Kids Table

Ooooh! If someone were offering to help pay for it I would get a kidney shaped or half moon table. That would make it sooooooo much easier to help all the kids with an activity at once without running around the table or switching seats. Plus, they could use it to play school (which they love to do) I know these are the kind used in preschool, but it's so much better than having kids at a square or rectangle table. If I home schooled I'd buy it.
There are some that adjust higher (than preschool height) and you might be able to get a used one from a daycare or on craigslist.

Loved my toddler table.
Don't know what I would have done w/o it as each child was able to draw,
paint, play & craft at the table.
Just their size.
Easy to move.
I wasn't worried about them falling out of their chairs etc.
I would get one!
Having said that, I wouldn't spend a lot of money. I'd look at thrift stores,
garae sales & Craigslist! That's how I got mine (1 on Craigslist & the
other at a garage sale). Awesome! (One still uses the little table as a
desk even though it's just about out grown. Cute though.)

I would put newspaper or plastic down on the dining table rather than bring more furniture into the house. I actually never had my kids do that kind of stuff at home. I took them to play groups, art classes and places they could do that outside the home. That way I got out of the house and the mess stayed out of the house. And the kids got to see other kids. And I got to visit with other adults. If you really want one I would look second hand. I see those kinds of things at thrift stores and yard sales all the time because people realize they are a waste of space. I also see daycares selling their old ones quite often when they upgrade.

Want to be frugal about it? You can glue a piece of plywood to the existing table. If properly centered, your table might well support 2x the length, and 1.5 times the width. Won't cost you more than $5 in wood and glue.

Best,
F. B.

I would look around at thrift stores, etc., you may find something and not feel guilty about the price.

I keep a long folding table in our homeschooling room for different projects. It folds flat and I can put it into the closet, it has a plastic top so it cleans up easily. It's not a kid table just one you find at the home improvement store but works well for us.

I would never buy a nice toddler table.
It's like an oxymoron!
Go to your local goodwill or St. Vincent DePaul and buy a table there if you really want to.
Your toddlers will destroy the table, especially if they are painting, playing with playdoh, coloring with markers...ect.
You would just be stressed about them making a mess if you bought a nice table. (opr at least I would!)
L.

When my kids were younger, I invested in a nice coffee table that had sides that flipped up giving a bigger table space. When it was in use for activities, I had a vinyl table cloth I could throw on it. I also had several stack-able kids chairs that I could put around it.

When not in use as an activity table, I took the cloth away, and flipped down the sides, and used it as a coffee table.

I invested in an expensive one, and still have it in our family room...20 some years later! Was worth the investment to me as it did double duty.

We bought a nice wooden table for our kiddos, at a garage sale. I paid $30 for it. It's larger than most and I loved having it. It's not adjustable, but we used it from age 2 to 7 (with my son, our six year old still uses it) MY kids ate lunches and breakfast there daily. It was nice to have a larger space to eat. Or play playdough. Or color. It is also pretty, so I didn't mind it being in my dinning area.I loved that it had heavier chairs that didn't topple over like the cheap plastic ones. When my son outgrew it, it went to my daughter's room. She uses it to play resturant, or set it up like a desk. I LOVE that table. It has been worth it to me, but I don't know that I would pay full price, brand new for something for younger kids to play on, especially if I intended it for crafts and painting.

Ours didn't get used too often for painting or messy crafts. I had a cheapy plastic little tyke table for that ($5 at Goodwill). I didn't want to mess up the wood. Using it for crafts was a painstaking process because it had to be covered so carefully to protect it.

So yes, I loved it. For the price I paid, definitely worth it. Not certain if I would feel the same way if I bought it new....all the "character" marks would probably bother me more.

my mom does daycare. She bought what looks like a banquet table except its only about 5 ft long. it is a smaller version not as wide not as long. but it has adjustable legs. so when she first got it she had the little preschool sized chairs. then as the kids got to be older she raised it a little and got regular size folding chairs. not it has 4 regular kitchen sized chairs 1 on each side. its a little tight like that but it works for the kids to have snacks after school and if they are doing homework its a nice space. you can check out catalogs like the lakeshore one for kids equipment. here is a link to the type she has. although hers not the primary colors it is more a regular banquet table type its brown with brown legs. this might be the kind your looking for.

http://www.lakeshorelearning.com/product/productDet.jsp?p...

Have you bought your dream home, J.? I remember you were complaining/stating you didn't have the space for another table. If you haven't moved yet - is it possible that's what's holding you back? One more thing to move...???

I don't home school. But we do have desks for our kids to do their homework. We have two different desks...our kids are older...so they aren't adjustable. One is a corner desk with a hutch and the other is a straight desk with a hutch. Lots of storage on both!!

For Christmas? Will your toddler understand the table as a gift??

At one point, we did have an arts and crafts table...we picked it up at a garage sale...it was an IKEA table - a tad wider than typical tables and adjustable in height. it worked for us for a long time...at least 4 years...we also had a paint mat so that paint wouldn't damage our hardwoods...

We were given a wooden table (sturdy, not adjustable) from IKEA. Surface-wise it was about two of those plastic toddler tables. Rectangular. 4 chairs.
What a Godsend! We used it for quite a few years--for painting, crafts, drawing, snacks, etc.
I had room for it in my family room.
We were the 3rd family to use it.
I don't know what the cost was new--but worth it I'm sure.
When our son outgrew it, we passed it on to another toddler. So at least 4 kids have used that table!

Your toddler will LOVE it for Christmas! Pile it up with paints, crayons and paper!

We bought a table from Lakeshore, the wooden ones that are for in the classrooms.
It was a fantastic table! Our only issue was we really didn't take into account how much of the room it was going to take up. We've sent it to Grandma's house and she has it set up there. It actually works out better that way actually. It isn't easy to do messy craft projects at our house because the 4 cats always try to "help". We plan "field trips" to Grandma's house since she lives nearby and they do their messy projects or crafts over there. When we are finally able to move we may consider taking the table back to set it up, haven't decided yet as the cats would still be with us.
The tables at Lakeshore aren't too expensive all things considered and they are built extremely well and look nice sitting in a main room. We had ours in the living room.

If it is something your children will be using fior a few years? It is worth it. Break it down, $20. Per child x how many years it will be used? 2 years? $80. Is a bargin.

I bought a second inexpensive kitchen table that we use as a craft table. It's in the office (I'm lucky to have the extra space for it!) I wouldn't waste money on a "kid's" table, they outgrow it too fast. Even as toddlers my kids were in regular chairs or standing on stools while they worked on crafts.
The one I got from Ikea is awesome, it's sturdy, it has a drop leaf that we only pull up when needed, and it was only $100.

I was homeschooling last year and I STILL LOVE the table I got! The kids use it now for their homework, and I always have markers/glue/scissors and paper out on it so when friends come, the kids gravitate to it and sit drawing and doing crafts..I'm a single mom and that table saves my sanity when I want to watch a mindless show once in a blue moon, the kids just go play, and at least one is always sitting at the table drawing, setting up dominoes, doing a puzzle, cutting and pasting stuff, whatever. I will never go back to not having a big table just for the kids!!! When their friends come, they think it's so cool there's a REAL SCHOOL table in the house..

So anyway. I found a school furniture wholesaler (there are many) and got a real school table like this one:

https://www.schooloutfitters.com/catalog/product_info/pfa...

And I bought 4 heavy duty real school chairs with the metal legs. The tables come in different sizes and adjust for height. The chairs are sturdy enough to pull over to dinner table when we have guests and need extra chairs. I have some arm lamps clamped to table at each end for light. All the stuff is WAY NICER, and WAY CHEAPER than other commercial furniture "for kids" The table is that vinyl coating easy to clean up paint, etc. There are also cool metal real school shelves etc on those sites....

I work from home and currently have one child who stays at home with me all day. In September I went to ikea with every intension to buy a second desk where she could draw, play with her toys, or eat lunch while I work. I ended up buying a children's table. It was about $40 for just the table and and it is plastic so it is super easy to clean. (We take it outside and hose it off every other week.)

While I don't know how your child is, I know a nice wooden desk would have been a terrible idea for us and I am so happy I went for this instead.

You can get a 5' table from a home store for under $100. They have those that can be made shorter too.

http://www.amazon.com/Lifetime-80160-Commercial-Adjustabl...

http://www.webstaurantstore.com/correll-r-series-ra3060s-...

http://www.lowes.com/pd_85616-88126-80300_0__?productId=5...=

http://www.staples.com/Folding-Banquet-Tables/cat_CL166212

We wanted a table for our son's trains and cars. He was a real construction/project kid, who combined things like Brio train tracks and Hot Wheels and so on. He got some hand-me-down things like Micro Machines too, and he added them to the mix. He also was big into contraction toys like Legos and K'nex. The stuff was everywhere, all over the house. It seemed a shame to break up his masterpieces every day, but after a while they were constantly in the way.

We had a handyman build us a table because we could choose the size. It's about 4x8 so he used a big piece of plywood and then added an edge. He painted the whole thing - we picked green so it would be the "grass" surrounding the train tracks and cities that our son built.

We bought a bunch of Rubbermaid bins and found a few old milk crates, and all the extra pieces for the various sets were kept in those. If he wanted to clean off the trains to create something else, great - that stuff was all underneath in another bin. You could also buy those little plastic drawer units for supplies too, and slide them or roll them underneath.

The handyman came up with a great suggestion which was that he would put one set of legs on when our son was littler, and then he made a second set and made the bolts the type that could be undone. So the table could be raised up to standard table height (I think that's 30 inches). The legs are just unfinished pine. They attach inside the lip that hangs down so you don't see the hardware, but are easy to exchange for the other ones.

This was such a sturdy table, and it was used for many years for trains, Lego type things, school projects, impromptu ping pong, etc. I used it for sewing projects and wrapping gifts. It's great for a bunch of kids at a birthday party because the chairs pull right up to it.

We kept it in the basement for years, but at his college graduation party, a bunch of guys maneuvered it up and out the bulkhead, and into the yard, where it was a beer pong table!

It's held up extremely well and it was a great investment. It made so much sense to have it made to our specs and have it be sturdy enough that a bunch of kids leaning on it didn't make it wobble.

Updated

We wanted a table for our son's trains and cars. He was a real construction/project kid, who combined things like Brio train tracks and Hot Wheels and so on. He got some hand-me-down things like Micro Machines too, and he added them to the mix. He also was big into contraction toys like Legos and K'nex. The stuff was everywhere, all over the house. It seemed a shame to break up his masterpieces every day, but after a while they were constantly in the way.

We had a handyman build us a table because we could choose the size. It's about 4x8 so he used a big piece of plywood and then added an edge. He painted the whole thing - we picked green so it would be the "grass" surrounding the train tracks and cities that our son built.

We bought a bunch of Rubbermaid bins and found a few old milk crates, and all the extra pieces for the various sets were kept in those. If he wanted to clean off the trains to create something else, great - that stuff was all underneath in another bin. You could also buy those little plastic drawer units for supplies too, and slide them or roll them underneath.

The handyman came up with a great suggestion which was that he would put one set of legs on when our son was littler, and then he made a second set and made the bolts the type that could be undone. So the table could be raised up to standard table height (I think that's 30 inches). The legs are just unfinished pine. They attach inside the lip that hangs down so you don't see the hardware, but are easy to exchange for the other ones.

This was such a sturdy table, and it was used for many years for trains, Lego type things, school projects, impromptu ping pong, etc. I used it for sewing projects and wrapping gifts. It's great for a bunch of kids at a birthday party because the chairs pull right up to it.

We kept it in the basement for years, but at his college graduation party, a bunch of guys maneuvered it up and out the bulkhead, and into the yard, where it was a beer pong table!

It's held up extremely well and it was a great investment. It made so much sense to have it made to our specs and have it be sturdy enough that a bunch of kids leaning on it didn't make it wobble.

If it is for art, I'd recommend instead a Melissa & Doug Kid's Wooden Artist Easel.
They make just about the best kid centric toys and craft gear I have ever seen.
This easel is so great, as an artist, "I" would still use it as an adult if I got one as a child, and share it with my children. I'm actually saving up for one for my son, as he's been using a foamboard tacked to my collapsible easel(traditional foldable easel for canvases).

Collapses enough to fit under a bed, but has large size holders for holding paint cups, brush cups, regular and dry-erase markers/crayons/pencils box, chalk/erasers...a chalkboard side and a dry-erase board side, both of which can be covered with painting/drawing paper and used, clips for holding the large painting papers, and a kid-safe paper cutter and holder for rolls of art paper. Oh, and it's double sided, so two can use it at once.

If you already have most of the art supplies, just get the paper and easel(It's about $95ish+shipping on M&D's website(including buying two rolls of paper, but you can personalise it with the children's names. Together with buying the rolls of paper, it's about $70ish on Amazon, and free shipping, but no personalisation...but over $20 cheaper.). The price might be an ouch for some, but with help, probably affordable, and it's a wooden easel that will grow with them.

My son and his Grandfather teamed up and got one for his cousin for Christmas(Shhhh! Don't spoil the surprise!).

Hope this helps.