Map decals for a 3 year old?
December 29, 2010 1:07 PM   Subscribe

Help me create fun map pins/stickers for my toddler to learn with.

I have a globe and large wall map of the USA that my 3 year old loves to learn about. With friends and family members spread around the world, I'd like to somehow use pins or stickers to show her where people are currently living in relation to her. Since some people are on the move, these need to be movable - so actual stickers probably won't work. Pins also won't work as she would definitely hurt herself or leave them lying on the floor. Another thing I would like would be to use pictures as these markers. Any ideas on how I could do this? Decals? Velcro? Magnets somehow? Any ideas would be great!
posted by boulder20something to Home & Garden (5 answers total) 3 users marked this as a favorite
 
If the wall map is coated/laminated, and not just paper, you could print out your own "stickers" using window-cling paper for your printer. You can print out pictures on the cling sheets and then cut them out and use them like Colorforms.

If the wall map is paper, you could hang it over a magnet board (I think plain whiteboards are magnetic) or paint magnet paint behind it. Then you could print pictures on paper and glue the pictures to little magnets.

Not recommending either of the specific products linked, just linked for the idea.
posted by dayintoday at 1:19 PM on December 29, 2010


Best answer: I would do this with printable post-it labels (or the name badges if you want larger pictures).
posted by fings at 1:30 PM on December 29, 2010


Best answer: In my office, we used a can of spray adhesive to stick things to the a huge sheet of paper on the wall, then move them around. I remember it being 3M brand, but not the exact name of the product. Here's a different brand; and something that looks like the 3M version too. There mat be others.
posted by CathyG at 2:18 PM on December 29, 2010


Velcro on felt withcraft items glued on for texture. Shapes and obects that have some depth, heft and texture to them. We have anadvent calendar my mom made like this for when I was a toddler. Sure a few pieces have been replaced, but after 34 years of my sister and I fighting over who gets to put on the train and sailboat, my son got the opportunity to take his dad on head to head.

He won both of those this year, but I gotto put on the star (because he couldn't reach).

Based on this post, and the amount of fun he had with the advent calendar, I'll be making a similar map over the course of this year.
posted by Nanukthedog at 3:39 PM on December 29, 2010


Rubber cement is really good for making paper stick to just about anything, plus removable if you need to switch stuff around: Apply it to the pictures rather than the map, then let it dry. It should dry sticky enough to hold even to a vertical surface, but the adhesive will move with the picture, rather than remain on the map, when faces are relocated. Also, to remove rubber cement, rubbing it once dry will generally cause it to ball up and peel off with little damage to the surface it was adhered to.

I think this is a really great idea, and that the age range is probably about right for getting these concepts. We did something similar at our house with a clock --attached pictures of family members at each number-- and it's helped to both familiarize babyYs with names of people she never sees, and with the idea that the moving hands tell us when stuff happens (eg, when the short hand is on Cousin X and the big hand on Daddy, SleepyTime is over!).
posted by Ys at 6:02 PM on December 29, 2010


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