Kids in America Today!

Many children today lack the proper health, hygiene and nutrition needed to support learning and growth in the world.  Americans are more than willing to send aid to third world countries suffering famine, decay and disease in hopes of making the world a better place for all.  What startles me is Americans often neglect to look in their own backyards putting blinders on when it comes to those who live in similar conditions.  There are many that send support to poor communities and donations to non-profits since this has been their habit for years but they neglect to see what is happening to their neighbors or those in the middle class who are suffering due to the economy and often lack the knowledge to  get any benefits from organizations or the government because they have never had to depend on such help.  Much less, are they eager to admit they need such assistance after losing a job or having  pay checks cut in half putting their families in dire need for help resulting in a stressful environment for all.  

Parents often put on an act around their children to protect them from the negative elements in life.  It happens on a daily basis due to the economic collapse in this country and now the devastation that has resulted from mother nature in the Northeast.  Although parents try to conceal their emotions and needs to protect their children, they often do not realize that children can tell when something is not going as planned or things have changed.  They are very perceptive to the slight little changes in their parent's mood, habit.... 
They often ask, what's wrong?  getting answers like "nothing for you to worry about"  But you need to realize that children do worry about things and it drastically affects their personal pride, confidence and ability to learn.  Sometimes it's the little things that cause them to distress and parents often do not notice.

We all want to protect the children, especially our own.  We need to take the time to look around us and see if we can help our neighbor or the person who lives close.  Things are not always as they seem on the outside.  Look at the children.  Are they well nourished?  Are they healthy?  Does it appear they are getting regular dental and medical care?  Are their close clean?  Are they clean?  Children need to be taken care of in America and to do so, we need to start taking car of our own before we send millions to other countries.

All children deserve to be well-nourished; engaged in meaningful age appropriate activities; insured adequately to receive proper dental, vision and medical care at all times; educated to succeed in this world; and kept safe at all times.  America needs to take action and take care of it's own!

A Child's Curiosity~ Inquisitive Learning

Experts study curriculum, learning styles, teaching strategies and development, but how many of them actually go to the source to determine what they know; what they want to learn; how they learn. . ?  How can we know what to teach a child or how to teach a child, if we do not first understand the child?  It is important that parents and teachers understand how to capture a child’s interest and build on their existing knowledge of things in the world.  Children are curious by nature.  They want to know why, what, where, when and how about everything around them but how can we tap into all those individual interests to enrich this natural curiosity?  One way is to let the child pose the questions on a specific topic that interest them or observe the manner in which they study, experiment or explore with objects.  Take the child’s interests from discussions, questions, and observations and build activities around the child’s natural inquisitions.  Use their natural curiosity to develop activities that will allow them to enrich, explore and learn about the things building upon the knowledge they already possess.  Sometimes taking the opportunity to discuss a topic that a child brings up will spark extra interest.  It “Wow’s them”!  They become more absorbed in the learning process because they have ownership in the discussion.  Be prepared to adapt activities to children’s individual interests and expand learning activities at home as well as in the classroom naturally encouraging a child to not only learn new concepts, vocabulary and skills but to apply them in play.  When you take the child’s interests and build on them, you’ll find they are more engaged in meaningful learning activities with fewer discipline problems because they are truly interested in what they are learning.  It is also important to remember to change out materials, toys and equipment supporting the concept allowing a child to have a seamless learning experience in which they play an integral role in the learning process.  This basic idea of learning using the inquisitive nature of a child as a guide can be apply to all developmental levels and topics.  It will keep children engaged while allowing a natural development of critical thinking, decision making, and problem solving skills with a natural growth in all developmental domains.

 Here are some simple steps that you can apply to most any concept~

1.       Bring in an object (preferably the real thing not a replica if at all possible)

2.       Have the children examine it and talk about it. At this time, listen to what they say and build on it; create activities, lessons, projects or trips around their discussion or questions.  Be aware that children may take the discussion in a completely different direction than you may have thought.

3.       Expand on their discussions introducing new vocabulary and adding interest activities based on your observations and the discussion.  Be prepared to answer questions. 

4.       Allow the children to apply their new knowledge and curiosity through activities that will enrich the concept, encourage exploration on the concept and help them learn by expanding the topic through activities in all developmental domains (emergent literacy, math, art, science, dramatic play, etc.).  Take pictures along the way documenting their journey

5.       Review and reflect at the end of unit or journey.  Share picture; create a class book; review vocabulary on word walls; etc.  It’s important to summarize learning and make sure the child completed their journey fulfilling their curiosity for the concept at this time.  Class or individual books documenting the learning journey are great for children because they will go back and review them over and over again especially if there are photos of them or they created pictures in the book

I am interested to see if you liked this method of learning.  I find it intriguing and I know children will blossom when they learn in this way.  Please send me your comments.

Language and Communication

SOUNDS  ➜  WORDS  ➜  WORD STRANDS   ➜  SHORT SENTENCES   ➜  LONGER SENTENCES  ➜  CONVERSATIONS

Talk to your child from the womb on using a normal voice that is calm and comforting.  You want your child to learn to speak properly so talk to them properly.  Use complete sentences, pronunciation . . . .  Do not talk to them like a baby.  Oh it’s cute!  But do you want your child to grow up talking that way?  I didn’t think so.  We all want children to learn how to communicate with others; have conversations with others; be active listeners; understand and process the words they speak and hear.  Here are a few more suggestions to help your child develop language and communication skills which influence their ability to become literate as they grow:

• Use voice inflections and tone to show excitement . . . conveying meaning in speech and help your child to develop the ability to do so.  Nothings worse than to have to listen to a monotone person who has no inflections at all.  I don’t know about you but that puts me to sleep ~  Zzzzzzz
• Sit and chat with children ~ helps build stronger communication skills.  When you actively involve yourself in a conversation with a child, hopefully you are modeling good conversations skills.  Try to avoid saying Aha, Aha . . .  or nodding your head.  Use words just like you want children to do.   We want all children to learn to use their words to express themselves.  Children who have speech impairments or difficulties will find other ways to communicate and in most cases we do not consider them appropriate (touching, hitting, biting, throwing, grabbing, pinching, etc.)  We also want children to use words not tears or whining.  It’s important for you to remind your child often when they are young to use their words because you are unable to understand crying, whining, etc. 
• Talk to your child on the phone and let them say hello and share with relatives.  Don’t take the phone away until they are done talking and have said good-bye.  You and everyone else have to grow patients.  Children are often in no hurry, we are!
• Let your child say the blessing on their own or with you.  Let them create their own from time to time.  It doesn’t have to be perfect but it will be their thoughts put together.  Very important for cognitive development and critical thinking.
• Let children read you a story as soon as they are able providing correction or help only if they ask for it.  If they are struggling with a word, let them try to figure it out.  Too often as adults we lack this patience and blurt out the word before the child is ready and then they lose confidence, become frustrated and want to quit.  You want them to feel successful because the more anyone feels success the more they want to try.
• Have children dictate to you using their words to communicate in writing. If they receive a present from someone, have them tell you what to write in a thank you note.  Read their dictations back to assure you recorded them correctly. Do not chance their dictations ~ make it authentic. This encourages a child to want to write.
• When children get in a tryst or argument.  Do not immediately try to solve it for them.  Let them think it through and attempt to solve it on their own using their own words.  Never intervene unless the child has been injured or has harmed another or could in some way.  Only intervene if harm is or could be caused.  Otherwise let children solve it on their own.  If they come to you for help.  Tell them it is their disagreement not yours and they need to solve it.  If they say they do not know how, you may give them some advice but again do not intervene.  If the situation involves harm, you need to speak to both children separately to begin with.  First talk to the victim to make sure they are okay and ask them what happened.  Asked them if they could have done something differently to make it better.  Then talk to the other child and ask them what happened.  Then get both children together.  Tell them what you feel should of happened.  What rule was broken and/or what you did not like about the situation.  Then you need to ask the first child to tell the second how they feel.  And then have the second make the first feel better.  Please note you did not yell; you did not put words in anyone’s mouth; you did not tell anyone to say “I’m sorry.  Keep in mind the second child can say I’m sorry but it will be more meaningful if no one ever tells them to do so.  This way each child learns to use their own critical thinking skills and will grow both emotionally and socially. 

Preschool Tips~ for ALL!!!

For the next month I will be sharing simple parenting and classroom tips that will make your life a bit simpler if you try them.  Just remember to be consistent and stick with the ones you try.  Do not try all of them at once, it may be overwhelming for you but you can add new ones from time to time.  I will include 5-10 tips a day that follow the same area of learning for your child.  The first group deals with guidance and discipline~

• Use postive speech~ tell your child what you want them to do not what you don't want or like
• Use positive speech in setting rules at home and in the classroom.  Have children help create the rules.  It has more meaning to them and helps with self-esteem.  Review the rules daily until they can recite them back to you without your help.  You may want to revisit rules from time to time with your child to see if they should be changed or adjusted.  You can also discuss consequences at this time.
• Give positive reinforcement and incentives for good behavior
• Recognize good behavior always~ignore bad whenever possible (not causing a disturbance or putting self or others in harms way).  Typically the inappropriate behavior will stop because they are not getting any recognition or attention which is typically the purpose of behaving in any manner especially as a young child.
• Remain calm at all times.
• model ecpected behavior
• BE CONSISTENT and follow through!

Stages of Development with Pics

 What was that?  Look at the curiosity and she wants to get into everything.  Just wait until she can walk.  She's ready to go . . . Allow children the space and freedom to use their senses to explore their world giving them opportunities to plant the initial seeds and brain wiring for all future learning during these formative years.  Enjoy and have fun with them at this age!  Watch their little minds absorb everything around them. (Infants)

What you want to know what I may be thinking?  Well let's see, I am wondering what you are doing, if I am interested in what you're doing, or whether I want to do something else.  Sometimes adults are just boring and I need to go off and explore on my own but I want to know that you are around to give me positive reinforcement and assurance for security.  I need to know I can trust you and want to know that you are close but I want to do things all by myself.  Sometimes my big sisters don't understand that and they want to invade my space.  I wish they would just leave me alone so I can pick my own blueberries, dress my own dolls, draw my own pictures . . .  I want to do it all by myself!   And you are aware that at this age the world is mine, you are mine, everything is mine and I am not really interested in sharing what is mine.  But that is normal for me, I am a toddler after all!

 Oh yes!  I am a princess and I do like to be in charge of the entire world if you let me.  I like to dance and keep busy at all times.  The world is never dull when I am around.  I like to talk about everything and everything.  Yes, I expect you to be listening and to follow my directions.  I want to be the boss and I like to show everyone what I can do.  Did you know I can do cartwheels?  Hop on one foot?  and much, much more?  I am extremely busy and if you follow me all day long, I promise you will be tired at the end of the day or if not sooner- that is if you can keep up.  Ha !Ha!  See if you can . . . (Preschool)

I like to put things together and build things.  I already know my colors and shapes.  I can play cooperatively with others and I do not always have to be in charge but I still like to be the boss when I can.  I don't like to clean up but I will if you give me the appropriate guidance and show me how you want me to do it.  I am learning how to write letters and draw shapes.  I know many letters of the alphabet and some of their sounds.  I am learning directionality (ldft to right, top to bottom) which is important as I am an emergent reader in pre-k.  I like to follow schedules and routines.  When things are different, I can easily become confused and sometimes irritable but I do adjust.  It's just difficult when I am expecting one thing and it doesn't happen.  Do not make promises to me unless you can follow through and never, never lie to me or I will begin to not trust you.  Use kind words and positive speech and I will understand.  I like to be rewarded and receive positive reinforcement for my accomplishments.  I am willing to learn and like to do things independently, so please do not do things for me.  Let me do them myself!  I am very opinionated at this age and yes I like to talk a lot. (Pre-K)