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The Incredible Measuring Mirror {DIY}

August 22, 2018 by Sarah 10 Comments

I am one of those parents who measure my children frequently (more than frequently). It was the second day in our new house when I found our new measuring spot – right on a beautiful barn beam, to John’s dismay. But to me, I was simply adding a little more beauty to a beautiful beam.

To my dismay, a few weeks ago, my little ones took it upon themselves to measure on that same barn beam. With black crayon. And not neatly … or accurately … and not even lines…

Regardless, I thought it time to find them a place to measure.

measuring mirror text

I was going to use just a plain piece of wood, or even a long piece of paper, but I wanted them to be able to see what they were doing better. And one night it struck me – a mirror would be perfect! I tend to get far to excited about ideas like this, and I may have had trouble falling asleep that night. I also may have woken John up to tell him about the idea. Surprisingly, he wasn’t as enthused as I was and had no trouble returning to sleep.

The next day I found a mirror at Walmart that was right around $6. It is nice and tall and does the job perfectly.

Sam and I used a long tape measure to add the scale to the side of our mirror.

measuring mirror 2

We used centimeters, and made a big line to represent each 5 centimeters. After, I added in 4 little notches in between the big lines to represent every 1 centimeter.

measuring mirror 3

I wrote on the 5 centimeters and Sam got to measuring.

This mirror will add in so much learning to our day. We will practice counting by 5’s, one to one correspondence, ordering and comparing things in our house – lots to do with this!

Sam began by measuring himself. It was neat for him to realize he was more than 100 centimeters tall. He also learned that he was the same height from the side, back and front. I thought he would have had an understanding of this before, but apparently not. It’s interesting watching him play and learn the same things in different ways, it makes his learning that much deeper.

measuring mirror 5

Next, we measured some toys. He compared some stuffies and then some trucks. He found out how much taller the dump truck was when he was dumping.

measuring mirror 6

This mirror will become a permanent fixture to our play space. I think it will add a lot of natural and incidental learning to our day.

And will hopefully keep the crayon off of my walls.

I hope you are having a wonderful day friends – thank you so much for reading!

How Wee Learn is a proud sponsor of Oak Meadow. Visit to learn why I love them so!

“Experiential education for curious and creative learners” – Oak Meadow.

 

Filed Under: Create, Learn, Letters and Numbers, Mama Creates Too, Numbers and Counting Tagged With: DIY, learning to measure

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Comments

  1. Margie says

    March 10, 2015 at 8:26 pm

    I love your ideas and I definitely understand how you get so excited when you come up with an idea. I’m a nanny now and I’m only watching one infant but I can’t wait until she gets big enough to start doing some of these projects. I’d never thought of a homemade measuring stick. The mirror idea is fabulous. I’m going to see if we can do that the next time I get to Michigan to visit my Granddaughter. She’s almost two.
    Keep the great ideas coming and I’ll try to keep the Grandchildren learning from and having fun with them.

    Reply
    • Sarah says

      March 11, 2015 at 8:00 am

      Thank you so much Margie. What a lovely comment to read! I bet you are an incredible Nanny. Your little one and granddaughter are very lucky to have you!

      Reply
      • Suzanne says

        June 4, 2020 at 4:33 am

        I will also use the Ikea mirror we have in the spare room for this purpose . We have never wall mounted it for adults and now we have a purpose for it . another grandmother commenting ( also a subscriber )

        Reply
        • Sarah says

          June 9, 2020 at 10:02 pm

          Oh that is a wonderful use of that mirror! I hope your lucky grandbabies love this idea as much as my children do. Thank you very much for taking the time to comment Suzanne – and thank you for subscribing!

          Reply
  2. Clarissa H says

    March 10, 2015 at 10:54 pm

    Great idea adding measurements to the mirror! We just recently came across measuring duct tape and are using it in a similar way 🙂

    Reply
    • Sarah says

      March 11, 2015 at 8:03 am

      Oooh, measuring duct tape? That sounds fun! And thank you!

      Reply
  3. J says

    August 20, 2015 at 1:14 am

    What did you use to make the marks on the mirror? Marker?

    Reply
    • Sarah says

      August 23, 2015 at 8:48 pm

      Hi there, yes I used permanent marker for the marks. Thank you for reading!

      Reply
  4. Sara Scoggan says

    June 2, 2020 at 1:38 pm

    What a great idea! There is a random tall mirror in the basement of the house we bought that we don’t ever use for anything…I now dub it the mirror-for-doing-this-measuring-activity. 🙂

    Reply
    • Sarah says

      June 9, 2020 at 10:03 pm

      I love it! I am also a “dub-ber” – perhaps it is a Sara thing? 🙂

      Reply

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