REMEMBERING THE CHILDHOOD MAGIC
Remember when you were younger and you would return to school on a Monday after a break and see that your elementary school classroom had transformed to reflect the teacher's upcoming lessons? Bulletin boards would be themed out in all new die-cuts and patterned boarders. Decorations on the walls and the windows would inspire you. New activities would be in our cubbies and fun stickers on the desk. It probably took hours of valuable time, and hundreds of hard earned dollars, but wow did it make a difference. And those subtle differences have lasted in our memories and our hearts for years.
Our little one is learning remotely this semester and as we were overhauling her space to make it more functional it dawned on us that she was missing this pinnacle piece of the elementary school experience (of course there are a lot other parts she is missing out on, but this is one that we could control!). So we used our workspace challenge as an opportunity to transform her space into something magical, just like our teachers used to do for us. We knew we couldn't live up to the talents of elementary school teachers, but we knew we had to try!
One day last weekend, while our daughter was away for the day on a play date with framily (not a typo - we consider our closest friends to be just like family - aka FRamily) we took advantage of the moment and started the transformation.
Since Halloween is the closest holiday, we decided to base our new decor around this theme. First we set out to curating her book wall with exciting and fun Halloween themed titles.
These are some of our favorite books:
A. Creepy Carrots by Aaron Reynolds and Illustrated by Peter Brown
B. Ginny Goblin by David Goodner and Louis Thomas
C. It's Raining Bats & Frogs by Rebecca Colby and Illustrated by Steven Henry
D. A Campfire Tail by Sarah Glenn Marsh and Ana Gómez
E. How I Became a Pirate by Melinda Long and David Shannon
F. There's a Monster in Your Book (this is so fun and interactive!) by Tom Fletcher, and Illustrated by Greg Abbott
These are just a few of the many Halloween books we have enjoyed. A lot of these we have discovered through Amazon's Prime Book Box. Our daughter loves getting these surprise books in the mail. We could go on an on about this program, but we'll have to save it for another blog post!
Next, we created these cute prints to replace her "everyday" prints. We got this amazing BOO print Free from Clemintine Creative. We just pulled it up on our computer and, with our special editing software secrets, we tweaked the color to match her room. Then we set to work to create another special print of pretty pink and orange pumpkins to fit in the other frame! (Want the pumpkin print?? Keep reading!)
Next we hung a fun black pom pom garland we had laying in our Halloween decoration box (we can't remember where we got it originally from, sorry!) and swapped out her pink wooden love bird for a cute wooden boo ghost given to us the year before by a friend.
Our next biggest task, was the 3D bat wall! We printed out some bat templates and set to work cutting out bats in three different colors and in three different sizes. We rearranged the wall a few times before getting it right. We just love how adding in the pink bats tied in the rest of the decor in her room and kept the Halloween feel more whimsical than scary!
TO MAKE A 3D BAT WALL
Start with a single line of smaller bats (one bat "per row", varying just slighting in tilt and alignment with each bat.
Then when you've got a little trail of 4-5 batsl, start to split the trail into a row of two bats wide and repeat until you've gotten just a few rows of twos. Be sure to start mixing in some of the medium sized bats.
Next, split the row again into three bats wide, adding some larger sized bats in the mix, and begin to put a small curve in your line's overall projection.
As you get near the end of your line of bats, start to decrease the width again and start to decrease their size again to create the illusion that they came OUT of the books, flew towards you, then back away into the distance.
Make sure to go back and bend up the wings to create the ultimate 3D look.
We wanted to change out the middle photo of my baby bump, but she has said to us time and time again that she NEVER wants us to change that photo because it is so special to her heart and how can I mess with that? So I let it be!
For the final touches we added some pumpkins to her desk and some sweet smelling Harvest Spice - Gathering Blend from Doterra oils to her diffuser. The clove, nutmeg, and cinnamon fill the room and warms the heart giving a sense of calm and togetherness.
THE BIG REVEAL
When she finally returned home, we led her straight into her room. Her eyes lit up, and her smile was as big as the moon. The look on her face was just like we imagined, and it gave us an understanding of why teachers do it. All of it! Teachers work so hard for these little moments, but it's these moments that last an entire lifetime. First thing Monday morning she logged into zoom and excitedly showed off her room to her peers. We hope that this memory will last a lifetime for our little one, but if not, we have more holiday reveals ahead!
NOW IT'S YOUR TURN
We encourage you to consider adding a special "themed" element to your child's remote learning workspace. Something that is easy to swap out and bring a fresh look once a month. This will keep the space exciting and hopefully ward off some of the stale feeling we get when we sit in the same room day after day to help revive some excitement when logging into school. Don't know where to start? We've posted some freebies below and pinned some fun inspirations on our Pinterest page! We hope to provide you with more FREE prints throughout the school year to help keep your child's remote learning space fun and exciting like they would experience in the classroom!
Pump'ed For School Pumpkin Wall Print and Bat Cut Outs - Free From Us! Available in Pink and Blue too! download here!
More Home Decor Designs by Organized Circus- Don't want to print from home or looking for more designs? Find more here!
Boo Print - (this we tweaked ours from the original boo poster found here . [and because of copyright, I can't provide you with my pink version, but you can have the black and white version from the original artist.]
And of course...... check out our fun Halloween ad for the Mask Tamer - our Breakaway Mask Lanyard for Kids!