Laminating the Displays

Mother Goose Time gives us many awesome displays with our starter kit each year.  I have gone through 2 very well loved alphabet charts.  I like to have them right at their height so they can interact with them easily.  Of course this is risky as they can draw on them, pull them off and bend them up or even lick them if they so desire (you know it's true).

Mother Goose Time posted one of my photos of Peter standing at the chart and said how important it is to have them at there level and to just call if they get ruined.  I might have been the first one to take them up on the offer and called for another alphabet chart.  They sent me a whole new starter kit!

I don't want to just keep going through these displays though and will soon be adding a 3rd child who will be on the move before I know it and posing a threat to all the displays.  Laminating is always a good way to protect paper, but I wasn't sure I could find pouches big enough.  Luckily, I did, on Amazon.  

I got online and ordered legal size Scotch Thermal Laminating Pouches, 8.5" x 14" Inches.You only get 20 in a package, so not nearly as much bang for your buck.  But since you are just using these for a handful of the displays, I think it is well worth it.  I can use a few now and save some for next year, if/when we get any new displays.

I've got my good camera packed away in the hospital bag for when baby decides to come.  So this is just from my iPad.  Not the greatest quality.

Since I had the laminator out and a whole new starter kit I went ahead and laminated all of the display pieces.  I figure I will replace those that are up which are all a bit worn out.  This will allow me to relax a little when little ones are over by the display wall, knowing that they shouldn't be able to harm things too badly.  I even laminated the weather dial and the hands. 

Also, I laminated the blank signs that Mother Goose Time provides for us to label any additional activity areas.  I can't think of any now, but I thought, having them laminated I could use and reuse them by writing on them with a dry erase marker.  This way I could set up temporary activity areas, maybe seasonal ones.

As I was laminating these displays I kept thinking how great it will be for the kids to actually be able to hold these things in their hands.  Like the number chart.  We could pull it down and lay it on the floor, maybe count things out by laying them next to the numbers as we go.  Taking the weather dial to the window and adjusting the weather for the day or even taking it along outside.  Or taking the alphabet chart down to set on the table as we work on writing.  I can even take a dry erase marker and circle the letter or number we are working on, right on the chart, and then wipe it off. 

This will definitely allow for us to interact with these displays in new and exciting ways!