Preschoolers and toddlers – how to decorate their bedrooms

Decorating preschoolers and toddlers bedroom is not as easy as it seems. Parents have to think of the safety features and blend them with childlike fantasy. They need separate areas for sleeping, playing and studying.

A typical bedroom will have a bed, study table and storage for their toys. Their room decoration need to be less expensive and easily changeable as their needs change rapidly, so here are some ideas for an economical cost decoration.

1. Preschoolers and toddlers love primary colors like red, blue, green and yellow. However, it is not a good idea to paint the walls or furniture in these colors as their tastes are ever-changing, so the wise choice is to keep these in neutral color.
   Other than painting their walls, have some fun decorating with them. Stick pieces of colored paper or some cartoons from the magazines or stickers. They are not expensive and can be changed easily. You can change them every week thus giving it a fresh change of environment.
   You can also hang posters on themes like motivation quotes, science or even their favorite cartoon characters. These are some preschoolers and toddlers activities which you can do with them as they are fun, engaging, get them involved and stimulate their creativity.
2. Consider putting in a colorful area rug. These rugs come in all sizes, so take them shopping and allow them to choose their own rug and complement it by throwing in several hug pillows to create a cozy corner. They will love to snuggle down for reading or play some games. You can even add a bookshelf next to it to give a purpose to the place by putting in their story books, magazines and toys.
3. Decorative shelving is another brilliant way to add charm to rooms. You can either buy simple, plain and inexpensive shelves. Engage in other fun preschoolers and toddlers activities by making the shelves yourself. Buy a plywood shelf and paint them in their favorite color and decorate them with stickers, pictures from magazines or hanging toys.
4. Storage in their rooms must be made accessible to them. You can buy carts with rollers and place them under their beds or if you have shelves, store the less frequently used items on top.
5. Kids love inflatable furniture. It comes in different colors and designs and easily stored away when they are not needed.
6. Kids love to write on walls, so it is a good idea to hang a large black board on the wall at their level. This will prevent them from writing on the wall and also present a prop for them to play imaginary games like “Pretend to be the Teacher”. Preschoolers and toddlers love imaginative plays and an activity much encouraged during the early years as such plays contribute to happiness, self-confidence, development of cognitive, emotional, social, creative and physical skills.

There are many ideas for decorating kids rooms and it need not be expensive but the key to a good decoration is that it is flexible enough to change and adapt to their rapid changing needs.

Tags: preschoolers and toddlers, toddlers activities

Kindergarten activities – 30 minutes craft activities

Creative expression begins early in life. Babies are top-notch explorers who will experiment with toys, touch and taste everything within reach, discover their body parts and mastering their body movements. Toddlers love repetition and would still be giggling with enthusiasm even when they have heard the same fairy story the hundredth time. Preschoolers starts to draw recognizable pictures and can piece together simple puzzles and the kindergarten children starts to exert their independence on doing things for themselves and start to master the more advanced motor skills like throwing, catching, jumping and cycling. Select activities that encourage them to make decisions and develop their creative skills.

Children are creative on their own but when they are provided with appropriate kindergarten activities, their creative skills are further enhanced. Here are some creative 30 minutes craft activities which you can play with the children – 

1. Magic Dots
   Draw about 20 to 30 dots on a piece of paper. Challenge the child to imagine a picture and connect the dots to draw out the picture. This activity encourages the child to see things in different ways and artists are known to have this natural mental ability to see things in different ways.
2. Picture the Story
   Read a 5-minute story like The Three Pigs and when finished ask the children to draw pictures about the story. This activity encourages imagination and fosters an interest in reading. You can create more of the same nature of kindergarten activities by reversing it, the child to draw any pictures and tell a story.
3. My Scrape book of Values
   Select several values concepts like love, happiness and peace and discuss briefly what they mean to the children. Ask them to select one value and cut pictures from old magazines or newspapers which symbolize the value they have chosen and stick them on a cardboard. This activity helps in their social development where they learn what behavior is acceptable and expected in any environment. You can try many simple kindergarten activities which promote social development like challenging them to think of ways to recycle the newspapers.
4. My Yarn Picture
   Choose simple themes like making a sunflower picture or a big tree. If the sunflower theme is chosen -
   - draw out the sunflower  on a piece of paper
   - use a brush to sweep glue on the spot where you want to stick the yarn
   - after it is finished, you can color it with water color.
   This activity refines fine motor skills and is very fun and creative for the children.

All the above kindergarten activities encourage the children to express their own creativity, originality and individuality and are also open-ended activities that encourage discovery, exploration, experimentation and invention which are vital “ingredients” for child development.

A highly recommended site to visit for activities which are designed to equip parents, teachers, child care providers or anyone who are interested in early childhood education on the different aspects of child development, please click here as www.gamesforfunkids.com has more than 360 fun, enjoyable  activities and tips to help children age between 3 to 7 years of age to explore, develop and tap into their individual gifts, talents, creativity, thinking and learning skills. The most unique feature of these activities is that the users are guided with short, practical tips on how to get the best out of these activities for child development. Click here now to view their sample activities and you would wish you had used them earlier for your children.

Tags: craft activities, funny for kids, games for fun kids, kindergarten activities

Preschoolers activities – coloring for kids

Kids love coloring and is one of the most fun and creative preschoolers activities. Coloring helps the child to plan, make decisions on what colors to use and encourages them to think creatively on how best to make their picture beautiful with colors. There are many materials a child can use for coloring – color pencils, crayon or watercolor paints but ensure that they are lead-free and nontoxic. 

Suggested activities: 

1. Hand painting
   This is done best on glossy or glazed paper. Paint some watercolor on the child’s palm and place the palm flat on the paper. Alternate with different colors and for some special effects, while the paint is still wet, use a comb to swirl around the hand prints to produce interesting etched designs. Hand painting can be quite messy but is one of the most fun and creative preschoolers activities.
2. Texture painting
   This is great to develop the sensory motor skill. Mix one or more of the following to your watercolor paints – sand, liquid starch, baby powder, sawdust, glitter, crumbled leaves or flowers or salt. Encourage the child to describe what they see and feel as they paint on the paper.
3. Crayon and color pencils
   This is one of the less messy preschoolers activities your child will enjoy.
   Draw jellyfish or any sea creatures and wavy sea waves using pencil on a piece of white paper.  Trace the outline with crayon. Color the jellyfish and the sea using color pencils. The color pencils cannot color over the crayons because the wax crayons resist the color pencils but using this fun technique will make the jellyfish and the sea waves very distinct.  

Coloring is one form of art activity for kids and can foster a child’s physical, social, emotional, cognitive and creative development as it is one of the many open-ended preschoolers activities that encourage discovery, exploration, experimentation and invention which are all vital thinking skills.

Visit http://www.gamesforfunkids.com/ as it has more than 360 creative activities which focus on developing the children thinking skills.

Click the picture below NOW to claim your FREE e-book worth $97.00 on “Train your child to think like a genius by putting 10 essential thinking skills into fun action” before they decide to pull it out!

Tags: coloring for kids, funny for kids, games for fun kids, kindergarten games, preschoolers activities