Category — Family Play

Looking for something fun to do today?

Make a collage out of pictures from old magazines together and talk about what you are making. 

Looking for something fun to do today?

Draw pictures of members of your family.
Then mail them to grandma or another person in the child’s life who would love to hang on them on their fridge.

Looking for something to do today?

Make a family cook book.

Looking for something fun to do today?

Have a family dance. Everyone can bring partners.

Invite friend’s over, make it a potluck dance party!

Did you know that reading good quality children’s literature with your newborn or your infant child every single day builds their emergent literacy skills? Many parents fail to realize the impact that book sharing has on the brain development of their precious baby. But research shows time and again that reading for short bits of time every day with your baby gives them a tremendous developmental advantage!

Of course, this leads us to a very good question. What makes for a good baby book? Well, babies need bright pictures, thick sturdy covers that they can hold or chew, simple geometric shapes, few words and lots of rhymes. When looking at a potential purchase or library checkout for your baby, try to find a book that has many or all of these qualities. A great example that I use with my own baby, Allison, and toddler, Ella, is board book version of The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle. Penguin Books publishes a very sturdy and small version of this book just for babies and young toddlers. They’ll delight when you read to them about the dining adventures of the little caterpillar as he grows and grows. Point to the pictures and talk about the shapes and colors and things you see there, even though you may feel silly doing so with your newborn or older baby. This helps them to develop both their receptive and expressive language and stimulates their love for learning. You are your child’s first and greatest teacher!

Just a few weeks ago we began a new Lunch and Learn training series from the American Library Association called “Every Child Ready To Read.” It equips teachers from the Infants, Toddlers, Twos and multi-age preschool program with resources and ideas for equipping even our youngest infants with the Six Skills to Get Ready To Read.

There are many things you can do as a parent to help equip your child. You are their greatest teacher! Today, I would like to talk about the first of those Six Skills to Get Ready to Read. It’s called Print Motivation. Print Motivation is a child’s interest in and enjoyment of books. This is a gateway skill. Enjoying and valuing reading books opens children up to a more successful acquisition of the other five reading skills.

I believe that no one left to his own nature, is born disliking books and book sharing. They are “taught” to dislike reading and sharing books by poor modeling and negative experiences with books as children. That’s why it is so important to avoid expecting or asking children to “sit still and listen” when sharing a book with them. It’s crucial to make book sharing fun for both parent and child so that your child is more responsive and attentive and develops a lifelong love of reading.

What else can you do to help develop Print Motivation in your child? Read often and make it fun. Make sure that you and your child are in good moods, so the experience is enjoyable. Stop reading when your child becomes tired or loses interest so that reading does not become tedious or punitive for your child. Choose a book you like and read it in an enthusiastic manner!

Our next book will be about the Second Skill to Get Ready to Read: Vocabulary! We’ll have some more good tips for building this with your child.

For more information please visit www.ala.org/everychild

“Adults need to take a more active role in many ways, than in the past, in helping children to learn how to be friends and what you do to be friends, because they’re having less spontaneous opportunities to interact with peers in positive give-and-take ways.”

This is the observation of Nancy Carlsson-Paige and Diane Levin in their chapter, “Children’s Friendships in Contemporary Society,” from the Exchange book, Connecting: Friendship in the Lives of Young Children and Their Teachers.  They continue…

“They’re having more time in front of the screen, families often interact less, say, during dinner.  There’s less neighborhood play where children would spontaneously play with other children outside.  So we’re often left with a situation where children don’t have as many places in which to learn the positive things they should be learning that help them feel powerful and effective and counteract all those negative messages they’re learning about social interactions on television.”

1. The Wake-Up

It is important for a child to have some parent-love in the first conscious moment of his or her day.

2. The Send-Off

Horses, Olympians, and children run a good race when they get off to a good start.  As often as possible, you should be there for breakfast and for your child’s departure to school.

3. The Reception

If you want to get a real reading on how the “game” went, you have to be there when the “player” comes off the field.  Your presence when your child comes in the door says “I love you.” Your responsibility at the reception is mostly to hug, to listen without judgment, to notice your child is home, and to be available.

4. The Debriefing

This may come right after the reception.  Kids need to debrief their day–not to be interrogated but to report, celebrate, evaluate, or explode.  Again, your role is to listen.  Your undivided attention communicates that you care.

5. The Happy Ending

If “all’s well that ends well,” it’s good for a parent to be there at the end of the day.  It’s a time for an “I love you,” an “I’m sorry,” or a “thank you.” It puts a period on the end of the day.

By Ronald Hutchcraft from Five Needs Your Child Must Have Met at Home

• Hold hands during mealtime prayers.
• Walk one-on-one with each child.  Swing hands and talk.  Tell jokes.  Sing.
• Bad day?  Sigh dramatically and say, “I sure could use a great big hug from someone special.”
• Wonderful day?  Shout, “Hey, everybody!  Come hug me!  I had the best day!”
• Make Hug Sandwiches.  With your spouse, gently surprise unsuspecting children–no matter what age!
• Declare a 100 Hugs Day among your family.  Count them as you go.
• Do four-direction kisses: north (foreheads), south (chins), east/west (cheeks).
• Wrap your arms around your children during church and while waiting together or watching TV.
• APply the Pat Principle: “When in doubt, pat.” God made lots of patting places–heads, cheeks, knees, hands, shoulders, backs.

–By Lorri Cardwell-Casey, From HomeLife Magazine

I would like to invite you all to our annual Open House and Kindergarten Roundup.  It will be held on Thursday, January 21.  The entire open house is open to all, so even if you have a two-year old, please feel free to visit in our preschool rooms!  This event is open to the public, so we encourage you to invite your friends and families to come out and have some fun!

For more information please download our flier or even call us at 328-ABCD!
http://www.smallblessingsinc.com/news/openhouse2010.pdf