Children’s Toys and Furniture

Kids safety mirrors are perfect for creating a visual perceptual experience for infants and toddlers alike. Kids safety mirrors are wonderful toys that will help your child in many developmental aspects of their life such as enhancing self-discovery, hand eye coordination and promote curiosity.

Mirrors promote self-recognition and enhance emotional development. Babies are fascinated by the reflections they see in mirrors and tend to spend long periods of time cooing at them.

In addition they help your child develop eye-hand coordination as baby reaches to touch the mirror. Child-safe mirrors are also useful in encouraging a child’s natural curiosity. A well developed sense of curiosity is an important asset to education. A child that is naturally curious will love to learn.

With the many types of mirrors available for children, it will be simple to find one that is both fun and beneficial for your child. For older children, shatterproof mirrors are wonderful additions to daycares, schools, waiting rooms, bedrooms and playrooms.

1.Paint the room a wonderful, dreamy color. Soothing pool blues, apple greens, and soft yellows are great for a young ones restful spot. Make the colors too bright, and you will affect their ability to rest well as the colors will be too stimulating. Make them too pale pastel, and young ones have a hard time even registering them as colors! Pick up a quality low odor paint (a Zero VOC Paint) such as Olympic and you can make a quick dramatic change is just a few hours.

2.Get craft foam from the craft store in varying colors, and cut out shapes according to your rooms theme. The foam comes in sheets kind of like thick paper, cuts quite easily with scissors, and is brightly colored like a box of crayons! For instance, if your child loves trains and planes, cut out trains and planes! Learning to read? The alphabet! Trace from simple coloring books if you like. Now glue these shapes on the walls in a border or all over pattern. Quick, dramatic, cheap…and they will love it! (Can’t glue? Use double sided tape!)

3.Pick up some cheap frames from the dollar shop, remove the glass for safety, and place pictures of your family, pets, their own drawings or purchase some inexpensive posters that express their interests. It provides them with comfort when they are alone, and teaches them to value those close to them.

4.Keep an eye out for a low coffee table at yard sales. (Or maybe you have one in the garage?) Pick one up and paint it to match the room. This makes a great art table for kids…you would be surprised at how much time kids will spend being creative if only they had the materials to them available when the creative urge strikes! Cover empty wipe containers with contact paper, and keep full of washable crayons and chalk. Layout paper for them each morning, and be ready for the masterpieces!

5.Finally, make a little book corner for your little one. Even if they aren’t reading yet, every small child should have the opportunity to spend time with books, and reliving the stories you read to them over and over! Place plastic crates on their side as bookshelves they can easily reach, and give them a soft spot to cuddle up, either with pillows on their bed, or a little beanbag chair in the corner. Yard sales are great places to pick up colorful books for just few pennies. And above all, find time to read to them each day in their special spot!

Just a few quick projects can enliven your kids imagination for years to come!

Article Source: EzineArticles by Kathleen Wilson

Let’s face it, parents of toddlers have it rough. Toddlers require constant care and attention, and finding an uninterrupted moment at some point during the day can be quite a challenge. But with a little creativity, parents can at least cut down on some of the chore of caring for a toddler by teaching a toddler to clean up after themselves. With a little organization, a toddler’s room won’t need to be cleaned three or four times throughout the week, and the best way to accomplish this is to involve the toddler. The first step is to find creative kids room storage solutions; this might be a chest of drawers, a cabinet, or even an oversized toy box. Once the storage has been secured, begin emphasizing that the toddler needs to clean up their toys and clothes before going to bed. Depending on the child’s age, it might be difficult to understand this concept at first, but once a toddler is at the age of three or four, it’s time for them to start learning to clean up.

Even if times become difficult, it’s important to be patient and recognize that all toddlers will protest doing this at first, but with time, they will learn that it’s important to clean up their mess once they’re done. This skill will also translate into lifelong good habits!

  

Reading is the most efficient and economical way to help anyone to acquire information, knowledge, skills and improve on one self. And it is most wonderful to help your child to be a great reader as young as possible.The best way to help a child or any one to learn a skill and be good at it is to create a Supportive and Conducive Environment to make it easy for her to learn. Here are some suggestions that you may find helpful:

1. Have lots of good books in the home at all times. You can either buy them or borrow them from the library. The National Library has tons of excellent books suitable for children of all ages - story books and information books (you can find books on all kinds of topic, e.g. books on animals, seasons, famous artists and people, human body, interesting places, occupations). For our family, we make it a routine to visit the library every week if not every fortnight. It is a great family outing for all of us.
2. At your home, have the reading materials and books easily accessible to your child so that he or she can get hold of them at their convenience. The best way is to have an open book shelf that is of the right height for your child. Providing him or her a proper place to keep her books and stuffs is also a good way to teach your child about responsibility - teach her to care for her things by getting her to put them back in the right place after use.
3. Create a special kids reading space . Make it cozy, comfortable and child size to encourage your child to read on their own (and of course make it near the books!).
4.  Adults at home (especially parents) must set good examples by reading books regularly. Children learn by observing what their parents do. Be a good reader yourself. I’d recommend non-fiction books - e.g. books on parenting, self-enrichment and improvement etc. (By the way, newspapers are not considered because there is simply too much negative news and sensational but non-useful information in each publication - they are not good to our brain and personal growth.)  
5. Read to your child daily. Make it a routine, like before bed time. The best persons to read to the child is her parents and that is you. Reading together with your child is also one of the best ways for bonding with your child.
6. Carry books with you when you bring your child out so that you can read to her when an opportunity arises, e.g. while waiting for someone, at doctor’s office waiting room or even on the subway.
7. Give lots of encouragement and praise when the child make the effort to read by herself. Encouragement helps to boost your child’s self-esteem and help her want to do even better.
8. Make learning fun and enjoyable. Discuss with your child about the things she has read and has fun with her by acting out some of the scenes in the books. This will help to fill your home with lots of laughter and love.

Article Source: EzineArticle By Alvin Poh

Imagination is one of the greatest traits human beings possess. From creative minds come works of art (for example a puppet show) and advances in technology and science. In fact, imagination touches every aspect of our lives whether we realize it or not. But much like other characteristics of the human mind, imagination must be nurtured and practiced before its full potential can be reached. Nurturing imagination takes place early in one’s life, especially in children around the age of four or five. Can you think back to your own childhood and remember playing “cops and robbers” or “house?” When you took part in these pretend games and reenactments, you were allowing your mind’s creativity to expand and flourish.Pretend play in children is a beneficial way to help a child learn to expand their understanding of who they are and what they like. It also helps them better grasp the knowledge of the world around them. This even helps children with communication skills, either with adults or with their own peers.Their earlier stages occur in the infant and toddler years. Babies are learning how to develop motor skills and react to bodily sensations. Toddlers are beginning to comprehend objects and what their functions are in the world. As time progresses a child is able to build on these learning experiences and expand their play. They do this by incorporating the personal and symbolic experiences they have seen in their short lifetime into a pretend scenario. When children take part in pretend play, they tend to recreate family-related themes. If a child is playing with peers, roles are usually assigned and conflicts may be created and resolved by the participants. It can also be a solitary experience for the child. Instead of role playing, the child uses miniature cars, people and houses to recreate situations of all kinds. Whether a child is playing with peers or alone, the scenarios recreated often represent a child’s interpretation of the world around them. Seeing conflicts among adults or other peers can be incorporated into pretend play. A child may try to resolve the conflict and produce his or her own desired outcome. Adults play an active role in a child’s pretend play. Being around to supervise younger children is a good idea to make sure play time is always safe. Sometimes conflicts can arise among children, and adults need to intervene and keep things under control. Adults can also provide materials or toys such as, a puppet theater, to help their child engage in pretend play. As adults advocate playtime, kids begin to understand how important playtime is and thus you encourage imagination. Adults can help give children ideas on how to expand on it and let them explore all sorts of fun and creative possibilities. And because play can encourage communication, adults learn a great deal about a child just by watching or interacting in their pretend play. It is important for a child’s development, and there are countless tools and toys to help children explore their own creativity. Encourage your child to take part in it and watch imaginations take flight.

Toddlers are often rambunctious and quite curious, and when a toddler is in the home, it’s important to childproof all the areas of the home to which the toddler has access. In addition, for those areas like the toddler’s room, and any central areas where the toddler often plays, it’s important to have safe toddler furniture. This furniture should be durable, and shouldn’t take damage from being climbed, banged, or jumped upon (chances are it will happen at least once!). It’s also important for the furniture to have rounded edges, and not have detachable portions like drawers (unless the parent doesn’t mind these portions being detached!). In addition to taking these precautions, there is also safe toddler furniture designed for children. This furniture is perfect for a playroom, and is intended to be climbed upon and remain resilient to even toddlers falling within the terrible twos.

Parents can find safe toddler furniture online and at certain stores that specialize in kids furniture. There is also standard furniture available which can be safe, but it’s important that parents check the furniture for resilience and child safety before making a purchase.

Building with blocks fosters creativity in children, and can lead to a whole bunch of interesting careers. Children who show an affinity for building often have active imaginations. Building structures or even just stacking wooden building blocks is a great activity for children of all ages. It’s important for children to have hobbies that don’t center around television screens or computer monitors because these hobbies don’t spark imagination like others do. While having an active imagination is not essential for development, it does help a child become more artistic. It might seem like art has no place in education or science, but the two are quite interchangeable. Imagination also involves being able to look at and approach problems from a different direction, and this is useful throughout life.

While playing with wooden building blocks doesn’t necessarily guarantee your child a better quality of life, it can definitely inspire them to be more creative and to follow their imaginations.