Item the first: the book wall.
This is one wall of the gameroom (which we call the DMZ–it separates the boys’ bedrooms). I stole this idea from Jim Trelease and modified it somewhat.
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Item the second: an interesting history of the ancient world:
Susan Wise Bauer’s name is familiar to homeschoolers, but this book deserves a much wider audience. As in: everyone.
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Item the third: nutritious food kids will eat.
You know how most kids will at least eat plain chicken breast and mini carrots? Not mine. Not even close. They specialize in cheese and bread (which has a surprisingly large number of manifestations: cheese sandwich, quesadilla, cheesy toast, grilled cheese, pizza, etc.) Anyway: this book can be credited with getting the first green vegetables into my children. No joke. And the potstickers were really, really good.
Julie, it seems that the first two items, as well as the third, have the goal of sneaking things into your boys. :-) May you be successful, at least most of the time!
How on earth do you get them to keep the books all nice and neat like that on the book wall? That would last about five seconds in my house… But I LOVE it!
What does the whole verse say? I’m not familiar with it. Neat wall!
Heh. I read the Trelease article and it took me right back. In library school, a good chunk of my course in elementary-age children’s selection was focused on exactly this kind of book-marketing to young kids. My instructor had been a marketing guy for K-mart or something before he became a children’s librarian. :D
I love the bookwall – and the quote. How did you do the lettering quote above? When my now grown children were small I had a kind of home-made folding stand which opened up and contained a similar set-up (the books were kept in place by curtain wire strung across the front of the shelves. I can’t remember what happened to it. But now whenever the much-beloved grandson visits (he’s only 18 months), the books I have for him are propped up against the sofas for him to choose – much more inviting and he loves it.
As a hs mom following the trivium, I identified with your first two favorites immediately. Trelease and SWB’s WTM, SOTW 1-4, WEM and now HoAW are a great part of our home as well.
I love the Seussism on your wall. I admire the parable form of writing used in such political protest books as Yertle the Turtle (Hitler/anti-facisism) and The Sneetches (anti-Sematism). Those are two books that can be read again and again, and lessons applied, to “oh, all those places[we’ll] go” in life.
Love the wall! I wonder if you’ll end up assigning a shelf to each child to get to choose what gets to be on display.
Great wall … I wonder how the books will change as the kids get older.
“I love the bookwall – and the quote. How did you do the lettering quote above? ”
If I’m not mistaken it’s vinyl lettering that you apply with a squeegee. The company I work for makes them, but you can get stuff like that at any local sign shop, it shouldn’t be very expensive.
Anyway, I love the wall Julie. you’ve inspired me to do something similar when I eventually finish the basement.
And the quote is Dr. Seuss, right?
Thanks for the comments. Sorry the picture cut off–the entire quote is “The more that you read the more things you will know. The more that you learn the more places you’ll go.” and is from Dr. Seuss. The boys do, of course, take the books down to read so most of the time, it has a more . . . shall we say, gap-toothed look to it. But I think it’s kinda fun to pick a few of my favorites off the shelves and fill the holes on the shelves with those when I have a few minutes.
The letters are from http://www.wallwords.com and very easy to apply–they are vinyl.
Julie, do you know if the wall words will work on textured walls? That slightly bumpy stuff called orange peel? I’m working on figuring out how to spiff up my family room a bit, and they look cool.
We also have a tradition of trying to find absolutely bizarre presents for the kids at birthdays and Christmas, and you solved the problem of what to find for my 16 year old. At wallwords, they have hair and beards and mustaches you can apply to the mirror, so that it looks as though you have one of the above, so I got him a couple of the weirder ones there. (Usually the weid stuff comes from sciplus.com.)
Paula #12
I have applied Wall Words to orangepeel texture. But you have to get the letters right the first time because they don’t survive being peeled off (‘course, this was over five years ago . . . maybe things have improved).
Julie, I love the wall! I like your colors, too . . . you should do a home tour of your new place like you did of the last one.
paula, I think vinyl letters will work on pretty much anything short of brick, fabric, stucco, etc.
Idahospud, I’ve been considering the photo tour but I wanted to wait until the place was more “done.” However, I’ve, er, hit a wall and need some ideas on what to do to some walls, so maybe I post them as a plea for ideas. Idaho, what do your wallwords say? You should post a tour on your blog!
Paula, I put this up two years ago Mother’s Day and it’s a textured wall (though you can’t tell from the picture). We haven’t had any problems with it peeling up or anything. If you order online from the place Julie mentioned they probably have an aggressive adhesive.
http://flickr.com/photos/jjohnsen/538007555/
Come to think of it, I also put some vinyl robots on my baby’s dresser, it has a horrible paint job without being sanded and it’s still up as well. The vinyl must stick to anything.
Hey, jjohnsen, since you seem to be the vinyl expert here… I want to put up some vinyl designs on a wall, and I have a very specific vision of what I want. I’ve looked around quite a bit on blik and other sites, but I can’t find anything I like. Could I design an image myself in some kind of electronic format, take the file to a sign shop, and have them work it up for me? Do sign shops do this sort of thing?
And thanks, Julie, for a few great things!
I like the sneaky chef idea. However, the person who needs the sneaking done to him reads English. I guess I could hide the cookbook.
Thanks jjohnson. I like your choice of color on your wall, too. The wall looks as though it’s just slightly less bumpy than my own. I’m still fiddling around trying to decide on color choice in there, and now will have to figure out what the quote should be too…..
I will say, this book wall is an advantage of a bigger house. We have maxed out our wall space with bookshelves and I think the hall is the only place something like this would fit. Only the hall is covered with maps and stuff.
Rosalynde, I have emailed some of the vinyl websites and they have always been willing to do what I wanted as custom work.
Rosalynde, most sign shops can take your personal artwork. I know for the place I work at it’s preferable if the art is vector art, but layers work ok as well. I have an example of an actual drawing that I took and made into cut vinyl for my baby’s space-themed room. My daughter drew a robot which we had someone sew onto a window thingy(I don’t know what it’s called) then had an artist friend copy the general design of that in Adobe Illustrator.
http://www.johnsenclan.com/wordpress/2007/06/06/brothers-room/
Julie, after seeing how many posts I have in this thread, and what they relate to, I really have to apologize for thread-jacking. What started out as a sweet post quickly became a do-it-yourself workshop. I’m sorry.
jjohnsen, don’t worry about it–I figured this would happen.
Either that or a 300 comment flame war about food choices and/or the teaching of history and/or the best method for teaching kids to read.
And: that kid’s room is incredibly cool. Maybe I should get you to advise me on what to do about my bedroom . . .
Church Lady,
What I intend on teaching my children is that pedants are their own punishment.
I’d like to argue about history, but I enjoyed the history book, so I haven’t got much to say. I did email the cookbook URL to my SIL who has a picky preschooler, though. I swear, that kid lives on air. She’s the only person I’ve ever seen scream at the sight of a Corn Chex. (My own kids are not picky; they have a bunch of food allergies instead. It’s always something.)
Julie (#14), my words said “I am not contain’d between my hat and my boots” with credit to Whitman. But when we sold the house, the new owners didn’t want it so I peeled them off. I always meant to get some in this new house but I’m going on six years (I have, however, painted some words–my little daughters have “On the wings of my fancy I can fly anywhere” in their room and their safari-themed bathroom has “Wild thing, you make my heart sing” hidden in some leopard spots).
For my laundry room, I’d like Dame Rose Macauley’s quote, “At the worst, a house unkept cannot be so distressing as a life unlived.”
For the office/piano room: “If music be the food of life, play on.”
As for a tour of my house, you pretty much got that with the post I did on Kess’ “decorating” skilz. I’ve lost heart for any new projects until she outgrows needing to leave her mark on everything.
This is one of my favorite things.