Start preparing for the upcoming 2016-2017 school year and check out our Year at a Glance!
Each monthly download will provide you with 100 printable craft and learning activities (+ step-by-step instructions). A parent newsletter, progress report, circle time song sheet, additional reading list, and coloring activity book are also included in your download! All of this for only $27 a month!
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Here’s an idea for a “toy” that just matches your toddler’s curiosity.
Start with a cardboard box about 16 inches high or tall enough that she can just reach over the side when she is sitting or kneeling beside it.
Fill the box about half full with folded newspapers so toddler cannot tip the box over by pulling on one side.
Then put four or five small objects on top of the papers in the box.
Some of the objects should be new to her and all of them must be safe for her to handle and play with.
Don’t call attention to the box. Simply leave it in an area where she plays.
Before long, toddler will find the box and look inside to discover the contents.
This box will be her own fun box, a magic source of new things to play with.
When you get new toys, put them in the box so “New” toys may also mean something you’ve made or something safe that might be interesting for a toddler to investigate.
It’s better to use fewer objects at a time and change them more often than to load her up with a confusing variety of things all at once.
This kind of activity encourages toddler to be curious—and teaches her to get into things.
So, in addition, it’s important to take a trip around your living spaces to be sure once again that your house, garage and yard are toddler-proof and safe for this little one’s investigations.
Your child gets his first lessons in how to relate to other people from your example. He learns how to get along with others from the ways you and he relate to each other. He also learns from seeing how you get along with other people.
There are several ways in which he learns how to treat others and be treated by others in return:
• How you treat him;
• How he sees you treat others;
• How you allow him to treat you and others;
• How others allow him to treat them.
You’ll see some of the effects of your “teaching by example” now. Other patterns, although laid down now, may not appear in his relationships until he’s older. He will learn ways to act with you now to try to please you and avoid your anger or disappointment. He will pick up from you different ways to act with others who are more or less powerful than he is, which he will use when he’s in conflict situations. And he will learn, from observing you, ways of treating his own mate and children which he will carry into these adult relationships.
Take a look at our Summer 2016 Preschool Curriculum Download. Only $27 for 100 craft and learning activities. Our Summer program is to be used for the two months of July and August. The calendar of activities will help you prepare for summer school!
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Check out our June 2016 Preschool Curriculum download for only $27!
The next time you need to wait for an appointment—or can’t think of anything else to do, here are some easy activities that require only children and a large, empty space. Ask this question: How many different ways can you walk?
• Very fast
• Very slowly
• In a circle
• Taking big steps
• Taking tiny steps
• Walking on tiptoes
• Walking on heels
Pretend you are:
• Walking uphill
• Walking downhill
• Walking in mud
• Walking on ice
• Walking like a robot, a rabbit, a giraffe, a penguin, a bluejay, a kangaroo, a puppet, a spider.
Rhythm is more than marching to the beat of a favorite song or keeping time with the music by tapping a foot.
Different languages are filled with different kinds of rhythm. As we learn to talk while we are very young, we are also learning the rhythm that helps us understand and communicate in our language.
To help young children appreciate the many types of rhythm—in addition to the ones they hear in modern music—show them how they can mark time in poetry.
That is, read a poem aloud and ask them to feel the rhythm by walking or waving an arm “in time” with the words.
Each poem has its own unique “meter”, and you may want to use several different ones as examples.
This is also an excellent way to introduce your child to poetry, to enrich his or her storehouse of ideas—and to add an abundance of new words to his or her vocabulary.
While there are many influences which shape a child’s personality, it is the family and the home which set the dominant tone. Here are several ways for parents to instill courtesy in their children.
• Start with ‘please’ and ‘thank you’.
The first polite term a child can be taught to use is the word “please.” That should quickly be followed by “thank you.”
Letitia Baldrige, author of The Amy Vanderbilt Complete Book of Etiquette, tells how to do it: “As he begins to form words and stick out his cup for more milk, whoever is feeding him should ask him, ‘Say ‘Please?’ and eventually back will come the word, “Please.”
‘Thank you’ follows along right after ‘Please.’ As the child develops verbally, his parents should teach him to say ‘thank you’ for each meal, car ride, toy or cookie offered to him.”
When these two phrases are reinforced consistently, a time will come when the child will automatically say, “Please” and “Thank you” to the various people with whom he will be in social contact: scout troop leaders, waiters, nurses, physicians, teachers, bus drivers, friends and store clerks.
• Use everyday experiences
An effective way to teach manners and set standards in the home is to use everyday experiences. For example:
• Require children to wash hands before eating.
• Train children to wait until everyone has been served before starting to eat.
• Encourage a child not to interrupt when someone else is speaking.
• Explain that is it not polite to speak with your mouth full.
• Teach a child that if she cannot reach an item on the table, to ask the person nearest it to please pass the plate or bowl.
• Remind a child to say, “excuse me” if he must leave the table.
• At the end of the meal, everyone should thank the person(s) who prepared the food.
To
ddlers who have been practicing with both finger feeding and holding a spoon are probably becoming pretty good self-feeders by now.
On the other hand, if you have been feeding your toddler and she is now about 18 months old, now is the time to encourage her to take over and do it herself.
You can expect an occasional mess—being a neat eater takes lots of practice!
Some toddlers will feed themselves certain foods but want a parent or caregiver to feed them others.
If this practice continues, it is possible that Toddler will build up faulty eating habits—she will see the difference between the foods she wants and the foods you want her to eat.
In this period of self-assertion such a practice can develop into a tug-of-war. In the future you may find that she may not have an appetite for your foods. So, to avoid this kind of confrontation, continue to allow your toddler to feed herself in spite of the mess she may make.
Between the first and second years, many youngsters will give up certain foods, particularly some vegetables. Accept her preferences and return to the rejected foods in a few weeks.
By pushing a temporary dislike on her, you increase the probability that the particular food may become permanently distasteful to her.
Toddler’s preferences may result in an occasional lopsided meal, but from day to day or week-to-week her choices should even out to a well-balanced diet.
If you want to see problem behavior disappear, pay more attention to the things children do well than to their mistakes.
Without thinking, we often take for granted those behaviors that please us. Then we exaggerate out of proportion those things children do wrong.
Unfortunately, this approach doesn’t work because children tend to repeat those behaviors that get the most attention.
For example, the more you ask a child to stop an annoying behavior, such as playing with his food, the more he may do it. Try ignoring it instead. Then when you notice he is eating neatly, compliment him.
An old rule says parents should compliment a child for every time they criticize him.
As you watch for positive behavior and compliment children on that behavior, you can begin to see some changes in the behavior you don’t like.
