Children only have one or two main concerns: how to mess up their room and how to build a fort out of their bedding. Most parents have general ideas on how they want to decorate their children’s rooms, however they don’t often think of the impracticality of their designs.
Add A Splash Of Colour
Children love colourful rooms, as it can help settle their moods and inspire creativity. By painting the walls a nice bright colour, or even just a soothing pale yellow or lavender feature wall, you can make your child’s room more relaxing and inviting. You may consider creating a wallpaper pattern for a feature wall, which can be easily applied without any trouble.
Install Kid-Friendly Carpet
Even though you may worry that carpet stains while vinyl doesn’t, a soft, comfy floor is a perfect way to get your kids lazing about for hours reading or playing games. There are all sorts of carpet cleaner you can buy that will easily remove stains without any problems, and there are many stain protectors that will never wear off. If your child has a vinyl floorboard, soft rugs are a great way to create a comfy play area.
Hang Your Child’s Paintings
Paintings are a great way to add some colour and creativity to your child’s bedroom walls. Simply fill some photo frames with your child’s own drawings, or look for some paintings of animals, or mythological creatures that your children like. You can also string a wire across the wall and hang your child’s painting or sketch like clothes on a washing line, making it easier to chop and change each time your child draws something new.
Accessorise
A great idea is to accessorise your child’s room like you would an outfit. Just like a sparkly new dress needs a dazzling handbag, a newly painted child’s room needs a beaded door hanging, new fringe lampshades, or even a few posters from the ABC shop. Accessorising your child’s room is an easy way to reflect their personality, and the best part is that you can constantly change it as your child grows older.
Create Storage Cabinets
Most children have untidy rooms because they have too many toys and not enough storage space. To maximise ample space in your child’s bedroom, why not buy a toy box, a wall storage cabinet, or even place the toys in a plastic container that can easily slide under the bed. This way you can create more space in the room and stow away the toys in an easy and practical manner.
Designing your child’s room can be a fun experience that will open up an exciting, clean play area for your children. Give your child a treat, redesign your child’s bedroom into a colourful den of fun today!
One of the down sides of separation is that children often think their real home is at there mothers and the dads home is a place they just visit. This does not have to be reality, in fact it is not hard to make your home a “home sweet home”. I didn’t want my child to feel that so I made sure they had their own bedroom and personal items and attempted to make there life as normal as it possibly could be.
The pantry should be stocked with their favourite foods for snacks, breakfast, lunch and dinner. The bathroom should have their favourite shampoo, conditioner, toothpaste, body wash, brushes and combs. The bedroom should have items that are important to them like sporting equipment i.e. basketball.
A dream-board is also a good idea to hang on the bedroom wall and pin photos, posters and memories to it. I made one from material I purchased from Bunnings, I used a chipboard backing and cork floor tiles. It was approx 1m x 1m and the cost was about $50 all up.
September School Holidays are a great time to get away, particularly the second week as everywhere is a little quieter. I first checked with my daughters mum that she didn’t have any existing plans. It is never a problem unless there is something already locked into her calendar. Whenever I plan a trip away I always get in early with plenty of notice. I have also locked out a long weekend in February (not my normal weekend) but because I plan ahead and have given plenty of notice it’s not a problem, I am also happy to reciprocate if requested.
When I arrived I found there were premium positioned cabins and then the other cabins. I was allocated to the “other” cabins. Still in the same area but not absolute beach front which is what I was expecting. There was also the promise of BBQ’s provided on each cabin balcony (as per the online photos), however, there were no BBQ’s… I went to reception and queried this and they said they just took them off the balconies because of the rust and maintenance required?
We brought our bicycles with us and rode along the beach track and into the main township. We also went for walks, lounged around watching TV and playing iPad Scrabble. I could not believe that my daughter was triple my word score until i caught her using the “best word” button 🙂
Found the best cafe located right on the back beach where each day we walked to get a latte and hot chocolate Mmmm.
When it’s time to redecorate a kid’s room the most important thing to keep in mind is their tastes. Let your kids lead too demonstrate that their ideas have value, make the experience more fun, teach decorating skills and increase their appreciation of the final product. That doesn’t mean you can’t guide them, don’t over rule every decision they make.
Travelling with my daughter to a destination such as Bali has been wonderful to relax and spend quality time together away from the stresses of every day life. Although Bali has beautiful hotels and resorts that cater specifically for people who want to sit by the pool or find a tranquil spot on a day bed under a plam tree. There is also some important learning’s we can bring back from Bali to help educate children on how lucky and well off we are.
I planned our whole trip online. We wanted to both relax but I also wanted to show my daughter a safe but different side of life so we visited an orphanage in Denpasar. At the orphanage the children were cared for well, it was clean and spacious.
The building is 3 storey’s high but at some stage must have been abandoned because the building looks unfinished. They have built rooms inside, and designated areas for meals, kitchen, music, schooling, dorm bedrooms for boys and girls and prayer. My daughter and I gathered up all her clothes that didn’t fit her any more and packed them into a large suitcase and carried them over to donate to the orphanage.
You get to sign your donation into the guest book. I went back a year later and donated more clothes and saw that many people visited and signed the book after me. Mostly donations of money. I recommend you visit this Orphanage with your kids and see for yourself the good they are doing for these children.
Anyone with young children will know that whilst holidays are a fantastic opportunity to ‘get away from it all’ and spend quality time together. Sometimes the stress of the journey to get there can make you question whether it’s worth all the effort!
Once you have decided on that once in a lifetime road trip across the country, there is little you can do other than dream about your perfect getaway. But before you get lost in the clouds, come back down to earth and plan your trip properly before you go. This is ensure fewer obstacles and more time spent enjoying your adventure. Follow this simple guide and make sure you don’t forget anything important when planning your next road trip.
Ralph Waldo Emerson’s famous words, “Life is a journey, not a destination,” still inspire today. The journey is the destination, or rather, it’s not the destination but the journey that matters most… For road trippers, the journey is just as remarkable as the destination, especially if you and your family are embarking on a summertime road trip in Australia.
There are so many reasons dads get tattoos, and probably the single biggest reason is to mark the birth of our children or as a tribute to them. If you’re considering a tattoo, have you thought about what design? Here are some tips to help you make the right choice.
My family travel experience as a sole parent
We can now share memories and life experiences across a myriad of destinations.
Together we have travelled to Bali, Thailand, Fiji , Perth as well as many local destinations like Hamilton Island, Gold Coast and Angelsea on the west coast of Victoria.
All locations were great and offered something special in their own way. I felt Bali was like a small friendly community; Fiji was good if you just want to relax and hangout by the hotel pool and Thailand (Phuket) had better roads, infrastructure and amenities and the people were so warm and friendly.
If I had to choose one (1) destination for a single parent I would recommend Phuket in Thailand.
Our holiday in Phuket…
It was Christmas time and I’d planned for 6 months, I had been told that you may find it difficult to find accommodation if you dont book early.
First things was to find flights and accommodation, I used tripadvisor.com.au it was so easy, in fact the easiest part of the holiday. You can read reviews and make your own mind up on accommodation, restaurants and attractions within the area.
It definitely made meal times easier, I only had to convince her that it was clean and the food was within the ‘use by date’ 🙂
After dinner we would walk along the shopping strip, buy an ice cream, find a lantern seller on the beach and let our lantern go into the night sky while holding hands and making a wish.
We had a morning ritual of breakfast in the poolside restaurant then an hour or so by the pool before heading out and sightseeing around Thailand.
Hiring a banana lounge on the beach under a shady umbrella is around $2.50 AUD per day. Loving it so much we went back 3 days in a row!!!
There was a
market at the entrance of the beach selling fresh fruit and cold drinks, which made healthy snacking easy.
Time went quickly, we had 10 wonderful days together. Skype was set up on my phone and her mum’s so they could keep in touch each day.
The flight home was easy, we tried to sleep or relax the whole journey. I made sure we had the required things to keep her busy or relaxed for 9 hours, i.e pillow, Jetstar Video player, IPad, colouring book and pencils. The IPod with her favorite songs was a winner, she was able to stretch out across me and relax. I cant wait to continue our adventures this year, we have a local trip in Victoria planned for the next school holidays…..