Craft: Homemade button board

Today I have a craft activity for the parents to make. It's a homemade button board. I came across one on Pinterest, the button board is a great way to teach your toddler or preschooler how to fasten their buttons.

Popette is starting "big school" next year, so I thought it would be great practice for her. The board is also a good way to teach your toddler the difference between big and small (using different size buttons), how to tye a ribbon or shoelace, and identifying shapes.

To make the button board I used an old piece of flannelette material which I cut into a large rectangle. I sewed five buttons, and a piece of ribbon on to the material, which I stuck onto an old piece of cardboard using sticky tape.

Then using scrap pieces of felt I cut out five shapes with a small button hole for fastening to the board.

Popette doing up her buttons

All you need is:

An assortment of buttons (I found different sizes worked best)
Felt or thick material (i.e. an piece of an old flannelette sheet)
Needle & thread
Pencil
Sticky tape
Piece of thick cardboard

Note: I have sewn my buttons on to a piece of fabric, but if you have little ones who still put things in their mouths you might want to fasten the buttons using a hot glue gun or use large buttons.

Suitable age group: Mum or Dad (Kids can help select the buttons & pieces of material)
Estimated time: 15-30 mins (Depends how handy you are with a needle & thread :))
Messiness factor: low