Reading at Home

Have I mentioned how important it is to read at home?  Here's a link to an article about reading aloud to your child, if you are intereseted. 

The new book slings are filled with books!

I've mentioned that I'm taking a class on creating playful spaces. Just as we were discussing reading nooks, my kids decided their rooms needed a change. They both decided to rearrange their furniture to create reading nooks. I swear, I did not even mention it to them. They came up with the idea all on their own.

After rearranging, my daughter decided she wanted to keep some books in her room. We have a central kids' library, upstairs in a little corner of the master bedroom. I was happy that she wanted a space to keep some of her favorite books, but there was no room for a bookshelf.

In reading about playful spaces, I came across this idea for a book sling.



This book sling is from Family Fun.

LOVE IT! I knew I had leftover fabric, from recovering the dress-up box. My daughter and I went to work, creating her book slings. I did the cutting and she helped me with the sewing.



We started by cutting two rectangles for each sling.  I cut one from the pretty fabric and one from cheap muslin.  The Family Fun website suggests sizes for cutting, but I didn't want to buy new fabric, so I used what I had.  We sewed right sides of the fabric together and then turned the fabric right sides out.  This made nice edges on the fabric.



We folded the edges over and sewed a little pocket for the dowels to slide through.
Then we took a trip to Lowe's for the rest of the supplies. We bought double curtain rod brackets. (The cheapest we could find.) We also bought 5/8th inch wooden dowels, in 4 foot lengths.


This was one of the easiest projects we've done in a long time.


I think I'll probably shorten the slings a little.  My daughter has short little books and they just fall to the bottom of the sling. 

Now my son wants a book sling too!  I don't think we'll be using the pink stripes in his room though.

Do you visit the public library?  Do you love to buy books, like I do?  Is your book storage overflowing?  The book sling was really easy to make and my daughter loves choosing new books to display in it.
Happy reading!
Mem Fox's 10 Commandments of Read Aloud