Summary

Creating the perfect nursery for your baby can be both fun and frustrating. If you’re a creative person, it may be that you have too many ideas swimming around in your brain. If you’re not very good on the creative side of things, you may not know where to begin.

Below I’ll go over 5 ideas for creating a fun and safe environment for your baby to sleep and relax in:

1. It’s never too early to start shopping.

If you think shopping for your nursery is going to be easy, you need may need to re-think that idea. There are several variables you need to consider when shopping for your baby’s nursery: Safety, practicality, comfort and fun.

It’s important to make sure that the room is following the current safety guidelines. All the outlets which aren’t being used need to have plastic outlet covers. Nothing should be kept in the crib except for a blanket and any crib toys, which are secured to the side of the crib.

2. The crib you choose should both look good and be safe and sturdy.

If you can avoid it, don’t buy a used crib. Make a crib purchase from a store and it’s best if the store has the cribs assembled so you can check for sturdiness and wear.

Which crib you choose may depend on the look you’re going for in the room. A sleigh or a white crib might allow for a more whimsical look, where as an oak crib might create a more warm and inviting feeling.

3. Choose your crib bedding before you pick anything else out for the room.

If you’ve got a certain theme in mind, pick out and purchase the bedding first. It’s easier to create a room around the bedding set. You can shop on Ebay, in stores or online through other stores. Often times, many department stores offer great options online that you can’t get in the stores themselves. Wal-Mart, for example, has an online store and they will ship the items you order to your local Wal-Mart for you to pick up at no extra charge.

4. Make practical storage fun.

Often times, it’s necessary to keep things in the nursery which are necessary, but they’re not always the funnest things to look at. You can combat this by using brightly colored storage bins. If you can’t find the colors you want, buy cheap white storage containers of varying sizes and use plastic spray paint to change the color.

5. Room color is very important.

Some people prefer wallpaper and some prefer paint or textures. Personally, one idea is to paint the room a neutral color and use pictures, brightly colored shelving and other things of that nature to decorate the room. That way, the room can grow with the child without too much effort to change it.

One fun idea is to take a cheap white shelf (we bought one for about $10 at the local hardware store and we used 2 black rod iron decorative brackets, which we left black, but you can paint them any color you want). Make a visit to your local craft store (like Michael’s or Joann Fabrics) and buy two packages of decorative beading ribbon. Using a hot glue gun, attach the ribbon with the beads hanging down over the side along three sides of the shelf. This makes for a really fun shelf for a little girl’s room!

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In order to get a little relief we need a substitute we can trust with our children. There are individuals who call themselves babysitters who I wouldn’t let water my plants. On the other hand there are many responsible, intelligent, child-loving people out there who would love to take care of our children if only we could find them. Here are some suggestions for where to begin the search starting with the least expensive possibilities first and working up from there.

Swap Time With Friends

You probably have one or two friends whose parenting style is similar to yours and whose children get along with yours. If so, try asking them if they would like to trade a night out every now and then. If it works well for everyone you might see if they would be interested in alternating months (or even weeks) so that the night could be regularly worked into the family schedules. This type of sitting arrangement would probably happen at the sitter’s house so as not to inconvenience his or her children. But if couples are involved one of the parents might even do the sitting at your house and then you could do it at their house when your turn came around.

Find or Start a Babysitting Co-op

Co-ops are becoming more common and are really just an expanded version of swapping time with friends. The difference is that more than two families are involved. There are many permutations of this idea. For instance, you could arrange a play-group during the day that is covered by one or two parents each week with a rotating schedule. A similar rotating schedule could occur for night-time sitting with a weekly or monthly rotation.

Don’t Forget About Your Family

When it comes to child care some young families make good use of their relatives, however many families do not. If you are waiting for your parents or in-laws to offer to take care of your children, and the offer is not forthcoming, perhaps they are waiting for you to ask them first. It may of course, turn out that they feel their baby days are done and want no more of it. On the other hand, grandparents who have not yet offered to take care of your children may not be aware of your needs (it’s been a long time since they had small ones) or may be afraid of stepping on toes. In addition there may be other relatives living in the area who would be happy to take on your brood if you gave them the opportunity. Ask for some assistance when you need it and see what happens.

Get Recommendations

When beginning the search for sitters to hire start by asking around. Your friends and neighbors may have some great suggestions for you. A trusted babysitter for one family is a good candidate to become a babysitter for you. Your current babysitter or sitters can also be an excellent source of recommendations.

Neighborhood Children

While older high school, college and adult sitters need to be paid a fairly high hourly wage (if you want to keep them coming back!), younger children, who cost very little, can also provide sitting help. Children as young as ten or eleven (depending on the child) can be used as sitters for toddlers or preschoolers if you are going to be at home. This type of sitting may not give you out-of-the-house time but it will provide a break so that you can get the laundry done in peace, work in the garden, or even relax with a good book.

Church and Community Youth Groups

Some churches maintain a list of teens looking for babysitting opportunities. Whoever answers the phone at the church’s main number can probably put you in touch with the Youth Director who in turn can let you know about babysitting possibilities. Community Youth Groups and their contact numbers can generally be found in the local newspaper.

Local Colleges or Universities

Many colleges and universities offer education and childcare degrees. Call the related departments to see if they keep a list of students interested in child care opportunities. Since these students are hoping for careers in child care or children’s education they form a promising pool from which to pull a new babysitter. Some of these sitters are only available during the school year because they move back home for the summer but others are looking for more work opportunities in the summer since their class schedule has lessened or ceased.

YMCA or Recreation Program Counselors

Summer and after-school programs are often lead by high school or college students who enjoy working with children. If your children are involved in activities you will have an opportunity to observe the counselors interaction with the children, pick out your favorites, and then approach them regarding babysitting.

Teachers

Many elementary school and preschool teachers moonlight as babysitters particularly in the summer months when other sitters are harder to locate. Ask around and see if you get any leads. Student teachers or teacher’s assistants are also a good possibility for sitters. As with the previous suggestion, you can observe the candidate’s interaction with children during the school day and decide if you like his or her style.

Screening the Candidates

At some point you will want to begin the screening process. Do not be shy about asking for references. A qualified sitter will have one or two phone numbers you can call to ask about the candidate’s interaction with young children. You might also arrange one or two sitting times where you stay at home or are in and out of the house. This will give you an opportunity to discreetly observe the sitter with your children and decide if you like the interaction. Other ways to double check that this sitter is satisfactory to you include coming home before the scheduled time, calling periodically while you are out, and of course, asking your children what they think of the new sitter.

Using the suggestions above, try to build a list of five or six sitters you are confident dealing with. That way one of them is likely be available when you need some time to relax, regroup, or have fun!

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I can bet that you still remember the nursery rhymes and songs you have learned as a child. I can also bet that you must have passed these rhymes to your children or grand children. These poems, nursery rhymes and songs play a significant role in the upbringing of the child.

Rhyme and rhythm

Rhymes help the children to understand that language has some pattern. Even little kids can differentiate the words with similar endings. As you sing the song they begin to anticipate the rhyming words. They also try to follow the beat or the tune of the poem. This is helpful in developing musicality. It is because of this reason that many early books have repetition, rhymes and rhythms. This keeps the children’s interest in the rhymes.

Reading and Spellings

Reading books with songs, rhymes or poems show the children that these are not written in paragraphs but in lines. Reading the rhyme to the children make him understands that same sound may come from different spellings.

Action rhymes and songs

Children love to perform the songs and rhymes. This opens them the world of vocabulary. As they relate the words with actions.

Number songs and rhymes

Number songs encourage the child to learn basic learning skills. Like 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 once I got a fish alive, makes them learn how to count. Nine green bottles, gives him the sense of backward counting and simple subtraction. Some rhymes even give the sense of multiplication like cherries on a plate, cherries on a plate, 2, 4, 6, 8. Parents should encourage the child to use fingers while rhyming the poem.

Song and rhyme activities

Activities help the child to learn many things in an easier way. Many activities can be created with poems and songs. You can ask your child to underline the rhyming words. You can sing his favorite rhyme by missing the rhyming strings. Encourage the child to make new lines of the poem that rhymes with it.

Hickory Dickory Dock

Mouse Has a Sock

No matter if the lines are silly

Perform the rhyme with your child

Clap out the rhythm or the beat. It will add more fun to the poem. You can either stamp or nod your head or can do all.

No matter if you have a feeling that you are becoming a child again. But the feeling which your child is going to have is marvelous. Go on, be a child again.

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