Young children, given their own bedroom, tend to take a sense of ownership over the space. They like to arrange their toys in areas around the room, may play in its boundaries with siblings, and can also express interest in decorating the walls with art they’ve made or other goodies.
This is good, as helping a child feel a sense of autonomy over a space is often a good way to help them feel independent, and develop as a result. This is especially true as they grow older and you begin teaching them the value of how to clean the space, keeping it tidy. This also saves you time when it comes to organizing and cleaning your household.
Helping your child exercise more autonomy in their bedroom, then, is a healthy balance between giving them some control, but not too much of course, so that your parental authority is still there. Let’s consider how to begin, and also how to make this effort fun for all involved:
Stencil Decorations
A few stencil decorations can be easy to paint over or remove, but they also look beautiful and quite subtle. They can help you lay the foundational theming of the room. For instance, to use a cliche, it might be that your daughter wishes for fairytale imagery in her room. Small stencils around the skirting board of fairies, castles, and repeating motifs in a similar vein will no doubt help the subtle, but the beautiful decoration of a room. Children can also help you with the stencils by holding them in place as you paint or spray.
Fun Collections
Children love collecting things, which is why it’s nice to make sure your child has the chance to display those collections in their rooms. Of course, they may only have a certain amount of space so don’t feel guilty if you can’t provide a museum-like display cabinet or huge bookshelves implemented in the space with small cubbyholes.
It might be helping them laminate trading cards and hanging them from their wall in a display, or to help display their LEGO collection in a certain area of the room, or even to provide a small bookshelf that helps them place their children’s storybooks one after the other can be a lovely idea. Collections can be moved, put into storage, and managed reasonably easily, so you don’t have to worry about using this for permanent storage.
Small Adornments
It’s often the small things that please a child the most. Any parent who has splashed out on a nice Christmas gift, only to see them playing with the packaging, knows this feeling. But this doesn’t have to be a bad thing. A cool minecraft sticker pack might be used to decorate their bookshelf or certain displays in their room, or perhaps on their bookcase or tablet if they’re lucky enough to have one. These can be removed easily but also have a fun way of letting them express their hobby.
With this advice, you’re sure to help your child express more autonomy over their space and how it looks, which will also inspire them to take care of that area.
