Playing with magnets

I have been on the hunt for thick cute magnets and thick colourful foam for a while now.  They are hard to find.  I have been wanting to make Sophie some really thick magnets to play with on her magnet board.  The fun foam that you can get at any craft or dollar store is too thin for Sophie to be able to get a grip on it and I wanted to make something that she could manipulate herself.

We have a few other magnet toys for her to play with.....

The Leap Frog fridge farm is great fun.  It sings songs when pressed and tells you what your are looking at like a cow or a horse.  We sometimes play with the magnets on her magnet board instead of on the platform that they come with.  We sort them and make funny animal bodies and talk about their colours.

For Christmas my mom and dad bought Sophie some magnetic whiteboard erasers that are really thick, they found them at Scholar's Choice here and here.  There are other ones that I hope to add to our collection too.  We don't use them as a whiteboard eraser, just as a fun thick magnet that Sophie can get a hold of with some help.  We can talk about what the bird and owl is, what colour they are, make up stories with them and on and on.

We also have some magnetic dress up dolls that are really great for Sophie to practice her choice making.  She can choose what they wear or which doll she wants to play with.

Playing with a friend :)

The other magnet set we have is a Melissa and Doug animal habitats set that we use all the time.  I have photos of it being used by Sophie somewhere. :)  The magnet board in all the photos I am posting is from that set.  It is so handy and the perfect size.

Last weekend I finally finished a project with photos on magnets that I had been wanting to do for some time now. I printed some photos, used some old foam I had (since I couldn't find the nice thick colourful stuff) and bought some magnet sheets at the dollar store. It was so easy to make.  (edited to add: I used Gorilla glue to adhere the photos to the foam, it worked great formin a really good bond and didn't seem to hurt the photos at all.)

I am going to try to paint the old worn foam to pretty it up a bit.  I am going to make alot more of these with photos of family and friends.  Sophie loves to look at photos of people she knows and loves so now she can touch and hold on to those photos too.