How WallCandy makes the two indistinguishable

Have you ever wondered what makes a toy or game or any experience educational? If it’s educational, as well as fun, we feel as though we learned something while having a good time.

If you say something was “an education,” you can mean either that you enjoyed the experience, or that it was grueling and distasteful. So overall, it seems people are a bit ambivalent about education.

But when it comes to kids, most people want to steep their children’s experiences ineducation of the fun kind. We aspire to raise young people who respect and hunger for education. Even those who generally avoid anything educational in their lives will favor high educational goals for the next generation.

How to provide education that keeps a child interested is the question, of course. Surrounding your seven-year-old with stimulating involvements at home as well as at school can establish a culture of learning that’s exciting, relevant, and personal at the same time.

That’s one reason why we don’t hesitate to create wall stickers designed to nurture learning skills: writing, reading, counting, observing, and expressing. From the Smarts™ stickers for infants through Numbers and Letters to Chalkboards, our decals educate while entertaining.

The cool thing is that this kind of education involves exercising creativity in a big way. When parents let the kids do their own designing with the decals, they’re affirming the child’s confidence. When the stickers bring out your child’s imagination, they’re bringing out curiosity, the foundation of the search for knowledge. That’s what education is all about, right?

Let’s take it even a step further. While we want our products to inform, we even more want them to delight. That’s why a whole bunch of them may strike you as more whimsical than instructional. But the truth is that we believe your child’s self-expression, powers of observation, and involvement in playing are just as valuable to a healthy life as any formal lesson.

How do you help establish an atmosphere of learning in your child’s room and other environs? Please share your experiences in the comments.

Transform an impersonal space, and make it yours

There are few times in life that are more exciting than your first year in college. Parents may worry their heads off about the transition as their kids venture out into the world, and the young folk themselves may be nervous even if they don’t show it. One way to ease the stress is to concentrate on thedorm room.

Dorm rooms are not built to be shining examples of comfortable living. Their design has more in common with a cabin at camp, or even military barracks. So it’s no small challenge to make one feel like home.

Usually the room is tiny and cramped. Thus ‘dorm’ versions of furniture are commonly the compact, mini-sized product. Outlets and discount storesare chock full of this kind of thing every August as kids prepare for school.

Before you go shopping, you might want to check out this article that has some wise advice concerning your choices (for instance, “Dorm room furniture should be cheap, even if you have a big budget.”)

Obviously, you want to outfit the room with the most inviting furniture and accoutrements, within the given size restrictions. The room will come already equipped with several pieces of furniture that you’ll need to work around. Try to soften the hard edges and impersonal feeling with colors and textures, pillows and perhaps an overstuffed chair, and a throw rug or two.

Most kids take their dorm room walls very seriously. They’ll have certain posters or other hangings that absolutely must dominate their gaze (no matter how unattractive these may seem to parents.)  If, after indulging these, the room still lacks a certain something, a few wall stickers could be your answer. Don’t forget other necessaries like a chalkboard for messages to your roomie, a bulletin board, and a mirror.

Finally, while cheap-but-sturdy new items and made-for-dorm-room décor is a smart way to go, you can ease more smoothly into the new lifestyle if you bring along a few things that remind you of home.

Don’t worry if these items from home look a little odd in the sterile dorm environment. So what if your favorite curtains are a little bit too long for the windows, or if your beloved armchair is a little too large for the room? A thing or two that is uniquely yours will provide comfort and confidence, and they’ll be excellent conversation starters with your new friends!

Let the room reveal its charm!

You just moved in to your new home, and you’re absolutely thrilled at the prospect ofdesigning from scratch. This time, you’re going to do interior decoration that’s perfectly suited to you.

Looking at the empty rooms, though, you wonder where to start. The possibilities seem endless. You leaf through stacks of home décor magazines, and view your friends’ homes with a new perspective, identifying brilliant solutions and mentally filing them. You’re going to take your time with this, and do it right.

As you begin the job, you realize you can start from the rock bottom basics of light, color, and shape. Take the living room, for instance. It’s rectangular, with windows on two sides. The first thing you want to do is celebrate those windows,and let their light flow as freely as possible throughout the room.

On the other hand, you’d like some privacy in the evenings, so some kind of drapery is required.Armed with the twin criteria of maximum light matched with the capability draw the blinds, you find roll-up bamboo shades that do both tricks nicely.

This one solution then suggests several more. Wondering what color to paint the walls, you take your cue from the color of the shades, combined with the tones of daylight as it spills on the floor. Working both up and down the color spectrum from this base, you begin to get a good idea of the room’s color scheme.

You use color swatches for paints and fabrics, obtained free or on loan from paint and furniture stores, playing endlessly with the combinations. But you realize that you needn’t pour over them much longer,because you know what you like, and the right colors just seem to jump out at you. Often, your knee-jerk responses are the most reliable.

To boost the room’s lightness, you paint the walls a lighter color than the shades. You choose a rug that’s just slightly darker. And then, still captivated by the dominance of light, you decide that your furniture will be in neutral tones and simple patterns, with accents of very strong, bright colors.

But what kind of furniture? The choices of shapes in couches, tables, and armchairs are infinite. Again, you take your cue from the room itself. You’d like to break up the boxy feeling of the rectangular space, so you select a more rounded shape for the sofa, and set it in the middle of the room, rather than along the wall.

Continuing the open and airy feeling first established by your choice of window shades, you select additional pieces of furniture that give a very light, though comfortable impression. The larger pieces repeat the roundedness and neutral color of the couch, while end tables and lamps may be more fanciful and brightly colored.

So the important thing, when creating a new interior design, is to start with the space itself, and work from there. Don’t make the mistake of going shopping before you determine what the room calls for. Use the simple considerations of light, color, and shape, and the image of your perfect room will come together magically!