How to Organize an Art Cart for Kids

As my daughter has grown, our extra room over the garage has gone from a playroom to an art/hangout room and has had to be revamped several times as we clear out old supplies, toys and books that we aren’t using anymore.

One thing that has been in there for a long time is an art cart, but even though I’ve written about how to organize one of these carts ours has never been very well organized.

You can get these carts just about anywhere these days (ours is a Raskog from Ikea, but you can get a dupe from Amazon) and they are super handy if you don’t have a whole room dedicated to creativity and need to store things in a way that they can easily be moved, such as when the art space is also the dining room.

If you have a cart for your bonus room, home school room or classroom, Little Bins for Little Hands has some great tips (and their cart looks much better than mine!). It looks like she has the Amazon version mentioned above, and her post gives you the rundown of all the things on her cart or that you might want to add to yours depending on the interests of your kids.

If yours is in a classroom you can always change up the kinds of supplies that are available through the year or add in seasonal stickers, paper and other supplies.

The post also talks about why it’s great to have an art cart, but for me the main thing is to keep things accessible and visible because that’s how I like my supplies in my office, too. That way you can get inspired by things and not necessarily have to think as much about what you want to make before you get started because you have some boundaries based on what’s on the cart.

Check out the post on Little Bins for Little Hands for more details. If you have an art cart I’d love to hear what you use it for!

[Photo: Little Bins for Little Hands.]

Leif Erikson Day is celebrated on Oct. 9, and it’s a great time to learn more about the Vikings and why we still remember Erikson all these years later.

If you don’t know about Leif Erikson (sometimes spelled Eriksson), he’s believed to have been born in Iceland, and is considered the first European to set foot on continental America, more than 500 years before Christopher Columbus.

123 Homeschool 4 Me has a printable mini book about Leif Erikson and the Vikings for kids to read and color. It talks about who the Vikings were, what kind of ships they used, how they got to America and more. It’s a good overview for younger kids to use.

A good unit study is available from Simple Living Creative Learning, which includes a page where kids can write what they know, what they want to learn and what they learned through the unit, as well as information on the Vikings, longships, helmets, clothing and more.

Get a printable Viking unit study with reading passages, comprehension questions and other activities aimed at grades 4-8 from Creative Classroom Core at Teachers Pay Teachers. (And see more Vikings content from TPT here.)

Tina’s Dynamic Homeschool Plus has some great unit study ideas, too, including suggested books and videos. The post includes information about the Viking voyages, society, mythology and ships, as well as some vocabulary and a list of famous Vikings. While you’re over there also check out her free printable lapbook, which includes mini books on ships, a timeline, a Viking women coloring page, draw your own Vikings, geography, ancient runes and more.

Piqolo Kids has a lesson on Viking women with (available for purchase) worksheets about a day in the life of Viking women. Even if you don’t grab the printables there’s some good resources on that page and a link to a video on Viking women.

Learn how to draw a Viking ship with instructions from Drawing How to Draw, or grab Vikings coloring and labeling worksheets from Kids Puzzles and Games.

There’s a Leif Erikson Festival annually in Norway, Michigan, which you can learn more about here.

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