Archive for December, 2009
Monday, December 21st, 2009
Positive Discipline
The Difference between Discipline and Punishment
Contrary to popular belief, discipline and punishment are not equal. Discipline is positive and should prevent the need for punishment. In fact, the word “discipline” is derived from the Latin “disciplina” which means teaching or education. Discipline helps to guide children toward positive behavior, promotes self-control, encourages children to think before acting and is not damaging to their self-esteem. Punishment, on the other hand, is negative – whether physical, verbal, withholding rewards or penalizing.
Positive discipline teaches children rules and behaviors in a respectful, loving and considerate way. It requires thought, planning and patience from parents and caretakers, such as:
- “No, don’t run inside!” becomes, “What happened to our walking feet? Where do we use our running feet?” or “We will go outside soon and you can show me how fast you can run.”
- “No, don’t throw the blocks!” becomes, “When did our blocks grow wings?” or “Let’s try building a castle and see what happens!”
Use positive discipline to redirect your child’s behavior, and you validate the legitimacy of your child’s desires and shows you care and understand. Redirecting endorses your child’s right to choose and begins to teach that others have rights, too.
Children also respond to reasoning – it just needs to be put into their language.
- ‘Inside feet’ versus ‘outside feet’
- ‘Soft hands’ versus ‘hard hands’
- ‘Inside voices’ versus ‘outside voices’
Create a Positive Environment
- Show the love; smile, touch, hold, caress, kiss, cuddle, rock and hug your child! This will not only make your child feel secure and happy, but is essential for normal social development.
- Listen and answer as an equal – not as an instructor. This will help build your child’s self-esteem and foster respect.
- Spend time with your child every day. Make time every day to drop everything and play with your child – even if it’s only for a couple of minutes. Your child will realize they don’t need to have a temper tantrum to gain your attention.
- Catch your child doing something good – praise and compliment! “You’re doing a great job feeding yourself and keeping your food on your plate!”
- Provide simple rules and state them in positive terms.
- Demonstrate the behavior you want your child to adopt – actions speak louder than words.
To learn more about The Goddard School click here.
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Friday, December 18th, 2009
LET IT SNOW
The Goddard School® Ballantyne, located in Charlotte, NC, recommends trying new activities with your child!
Whether you have several feet of snow or are dreading a flurry, your children are sure to be excited about SNOW! Here are a few ideas to help you see the magic they see in the cold and wet precipitation.
TIPS:
- When using glue with young children: Pour the glue into a shallow container (egg cartons are great for this!) and allow your child to use a paintbrush to apply the glue to a surface.
- Be prepared for messes.
- Cover your work areas with newspaper.
- Use your kitchen or a tiled area to make clean-up less stressful.
- Put your child in a smock or an old t-shirt to avoid costly messes.
- Remember your own childhood and relish the FUN!
Icicle Painting
- Freeze a tray of ice cubes with a popsicle stick in each cube.
- Cover a table with newspaper.
- Use either watercolor paper or wax paper as your surface.
- Let your child rub their icicles across the surface.
- Let your child sprinkle dry paint over their icicle painting.
- Watch your child enjoy the art that appears.
- If you actually have icicles, your children can use them instead of ice cubes. Make sure they wear their mittens for this project.
*Children should have adult supervision throughout this activity.
Snow Art
- Spray shaving cream on a table or placemat.
- Let your child finger-paint with the shaving cream.
- When your child has completed a design, press a piece of dark construction paper over it.
- The result is a snowy scene!
*Children should have adult supervision throughout this activity.
To learn more about The Goddard School click here.
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Monday, December 14th, 2009
Routines and Rituals
by Kyle D. Pruett, M.D
Ah, routines and rituals…such comforts against the one universal truth that life is nothing but change. Our children seem to get this sooner than we parents. When they struggle as infants to get the day and night thing down, they are teaching us how important and soothing the predictable is when tired, hungry, cranky and the like. As toddlers, we watch in amazement as they doggedly line up their shoes, trucks or dolls in the face of a little uncertainty and in search of the reassuring symmetry of order. These are not simple entertainments, but powerful and effective coping strategies that, if we are lucky, they never quite give up. Some of the uses of the psychological calendar of anticipation and predictability:
- By 18 months: Children know the routines of everyday life and are very reassured by them: dressing, mealtimes, play, school, bath time, and finally bedtime with a story and a kiss. These are an antidote to the uncertainties of this period of rapid growth.
- By 24 to 26 months: Children have a reliable sense of the week’s rhythms, and appreciate the difference between a weekday and a weekend.
- By 42 months: Children begin to anticipate the predictable patterns of the year and its changing seasons, family gatherings, holidays, and birthdays.
All the while they are soaking up the beginnings of culture and ethnic diversity in such vital rituals.
Routines and rituals are especially important (and sometimes hardest) to maintain when a child is ill, or the family is going through a stressful time. Routines around food, clothing, bathing, going to school and sleep can be soothing precisely because they don’t vary in the face of change. The ultimate routine or ritual is mealtime. Children learn about what matters in life in a regular, predictable, culture-rich and (one hopes) nutritious environment. Plan it and protect it.
Ultimately, they (and we) give up most of these early comforts, going the way of the blankie and binkie. The next generation of routine and ritual comforts owe their efficacy to these early and more primitive coping strategies. So honor and promote them while you may. They disappear all too soon.
Kyle D. Pruett, M.D. is an advisor for The Goddard School®. Dr. Pruett is an authority on child development who has been practicing child and family psychiatry for over twenty-five years. He is a clinical professor of child psychiatry at Yale University’s Child Study Center.
To learn more about The Goddard School click here.
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Friday, December 11th, 2009
TV Time
by Kyle D. Pruett, M.D
Are you surprised that the American Academy of Pediatrics says no television before age two? This standard alerts parents of infants, toddlers and preschoolers that their children are strongly affected by the talking tube and that they need to consider the way their children are exposed to its powerful influences.
- If you chose to allow your children to view television, consider limiting the amount of “watching time” in their first three years to 30-90 minutes per day. This is more than enough for their young brains and eyes. Children prefer, and benefit from, interacting with people far more.
- The programming you chose should be specifically directed at the age of your child. Most good parenting magazines regularly publish guidelines that tend to be more objective and reliable than an advertiser’s suggestions.
- Commercial-free is far better for eyes, ears, and minds. Fewer interruptions and a generally higher level of intellectual and emotional content are the benefits.
- A child’s room does not need a television. Television may inhibit a child’s desire to read and play imaginatively for years.
- When your children watch television, watch with them. They may need your help to decipher the barrage of messages, and only you know when they have had enough. Occasional babysitting by means of television so you can get something done is understandable, but may be a waste of your child’s time and mind.
These guidelines should be discussed regularly by all adults in your household. The evening news may matter to the grown-ups, but it is frequently incomprehensible and somewhat frightening to your little ones. Media-literate parents are great blessings to their children.
Suggested resource: Coalition for Quality Children’s Media www.cqcm.org
Kyle D. Pruett, M.D. is an advisor for The Goddard School®. Dr. Pruett is an authority on child development who has been practicing child and family psychiatry for over twenty-five years. He is a clinical professor of child psychiatry at Yale University’s Child Study Center.
To learn more about The Goddard School click here.
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Monday, December 7th, 2009
True Toys and Their Positive Effects on Children
True toys have no bells or whistles, they do not do anything and you do not turn them on. Most toys today have taken the fun out of imaginative play. Manipulating toys and giving them life develops reasoning and problem-solving skills as well as creates a base of simple knowledge of how things work.
Infants
Rattles – Fine motor development toy of the century. Grasping, repetitive motion that creates a desired outcome, music, hand-eye coordination and focusing visually on a moving object are all part of infant learning. Have rattles handy in a variety of colors, shapes, sizes and sounds.
One-Year-Olds
Blocks, blocks and more blocks – Spatial relationships, size and shape discrimination leads to early math skills, fine motor control as well as cause and effect. This true toy is fun at any age! A child may spend hours building and knocking down blocks while developing science skills including balance, gravity and concepts of weight.
Two-Year-Olds
Paint and play-dough – It is messy and that is why they like it so much. This tactile experience will open the doors of creativity and thinking. Let them mix the colors, use different tools and add to the experience by playing some music in the background. Finger paint, paintbrushes and textured paint can be mixed with a variety of painting surfaces for further explanation.
Three-Year-Olds
A ball – Look at everything you can do with a ball – kick it, catch it, sit on it, bounce it, dribble it, play alone or with someone. A ball develops gross motor skills, hand-eye coordination and encourages healthy practices. A child needs to learn to handle a ball before they can handle a pencil.
Four- to Five-Year-Olds
Dramatic Play – Dramatic play is more than dress-up. It is a shovel, a whisk, a pad of paper. It is a pile of dirt, an old tire and a cardboard box. The sky is the limit – if your children have seen it, they want to explore it. Cut the cord off an old landline telephone and let them look inside as the telephone repair man. True toys for a four year old are simply real life items. These toys will allow children to try on new personalities and play out roles.
To learn more about The Goddard School click here.
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Tuesday, December 1st, 2009
Soapy Snowball Fun!
The Goddard School® Ballantyne, located in Charlotte, NC, recommends trying new activities with your child!
This is a great way for your child to play in the snow during bath time! It’s simple to make a soapy snowball, just follow the directions below.
Materials:
Bar Soap
Water
Directions:
- Soak the bar of soap in water until you are able to break it into two pieces.
- Mold the soap into two snowballs.
- Dry the snowballs – they will flake giving a more realistic look.
- Use the soapy snowballs during bath time!
*Children should have adult supervision throughout this activity.
To learn more about The Goddard School click here.
Tags: 28277, 5 Star Child Care Centers, 5 star Preschools in Charlotte, 5-star Preschools, Add new tag, Back To School, Biting, Charlotte Preschools, Child Care Ballantyne, Child Care Centers Ballantyne, Child Care Centers Charlotte, Child Care Centers in Ballantyne, Child Care Centers in Charlotte, Child Care Charlotte, Child Development, Child Vacations, Choosing a Preschool, Controlling Worrying in children, Fathering, Fun in the Sun, Goddard School, Goodard School, Learning through Play, Literacy, New Place, New School, The Goddard School, The Goddard School-Ballantyne, The Goddard Schoolol, Thumbsucking, Traveling Children, Worrying in Children
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