Fun Kids Decor Project #1: Fun with Finger Painting
Finger painting is a fun activity for all ages. This activity can be enjoyed by the tiniest of children right up to teens. While you can always have them simply do a finger painting picture and hang it in their room, you can also take finger painting and apply it to the furnishings. For example, you can make finger painted curtain toppers for their windows. Make sure that you have plenty of space to work in and cover the work area with a cloth for easy cleanup. Buy or make some curtain toppers in a pale color and lay them on your work surface. Put out pans with finger paint in them. Let small children dip their hands in the paint and stamp handprints across the curtain topper in different colors. When the masterpiece is complete, let the curtain dry and then iron to set the paint so that the curtain is washable. Another idea is to make a finger paint border for your child?s room. Add a white paint chair rail around the room, and let the child ?hand? stamp the walls.

Fun Kids Decor Project #2: Decorate with Decoupage
Another great project that can be enjoyed by young and old alike is decoupage. This project covers an old chair with decoupage. First have the child cut favorite magazine pictures of photos. You can even make color copies of some of their favorite storybooks or cartoon characters. Once they have their cutouts, let the child decide how to arrange them on the furniture. Then affix the pictures to the chair with the decoupage glue. First coat the underside of the picture, and then stick it to the chair. Next paint a layer of decoupage glue over the top of the picture to seal it. Let the project dry and then coat two more times allowing the chair to completely dry in between each application.

Fun Kids Decor Project #3: Buy a Kit
Children that are a little more grown up may be able to do projects on their own. Look for kits to get them started. A paint by numbers mural or latch hook rug kit are both great projects for decorating a room. The rug kits are really easy for kids to make, and the resulting rub is fun and colorful. You can buy pre-designed carpet canvas, or you can decorate your own depending on your child?s interest in the project. Wall murals are not that difficult to do, and they give a huge impact to the room. The wall mural is fun, because as your child outgrows it, they can simply paint a new one; so it is actually an ongoing project.

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1. Are they Ready?
Before you begin trying to potty train your child, make sure that they are old enough to understand what you want them to do, and that they are physically able to do what you are asking of them. Most children are more than ready to learn this lesson around the age of two as they are becoming more independent overall.

2. Books Can Help
There are plenty of good children’s books written about the subject of potty training. Reading these books to your child right before and during the potty training phase can help your child understand the process and become better prepared.

3. Face Fears
Children and toilets can be frustrating or hilarious. While the toilet will scare one child, another may think that it is a water toy. So you should always supervise potty time. If your child is afraid of the toilet, let them get used to it gradually. Try placing a small, children?s training potty in the bathroom next to the big toilet, and go from there.

4. Grown Up Pants
Take your child shopping for some fun ?big kid? underwear. Look for underwear that has their favorite cartoon characters on it so that they want to be able the wear them all of the time.

5.Be Consistent
Once you start potty training, you absolutely have to be consistent. You have to invest the time and make the commitment to get them to the bathroom right when they have to go. So plan your shopping trips accordingly.

6. Clear Language
Keep your instructions simple, and choose the words that you are going to use when asking your child if they need to go to the bathroom. It is important that your language be consistent so that you do not cause them any confusion.

7. By Example
People of all ages love a good demonstration, and your child is no exception. Use one of their dolls or action figures to show them how to go to the bathroom. By rewarding the doll after it is done, your child will begin to understand what you want them to do.

8. Follow Up
Tell your child in simple language what you want them to do, and then be proactive in checking in with them.

9. Always Reward
Reward great performance. Try using a calendar with stickers for number of toilet trips. By letting them choose a sticker and put it on the calendar, they are getting positive feedback for a job well done.

10. Sing their Praises
This one probably will happen naturally, but it bears mentioning anyway. When your child does a good job let them know how happy you are with hugs, kisses, high five, whatever makes them feel best. When they do not do such a great job, you do not have to be negative, simply no high five. By lavishing your child with positive feedback, you will get the job done, and it will be a great experience for everyone.

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Young children are often overlooked by the traditional drawing curriculum that tends to focus on children over twelve or thirteen years old, who are blessed with natural talent and who can usually draw already. School teachers do craft projects and provide younger children with free time to do symbolic stick-figure-style drawings. Yet, unless children are given instruction and guidance, before they stop symbolic drawing they will assume they weren?t born with the ability to draw realistically. The closer they get to preteen years, the more they will resist the activity and not want to try at all.

However, if children are given structured lessons in realist drawing from the time they are very young, they will quickly graduate to sophisticated and skilled drawings right after giving up their symbolic drawing styles.

Everybody can enjoy drawing, but sometimes it?s hard to know where to begin. Many people make the mistake of drawing what they think something looks like, instead of really looking at it carefully first. A set of simple general principles are required. Just as a composer and musician can break things down into their basic components, so too by breaking down a subject into a series of simple elements a child can analyze what they ?see? and then put it into drawing.

By utilizing the basic components of shape a student is able to create any possible image with the fewest number of lines. This has been termed the ?alphabet of shape? that consists of five basic elements; circle, dot, straight line, curved line and angle. Any object that a student wants to draw can simply be analyzed in terms of how these elements of shape are combined. Thus children can be trained to see each general shape and then be free to interpret the detail in any way they wish. Thus, every child is able to achieve realistic representation of the subject drawn and still be creatively unique.

Drawing lessons can begin when a child is just 4 years old. The lessons give beginners of any age the basic information they need to analyze and reproduce what they see.

Besides the obvious benefit of learning to draw, students also develop fine motor skills, problem-solving abilities and improved concentration. Case studies have also shown how children, who have undertaken tuition in drawing, within a positive, non-judgmental, non-competitive environment, have made marked improvements in areas such as disorientation or misrepresentation of images, hyperactivity, communication ability and reading readiness, introverted behavior, resistance to participation and inability to observe or remember instruction sequences.

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Easels Make Great Art Centers

Having an art center is an important aspect of a classroom. Students can express themselves in a way that is all their own. Along with easels, art centers can include paper, paints, paintbrushes, crayons, makers, or colored pencils. Teachers can assign an art project to reinforce a lesson or theme. Or a teacher can assign ?free? drawing time. When a student is finished the teacher can discuss the drawing with them or allow them to present it to the class. Easels are a fun way for students to take pride in their work.

Easels Work In Any Size Classroom

Many people think of an easel in the traditional way: a one sided work surface that displays artwork. Well, easels have come a long way. Easels come in many different sizes and allow single or multiple students to work. Easels such as the 2 Station Child?s Easel allows two students to work at once. The 4 Station Space Saver Easel allows four students to work at once. Both have plenty of storage space for each student?s supplies.

Easels Work for Any Size Student

Many of the best easels are adjustable. This allows students who are younger to work on the same easel as older students. It also allows for special needs students who may need to sit or may be in a wheelchair to be able to work at an easel. The 3 Way Adjustable Easel adjusts from 36? to over 46? to accommodate any size student. Adjustable easels are a great money saving option for schools where many students will share the same easels.

Easels Allows for Many Different Types of Activities

Easels are not just for painting. Though painting is an option, easels are very versatile when it comes to the type of art work and activities that can be done. Many easels come equipped with space for multiple tasks. For example, the KidKraft Deluxe Wood Easel comes with a paper dispenser for painting or drawing, a whiteboard, and a chalkboard. These types of easels give students a way to express their inner artist in different ways.

Some easels such as the 4 in 1 Table Top Easel provides a magnetic whiteboard which allows students to play with magnetic letters, magnetic word strips, or magnetic numbers to help reinforce lessons. This is a great way for students who need a little extra practice to be able to practice in a different way. Classroom art areas are always one of the most popular spots in a room. Students love and need the opportunity to express themselves in a creative, artistic way. Easels are an ideal way to bring out the artist in every student.

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