Playrooms for Pre-Schoolers : Adorable Interiors for Little Ones

On Tuesday morning I had the pleasure of visiting my cousin’s summer camp classroom of three year-olds.  Completely impressed and inspired, I had to do a post on playrooms for pre-schoolers.

Let’s take a look at these adorable interiors.

I have to confess that until Tuesday, I hadn’t been in a pre-school setting since, well, the 80s. ;D  I’d forgotten that all of the furniture is miniaturized, and was so delighted to see the way the small-scale furnishings contrasted with the ultra modern large-scale of the kids artwork on display.   I love the look.

When I arrived in the morning, the kids were a few minutes into their play hour.  The classroom had five different well-defined activity areas: three were a table with chairs (as pictured below),

and two were spaces where the little ones could move around and spread out with toys or engage in activity on an large area rug.

I saw immediately that the ideal playroom has room for both: a table and chairs as well as unobstructed square footage for an area rug, like the room below.

I saw that an accent element to encourage engagement is also great.

In my cousin’s classroom, one of the open areas had a free-standing play kitchen complete with a make-believe land-line phone and a pretend cell-phone. The kids loved it and enjoyed playing with the dishes, pretending to make phone calls to their parents, and preparing imaginary meals.

A slide, like this one,

a tee-pee, and/or a rocking horse, are all good examples of accent pieces that are decorative and also engage the kids.

Storage is also critical.

As playtime drew to a close, my cousin sang a song that let all the kids know it was almost time to finish up and put away all of the toys.  Storage baskets and bins like the ones under this window seat are a great way to stay organized, minimize visual clutter, and teach little ones to tidy up.

I noticed that elegant and educational framed prints like this giraffe illustration look awesome when mixed in with kids’ original artwork.

Finally, summer camp wouldn’t be complete without open air play.

I had to say goodbye to the class before they went up to the roof for sunshine and streaks through the sprinkler.  I definitely missed out :D.  Here see some youngsters painting en plein air.

Too cute, right?

Thanks again to my cousin Shalini for an amazing morning at her pre-school!

Images / 1 /A Merry Mishap /2 / Vogue / 3 / Elle Decor / 4 / Vogue / 5 / Babble /6 / Houzz / 7 / Vogue / 8 / Samantha Pynn / 9 / The Animal Print Shop / 10-11 / J and J Home /