How to Make a Travel Flannel Board Book:

A flannel board is a great tool for grasping and holding a young child's attention for story time (and any learning occasion) and a wonderful toy for the child to play with and develop their imagination.

Materials for your flannel board book:

* Pieces of flannel or felt the size you wish your book to be (the bigger, the better).
* Thread to match the pages of the book and the pieces, if you choose to sew them
* Tacky Glue (or glue gun)
* Sewing Machine (you can also hand sew this)
* Sewing Pins

1. Start off by deciding the size you will make your book. The bigger the book the more room to play and let your child's imagination run wild. I'd personally suggest nothing under 8 inches x 17 inches. (Mine measures 22 inches X 10 inches which gives my son 11 inches per page to play with.

2. Cut your large piece of flannel or felt to size, and decide how many pages you would like to offer your child to play on. Keep in mind that one page will be designated for storage of the pieces.

3. Lay your felt or flannel flat on the floor, making sure to smooth out any and all wrinkles in the fabric. Place the pages on top of each other in the order you wish them to appear in the book.

4. Lay all of your pages in a neat pile on top of each other. Either fold the pages in half or measure to determine the center of the book. Place a mark with chalk or a sewing pin to designate the center of the book. Now, pin the pages together in the middle and stitch down the center for your binding.

5. Take a large piece of flannel or felt and cut a large house shape out. The shape should measure 8 inches wide. The tip should be no less than four inches above the top of the 'square'. Sew the squared sides down leaving the top peaked area loose.

6. Now, fold the top down and place a piece of self adhesive Velcro on the underside of the point. Sew or glue this on, if necessary. Now you have your little storage envelope for your pieces.

7. You are all finished with your flannel board book. Read on for information on making the pieces.

Materials for your story pieces: