Homefront: Making a Preschool Playroom for the Boys

I talked about kids room inspirations yesterday, so today, let me introduce you to what I am working with. I thought it best to have my blogging/computer station in the midst of the room, so that is where everything is centered around.

These are my cheap finds: $100~ish Craigslist hutch, two Walmart $25 bookcases, $10 garage sale chair, $10 garage sale student desk, $5 garage sale bookcase (we painted ivory), and a $5 goodwill toy chest. These black bookcases  are already scratched up and marred as soon as we got them out of the box, but I figured, they would be marked up quickly here anyways, and since they are black, nothing tragic should happen that a sharpie couldn't color over.

I was going to paint this hutch a shabby grayish white before I did the whole black bookcase flanking thing, so now I am thinking, paint it black to look like a wall unit. Or I could leave it natural... what would you do?

I still have some bulletin boards and artwork to set up on this big empty wall, maybe some pegs for superhero capes and such underneath those and then the train table to set up again. I'm still trying to decide about a playmat or area rug, for this large space that will be easy on the boys to play and learn.

Caleb even found the reading corner and got right at home fairly quickly.

This little den area meets with the breakfast nook and kitchen in an interesting way... like a triangle of roominess. That doorway leads to the 'formal dining room' that we won't use and the living room. Across from the dining table is the laundry room and hallway to the front door.

 An old Kick-n-vent vintage hood... anyone know anything about these? This home was built in the 60's

 More about that dresser piece, kitchen and table here... I hope you like our pipe cleaner fan extension pulls! Just one more thing on the to do list, get fan pulls. *post included in Censational Girl's Where Do You Blog Party.

Explorer

What do you do, to keep your child busy, entertained and educated all at the same time? Here are some blogs with lots of great ideas: Chasing Cheerios, Zach Aboard (they actually live on a boat!) do you know of any other sites? Do share!

Today, we did this and had so much fun. Freeze trinkets in a little plastic container. Dump the frozen block out into a pan. Explain how archeologists dig for historical finds, like dinosaur bones and such. Watch as your little one gets excited over dinosaur bones being buried in the ground! Then, tell him or her that HE/SHE can be an archeologist too!



Present platter of frozen finds, an object for picking at the ice, a pipette for squirting water, tweezers fir removing small objects. You can get the kit at Ainsley and Oswald.

I was AMAZED at how much fun he had! We will have to do this more often.



The other day (pre swine flu before activities got canceled), my child went to a safety fair. He got to see a motorcycle puppet cop, a race car, a helicopter and an ambulance! He had fun, and though he was hesitant to pet the horses, he did!


"Come Shake McGruff's paw"


These things were remote controlled and drove and spoke through speakers! Freaked my son out, they did.


"Onward, ho!"


Hoping to never need to be this close to an ambulance again.


The highlight of the safety fair.

We also took him rollerskating for the first time. Roller World use to be so fun when I was little! But now, it is a total middle and high school skank fest... what happened?! He was a bit terrified at first, but he caught on and loooved it!



What do you do to help your kids get out of the mundane, boring cycle? Esp. indoors, once Texas summer hits, I plan on hibernating, lest I will surely melt.



Now, one last thing. Zachary is a two year old little boy who was born with multiple disabilities and is developmentally delayed. He suffers from muscular weakness and cannot swallow. As a result, he has a tracheotomy and a feeding tube. Zachary is under constant medical care and needs occupational, physical and swallow therapies. He has been hospitalized several times, is coming up on his seventh surgery on his hip dysplasia that may help him walk and will need more surgeries in the near future. Zachary is continuing his developmental progress at home with around the clock care of nurses, and his mother. However, despite the devotion of family and friends, the Nemeth family has been financially burdened with countless medical and daily living expenses. They need our help. So Please Open up your hearts and Help Zach stay on Track.



Visit the Caring Bridge website to see how you can help. I know that times are really rough for a lot of us right now. If you can't spare some change, then leave a positive message for the parents to read on their guestbook, or pass the word along. Fast for lunch and don't buy that $6 Taco Bell or Starbucks. $6 may not seem like a lot to us, but it may mean everything to a struggling family who will put it to better use to save their son.