* Words of Wisdom *
We installed a dimmer switch when we decorated our daughter’s nursery. We get her in her pajamas and read a story when it’s bright, lower it for songs, and take it down to nearly nothing as she dozes off.
—Jade, Evergreen, Colorado
75
I Am Thankful
Age Range: 24 months and up
The best way to go to bed is with a happy heart. Encourage your little one to spend a moment before bed talking about what she is thankful for each day. You’ll be amazed—and probably quite flattered—by her appreciation of some little thing you did. Watch her light up when you return the favor. It’s a great reminder for both of you about what really matters. Take it one step further and create a jar of thanks. Write down what each of you are thankful for each night and put it in the jar. Then, on any nights she is stumped (or any time of day you are feeling like you could use a parent morale booster!), pick one and remember how good it feels to be thankful—and how easy it is to do the little things we all appreciate. Save the list or collect the scraps and periodically add them to the family scrapbook.
* Words of Wisdom *
An hour before bedtime, start whispering. It will put your kids in a sleepy mood.
—Karina, Edmond, Oklahoma
76
Monster Hunt
Age Range: 24 months and up
If your child worries about night monsters, here are a few ideas to soothe her anxiety:
Conduct a monster hunt just before bed. With grand gestures and lots of humor, peek under the bed, in the closet, in dresser drawers, and behind the curtains and spook any monsters away!
Make a sign for her bedroom door that reads No Monsters Allowed in My Room.
Create a protection ritual—your own monster spray with a bottle of water and a little food coloring or fragrance to make it more convincing, a special hug, a certain way you tuck the blanket in—and in the morning, be sure to comment on how well it worked.
Make a talisman—a favorite stuffed animal to stand guard, perhaps—and weave a story about how it magically turns monsters into dewdrops on the window.
Acknowledge the fear and assure your support, but remember to use the word pretend—that all monsters, even the scariest ones, are “pretend” monsters (as are the fun ones like Elmo!).
Keep a flashlight or light-up toy with your child.
77
Dream Catcher
Age Range: 24 months and up
A Native American legend says dream catchers filter good dreams to the sleeper and trap bad dreams in the web. To encourage nothing but sweet dreams for your little sleeper, make a simple dream catcher for his window. Purchase an embroidery hoop and take the two hoops apart. String pretty beads onto lengths of twine, yarn, or ribbon. Drape them across the smaller hoop, crisscrossing wherever you like. Continue adding the decorated string until you’ve created an appealing jeweled web effect. Then snap on the top. Tie a few more strings from the bottom, and embellish them with feathers and beads tied to the end. Attach a hanging loop to the top and hang this from the ceiling above his head, on the wall by his bed, or in his bedroom window.
78
It’s Up to You
Age Range: 24 months and up
When trying to get your child to go to sleep, offer choices (all of which you can live with) to put him in charge of his nighttime rituals. Offer two kinds of children’s toothpaste. Let him select his bedtime story from a few books you’ve chosen. Let him choose the songs, as you let him know how many songs you’re willing to sing. You may even want to write down his choices and check them off so he can see the progression toward bedtime. Let him choose which toy he sleeps with, whether he gives and/or receives hugs and kisses from Mom and Dad, whether the light stays on, or whether the door is open, or cracked, or closed. With all these choices to make, he’s sure to fall quickly and easily asleep!
79
Feelings Today
Age Range: 30 months and up
Before bedtime, you and your child each remember a happy memory and a sad memory from the day. As kids get older, you can add other emotions: exciting, scary, angry, friendly, etc. This helps develop a ritual of keeping communication open, and it also attaches emotion to a memory and helps a child think about herself within the experience.
* Words of Wisdom *
Let your toddler pick out outfits for the next day the night before. We use clothespins to keep them together—this matches outfits in advance and saves time in the morning.
—Jill, Hagerstown, Maryland
80
Story Inventions
Age Range: 30 months and up
Bedtime is the perfect time to tell made-up stories. Without pictures to look at, your child is more likely to close his eyes, relax, and interact with you. Early on, make up a character who is the child’s same age and sex. The character goes to all sorts of interesting places, ones that your child shows interest in: birthday parties, school, camping, the ballet, zoo, etc. Make up a new adventure each night. Your child will look forward nightly to this time together. There is something extra special about stories made up by you!
* Words of Wisdom *
We encouraged our toddler to “read” to us at night by pausing before the end of each phrase or page of his favorite storybooks and letting him fill in the blanks. He was very proud of his abilities, and we were amazed at how well he could recite his goodnight stories!
—Ruth, Turlock, California
81
Pillow Pals
Age Range: 30 months and up
Paint a personalized pillowcase with regular or glow-in-the-dark fabric paints, stencils, or rubber stamps. When you go on vacation, all you need to take is the pillowcase to feel at home in any hotel room!
Make or buy a small purse-like pillow. Put a good-luck charm inside and hang it on the bedpost.
Buy a pillow form and sew a simple case with a pocket big enough to fit a standard picture book (or just stitch a big pocket onto a storebought sham). Lay it on top of your child’s bed and encourage her to pick that night’s bedtime story when you make the bed in the morning. Peeking out of the pillow all day, the book will give her something to look forward to.
Use cotton, satin, or silk scraps to make soothing eye pillows. Cut out 71⁄2 by 31⁄2 inch rectangles. Turn right-side in and stitch, with a machine or by hand, along all four sides, leaving an inch hole for filling. Turn right-side out (a Popsicle stick, knitting needle, or chopstick can help), and fill it with lavender and flax seeds (at health food stores). Then stitch it up. These are great for naptime and bedtime—for parent and tot.
Room Decor
82
Canvas Growth Chart
Materials
Canvas
Fabric or acrylic paint
Wooden dowels
Ribbon
Decide how tall and wide you’d like the canvas to be, depending on your chosen design. Fold the canvas over the dowel at the top and bottom, and sew or glue with a hot glue gun. Personalize it with a name and fun art. Use stencils if you’re not confident free-handing the design. Make sure to measure how far off the floor your growth chart will hang before marking off the feet and inches with a yardstick. Tie the ribbon from one side of the dowel to the other and hang your chart on the wall.
83
Colored Light
Materials
Glass jars of all sizes with lids
Food coloring
Fill the jars with water. Add a few drops of food coloring to each jar, experimenting with the amount of color. Mix the colors so all colors of the rainbow can be represented. Put the lids on the jars and arrange them on a window sill in your child’s room. When the sunlight shines through the window, beautiful patterns of light can be seen.
red+yellow=orange
red+blue=purple
αblue+yellow=green
* Words of Wisdom *
I bought large wooden knobs and painted pictures of so
cks, shirts, and pants on them—now my toddler’s dresser drawers are coded so he can help put laundry away and get himself dressed.
—Amanda, Wilsonville, Alabama
84
Learning Mat
Find or buy a carpet remnant at least four foot by four foot. Use stencils to paint on numbers, letters, or other designs. Make up a hopscotch pattern, draw a huge checker-board, or stencil big open shapes to be used as part of an obstacle course. Play musical hopscotch by turning on music while your child runs around the rug. When you stop the music and yell out a number, letter, design, or shape, the child has to run to that location and do a little dance. Make up all sorts of games to play on your learning mat.
* Words of Wisdom *
For the child stuck on a bottom bunk, the view isn’t very nice. My daughter and I decided to paint a mural on a white sheet and then staple it to the underside of her sister’s top bunk.
—Olinda, Dallas, Texas
85
Felt Garden
Why not create a garden in your child’s room? Attach a large piece of felt to a piece of poster board and then attach it to the wall at floor level. You may need to attach many poster board panels if you’d like to cover the bottom half of one entire wall. Cut out different sizes and shapes of felt to be used as flower petals, stems, leaves, grass, rocks, butterflies, bugs, or birds. Let your child create the garden by arranging the felt pieces into various flower arrangements. Change your garden regularly by adding felt shapes to represent seasonal changes.
* Words of Wisdom *
Organize your child’s hair bows by taking a long one-inch-wide ribbon and attaching it to the closet pole. Clip bows to the ribbon so your child can see them all and choose.
—Teressa, Aurora, Illinois
86
Playroom Design Tips
There are so many fun things that can be done to make a plain bedroom into an exciting, fun playroom. Here are a few tips:
Paint one wall, a closet door, or some designed shape with blackboard paint (found at most paint stores).
Carpet half the room and plastic-tile half the room so there is space to sit on the floor and play comfortably as well as a space for messy projects.
Cut corkboard into the shapes of animals or trees, then attach them to the wall for a great place to hang artwork.
Attach two large hooks to the wall so you can mount a large drawing pad. Self-adhesive Velcro pads can be stuck on the wall next to the drawing pad for the attachment of drawing materials.
White marker board can be bought in sheets from the hardware store. Ask for white bath panel. This can be cut into shapes using a jigsaw or hand-saw and then attached to the wall. Use dry-erase markers.
87
Display Treasures
There are all sorts of ways to create space to display artwork, found treasures, and projects made at home or daycare. Here are a few ideas:
Install plate-rack shelves a couple of feet off the ground on one wall of your child’s room so she can display treasures and enjoy them at her level.
Attach a clothesline flat to the wall from one end to the other and hang pictures up with clothespins.
Hang a large frame up on the wall. Put a plain colored piece of paper or board in the frame so it can serve as a backdrop to the artwork. Tape artwork to the front of the frame and change weekly.
If you want the feel of a real art gallery, buy a few clip-on book lights to attach above paintings.
Designate one shelf of storage as a show-and-tell space. Tell all the members of your family and friends to ask your child about the objects he places on this special shelf.
88
Stained Glass
Age Range: 24 months and up
Make your own colorful window clings. Paint a sheet of cling wrap with markers, and then stick it to the window to see how the light streams through it. Or use two sheets to sandwich ripped pieces of colored tissue paper to form a beautiful mosaic. You can also use the cling wrap to mount artwork in the window—just make sure you have a thick enough “matte” of cling wrap around the picture to hold the artwork in place.
* Words of Wisdom *
I have containers in the garage labeled by gender and size. I put outgrown children’s clothes in them to save for future siblings, friends, and rummage sales. This also keeps the small bedroom closets from overflowing.
—Jackie, Pocono Pines, Pennsylvania
89
You’ve Got Mail
Fashion a mailbox out of a shoe box, tissue box, milk carton, or oatmeal container. Paint or cover it in wrapping paper, contact paper, construction paper, pictures from children’s catalogs, magazines, or comics. Personalize the mailbox with your child’s name and add a flag. Attach the flag using a brass brad/paper fastener from the stationery store to allow it to swing up and down to signal when mail is waiting for pick-up. Keep it in your child’s room (or just outside the door) and use the mailbox to unexpectedly deliver year-round valentines, thank-you notes, postcards, treats, and small toys.
* Words of Wisdom *
My daughter absolutely loves it when I write her special notes. Even though she can’t read them, she does recognize her name. I always draw a little picture or hearts and stars. She brings the note to me and I read it for her.
—Beth, Grafton, Wisconsin
90
Room within a Room
In a child’s mind, even the smallest nook or cranny can become a hideaway, a fortress, or a teahouse. Create your child’s own pint-sized private world ripe for imagination and exploration—or even just an afternoon snooze. Use a corner of her room to erect a small fabric tepee (canvas over PVC pipe, wooden dowels, or even bamboo sticks from a garden shop work great) or a circus tent out of a big colorful sheet or parachute. A playhouse can be fashioned from a giant appliance carton. Wallpaper or contact paper around the outside not only reinforces the cardboard structure for hours of door- and window-opening play, but also allows you to personalize it to your child’s interests. Add carpet remnants to the floor, toss in fluffy pillows, make windows for peeking in and out, and use Velcro to attach a play phone to the inside wall. You’ll “lose” your kid for hours!
91
Mini-Size It
When you’re decorating your child’s room, get down on his level and add some fun decorative touches. Make sure he can reach his toy storage bins and clothes.
Install a second closet rod within reach. Hang a hat rack down low. Add a stepping stool.
On your weekly grocery store trip, buy some inexpensive flowers for his room. Come home and arrange them in a vase together, and place them on a child-sized table. Replace the water and give them a fresh cut every day. It will make him feel important and in control of his surroundings as well as add a splash of color to his room.
Make easy under-bed storage bins with wooden open-top boxes mounted on rolling casters from the hardware store. Make sure they’re shallow enough to fit under the bed but hold enough to make them valuable. The kids can pull them out and load them up in no time!
92
Lamp Shades
Age Range: 24 months and up
Novelty lamp shades are a great way to spruce up a room—and a cheap way to indulge what you know might be a passing obsession. Buy inexpensive, plain cardboard lamp shades and decorate them with felttipped markers or paint. You can even cut out favorite characters from magazines and decoupage them to the shade with decoupage medium and a sponge brush. Protect the finished product with matte acrylic varnish. These are easy to do—and redo—with passing fancies.
* Words of Wisdom *
To make a bulletin board in my son’s room, I covered a board with felt, and then stretched lengths of ribbon over the entire thing. I mounted it at his level so he could tuck items for display under the ribbons.
—Wendy, Ramona, California
93
Felt Chains
Age Range: 30 months and up
Here is a twist to the old p
aper-doll chains we all used to make. Instead of using paper, make your chains out of felt. Take a yard of felt and cut it into strips lengthwise however tall you’d like your felt chain to be. Then fold it accordion-style and iron the edges as you go. Fold only as many squares at a time as you will be able to cut (felt, of course, is much thicker than paper). Any shape that has two connecting points will work: doll, elephant, angel, monkey, etc. You may want to use a stencil to draw the shape. Make sure to leave one point attached at both sides of the fabric or you will be left with individual objects instead of a chain. If you aren’t sure how these chains work, experiment with paper first.
* Words of Wisdom *
My daughter used to hate to wear hats, but now that I’ve put a hat rack in her room and allow her to choose her sun hat or winter hat, she is happy to wear one.
Sheila Ellison Page 6
