Today’s Hint: 2 Easy DIY Magnet Boards

Our fridge functions great, but it’s missing one key feature: Its door isn’t magnetic.

So, though I’ve had grand dreams of teaching my nearly 2-year-old daughter her numbers and letters via cute magnets, the lessons haven’t started yet.

However, they may begin soon, and this isn’t because we’re buying a new fridge. Rather, I recently learned about two methods for easily creating magnet boards, simple DIY projects that are today’s hint.

1. Use a piece of sheet metal. One of my creative friends (the same crafty one who made her own iPhone photo case and taught me about reusable food baby food pouches) wanted to teach her 2-year-old daughter the alphabet and how to count. She figured letter and number magnets would be the easiest method; however, like my fridge, her fridge wasn’t magnetic, and she didn’t want more clutter in her kitchen anyway.

So, at the suggestion of her Kindergarten-teacher sister, she bought a piece of sheet metal from a local home improvement store (one similar to this $9 one at Lowe’s).

She wiped down the sheet metal board, wrapped some scrap fabric around its sharp edges, covered its sides with pretty patterned duct tape and then balanced it against one of the walls in her living room (see it in the image above). There, covered with Melissa and Doug magnets, my friend says it serves as the perfect prop for teaching her 2 year old, who has now mastered her numbers and letters.

Other parents are also fans of this trick. Kirsten at 366 Days of Pinterest created a similar sheet metal board, and you can find more examples of such DIY magnet boards over at Pinterest.

3. Repurpose a cookie sheet. You may not have noticed it (I didn’t until recently), but traditional cookie baking sheets are generally magnetic. So, an even easier solution than the sheet metal option, assuming you don’t mind a relatively small magnet board, is to repurpose a cookie sheet (an old one you have around the house or a new one you buy for cheap) into a magnet board.

You can read more about how to do this over at Mrs. Happy Homemaker; Princesses, Pies & Preschool Pizzazz; and Pinterest; and note that cookie sheets are also great for containing “arts and crafts chaos,” as Sarah Powers points out in a helpful “Summer Shortcuts” series over at The Happiest Home.

If you don’t have a magnetic fridge, where does magnet play occur in your house? What other kid-friendly uses have you found for cookie sheets and sheet metal? What do you think of the two DIY magnet board ideas above? Share your thoughts below.

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