Learning Centers

I just got back from a Saturday training on how to create learning centers for preschoolers. Funny, I always complain about having to go to trainings, but they are awesome for getting me refocused and excited about my job all over again. This one was really tailored to classrooms of all 3 and 4 year olds, so obviously there's some adjusting I'll be doing. Still though, lots of cool ideas to take away from it, as well as some interesting research. For example:

• Occupational therapists say that it's better for kids to color with crayons rather than markers because the pressure and friction that's required helps motor skills much more. Markers are too easy and don't demand the shoulder strength. (plus it's a lot easier to color on things you shouldn't...)
  
• When kids choose to spin around in circles, it's incredibly helpful for their brains. Here we thought it was only fun, and like to laugh when they get dizzy and fall down, but it's caused by a need in the two hemispheres of the brain. Crossing the mid-line and spinning is an educational and productive activity.
• Hands-on experience is the number one way kids learn things until age SIX. Forget worksheets and rote memorization- give them concrete objects to connect to and they're going to learn it a lot more completely.
• The lack of child-directed play in today's society has largely contributed to delays in all domains of child development compared to previous generations. Let them explore, talk, work it out with each other, and decide how and what to play, preferably without electronics involved.

Pretty cool, huh?

Poor Kanga is going to have to deal with me wanting to move every item in the playroom four times over the next few weeks while I work through these new ideas to create fun spaces for all the different ages we serve right now. I drive her crazy with that, I know, but new stuff is FUN!

A Full Grown Lady!

I really cannot believe how fast the time has gone. She's not one of the littles anymore at all. Guess we need to get her a collar and a license!

Milestones and Summer Lovin'

Look! We're getting Big!!

Hercules can sit!

Roo can commando crawl!

Tinkerbell and Esmeralda can walk (ish)! :) They're sort of in the drunken sailor stage but they're on their feet a good portion of the time at least. They immediately plop down when I go for the camera though so I don't really have a good picture of either one standing.


Aurora and Bianca are working on table etiquette. I love the stage where they hold the spoon in one hand and shovel the food in with the other hand.


Or, you know, just forgo the utensils altogether, in favor of efficiency.


They are also finally having fun playing together at the same activity, instead of each doing their own thing near each other. I love to back off and watch them to see what they do. Currently they love to steal all my kitchen towels and use them as blankets to wrap the dollies in. They dump all the dolls out and both sit in the bucket and then rock them. :)

The summer's been pretty quiet so far, lots of people on rotating vacations. Numbers are down. We've got a couple spaces to fill. But we should be getting notification that our newest tiny squishy is born soon!! Hopefully this week. Can't wait to meet her- she's starting in October, I think. Depends on when she's actually born.

We're working on letters and numbers pretty hard this summer- lots of alphabet and counting activities. It's been fun and the kids are really starting to show progress. That's always fun. Bianca's counting now and Aurora and Silvermist are singing the alphabet. It's been way too hot and buggy to go outside much, so we've just been hanging out in the house. It's nice.

Respectful Kids

I have tons of stuff I want to post- my camera is being uncooperative and so I haven't been able to put up a Friday Focus or our fingerpainting antics this week. In the meantime, here's some other stuff on my mind. :)

I get the babycenter emails every week on milestones and typical stuff, and I really love this latest one about respect. We work a LOT on respect around here- I think it's one of the most important things you can teach a small child. It doesn't magically appear when they go to school or get a job, and if they aren't modeled it, they aren't going to display it. Manners matter. Respect matters. Do you say please and thank you to your kids? Do they hear you being respectful to friends and family? Even if you think they're too young to understand, they're always listening and some of their first words are going to be things they've heard you say.

Although this email was based on three year olds, I think it works really well for kids even as young as the Pink Ladies (18 months- 2 years).

(ganked shamelessly from babycenter.com....)

What you can do

Demonstrate respectful behavior. "We don't generally give our children the kind of respect that we demand from them," says Jerry Wyckoff, a psychologist and the coauthor of Twenty Teachable Virtues. "We get confused because often, our upbringing makes us equate respect with fear. 'I really respected my father because I knew he'd hit me if ... ' That's not respect — that's fear." Instead, begin by listening. It can be hard to wait patiently for a preschooler to have her say, but it's worth it. Get down on her level, look her in the eye, and let her know you're interested in what she's telling you. It's the best way to teach her to listen to you just as carefully.

Teach polite responses. Your preschooler can show caring and respect for others through good manners. As soon as she can communicate verbally, she can learn to say "please" and "thank you." Explain that you'd rather help her when she's polite to you, and that you don't like it when she orders you around. Again, being respectful yourself works better than lecturing. Say "please" and "thank you" regularly to your preschooler (and others), and she'll learn that these words are part of normal communication, both within your family and in public.

Avoid overreacting. If your preschooler calls you a "stupid-head," try not to get upset (after all, you know you're not a stupid-head). A child who wants to provoke a reaction will endure almost any unpleasantness just to get a rise out of you. Instead, get face to face and say quietly but firmly, "We don't call each other names in our family." Then show her how to get what she wants by being respectful: "When you want me to play with you, just ask me nicely. Say, 'Daddy, I want you to come and have a tea party with me right now.'"

Expect disagreements. Life would be much easier if our kids always happily complied with our requests, but that's not human nature. Try to remember that when your preschooler won't do your bidding, she isn't trying to be disrespectful — she just has a different opinion.

Teach her that she'll fare better if she can learn to stop expressing herself disrespectfully ("You never take me to the park, you bad mommy!") and instead learns to put a positive spin on her requests ("Can we please go to the park after the grocery store?").

Set limits. "One of the best ways to demonstrate respect is to be both kind and firm in your discipline," says Nelsen. "Being kind shows respect for your child, and being firm shows respect for what needs to be done." So if your preschooler throws a fit in the supermarket, and none of your coping tactics work, what do you do? "Kindly but firmly take her out to the car, and sit and read a magazine until she's done," advises Nelsen. Then you can say calmly, "Now you're ready to try again," and return to the store. Gradually she'll learn that a temper tantrum doesn't alter the fact that the food shopping has to get done.

Talk it over later. Sometimes the best way to handle disrespectful behavior is to discuss it with your preschooler later, when you've both had a chance to cool off. You can validate her feelings and make your point by saying, "Honey, I could tell you were very upset. What do you think caused that? What ideas do you have to solve the problem? What would be a more respectful way to tell me how you're feeling?"

"If a child knows you're really curious about her thinking, it's amazing — she'll often come to the same conclusion you would," says Nelsen. "And children can do this from the time they're 4."

Praise respectful behavior. Reinforce your preschooler's impromptu displays of politeness as much as possible. But be specific. "The praise should describe the behavior in detail," Wyckoff emphasizes. "We tend to say, 'good girl,' 'good boy,' 'good job.'" Instead, say, "Thank you for saying please when you asked for a treat," or "Thank you for knocking before you came in." Be explicit, and your child will quickly learn that her efforts are worthwhile and appreciated.

I love the idea of being specific in the praise- it's a pet peeve of mine when I hear people say "be a good boy today..." My philosophy is that the child IS a good boy. Sometimes their behavior stinks real bad and needs serious adjustment, but I try never to tie the essence of good or bad into the behavior. You are NOT a bad boy. You're angry right now and we need to work on your attitude, but I know that you can choose to have good behavior...

Milestones of the First Year

Just as a public service announcement, here are some milestones I have found to be mostly, if not universally true, that you will not find in many parenting books. In fact, there have been times that I've predicted the age of a kid in the grocery store based on what they're doing, and the parents look incredibly relieved when I say I do daycare and this behavior is completely typical. It's frustrating to have this baby/toddler that you think you can predict, or have all figured out, and then all of a sudden they start doing something where you think, I have failed as a parent. WHY are they doing this?

Two/three weeks old: Ginormous growth spurt. They want to eat every 45 minutes or so and take at least half an hour every time so you feel like a milk cow or hooked to a bottle or something every minute of the day. They also tend to randomly projectile vomit every three days or so, for no reason that I've been able to figure out, but especially if you're nursing, it can bring you to tears because they want to eat all the time and it may still be in the stage where it hurts to nurse, and then the ungrateful children have the audacity to throw up everything you worked so hard to give them. I hear many people quit nursing at this stage because they think it will be like this forever. Most of the time it isn't like this forever, but you gotta get through it if you want to keep nursing. No matter what your feeding method is though, if it happens to you, just know it's temporary. :)

Four months old: Your child's salivary glands begin to function. They have been inoperable up to this point and now they kick in. Until the baby learns that they should be swallowing all this extra spit they're making, they drool like nobody's business. They'll be wearing double bibs all the time and still be wet. Almost everybody comes in at this point and tells me that they think the baby has begun teething because of the drool. Some kids do get teeth at this stage, but more often it's just insane amounts of slobber due to them not knowing what to do with it yet.

Five months old: GRUMPY. Holy cow grumpy. Sometimes for the whole month. They're not sleeping as much as they used to when they were tiny, but in most cases they can't sit up unassisted and so they get bored very very easily. They're getting heavier so you don't want to carry them around constantly like you might have when they were a teeny snuggly bundle. They are happy for ninety seconds at a time and then they want a change of scenery. But what do you do with them at this age? They really can't do much on their own and they are angry about it. Usually this will resolve itself, either when they learn to sit up, or when they are strong enough to hang out in an exersaucer or play with toys on the floor, or just something to occupy themselves.

Twelve-fourteen months old: Napoleon complex. Real bad. Once they start walking, they tend to get incredibly aggressive just for a month or so. They're the smallest ones in the playroom, but by golly they can WALK! They can reach the shoulders and faces of those big kids they hadn't been able to catch before! They can HIT those kids and then RUN AWAY! This is the best thing ever! I cannot count the number of times I've had a three or four year old come to me sobbing because a baby hit them. They are hugely perplexed by this. The big kids have learned by now to be nice, to use their words for the most part, and to not hit people- especially a baby who's so much smaller. They have no idea what to do with it and it breaks their hearts every time. "Baby Simba/ Aurora /Bianca/whoever... HIT ME!!!" yeah. Not so much a baby anymore, huh? :)

More to follow.....