Posts Tagged ‘Learning through Play’
Tuesday, January 24th, 2012
Snowball Hunt
The Goddard School® located in Charlotte, NC recommends trying new activities with your child!
Bring the ‘snow’ and fun indoors.
Let your children work on their fine motor skills!
Materials
12 cotton balls per child
1 marker
1 egg carton per child
Instructions
- Label each egg carton cup 1 through 12.
- Hide the cotton balls around the room (12 cotton balls per child).
- Have the children walk around the room, looking for the hidden ‘snowballs’.
- Encourage each child to put the ‘snowballs’ in order when they find them (1 through 12).
Once all the ‘snowballs’ have been found, count them together!
To learn more about The Goddard School, click here.
Tags: 28277, 5 Star Child Care Centers, 5 star Preschools in Charlotte, Charlotte Preschools, Child Care Ballantyne, Choosing a Preschool, Fun activities, Learning through Play, The Goddard School
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Tuesday, November 8th, 2011
by Dr Pruett
In thirty plus years of working with infants, toddlers, preschoolers (and their parents) and with four children and four grandchildren of my own, I’ve seen thousands of pacifiers come and go. It can be hard to keep perspective when it’s your child who is drooling away on his pacifier. So many parents feel guilty about pacifier use as though it reveals them to be insufficient caretakers or giving in to the demands of the child. I confess readily that I, too, have searched in wee hours to find the nearest all-night convenience store, hoping against hope to find the required make/model of the ‘peacekeeper.’
So here’s the deal: pacifiers have their place. Once your infant is gaining weight and nursing reliably, a little non-nutritive sucking can be a good thing if your particular child is interested in it (most are). We’ve raised both kinds of children, so it’s worth waiting to find out if yours is interested, rather than giving a pacifier to a baby who doesn’t want it. It should be a joint decision between baby and parents. However, babies who suck at night seem to have a lower risk of SIDS and tend to sleep more regularly for a bit longer as their sleep habits mature, so it might be worth encouraging, even if your child doesn’t take to it immediately.
Trouble with pacifiers doesn’t usually start until children start to walk. They start dropping the pacifier in the most disgusting places. If they also start to talk soon after, the cork effect seems troubling to parents. One of our early talkers would remove it to fire off a few sentences and then re-plug herself so quickly we had to turn our attention away to keep from laughing.
So when should the child stop? Most pediatricians in the U.S. (standards vary globally) will encourage stopping by age two. I don’t believe that long-term pacifier use slows speech development. However, my dental colleagues have stronger science backing up their concerns that ‘extended pacifier use (heavy use beyond 20-24 months)’ leads to crossbites and open bites. When back teeth close during chewing and front teeth don’t, a child has an ‘open bite,’ which can sometimes self-correct. When the upper palate and arch narrow through extensive pacifier use, self-correction is rare and your dental co-pay will get your attention.
If you’re worried that you’re approaching or in the ‘danger-zone’ of extended use, talk to your pediatrician about strategies for weaning your child from the pacifier – you’ll need the pediatrician to support your own resolve since fatigue so regularly erodes parental judgement. Strategies can range from helpful children’s books on pacifier farewells, outright bribery (goods and services in exchange for pacifier pitching), the invocation of magical forces (pacifier fairies) or promoting the joys of giving pacifiers to babies when you are not one anymore (passing down pacifiers). The earlier you start, the easier the process, but prepare for some tears and stress. As you’ve heard in this blog before, manageable stress ending in mastery is emotional nutrition and feels really good – eventually.
To learn more about the Goddard School, click here.
Tags: 5 Star Child Care Centers, Child Care Centers Ballantyne, Child Care Centers Charlotte, Choosing a Preschool, Learning through Play, Pacifier, Thumbsucking
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Sunday, October 16th, 2011
Part 2 Integrating Emotion & Learning in Everyday Moments
By Dr. Kyle Pruett
Excerpt from Me, Myself and I
Your own ideas about how to integrating emotion and learning in everyday moments with your child are probably better than anything I could advise for you personally. But here are some ideas and suggestions that might help you customize those ideas.
- Young children do not need to be taught how to think. Science is careening ahead pursuing fascinating findings and ideas about how, even whether, children this age actually do think. But our ignorance dominates our knowledge embarrassingly. We are still understanding why they even want to think in the first place. It is like walking or talking, unfolding in due course when the maturational timekeeper tells the mind-body duality, “Johnny: it’s time?”
- The five-second check-in. Since most of us don’t spend our days staring endlessly at our toddlers and preschoolers, it is important that you take a few seconds to assess the mood, or state your child is in before you join in his doings, ask him to do something or simply interrupt him. This is the feeling state that will determine his ability to understand or comply with whatever you might need, no matter how small. If you are not tuned in, he probably won’t hear (i.e. learn).
- Join your child. Follow her lead in activities she is already involved in. Don’t take over – it will turn her off. But if you want her to learn, become a partner in the exploration she has begun. Add a ball to hide in the pots and pans scene, or move close and take her hand if she is wary of a dog on a walk. Don’t instantly rescue (unless safety is an immediate concern) because you will lose one of those interesting moments of tension that could be mastered, leading a child to a wider, more complex understanding of the world.
- If your child balks at a “learning” moment with you, it could mean you didn’t read the five-second check-in right. Back up and let your child know you know what she is feeling first. (“I guess you weren’t quite through,” or “It’s hard to have to stop when you are having fun doing X.”) When the feeling domain feels appreciated, then the learning domain is less burdened.
- If your child needs redirection after you have connected with his mood or feeling, ask softly what he might enjoy doing. If you still have no luck make two suggestions of things he might do and help him choose. He will probably need some pump-priming from you, since you can manage your own mood apart from his. Remember, how you are in such moments, is as important as what you do.
- If it’s important for you to initiate an activity that will bring you pleasure and you know it could be good for your child, like reading or going for a walk, stabilize your own mood first. Only then can you help your child regulate hers. Once done, then she can crawl up on your lap or get out the door and learn. For some kids, it’s the other way around. But for the majority, in the feeling and learning dance, it isn’t always possible to say who is leading.
To learn more about The Goddard School-Ballantyne click here
Tags: 28277, 5 star Preschools in Charlotte, Charlotte Preschools, Child Care Centers in Ballantyne, Child Development, Goddard School, Learning through Play, The Goddard School, The Goddard School-Ballantyne
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Tuesday, October 11th, 2011
Part 1 of 2
By Dr. Kyle Pruett
Excerpt from Me, Myself and I
Your own ideas about how to integrating emotion and learning in everyday moments with your child are probably better than anything I could advise for you personally. But here are some ideas and suggestions that might help you customize those ideas.
- Talk with your child. Hopefully, you have been doing that since the moment she was born. Chat with her about what you and she are doing. She’ll become part of the conversation sooner if you express to her what you love about being a parent.
- Encourage curiosity and understand that repetition is a good thing for him, boring though it might be for you. The neurological basis for the insistence on the familiar lies in the fact that when synaptic connections are repeatedly activated by the same stimulation, they become immune from elimination during the brain’s pruning process. They survive to become permanent neural connections that enhance learning. So go ahead and do what your child likes – over and over. This is a good rut to be in.
- Simply being nearby and available while your child plays on his own is so important, as is your willingness to interact. So get down on the floor and stay awhile. Of course, this is hard for working parents, but the effort is worth it.
- Nothing beats reading. Children don’t learn interactive, conversational language from TV because it does not respond to them. Language and eventually reading are learned from being actively engaged in speaking and reading with others – hearing parents and caregivers talk to each other and waiting for the child to respond.
- Children learn best in the context of their daily lives and when the amount and kind of stimulation fits their temperament, level of development, interests or preferences, and mood. Pressure to perform or conform to high expectations can lead to stress that can sabotage learning through burnout and confusion.
Part 2 of this will post on the blog Thursday 10/13/11
To learn more about GoddardSchools click here
Tags: 5 Star Child Care Centers, 5-star Preschools, Charlotte Preschools, Goddard School, Learning through Play, Preschools in Ballantyne, The Goddard School-Ballantyne
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Tuesday, October 4th, 2011
This is a fun activity that you can do at home with your child!
Materials:
Apples
Paint (Use washable poster paint for paper prints and fabric paints for clothes)
Paper plates
Something to print on
Newspaper to protect table
Art smocks
Knife to cut the apple
*Children should have adult supervision throughout this activity.
How To:
- Cover your working area with newspaper, and make sure everyone is wearing old clothes or a smock!
- Pour paint on to paper plates (one color per plate).
- Cut the apples in half. Create an apple silhouette by cutting the apple from top to bottom, or create a circle with a star by cutting the apple horizontally. Have your child guess what each shape will look like before you cut the apple, or brainstorm different ways to create different shapes with the apple.
- Have your child dip the flat side of the apple in the paint, thoroughly covering the apple, and then place it on the printing surface.
- Have fun creating fun designs and pictures with your homemade stamps!
To learn more about The Goddard School click here
Tags: 5 star Preschools in Charlotte, Charlotte Preschools, Child Care Ballantyne, Child Development, Goddard School, Learning through Play
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Tuesday, September 27th, 2011
Excerpt from Me, Myself and I
By Dr. Kyle Pruett
The best way to know what your child thinks about his world before he can tell you directly in words is through playing with him. It is right there, in their play sequences and manipulations that we see and hear what they understand and think about the world we share.
Remember, however, that this is his play, not yours. You are a partner and a facilitator, occasionally a “go-fer,” but you are not playwright, producer or director.
- When you play make-believe with your child using simple dress-up (hats alone are great), narrate her play: “And now you get on your hat.” Describe what you think she is feeling: “Don’t you feel fancy (snazzy, cool…)?” And listen for when you are not quite on track: “So, then what?” Children often love to have you with them in these imaginary explorations of role and role-play and usually will do their best to keep you from getting lost along the way.
- Use reflecting surfaces (mirrors, windows) as you play peek-a-boo with your child’s image and then yours, or add a little face paint or make-up as he explores what happens to his face as he, or you, add a dot here or a line there. It helps him define who he is by enjoying the reflection of his face and feelings back and forth between you. Doing this together just feels different and better and usually more important.
- Sit together in the dark with a flashlight and give your child a sense that he has some control over what appears, reappears, and disappears into the darkness. Narrate the experience with him, and match his level of emotional interest, as you share the job of turning the flashlight on and off together. Sara, at 22 months, loved this game and called it the “good-bye light game.” She seemed to be sorting out the comings and goings of important things and people as the lights went off and on.
There are countless other ideas available from books and magazines. Borrow, invent, and reinvent games just for the two of you.
For more information on why The Goddard School located in Charlotte is the place for fun and learning, please contact Susan Monbarren at 704-544-1998.
About The Goddard School
The Goddard School (www.goddardschools.com) is a nationwide franchise of Goddard Systems, Inc. headquartered in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania. With over 330 franchised schools nationwide and 42,000 children enrolled, Goddard is the fastest growing preschool in the United States. Goddard was recently recognized by Entrepreneur magazine as the “#1 Childcare Franchise” for the eighth consecutive year (January 2009) and Franchise Times magazine as one of the Top 200 Franchise Systems (in worldwide sales) for the second consecutive year (October 2008).
To learn more about The Goddard School click here.
Tags: 28277, 5 Star Child Care Centers, 5-star Preschools, Charlotte Preschools, Child Care Ballantyne, Child Care Centers in Ballantyne, Child Development, Learning through Play, Literacy, The Goddard School, The Goddard School-Ballantyne, The Goddard Schoolol
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Wednesday, September 14th, 2011
Infant Communication: Talking and Feeling
By Dr. Kyle Pruett
Words do more than communicate thoughts and facts. They allow us to organize and categorize those thoughts and facts – just as numbering systems allow us to do arithmetic after we’ve run out of fingers and toes to count on, or file names let us access previous work on a particular topic.
Children weeks old begin to bubble and coo, then move to squeals and squeaks, then repetitive tongue and lip movements, all in a fairly predictable sequence. As children age, they spend a fair amount of time experimenting and playing with sounds.
They play with giggles, cooing, wailing, grunting, moaning, bubble blowing on their way to their first word, just as they play with their feet or body parts on their way to sitting up, crawling, and walking. The pleasure gained in the mastery of sounds helps drive development forward. Be honest. You know those sounds are fun to make because you mimic them just to see that little face light up.
While infants begin uttering sounds for the sheer delight of doing so, they won’t attach meaning to those sounds until around 12 months. Once this happens, children discover the power of words to cause action – saying “Mama” is likely to bring Mom to the scene. Children also discover that words can call forth mental images of the people or things the words mean – saying or thinking “Mama” will bring up a mental picture of Mom. Such images can be very comforting to a child when Mom isn’t physically present, such as at bedtime. Most parents are familiar with children’s nighttime chants, a mix of words, syllables that call up images of the child’s world that are temporarily out of sight when the lights go out. While the uttered name may not magically or instantly produce Mom, the mental image or picture attached to the name provides important comfort until she actually appears.
Tags: 28277, 5 Star Child Care Centers, 5 star Preschools in Charlotte, Charlotte Preschools, Child Development, Goddard School, Learning through Play, The Goddard School-Ballantyne
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Thursday, September 8th, 2011
Getting Your Child Back into the Routine of Things
The Goddard School® located in Charlotte gives advice and tips to parents on how to prepare their children for the coming school year
Charlotte, NC – Back-to-school season is here and Charlotte-area children are probably getting excited about shopping for new clothes and being able to see their school friends. And, while education is an essential part of growing up, Susan Monbarren of The Goddard School located in Charlotte, says other factors like waking up earlier in the morning, brushing teeth and packing a school lunch are also important, as it helps develop an organized lifestyle and further a child’s growth.
“It is so important for children to get into the routine of going to sleep at a reasonable time, knowing what daily morning chores they need to accomplish each day and other things of the like,” Monbarren said. “In addition, the school year is great because it allows children to be around their peers more often throughout the day, and this promotes social stability. We encourage parents to get the ball rolling and start implementing these routines – even before the school year begins.”
Routine establishes many aspects of healthy living, good habits and good behavior that even the slightest structure can make a huge difference in a child’s day-to-day life, Monbarren said. Monbarren suggests parents, with young children, ask themselves the following questions:
- Do you post a list of nighttime and morning to-dos on your child’s bedroom door or on the kitchen refrigerator as daily guidelines for your children?
- Do you read a bedtime story to your child each night?
- Do you have a designated area in your child’s room or elsewhere in the home for your child to store his or her coat and school book bag?
- Does your child have a bedtime on school nights and on weekends?
- Do you wake up your child in the morning? Or, does your child have an alarm clock in his or her room to wake up on time?
If you have answered “no” to most of these questions, it might be time to implement more routine chores. Monbarren suggests the following ideas that could help parents save time and institute organizational skills for their kids:
- Be sure to discuss the highlights and events that happened at school with your child each day.
- Help your child prepare for school the night before, including assisting your child in selecting clothes to wear for school. After a while, he or she will be able to do this without your assistance.
- Designate a time each night that your child should go to sleep. Children need 9 to 11 hours of sleep each night, depending on their age.
- Choose an area in the home, such as by the front door, to store your child’s school bag and any supplies he or she may need for school (e.g., art projects, thank-you notes/gifts for teachers).
- Have a daily to-do list posted in an area your child will see each day.
“Just like we practice at The Goddard School, regular schedules create a day with structure. The repetition of routines encourages your child’s memory development, and the consistency helps him or her adjust to a regular schedule,” Monbarren said.
The Goddard School located in Charlotte offers a year-round program for children from six weeks to six-years-old. Children are encouraged to develop at their own pace in a warm environment supported by a team of dedicated teachers. The Goddard School FLEX Learning Program™ is based on a unique learning continuum that encompasses developmental guidelines, formative assessments and child-focused lesson plans that are delivered in a creative and fun environment with a child-centered approach to meet each child’s individual needs.
For more information on why The Goddard School located in Charlotte is the place for fun and learning, please contact Susan Monbarren at 704-544-1998.
About The Goddard School
The Goddard School (www.goddardschools.com) is a nationwide franchise of Goddard Systems, Inc. headquartered in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania. With over 330 franchised schools nationwide and 42,000 children enrolled, Goddard is the fastest growing preschool in the United States. Goddard was recently recognized by Entrepreneur magazine as the “#1 Childcare Franchise” for the eighth consecutive year (January 2009) and Franchise Times magazine as one of the Top 200 Franchise Systems (in worldwide sales) for the second consecutive year (October 2008).
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, boredom, Charlotte Preschools, Child Care Ballantyne, Child Care Centers Ballantyne, Child Care Centers Charlotte, Child Care Centers in Ballantyne, Child Development, Choosing a Preschool, Goddard School, Learning through Play, New School, The Goddard School, The Goddard School-Ballantyne, The Goddard Schoolol
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A great way to start the gardening experience is to help children see what happens when a seed is given the proper amount of light and water. Using beans and a few simple supplies, they can watch as the beans sprout roots and grow, grow, grow!
Supplies needed:
Bean seeds (any type will work)
Paper towels
Clear container (jar, cup or plastic bag)
Spray bottle filled with water
Fold a paper towel and place inside the clear container.
- Moisten the paper towel until just damp with water.
- Place a few beans on the paper towel and mist lightly with water.
- Place the container in a sunny location.
- Mist lightly with water each day and watch the roots grow!
As an added activity, have your little one keep a “seed sprout journal” in which they draw pictures of their sprout as it grows. On top of experiencing science and nature, they’ll also enhance their creative and fine motor skills as they draw!
To learn more about The Goddard School, click here.
Tags: 28277, 5 Star Child Care Centers, 5 star Preschools in Charlotte, Add new tag, Back To School, Biting, car, Charlotte Preschools, Child Care Ballantyne, Child Care Centers Ballantyne, Child Care Centers in Ballantyne, Child Care Centers in Charlotte, Child Vacations, Choosing a Preschool, Learning through Play, New Place, Pacifier, Phonics, Role of Fathers, Saving Money, Sleeping, Staying Cool, Summer Games, Sun Protection, The Goddard School-Ballantyne, Traveling Children, Worrying in Children
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Pack a Healthy Lunch…that your child will enjoy!
Introduce your children to healthy eating by involving them in the lunch preparation. Children have a tendency to eat and try new foods that they helped to prepare. And children who help in the kitchen build their confidence which makes them feel important and proud.
Avoid brown bag boredom and try the following healthy, easy and fun options. Bonus – your children will want to eat these choices!
Turn lunch into an adventure:
Cut sandwiches into playful shapes with cookie cutters. Children are more excited about eating a star- or dinosaur-shaped sandwich because it makes the experience fun! Choose cheese or deli meats to replace breads and cut them into fun shapes, too.
Make lunch fun by including a dip:
Yogurt is a great dip for fruit.
Provide hummus for veggies.
Use a variety of ‘sandwich’ options:
Bagels, pita bread, wheat wraps or crackers.
To learn more about The Goddard School, click here.
Tags: 28277, 5 Star Child Care Centers, 5 star Preschools in Charlotte, 5-star Preschools, Back To School, Biting, boredom, Charlotte Preschools, Child Care Ballantyne, Child Care Centers Ballantyne, Child Care Centers Charlotte, Child Care Centers in Ballantyne, Child Care Centers in Charlotte, Child Development, Child Vacations, Choosing a Preschool, Controlling Worrying in children, Fathering, Fun in the Sun, Goddard School, Learning through Play, Literacy, Pacifier, Phonics, Saving Money, Summer Games, Sun Protection, The Goddard School, The Goddard School-Ballantyne, Transitions, Traveling Children, water Play, Worrying in Children
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