My Keepsake Box | Childhood Quiet Book

When I was four, or possibly three, one of my grandma's made me a beautiful gift. I say 'one of' because now I have many...but I always called her 'vovo' which is the Brazilian word for Grandma. I don't remember using the book, but I'm sure I did. I have every intention of making a similar book to the one I'm about to show you for my own children, and possibly make them for my nieces and nephews as well! They are such great ways to keep children busy, yet quiet.

I've loaded each photo as if you were looking through the book. I love the ideas and really can't wait until my niece is old enough for me to make her one of these! Maybe next year for a birthday or Christmas. :)



This is the cover of my book. It is cross stitched. Yes my middle name is Jean which is also my vovo's middle name, and the name she goes by.

 

Use the pockets.
This included a pocket for pen/pencil, a small notebook, and individual pockets for lots of crayons. As you can see I marked where each color was supposed to go lol.

 

Lace the football.

 

Hang the clothes.
Each clothing article had a little piece of velcro on it so that you could pick where they went on the line.

 

I can count numbers, up to ten.
These were little beads on a string which you could move up and down for counting.

 

Tie my bow.

 

Button the flowers.
Each flower buttons on. As you can see I have some unbuttoned for this photo. :)

 

Count my wheels. Put something in my cars.
I love that the wheels are buttons and the two middle cars are actually like pockets. Now they keep the little pieces of the book, like the clothes that lost their velcro.



Braid my hair.
Three strands of rope like material attached. I remember practicing how to braid on this for hours.

 

Put your hand into my mitten.

 

Match my colors.
Each of the 'balloons' snap on and off.

 

What time is it?
I love this clock! The hands are made out of some kind of plastic.

 

Snap me on my shapes.
Again these are snap on snap off pieces.

 

Make my face.
The eyes, nose and mouth detach and can be moved around.

 

Zip--What's inside?
At one point there used to be 5 little lady bugs, now I only have three.

 

My quiet book, or busy book as vovo called it, was made in a binder note book. When I make these I think I will be sewing them together completely so they are soft and easy to carry and put into a purse or diaper bag to bring along.

 

I really love the idea of having and making quiet books. Because I love sewing and sew often I have TONS of scraps which I've been saving for over a year now for the purpose of making different pages for a few quiet books of my own. I'd like to make one for my niece eventually, but I think she's still a little small to sit and play with something like this. And of course I plan to make one or two for my own kids, and then when my other sisters have kids I will probably make them one as well depending on how well this project goes.

 

Here are a few of my favorite ideas I've found so far that I'd like to have in my creation of a quiet book:



Weave a pie crust.
(photo via Tidbits)



Pages with different color theme's. I'd want the things on the page to be removable though so it would be interactive.
(photo via Pinterest)

 

Although this is actually a DVD case, you can totally make a checkerboard in a quiet book!
Love the buttons too! :)

I have a whole collection of ideas which you can check out on my Pinterest board Quiet Book Ideas. I've done searches for ideas and come up with some things, but I really want to do a quiet book with useful learning skills and not so much just entertainment or just the alphabet. More a conglomeration of a lot of things. I'm sure that when I start this project I will be writing about it quite a bit!

 

I hope you've enjoyed this post! I dug out my Keepsake Box the other day and thought it would be neat to take pics of everything in it to share with all of you lovely readers. It kind of shows a glimpse into my past life as a child or young adult. I think most of the things will come from when I was 13 or younger, but still I love writing about it!

 

Read More From This Series: Old Crafts.