Is your child the next president?  Set them on track to achieve their dreams with a patriotic bedroom!  To finish off  the week, here are some Red, White and Blue kids rooms in honor or our founding fathers. 

From House Beautiful

Sentiments Toward Barbie

On Valentine’s Day, Barbara gave you an inspiration room inspired by the world of Barbie.  Admittedly not a Barbie lover, Barbara was able to find the value of these popular dolls by admiring the inspiration the dolls provide.  While Barbara’s respect for Barbie might be a bit late in developing, some of us at YES Spaces have a long standing love for our favorite doll.

Love these Classic Wood Blocks? Buy them in our store.

Sometimes, Girls will be Girls

I, Katie, am one of 3 girls.  When we were very young, our mom was extremely conscious to provide us with gender neutral toys such as classic wood blocks and balls.  Despite her best intentions, when she realized that my sisters and I were far more interested in role playing, building, and problem solving when put in a relational and narrative context, she finally caved and bought some Barbies.  I guess she must have felt a little silly when we were playing “Mommy” to a bunch of blocks…

Eloise's room looks like the chaos of my "Barbie Land"

Barbie Land

As you might imagine, when you multiply multiple Barbies gifted per holiday by three girls, you end up with a massive collection of dolls and accessories.  Despite that, we only had 2 Ken dolls, and my youngest sister always got stuck using a spare Barbie as her doll’s partner.  My sisters and I would spend hours setting up what we dubbed “Barbie land” in our playroom.  Looking back, for us, Barbie land was less about dressing Barbie and more about synthesizing and recreating everyday interactions.  We constantly worked through conflicts with our parents, our friends, and each other by using a couple Barbie’s to replay, and often rewrite events.  Similarly, we also loved to project our aspirations for the future, working through our life goals in a couple hours.  My sisters and I frequently joke about how our youngest sister always wanted to have 25 babies, and although the desired number has drastically reduced, she maintains her love for children to this day.

Barbie as a Positive Role Model

Some people criticize Barbie dolls as promoting superficial, limited roles for women and giving girls negative body image.  Without getting into areas I am unqualified to offer expert opinions, I would like to propose a small doll has limited amounts of power in shaping most young girls’ futures.  As with any toys, Barbies provide an excellent platform for parents to teach their children through play and engage in discussion.   We loved playing Barbie with our mom because she would always come up with the most fun daring adventures that took our Barbie’s everywhere from the doctor’s office, to scuba diving, to college and beyond. Never underestimate the power of play for teaching valuable life lessons and modeling behavior for your child.

Wouldn't this make the most dreamy Barbie storage chest?

Donating Extra Dolls- Share the Love

As a closing note, if you find your daughter’s Barbie land to be getting a little excessive (such as when we had amassed 3 large toy bins (like the dreamy pink upholstered blanket chest from the YES Spaces store) of Barbie dolls, not including vehicles and other accessories), use the opportunity to teach your child the value of donation.  My sisters and I were never thrilled to part with even a single doll, but when our mom explained how excited a girl without any dolls would be to get one of our Barbies, we were proud to help her package some up and take them to Goodwill.  When you involve your child in choosing which toys to share and physically taking them to donation sites, it helps them make valuable connections (and helps clean out the toy bin!).

Happy Valentine’s Day!  What could possibly be sweeter than a pretty pink YES Spaces Inspiration room?  Now, when we say pink, you might think Valentine’s themed.  But, if you’re a little girl, when we say pink, you very likely might think Barbie no matter what time of year it is!

I will admit that I, Barbara, have never personally been a big Barbie fan. I received a couple for birthday presents as a child but they invariably sifted, neglected, to the bottom of the toy box. But a YES Space is about using what your child loves to invite further creativity and exploration – not imposing our own memories on our child.

YES! Use Barbie to encourage storytelling

Children’s storytelling helps them to process what they are learning and one type of imaginative storytelling is through the use of miniatures. One mom’s daughter processed her own struggles with ADD through her Barbie play. Mom had presented Kaitlin with the idea that she could use her ADD as a resource to help other children with learning issues by becoming a psychologist one day. Somehow, out of this discussion, Barbie’s Psych Hospital was born! Barbie’s problems were examined and given helpful, nurturing solutions. Barbie may not come with her own Psych Hospital but in this case it was a loving way to work through everyday problems.

Barbie and her friends are a blank slate for your child to create their own reality. Don’t buy a Dream House, build it!

YES! Inspire your budding fashion designer

Barbie has been a fashion icon for 53 years what better model could there be!
Chanel, Armani, Diane von Furstenberg and many, many, more have all designed for Barbie, why not a couture creation from your child!

Diane von Furstenberg Barbie

Armani Barbie

The Indiana Children’s Museum hosted a Barbie exhibit that allowed children to design their own Barbie creations.

They even had a special night for “no sew” Barbie creations – even the most craft challenged of us can support “no sew!”

If you really want to invite your child to take fashion design to the next level, give her a YES Space with the tools and the room to engage.

If sewing is a shared passion, create a space where you both can work together. Like this great sewing room from Chalet Girl.

Or keep it simple with a Creativity for Kids kit to get her started on her road to fashion stardom.

Whatever her style, age or level of expertise, there is always room for creativity and growth.

Just say YES and give her space to create!

Barbie could inspire all of her dreams to come true!

Barbie inspires many girls dreams!

Bolton FIRST Team

While you’re working on incorporating elements from our Inventor Inspiration Room, get your little genius involved in some seriously smart play! YES Spaces Design fully embraces the power of play, and we believe in engaging children in fun and challenging ways to learn. Because we are such big believers in the power of play, we love programs like FIRST Lego League (FLL),  a rapidly growing international program that harnesses the power of play to teach children important creative thinking skills.

FLL is a subdivision of For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology (FIRST), a program that motivates young students to pursue careers in technology. FIRST has four levels: Jr. FIRST LEGO League, FIRST LEGO League, FIRST Tech Challenge and FIRST Robotics Competition. Combined, these programs provide opportunities for students ranging in age from 6-year-olds to high school.

FIRST programs are team “brain sports” that appeal to many students, even if they aren’t interested in robotics. These students learn and practice many skills such as researching, public speaking, visual presentations, skit writing, computer programming, building, teamwork and more! FLL helps kids develop problem-solving skills, form strategies, and think creatively.

Every year there is a new challenge theme. This past year it was Food Factor, or in other words, keeping food safe. Teams build and program autonomous robots out of Legos, but this is only one part of the judging criteria.

Team Mascot, the Fire Breathing Micro-Duck, not used for actual competition!

The students also present a “project” or invention.  There were so many exciting inventions presented! Don’t let the LEGO title fool you, this project portion of the competition doesn’t have anything to do with Legos.  Most of the projects were presented in a fun skit format to share their research with not only the judges, but with their communities as well.

One of our young local teams discovered that one ice pack is not enough to keep the food in your child’s lunch box properly chilled.  In a presentation to our local community, the team shared that food should be surrounded by a cold pack to keep food at the safe temperature of 40 degrees Fahrenheit or less. This group of mostly 4^th graders found products online (like the freezable lunch box we noted in a previous blog), but they felt they were fairly expensive and didn’t always suit their needs. So they decided to make adaptable ice bags that could fit to individual lunch boxes. They put one part rubbing alcohol and 2 parts water in ziplock bags and sealed the bags together with duct tape. The alcohol keeps the bags from freezing solid so they can be wrapped around the food. These are fun to make and personalize:

Homemade ice pack decorated with duct tape stripes

Homemade ice pack decorated with leopard print duct tape

Next year the challenge is Senior Solutions and the teams are tasked with helping seniors to be independent, engaged and connected.

If you don’t have an FLL Team at your child’s school, look into getting one! It is beneficial in so many ways. Check out the FIRST website for more information. Want to see the robots in action? Here is a link to a great video on FIRST.

Thank you, Bolton Primary School FLL Team, the Fire-Breathing Micro Ducks: Wiley W, James N, Kyle B, Ethan S, Sydney R and Nikki R. and congratulations on your trophy, but most importantly, on a job well done!

February 11th is Thomas Edison’s Birthday and in honor of this great man we are celebrating your child’s spirit of inventiveness! Creativity and new ideas come easily for children – they don’t doubt themselves the way adults sadly have learned to do. Many great inventors and creative geniuses have described themselves as being child-like in their approach; they remove the preconceptions and look at something with fresh eyes. Your child already has that gift; now give them the space to explore it!

“Many of life’s failures are men who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.”

Thomas Edison

Though there were other more comfortable rooms in Edison’s home; this nook with all his books and its proximity to his work area allowed Edison to remain immersed in his work, day and night.

Today’s young Edison would love an area that kept him in the action and maximized even a small space to give him room to create!  Use some industrial touches like in the room above and plenty of storage for those invention materials.

From Apartment Therapy

Any inventor will tell you they need to be able to record their ideas as they occur! Make sure you include plenty of interactive spaces like these blackboard walls from Design guru, or the metal walls over the desk above for keeping records, testing hypotheses or doodling.

Lots of interactive materials like simple screws, straws, string, washer, etc. encourage open play. And when we don’t have instruction books to follow we think more creatively. Be sure you present the materials in an open unstructured way for them to be used as the inventor sees fit. And then include a space, maybe just a shelf or a whole bookcase where they can display their final creations!

Create a fun multi-purpose workspace with something like this great vintage table and these stools. In a pinch they also work for tea parties or art centers.

From Design Squish

Spotlight the work area with a tribute to Edison in this fantastic light fixture!

From Bay12

Make the concept of time a hands-on experience with these great gear clocks available in do-it-yourself kits from Wooden-gear-clocks.com

Or start on a smaller scale with a great invention idea book.

Add in a tribute to another great inventor with some telephone fun!

Anything that inspires your child is the perfect item…we are ready for a whole new generation of creative genius!

I LOVE the book Cheaper by the Dozen a true family memoir where they describe the bathroom with the Periodic Table painted on the ceiling, the dining room with the solar system above the wainscoting. Any surface in the home is a surface for learning.

Here are real science equations to use as wall décor in any inventor’s space. Maybe bathroom walls? We found these equations in Discover Magazine, a favorite read of many inventors!

Forget no bucks—without this equation there’d really be no Buck Rogers. This is the equation that made space travel possible.

This equation puts a limit on the destructive power of one of the most awesome celestial entities believed to exist.

Even if you don’t recognize the math, you’ve probably heard of this equation’s name in more than a few shows and movies. Essential to modern physics, it comes in many flavors—and has even appeared in a Wierd Al Yankovic video.

Important for some nuclear-weapon-related plots, this equation ultimately also provided the name for one of the most successful series of video games.

The general form of this equation pops up throughout science, but this particular version has relevance to scary plague movies.

As always, if you want to turn your family’s space into a YES Space, check out our design packages and contact us.

Sometimes you just have to embrace the fantasy! What else would you do with an awkward high ceiling but create the most fantastic ship with a crow’s nest taking you to the pinnacle of fun?

In honor of the anniversary of the publishing of Robinson Crusoe let’s immerse ourselves in a shipwrecked paradise.  You might not create something as elaborate as this amazing pirate ship room by Kuhl Design, but let these images inspire you whichever ways the trade winds  blow!

Why not add a giant squid for a fun nod to 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea?

What I always thought I would like on a desert island is a box of great books. So be sure your shipwreck is stocked with some of the classic adventures like Robinson Crusoe and Swiss Family Robinson.

A little candlelight for your reading?

Why is it that the coolest trunks and furniture wash up on the shores of desert islands?

But don’t worry, if you don’t have time to comb the beaches for washed-up treasure, this pirate chest will be a perfect addition to add to your personal YES Space!

(Available at YESspaces.com)

And for the ultimate indulgence, handmade furniture made from reclaimed wood at
Shipwreck Furniture.

Some basket chairs for swinging from the trees:

Floor pillows made from sail cloth for the floor or your swinging chairs?

An awesome felted wool pebble area rug add the perfect shoreline.

If a crow’s nest into the rafters is not in the budget – how about a climbing cargo net salvaged from the wreck?

And some charming details like this small ship

If your ocean lover is more excited by surfing than high seas adventures, check out our Surfer Inspiration Room!

And if you’re looking for a exotic tropical party idea, you will LOVE this Survivor Birthday Party planned by Barbara!

As always, if you want your home to be a YES Space that inspires your family, check out our YES Spaces design packages and drop us a line!

It’s February 1st, do you know what that means?  It’s Robinson Crusoe day!  We cross our hearts, it really is.  In honor of this storied, brave adventurer, we’re sharing a fantastic Survivor themed birthday party Barbara created for her daughter, Weston.  If your child dreams of adventures in foreign places and exotic locals, satisfy a little of their wanderlust with this tropical adventure party!

Survival is a theme that can be adapted for any age child, either boy or girl. Age appropriate activities are the key to tailoring this party to your unique child.

For Weston’s eighth birthday, we decided to test her friends’ skills my doling out survival tests at intervals throughout a slumber party.

In the front hall there was a special mailbox and they had to check it throughout the evening and morning. Every hour or two, there would be a new message with instructions. The messages were written in secret code so the girls had to decode the words first and then follow instructions.

Our Survivor Mail box!

And a decoded message!

The messages related to skills that survivors would need to make it in the “wild” (our family room!) But this whole party idea could easily be adapted to outdoor camping, backyard adventures – Weston’s birthday just happens to fall during Oregon’s rainy season (September to July).

For the first task they had to travel to the kitchen and make their own dinner out of only the ingredients they found on the center island…homemade pizza.

For the second task they were told that no one can survive the wilds alone. They must turn themselves into a tribe and learn to depend on each other. Face paints and group games built team spirit!

Then, of course, as everyone knows…you cannot survive without shelter!  They were told to travel to the camp grounds and construct a shelter that could accommodate everyone for the night out of the materials they found there. A basket with sheets, string and clothes pins were there, as well as a brother or two to help with construction – sometimes the natives are friendly.

Once the shelter was constructed they were put to the ultimate test. What would you eat to survive? A spinning wheel had pictures of out of the ordinary but not unrecognizable food. We stuck with things like kumquats, baby food peas, edible flowers, dried squid, pickled onions, inexpensive caviar, dried seaweed… If you spun the wheel and did not try the food, you were out!

Weston’s friend Caroline was the bravest! She tried every food on the wheel – even though she was not always happy about it!

There were other activities like simple bead necklaces, cake and presents, a movie to wind down before bed.

And in the morning, the girls had earned the right to were t-shirts that said “I survived Weston’s 8^th Birthday!” And they had.

One of my secrets for survival…hiring our next door neighbor for the night, she is three years older than the girls and lead the activities and helped them out the whole time, even sleeping next to the one girl who was feeling a little homesick. Now that’s what I can a great survival tip!

Happy Robinson Crusoe day!

Nothing says childhood adventure like a fort. Moms sometimes fear them, but if you plan for YES activities by selecting durable, washable fabric for your sofas and clearly pointing out which pillows, blankets or furniture cannot be used, a fort can provide hours of exercise for the imagination.

From Creative Waste of California

In one of the photo shoots for our upcoming YES Spaces book, we transformed a fairly formal room into a giant fort and I was shocked that I had to teach five 8 to 10 year old boys the basics of fort building. One 9 year old confessed “well, we aren’t really allowed to do this at home,” as he bounced up and down with excitement. His mom denied it but I think we all know the truth when we hear it!

A great sofa fort needs stable seat cushions to be the walls and only the lightest sheets as covers. I have small hooks in a couple of places for stringing twine and the kids use clothes pins to hold up the sheets. I know moms are picturing something like this picture from Tiny Glimpses:

But in reality, a fort can be small, making use of walls and the backs of sofas. It could be an easily containable world like this corner fort from New Grounds.

There have been occasions when a whole room in our house has been dedicated to a fort for a week, but what if you start with just an afternoon? Figure out your tolerance and trust it. You don’t have to turn your house upside down. Define the space that can be used, select the sheets or blankets you are comfortable with into a laundry basket and leave the basket in the space or hide the supplies around the house. Then put a note where your child will see it. You can send them on a hunt around the house collecting items as they go; twine, sheets (one at a time), clothes pins, pillows… Or you could send them directly to the building site with directions to build a secret shelter.

You are creating a memory, nourishing their imagination and using up that energy that is being pent up in the house during the long, winter months! I know I want my child to bounce up and down with excitement. If you are lucky, you might even be invited in. Just a tip, the mom with the treats can usually wheedle her way in!

Take a moment to think back to when you were a child.  Was there anything that could transform an ordinary room or a humdrum day into an adventure like a fort?  Starting a few spare pillows, a few blankets, and elaborating from there, a fort is such a simple and fun way to allow your child’s imagination to run free!

We’ve included pictures of various fort themes to show you how many different directions you can go with such a classic idea.  Some of these forts are more simple while some are incredibly whimsical and elaborate.  Take these ideas and run with them in whatever direction you’re feeling. Grab a few essential pieces and see what you and your child can dream up!

Outdoor adventure forts- turn an ordinary day in the backyard or state park into a woodland exploit (like this fantastic camping trip teepee from Junk Gypsy).

Fancy fairy forts- perfect for the the Fancy Nancy or fairytale princess in your life.  You might not have all the whimsical touches used in this elaborate Valentine’s rendition from Design Sponge, but a little pink, some teacups, fun pillows, and cut-out heart garlands add some glam to the classic fort!

Fairy forts also make bedtimes more charming and looked forward to.  When I was little, if my bed had looked anything like this one from Examiner, I would have hopped into bed a little more eagerly!  Don’t forget the twinkle lights, they will transform your fort in a blink of an eye!

Sleep-over forts- if you want to be known as The Best Mom Ever, having a few tricks like sleep-over forts up your sleeves certainly doesn’t hurt.  How fun would it be to spend the night in one of these little forts from The Drifter and The Gypsy?

Teepee Forts- a perfect option for a more permanent yet versatile fort.  This hand embellished Teepee from Jenloveskev.com shows how personalized and whimsical you can make this classic shape.

Table forts- a simple solution for keeping those blankets from falling down.  Just throw the blankets or sheets over a table (like the mom behind Hope Studio’s did).

She shows just how transformational a little creative lighting can be!  Throw in a few pillows, some snacks and boardgames, and your little munchins will be busy and giggling for hours.

Grab some sheets and pillows and turn today into a YES! day full of adventures and fun.  As always, if you want help transforming your family’s space into a YES Space, contact us for more details.