Organizing Your Child's Room into Play Centers

Most of us remember going to preschool or kindergarten and playing in centers. I can't speak for all of us, but I myself know that I had a great time in the centers, learned from playing and enjoyed the atmosphere. Now, it's time to do the same for my children. With a two and half year old and an almost one year old, it is a great time to introduce them to center play.

First, you need shelving. You can purchase these shelves from websites such as www.eduplaycatalog.com or even ebay. Or, you can build your own. We chose to build our own. We made a 36" tall shelf and placed two boards in between for a total of three shelves. The shelves were then divided into three sections, giving a total of nine compartments. You can leave the shelves their natural wood color, stain them or paint them. If you decide to purchase the shelves from a retailer, you will be able to choose from a variety of colors.

Look at your child's room and decide how many shelves will be needed and where the best place to put the shelves is. We chose to start off with four shelves. We placed our shelves in "L" shapes to create two centers. We backed them together to save room. Because our son has a train table and a large tool bench in his room, we were not able to create as many shelves as we had originally planned on. One center we made into a "construction zone" and the other is more of a quiet area.

In the construction zone, we put all of his building materials on the shelves in plastic storage containers with lids. Blocks, lincoln logs, linking beads, legos and any other items that he could build with. We also put some farm animals, a barn, tractors, cars and other items that he could incorporate into his play in this area. A rug with a design of a town added a nice finishing touch to the center. In the quiet area, we placed his books, magazines, puzzles, magana doodle, music items and other toys that he can sit down and learn from. A beanbag chair added the finishing touch for the quiet center. We also made made a flannel board and hung it on his wall so that he can do flannel board stories in the quiet area. You could hang a magnetic board on the wall and give your child magnetic letters, numbers and other magentic playsets as well.

If you had more room, you could incorporate a dress up center or housekeeping center for your child. Add dress up clothes, a mirror, a kitchen set with foods, shopping cart, checkout and other items to complete the center. Babies and baby related equipment are also fun to add to a center.

If you are really brave and want your child to have an art center in their room, that can be done also. We decided to leave the art center in the kitchen! However, a table, easel and shelf would work nicely in the art center. Purchase the spill proof paint cups and place them on the easel for easy access. Buy small plastic shoebox sized containers to place crayons, markers, pencils, pens and colored pencils, glue sticks, scissors and other art supplies in. Another option is to use empty baby wipe containers to store art materials in. Provide your child with different types of paper to be creative with.