) craft area looks like!

So right now we live in this super small 2 bedroom apartment. Caitlyn has her own room which doubles as a play room, while the baby shares a room with my husband and myself. I tell you this so that you understand what I am giving up for them to have this space. This is half of my dining room right now. I would LOVE to dedicate an entire room to Child-led play like they do over at Play At Home Mom, but I just don't have an extra room right now. So we make do with what we have.

You can click on the pics to enlarge them and get a closer look.


Starting in the bottom left corner on the floor we have: 1 basket for her wooden train set (also has the sensory balls in it), 1 basket for her marble run kits, her craft table with trays underneath for her construction paper, the pink basket in the corner has coloring books and other books, her storage shelves, and a storage bench with baby toys in it.

This is hanging on the wall above the baskets. It is part of a plastic shoe rack that I cut and hung with peel and stick hooks.
So far we have a slot for her finger puppets, her little princesses, and her magnets. I know the princesses are more of  a "toy" than a craft item, but she uses them so much that I decided to put them here. I haven't figured out yet what to put in the empty slot...any (baby-friendly) ideas??

  

These are the storage shelves. We have Craft Supplies in the top drawer (crayons, markers, glue, scissors, glitter, Popsicle sticks, brown paper bags etc.). The Middle drawer is for paint/ paint supplies. And the bottom drawer is for Pay-dough and tools. 

It is also important to label things with pictures if you want kids to be able to put their things away in the proper places. It clears up any confusion and relieves the frustration involved, trust me.

In the pink basket we have various sketch books, coloring books, dry-erase binders, and her Melissa and Doug magnetic shapes board.

We recently added these cork boards to hang her artwork on instead of the string we previously had up. The kitten kept knocking that down :p

The bottom part of the table is where we keep her sensory bin and light box.

These are spray bottles filled with water and food coloring. They are hung using more of the plastic shoe holder and peel and stick hooks.

I am constantly adding new item to this area when I find something I think can be used creatively. I am definitely going to expand her area when we move and are not limited to the small space we have!