Activity Board for a Busy Boy

My daughter had been talking about an activity board for several months. Our precious August, one-year-old and too smart for his own good, gets into everything. When he walks into a room, even when he's carried into a room, he's casing the joint. His eyes miss nothing. So a couple of days before his birthday party, Dad and I decided to make him an activity center. Nothing like starting a time-consuming project with an immediate deadline. It's the way we roll. 

Vanessa's concerned about this strong baby boy pulling things over on himself, too, so I thought I found the solution by buying a low, sturdy desk from IKEA ($17.99) as the base. We had 1/8" plywood on hand that we cut a little larger than the side openings of the desk. 

 I also bought a six pocket thing-a-mahickey to put across the long end. 

We were planning to attach two activity boards to the two narrow sides, but my daughter told me she just wanted the activity boards to hang on the wall so they wouldn't take up floor space. For these pictures, I just propped them on a 2x4 board against the outside of the desk to give you an idea of our original intent, but we would've attached them on the the inside of the desk which would've looked much nicer. We spray-painted the activity boards, mostly with paint we had on hand.

The first activity board is like an interior of a truck. My daughter found a little wheel at WalMart that we used for the steering wheel. I cut a plastic Cool Whip lid a little more than half-way across for the speedometer and used a Sharpie to write in the numbers. If we could've found a moveable arrow to attach to the speedometer, that would've been even better. I used a rectangle plastic lid for the radio, along with two ceramic knobs (IKEA - $2.99 for a pkg. of 6). If we were really on the ball, we would've added a painted scenery including a highway disappearing into the distance. We also talked about using canvas panels with different that could be attached to the windshield and interchangeable with Velcro tabs. But we ran out of time and energy.

We painted red and flourescent-green stripes on the second activity board and included a turnable doorknob, a battery powered plastic lightbulb with pull-string, a blue door with a picture behind it, a loud switch, a magnetic board, and my daughter is going to add a chain lock, hopefully before August goes to college.

I also made a 24 page booklet made up of photos of family for August. I printed out pictures on card stock and covered them with do-it-yourself laminating sheets, which should give it some longevity. Punch holes in a corner and attach with a ring. I really wanted a light switch on it, too, but the switch guts would've stuck out too far in the back. We attached everything with nuts and bolts with no sharp or long ends on the back.

The activity board still has room for other things, it's just finding the time and gumption to add them. 

August and brother Finn (7 years old) had a shared birthday party at a park, and the older kids loved messing with the activity board just as much as August did. That surprised me. I wondered if we should do something of the sort for Finn, but with more challenging activities on the board... : )

Here are the birthday boys- August, 1 year old, & Finn, 7 years old

I still like the idea of a free-standing activity board using the desk. It would even make a great frame for a house or little office, or even the cab of a pickup or airplane cockpit with the wheel attached inside to the board going across the middle of the back of the desk. The dashboard could span the opening below it, and it would have much more room to add a lot more neat stuff to mess with.

The only limitation is your imagination... and time... and tools... and get-up-and-go.