A quiet book for Sophia

Sophia turned one last Friday. Our first grandchild is one already!!

For months now I have been working on a “quiet book” to give to her for her birthday, and I was really pleased to actually manage to get it done in time. It has taken many more hours than I expected it to when I first hatched the idea.

I really enjoyed the process, even though sometimes I was way out of my depth. I suspect that a quiet book on the first birthday might become a goal for each grandchild, (and a pleasure to provide) just as a baby quilt was their “welcome to the world” present. Maybe the projects will all improve as time goes on and I learn more.

Since I spent the time on it, and many of you have seen parts or heard bits about the book I thought it might be good to save the information for posterity and also to share…. so here is a glimpse at Sophia’s quiet book and some insight into my thinking for your enjoyment.

The aim was to supply little activities to help her to learn some skills but also to amuse her quietly so that she could sit down with the book and enjoy it on her own or with others.

I started with the goal of making ten different pages which I thought would be age appropriate or stretching her just a little at the age of one.

Each page is 6.5″ x6″ with the 6.5 being the width of the page to allow for a section for the fastening of the page into the book. The fabric of the page is welded to the batting back with iron on interfacing, giving some substance to each page. Two pages are fixed together by the edging , which is sewn around them after they are placed back to back. Eyelets are then fastened through the page to allow for fixing in to the book.

The matching fabric binding the pages helps the pages to all feel as though they belong together. Other than that each page has its own character and they can be taken in or out of the book as Sophia grows up.

The cover has the letter S (for Sophia) on the front and a 3.5″ wide spine between front and back covers which are 7″ x7″. I should have made them a bit wider and higher to come past the inner pages more.

The spine has eyelets 3″ away from each other on either side so that elastic can be threaded through the spine and meet again over a button closure.

There are pockets on the inside front and back cover to hold small pieces that may need stashing quickly for pack up and there is a magnet closure sewn in to the tab which comes around from the back to the front cover. (this was pretty fiddly, but I thought Sophia might enjoy investigating a magnet)

The Pages

• In the Water
• Sun saying “Boo”
• Baa Baa Black Sheep
• Button Flower
• Shapes
• Five little ducks
• Twinkle Twinkle
• Feed Mollie
• Mouse (double sided)
• Numbers Umbrella
• Colour Pop-Sticks

In The Water

The two fish at the top swim across their elastic strings. The Pink Jelly Fish detaches from its velcro attachment. The snail unsnaps from its snap fastener and can move around. The orange octopus is a finger puppet and can come untucked and be played with (this was an early hit). You can move the ribbon seaweed aside to see the hidden shell and turtle buttons. The blue starfish has yellow bobbles which give a textural experience.

Sun Saying “Boo”

Sophia was enjoying the “Peekaboo” game so this was the inspiration for this page. The sun smiles happily, with lots of little bits and pieces to fiddle with and the hands, on longer ribbons, can be put over the eyes to play “peekaboo” with the sun.

Baa Baa Black Sheep

I really wanted to make this one as “Baa Baa Black Sheep” is already a well known and favourite nursery song for Sophia. The sheep was on a green ribbon so that he could not be lost, but I removed the ribbon before I gave the book to her, as it just made things too complicated.

There is a house for the Master, the Dame and the little girl who lives down the lane. Each has their name on the roof, which lifts up to give access to a pocket house. The bag of black wool can be put inside each house and is attached to the sheep’s home base by an orange ribbon (to avoid being lost).

Button Flower

This simple little page is just three flowers of graduating sizes and different colours with a large button hole in each one, so that they can be detached. There are a few hidden features to find. If I made this one again I would make the flowers tougher by making them double sided with interfacing stiffener inside. They may need replacing in time.

Shapes

A simple page with four basic shapes outlined on the base and attached by velcro. Take them off and replace them again and learn the shapes as you do it

Five Little Ducks

” Five Little Ducks went out one day…” At the moment Sophia could be endlessly entertained by this song. I’m hoping that the five little ducks and the mother duck “Quack Quack Quack Quack” will also entertain her as they go on adventures over the hill and far away. I hope they don’t stray so far away that they cannot get home to their safe pockets behind the blue water of their home pond.

Twinkle Twinkle

If you have Five Little Ducks then you have to have Twinkle Twinkle.

This page gave me a chance to gratuitously promote camping, starry nights, campfires and birdwatching. I’m pretty sure I can work some campfire songs into our book reading too if I try hard enough.

You can detach the big yellow twinkle twinkle star from his velcro home and dance him around. You can enjoy the southern cross in starry sequins up in the starry sky. You can unzip the tattered tent to see the teddy inside, and you can imagine sitting by the campfire. You can also flip up the cover on the tree and see the little owl hiding inside.

Feed Mollie

Mollie is the groodle that lives at Sophia’s house (her dog “sister”). I thought it might be fun to have Mollie feature in the book. Mollie can eat strange coloured dog-biscuits. They go in her mouth and can come out at her back and be fed back in again. If you look at the first picture above you can see the purple one going in her mouth and the green one coming out at the edge of the page. They travel quite happily in her tummy when the book is in transit. I hope that little hands will learn to put them in and take them out and that maybe the colours will be fun too. Mollie’s orange ball can detach from the velcro and bounce around. The little ladybird on the string is a nod to one of Sophia’s very favourite insects.

It was quite tricky to figure out how to represent Mollie and keep her looking like a dog, while allowing her to have a mouth that could be used for eating. I was pretty happy with the final result. Her “earhole” under her floppy ear looks a little strange, but hopefully Sophia won’t notice that.

Mouse

The little grey mouse on a long string can come out of his little corner pocket and can make his way through the holes in the double sided swiss cheese. I hope that he doesn’t get too tangled up.

Numbers Umbrella

I hope that this gives a fun chance to think about numbers and colours for Sophia. The umbrella supports ten strands of coloured string with 1-10 numbers of beads threaded on there. I had to use hot glue to try to fasten the strings securely enough for a toddler to play with this as well as sewing the strings in to the felt at the top and bottom. It’s certainly not the neatest of the pages in the book, but I hope it works OK for this special little girl.

Colour Pop-Sticks

The Colour Pop-sticks page is very simple, but I hope that it will also be a fun activity. Managing to slip the sticks into their little pockets will probably offer a dexterity test as well. I was really pleased to find the coloured starry fabric in the background of this page.

That’s it for now, except to say that the book came second best to the set of plastic measuring cups and star shaped pastry cutters that were given to Sophia at the same time. She did actually show signs of interest in the book and the octopus had been around the place a bit before she left our place. This gives me hope that the book will entertain her for many hours in the future.

Her very kind Mum sent us a photo from home later on showing her playing with the book again. I think she is trying to figure out how that bead can be detached from the elastic!!!