Posts Tagged ‘Traveling Children’
Wednesday, January 12th, 2011
by Dr. Kyle Pruett
When setting limits, there are two key points to remember:
- The fewer words the better.
- Actions speak louder than words.
Fewer Words
My own decades of experience in clinical practice shows me that when parents use discipline phrases of more than 20 words, their children do not respond most of the time. If the emotional tone of that discipline is negative and nagging, children are particularly deaf. This is so hard for many parents because we feel we are so right (actually righteous), compared to our children. We want to believe that the more we correct them, the better they will behave. The data shows exactly the opposite.
Effective Actions
Few words only work in the self-control area if you back it up with action. Otherwise, internal shame will turn into the humiliation of being useless. When your child bites someone during a visit, take her home after a simple reprimand, and don’t endlessly berate her in her car seat. The action of losing her playtime speaks louder that anything you might say. Handing a spoon to a child who is mashing food into her mouth at dinner beats a lecture on manners.
Your love and opinion of your children matters deeply to them, especially when they are struggling to develop more self-control. Showing your children that their behavior affects the way you feel, helps children understand that you have feelings, too. Empathy and compassion begin to grow. When children see that their evolving self-control can make their parent feel good, the affirmation adds social and cognitive accomplishment to the achievement of controlling one’s behavior.
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, Child Care Centers in Ballantyne, Child Care Centers in Charlotte, Choosing a Preschool, Controlling Worrying in children, Goddard School, Literacy, New Place, New School, Preventing Biting, Role of Fathers, Sleeping, Summer Games, The Goddard School, Thumbsucking, Traveling Children, water Play, Worrying in Children
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Friday, January 7th, 2011
Pets enrich the lives of many children and families. While children raised with pets show many benefits, safety concerns should always be a determining factor when deciding to get or keep a pet in a family with young children.
Choose wisely from breeds or species that are a good fit for your family, your home and your lifestyle. Behavior, temperament, excitability, patience and size are important characteristics to consider in a child-friendly pet that your little one can help care for. Pets should be free of disease and regularly checked by a veterinarian. Family allergies should also be taken into account. Young children should always be supervised during their interactions with pets. Animals can be easily harmed or provoked to attack if hit, poked or grabbed by young children. Children must be taught to play gently with pets and to keep their distance when an animal is eating, sleeping or caring for their young.
Involved parents, planning and open discussion are necessary in order for a family pet to be a positive experience. Young children can help with pet care, but can’t be completely responsible. They may only be able to help you with a few small tasks when feeding, cleaning or grooming your pet. For example, your child can join you when walking the dog, but certainly shouldn’t walk the dog alone. Allow your child to help care for the family pet in small, safe ways and always under adult supervision.
There are many benefits to children raised with pets. Positive relationships with pets can encourage children to love and trust others. Bonding with a pet can also help young children develop non-verbal communication, compassion and empathy. Caring for pets teaches children responsibility and respect. Both children and animals need exercise and pets are great playmates and a fun way to add physical activity into a child’s day. A pet’s life span can also provide parents the opportunity to teach life lessons about reproduction, birth, illness, loss and death.
To learn more about The Goddard School, click here.
Tags: 28277, 5 Star Child Care Centers, 5 star Preschools in Charlotte, Back To School, Biting, Charlotte Preschools, Child Care Ballantyne, Child Care Centers Ballantyne, Child Care Centers Charlotte, Child Care Centers in Charlotte, Child Vacations, Choosing a Preschool, Controlling Worrying in children, Fathering, Fun in the Sun, Learning through Play, Pacifier, Phonics, Preventing Biting, Role of Fathers, Saving Money, Summer Games, The Goddard School-Ballantyne, Thumbsucking, Traveling Children, water Play, Worrying in Children
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Monday, December 20th, 2010
Though we’ve heard that breakfast is the most important meal of the day—especially for children—it is often a casualty of morning mayhem. Start your child’s day off with a nutritious and energy-boosting breakfast. Children (grown-ups too!) who consistently eat balanced breakfasts have more energy, better diets, perform better and are less likely to be anxious or irritable. We’re busy with our daily routines and sometimes it seems difficult to find healthy foods that children enjoy. Serving up a balanced breakfast is actually easier than it seems!
Trying these nutritious breakfast tips and easy ideas can help make mornings cheerier, keep tummies fuller and help provide lots of energy.
- Cutting foods into fun shapes with seasonal, animal or other cookie cutters is a quick way to turn a boring breakfast into a tummy pleaser.
- Turn an ordinary bowl of whole grain cereal with milk into something more exciting by topping with sliced star fruit, pomegranate seeds or other unexpected bright fruit.
- Scramble egg whites with low-fat cheese and diced, colorful veggies. Add tomatoes for eyes, a baby carrot for a nose, a slice of turkey bacon for the mouth—even broccoli for hair!
- Whip up a mixed fruit smoothie using crushed ice, yogurt, fresh or canned fruit and add brightly colored frozen juice concentrate. Garnish with an orange wedge. This can be made the night before to save time in the morning.
- Toast a whole grain toaster waffle, top with low-fat berry cream cheese. Create a flower or other fun design on top using sliced strawberries and peaches.
- Spread peanut butter in a whole wheat tortilla. Add raisins and banana slices, roll up tightly and slice to create yummy pinwheels.
- Serve up a ‘breakfast sundae’ by layering low-fat yogurt with fresh fruit and crunchy granola cereal in a fun, see-through container. Top with a cherry or grape and use colored cereal bits for “sprinkles.”
Create a ‘breakfast pizza’ using a whole wheat English muffin. Spread the English muffin with low-fat flavored cream cheese and top with diced fruits or veggies.
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, Charlotte Preschools, Child Care Ballantyne, Child Care Centers Ballantyne, Child Care Centers Charlotte, Controlling Worrying in children, Learning through Play, New School, Preventing Biting, Saving Money, Sleeping, Sun Protection, The Goddard School, Thumbsucking, Transitions, Traveling Children, Worrying in Children
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Wednesday, October 6th, 2010
The Goddard School® located in Charlotte, North Carolina recommends trying new activities with your child!
Materials:
Contact paper (clear)
Colored tissue paper
Permanent marker
Double-sided tape
Scissors
Ruler
*Children should have adult supervision throughout this activity.
How To:
- Cut two pieces of contact paper into 5” X 5” squares.
- Place double-sided tape on the dull side of one square and secure the square to a table or flat surface.
- Peel off the contact paper backing so the sticky side faces up.
- Cut or tear small pieces of different colored tissue paper and place them on the sticky side of the contact paper square until completely covered.
- Place the second square on top of the first square (sticky side down) so the tissue paper is sealed between the two contact paper squares.
- Trace a leaf shape onto the contact paper squares.
- Cut out the shape to make a colorful fall leaf.
- Use tape to adhere the leaf to a window where the sun will shine through it!
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, Child Care Centers Ballantyne, Child Care Centers Charlotte, Child Care Centers in Ballantyne, Goddard School, Literacy, Pacifier, Saving Money, The Goddard School, Thumbsucking, Traveling Children
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Wednesday, September 29th, 2010
To a preschooler, a “friend” is anyone who is willing to play the way they want to play during any given period of time. Friends are just as likely to be boys as girls and may change frequently. Playing with friends is an important way for children to learn social skills including sharing and taking turns so providing your child the opportunity to make friends is helpful, worthwhile and fun!
Dale Walker, a professor of child development at the University of Kansas, offers these guidelines to promote productive and enjoyable playdates.
- Limit the initial invitation to one or two friends at your home.
- Schedule the playdate for one to two hours to avoid overstimulating the children.
- Plan games and activities your child enjoys and provide enough materials so the children don’t have to share immediately.
- Guide the children as they make a craft, play a game or splash in a wading pool rather than letting them manage themselves.
- Schedule playdates with the same children on a weekly basis.
- Periodically play one-on-one with your child to develop familiarity with their playing style and stimulate their social interaction.
- If your child is struggling socially with their peers consider adopting a pet, which is usually nonthreatening.
- Reading books and watching shows about friendship also reinforces the positive aspects of socialization.
- Model friendship by inviting friends to meet, especially when your friends have children compatible with your own.
- Limit your expectations and pressure to prevent your child developing insecurity about developing friends.
To learn more about The Goddard School, click here.
Tags: 5 Star Child Care Centers, 5 star Preschools in Charlotte, Back To School, Biting, boredom, car, Charlotte Preschools, Child Care Ballantyne, Child Care Centers Charlotte, Child Care Centers in Charlotte, Child Care Charlotte, Fun in the Sun, Goddard School, Pacifier, Phonics, Reading, The Goddard School, Traveling Children
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Friday, September 17th, 2010
The Goddard School® located in Charlotte, North Carolina recommends trying new activities with your child!
Materials:
Contact paper (clear)
Colored tissue paper
Permanent marker
Double-sided tape
Scissors
Ruler
*Children should have adult supervision throughout this activity.
How To:
- Cut two pieces of contact paper into 5” X 5” squares.
- Place double-sided tape on the dull side of one square and secure the square to a table or flat surface.
- Peel off the contact paper backing so the sticky side faces up.
- Cut or tear small pieces of different colored tissue paper and place them on the sticky side of the contact paper square until completely covered.
- Place the second square on top of the first square (sticky side down) so the tissue paper is sealed between the two contact paper squares.
- Trace a leaf shape onto the contact paper squares.
- Cut out the shape to make a colorful fall leaf.
- Use tape to adhere the leaf to a window where the sun will shine through it!
To learn more about The Goddard School, click here.
Tags: 5 Star Child Care Centers, 5 star Preschools in Charlotte, 5-star Preschools, Back To School, Biting, Charlotte Preschools, Child Care Ballantyne, Child Care Centers Charlotte, Child Development, Fun in the Sun, New School, Pacifier, Preventing Biting, Saving Money, The Goddard School, The Goddard School-Ballantyne, Traveling Children
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Monday, September 13th, 2010
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.
Tags: 28277, 5 Star Child Care Centers, 5 star Preschools in Charlotte, Add new tag, Back To School, Biting, Charlotte Preschools, Child Care Ballantyne, Child Care Centers Ballantyne, Child Care Centers Charlotte, Child Development, Child Vacations, Controlling Worrying in children, Learning through Play, Literacy, Pacifier, Preventing Biting, Saving Money, Staying Cool, The Goddard School, The Goddard Schoolol, Traveling Children, Worrying in Children
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Friday, August 20th, 2010
by Kyle D. Pruett, M.D.
Children’s sleep issues are among the more challenging developmental stages for parents to master. But biology is on the parents’ side in this one, because sleep patterns mature over time just like other developmental skills.
Polls tell us that one-third of American children and their parents sleep together some or most of the time before children start school. Co-sleeping varies hugely by culture and ethnicity. So think about what you want to do, and discuss the pros and cons with your pediatrician.
- Make sure your crib is safe (locking rails), that your older child’s ‘big bed’ has side rails, and if you are co-sleeping, that there is plenty of room.
- The human brain is active during sleep, but the deepest sleep is typically at the beginning of the night. Babies spend more time than older children in stimulating REM sleep, with eye movements and irregular breathing. Don’t worry about all that action in your child’s body – it too is growth.
- Start them young – do not ignore the importance of naps, watch for the yawn, and start bedtime early in the evening.
- The transition from crib to bed is also a time of sleep pattern changes, but most kids want it to work.
- To instill good sleep habits remember that consistency matters so much:
- Bath Time
- Goodnights
- Tuck and Talk Bedtime Story
- Lullabye (yours are best)
- Goodnights
This all sounds well and good, but it is a rare family that hasn’t had to handle some sleep trouble along the way. If your family is trying to re-establish a lapsed routine, stay calm and reassuring. We almost all need more sleep than we get, and it is a tremendous gift to our children to teach them how to sleep well.
Suggested Resource: American Academy of Pediatrics http://www.aap.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.
Tags: 28277, 5 Star Child Care Centers, 5 star Preschools in Charlotte, Back To School, Biting, boredom, Charlotte Preschools, Child Care Charlotte, Controlling Worrying in children, Fun in the Sun, Literacy, New School, Pacifier, Phonics, Role of Fathers, Sleeping, Staying Cool, Sun Protection, The Goddard School, Thumbsucking, Traveling Children
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Managing Parental Emotions of Childcare
by Dr. Kyle Pruett
Don’t pretend you’re fine when you’re not.
It’s much better to acknowledge your feelings. It’s normal to feel grief at this change. You will come through sooner and better if you face your feelings head on.
Don’t believe you are a bad parent for choosing childcare.
If you have chosen a good center or caregiver, you can be confident that your child is in good hands, so there is no logical reason to feel guilty. But if you continue to feel guilty, it’s important to come to grips with these feelings. Be especially alert if you are tempted to change your parenting style. For example, some parents start easing up on setting limits to compensate for their guilt. Such behavior leads nowhere you or your child want to go.
Don’t become critical of your child’s caregiver.
It’s important to have a good relationship with caregivers. Their observations and advice can be extremely helpful to your parenting. If you find you feel critical even though the caregiver’s work doesn’t merit such an attitude, recognize that your feelings are a part of the separation process. Then begin to focus on the caregiver’s talents and good qualities. Rest assured that no caregiver will take your place in your child’s life or heart. The new attachments to other warm and loving caregivers are beneficial. They also are good signs of your child’s emotional maturity and your achievement in nurturing that maturity.
Don’t underestimate the importance of the transition to childcare.
If you pretend the new routine doesn’t matter, you may underestimate the good things that can come from this new experience for your child and you – new friends, new learning, new sources of information and new ideas on parenting.
To learn more about The Goddard School please click here.
Tags: 28277, 5 Star Child Care Centers, 5 star Preschools in Charlotte, 5-star Preschools, Add new tag, 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 Care Charlotte, Goddard School, Learning through Play, Literacy, The Goddard School, The Goddard School-Ballantyne, The Goddard Schoolol, Traveling Children, Worrying in Children
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As a (former) pediatrician and child psychiatrist for three decades, I increasingly respect the significance of children’s fears in shaping our shared everyday lives. Inconvenient though fears of the dark, animals, water, and monsters may be, they are meaningful clues about what children are trying to master about their world.
Worries all mean something, and we let our children down when we ignore and belittle, not to mention waste opportunities to master, so let’s spend a minute to understand them better:
- Fears appear like clockwork in childhood. The adrenalin fears stimulate heightens learning of vital lessons, like when to run in the face of real danger, when to cry for help, and eventually to distinguish what is really dangerous (speeding cars) from what is not (family dog).
- Fears only seem to emerge ‘from nowhere.’ Actually, they typically surface during periods of accelerated development – when children lose their old equilibrium while looking for a new one. Actively toilet- learning toddlers are often more afraid of the dark than before or after they get the potty thing solved.
- Stranger anxiety begins when children start to crawl around and need to be more aware of who knows them and who doesn’t.
- Other common fears which emerge and fade with predictability during preschool years may be insects, animals, loud noises, the dark (and its imagined inhabitants – monsters, witches, ghosts), high places, and parental loss to name a few.
Listen thoughtfully to your children as they describe their fear. Their fears have their reasons, though they may not be instantly clear to you. Reassure your children that you’ll help them feel better- get your flashlight out and check under their bed. Cuddle them a little extra during such times, and let them slip back toward babyhood a little. Finally, when children work it out, remind them that they worked it out. This will help them as new fears emerge.
by Kyle D. Pruett, M.D
Suggested resource: American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry website www.aacap.org
To learn more about The Goddard School, click here.
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.
Tags: 5 Star Child Care Centers, 5 star Preschools in Charlotte, 5-star Preschools, Back To School, 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, Choosing a Preschool, Controlling Worrying in children, Fathering, Goddard, Goddard School, Learning through Play, Literacy, New School, Phonics, Preventing Biting, Role of Fathers, Saving Money, Staying Cool, Summer Games, The Goddard School, The Goddard School-Ballantyne, The Goddard Schoolol, Thumbsucking, Traveling Children, Worrying in Children
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