Decorating
a child’s room based on a theme, is a good way to focus your
creative decorative talents. Choosing a science based theme, means
that you will be reinforcing learning and thinking in your child
every time they walk into the area. However, you don’t want
to decorate their room in such a way that you make it unpleasant
for them. That is why you should talk with the child first, and
discuss how they feel about your ideas. Discuss various themes,
and try to steer them towards ideas that may give them a chance
to learn something about the world. If you can’t get them excited
enough to work with you, then it is probably not a good idea to
proceed. One theme which may interest them, is decorating their
room based on volcanoes.
Within
the silent mountain’s belly, there is a fire growing hot. Its
flames are fierce and growing bolder, stronger, until the very rock
around it melts into an angry molten goop. The fire grows greater
still, and expands outward pushing against the mountains walls,
seeking to escape, growing hotter, fiercer, until, it explodes in
a blast of fire and ash that blots out the sky.
This
is the excitement of the volcano, the idea of titanic destructive
forces. Use the lure of such ideas, to get your child to ask questions
as you proceed with the development of the area. Try and arouse
their curiosity, then help them find the answers. Gather lots of
books with big pictures, to use as references and inspirations for
your work. Before you begin, look through the books to find out
about the different rocks, effects, and structures that occur within
a volcano, in order to make the room as authentic as possible.
A good
place to begin is the floor. Unless the room has orange, red, or
pink carpeting, you may want to purchase a few red throw rugs to
scatter about the room. These can be pools of lava surrounded by
rock. A game you can play is to tell the child to avoid stepping
on the lava, so that they have to jump from bare patch to bare patch
to get around the room. This turns the entire space into a big toy.
Flames
and lava flows which run down the wall can be simulated by cutting
out pieces of red construction paper in the shapes of flames. Yellow
or orange outlines drawn into these will give them a nice effect.
Thumb tack these to the walls, and even the ceiling, to surround
the area with fire.
You
can create whole volcanoes in a similar manner, by using larger
sheets of brown or gray paper. Your volcanoes can be small, with
the appearance of being off in the distance, or huge reaching straight
up to the ceiling. Either way you can use cotton painted gray at
the tops of the volcanoes to create the look of smoke billowing
from its crest. A border of grey clouds along the top of the room,
with a series of volcanoes on the walls reaching up to it, can be
a nice interplay of dark and light colors. Experiment to see if
this is an effect that you and your child enjoy.
This
kind of a theme goes hand in hand with starting a rock collection.
You can begin by purchasing some rocks that really came from a volcano.
With a little research, you and your child may be able to locate
rocks which are just lying around from a volcanic explosion millions
of years ago. Even if they aren’t from a volcano, any interesting
rocks you find can be collected, and displayed in the room, to help
the overall ambience of the volcano that you are trying to create.
Designing
the room together can be both a wonderful bonding experience that
also allows them to learn something. Encourage them to research
further, and to make the room as realistic as possible. At the same
time, engage their imagination, and help them to develop a vision
of what their room should look like, and then implement it. In this
way you will be encouraging many positive traits in the child while
working with them will help the two of you grow closer.
Children
should not try any of these ideas out themselves without the consent
and supervision of an adult. Caution should always be used in any
activity that involves a child. Make certain that none of your decorative
efforts causes any damage to the child’s safety.
