Money-saving tip for Art, Craft, Handwriting, Mathematics, Science.

I chanced upon a pile of patterns and templates from Creative Crafts weekly collectible magazines at an op-shop (charity shop/thrift shop). I always go and scrounge for homeschooling supplies in these places. I got the set for $1, and the next day went back and purchased another set I hadn't noticed the day before complete with folder for $1. So now I have duplicates of everything. See the photo examples below:

Then I noticed that certain craft magazines also had patterns and templates. So, for 50c each I purchased some quilting, patchwork, embroidery and stitching magazines. The quilting books have the BEST templates in the middle...dont bother with card-making and scrapbooking magazines as they dont have anything at all. Before Christmas the op-shop is having a sale of  3 for $1. I'll be there with bells on!! Here's some pics of what I scored...

Dressmaking patterns could also be useful, but the paper is a lot thinner and tears easily. You can also find these in op-shops.


These templates are useful for the following activities:

1. Cutting out shapes and pictures using scissors, or even a stanley (box-cutter) knife for older kids.

2. Colouring in pictures. (Using pencils, felt-tip pens (textas), paint, crayons).

3. Tracing along a line (cheaper than buying a Kumon book) - fine motor skills activity.

4. Drawing between 2 lines (similar to a doing a maze).

5. Pasting onto the template cut pieces of paper/material scraps/buttons/sequins etc.

6. Tracing over large handwriting of differing scripts (eg. print, cursive).

7. Craft: Older kids can actually use these magazines and templates for quilting, cross-stitch, embroidery etc.

8. Copying pictures freehand on to blank paper (trying to replicate the original as closely as possible).

9. Folding: Some templates have dotted lines with "fold here" written on them.

10. Geometry: The templates often have basic shapes such as triangles, squares, circles and hexagons because the layouts of quilts are usually symmetrical and organised in a manner I learned in Year 7 math is called "tessellations." These are patterns of repeating interlocking shapes, as if you were tiling a room. So, if your child quilts a symmetrical blanket, they are doing mathematics. Here's some links on the subject:
http://www.mathcats.com/explore/tessellationtown.html  has free relevant information.
http://library.thinkquest.org/16661/escher/tessellations.1.html for many free tessellations to print out.
http://www.coolmath4kids.com/tesspag1.html 

11. Science: There are a variety of subjects/themes covered by these templates, including flowers, animals, seasons and farms. Great for lapbooking and Science assignments.

If any of these ideas has given you some new ideas, please leave a comment. And if you do some activities using these ideas on your own blog, please link back to me!