~5 Days of DIY for the Homeschool Room~

Day 2: Back-to-School Book Bunting

I have to be straight with you: this back-to-school book bunting wasn’t just my idea. Our five year old asked me specifically as I was tucking him into bed a couple of weeks ago: “Mama? Will you make some “Trumpet of the Swan” bunting for the new school room?” I told him I’d think about it and smothered a laugh, because a used copy of The Trumpet of the Swan had just arrived in the mail that afternoon and was awaiting to be un-binded and bunted that very night.

Our son’s request hardly surprised me, though. We often experience these like-mama-like-son moments. Plus, he’s been loving our back-to-school book choice, the last read-aloud of our E.B White trio. And he is well-acquainted with book bunting in general. In fact, he doesn’t remember life before there was book bunting.

When our son was born, we decided our family would have book-themed birthdays as a way to commemorate each year of childhood with the absolute favorite book from that year. You know, the one we read over and over and over again. This tradition has been an absolute joy for our family. And book bunting has been our favorite go-to decoration for each book-themed birthday.

From a Tom Sawyer party for our son’s very first birthday, to The Very Hungry Caterpillar (which I still have memorized to this day), to Frog and Toad, to Locomotive & other train friends, to The Boxcar Children just this past year . . . book bunting has helped us mark and celebrate our son’s yearly milestones with the most beloved books of his childhood. And we’ve made great use of this bunting by tacking it up in our son’s bedroom for the year following each party, until another birthday’s book choice replaces it.

Because of these birthday parties, we will never forget our children’s most favorite book for each year of their life. And in case we ever do forget, we have a keepsake box of book bunting to remind us.

5 Reasons I love Book Bunting:

1.) Communicates to our children that books are celebratory

2.) Surrounds our children with text

3.) Creates a festive room theme for very little effort

4.) Creates a big bang for its buck (only costs about $10-$15 to make)

5.) Entices our kids to keep reading as they see upcoming illustrations

~Back-to-School Book Bunting; easy as 1, 2 ,3~

1.) Get your supplies

You will need:

a used book to cut up for bunting (I love the used books option on Amazon, or Thriftbooks)
scissors or an exacto knife and straight-edge (we use a metal ruler)
twine
a hole punch (preferably a mini-punch like 1/8th inch)
nails, hammer, and measuring tape

My recommendations:

For book title ideas, check out my Ultimate Back-to-School Book List
My favorite twine is striped baker’s twine . . . it’s just so cute! And this brand is made in the USA (hurray!)

USA-made striped Baker’s Twine

A mini hole-punch (1/8th inch) makes for a neater hole for the twine which looks a little more sophisticated. I don’t have a link for one at this time because I haven’t found one that I believe to be of superior quality. One hole punchers seem to break on me pretty often. But breaking things does come pretty naturally to me.

2.) Print, Rip, Trace, Cut, and Punch!

For a bunting stencil: just print one of my ready-to-go bunting templates onto cardstock, cut it out, and punch the holes!

Printable templates here: ~Our Holistic Homeschool~ Bunting Stencil Templates

Tear the pages carefully out of your book
Trace the bunting outline and hole punches in pencil
Use scissors or an exacto knife and straight-edge to cut the bunting out
Use a one hole punch to punch out the twine holes

3.) Hang your beautiful Back-To-School Book Bunting!

string your bunting (in order of occurrence is my favorite for book bunting)
measure and mark out where you want each loop to hang
hammer time!
secure each loop with an easy-peasy slip knot which allows for easy adjusting after you hang the entire strand
keep the nails up and switch out your book bunting throughout the year as often as you want!

Here’s ours! Hope you’ll share yours!

I hope you DIY with us and create some book bunting magic of your own for your Homeschool Space! If you do, we’d LOVE to see which book you choose, so please share a picture when you hang your bunting! Also, click here for our Vintage Framed ABC’s!