Busting the Binky Habit

October 17th, 2011 by Sue Adair

You may cringe when you think about ending your child’s “binky” or pacifier-sucking habit. According to the American Dental Association (ADA), “sucking is one of an infant’s natural reflexes. They begin to suck on their thumbs or other fingers while they are in the womb… Placing a thumb or another finger [or an object] in the mouth provides some children with a sense of security during difficult periods, such as when they are separated from their parents, surrounded by strangers or in an unfamiliar environment.”

However, as the ADA and most pediatricians in the U.S. will also point out, a prolonged sucking habit may cause problems with healthy growth of the mouth and roof of the mouth, as well as alignment of teeth. For these reasons, as well as the obvious social ones as your child gets older, it’s best to try to break the habit as early as possible. Most pediatricians will encourage stopping by age two, and many children will break the habit on their own between the ages of two and four.

To discourage your child’s habit, consider the following tips:

  • Start by letting your child know that a binky is only to be used at bedtime and naptime. Give your child the responsibility of making sure that the binky is stored on her pillow or nightstand each time she wakes up.
  • Peer pressure may encourage preschool-age children to break the habit at naptime while at school. Use this opportunity to encourage the elimination of a binky during naptime on weekends.
  • Don’t put too much pressure on your child to pass up the binky. This may cause anxiety and can actually make it more difficult for your child to kick the habit. But, DO encourage every positive step in the process.
  • Consider that sucking may occur when your child is feeling insecure. Comfort your child, address the stressor and try to resolve or redirect. Reward her when she avoids sucking during stressful situations.
  • Ask your child’s dentist to talk with her while at six-month checkups. Believe it or not, for older toddlers and preschoolers, sometimes this is all it takes!
  • When all else fails, you may want to consider the “Binky-Fairy”! Cuddle up with your child during a comfy, quiet, low-key time and break out your most creative skills to tell your child a story of the Binky-, Button- or Pacie-Fairy who collects pacifiers from children who are ready to be “big-girls” and “big-boys.” Let your child know that when she is ready, she can pack up her pacifiers to trade to the Fairy for a very special reward. Mention the Fairy on a regular basis—keep it fun, positive and low-pressure—and most importantly, let the decision about when she is ready be hers to make. You may be surprised how quickly your child is ready to make the trade!

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Common Preschool Halloween Mistakes

October 13th, 2011 by Dr. Kyle Pruett

As a child psychiatrist, school consultant, father and grandfather, I’ve seen a lot of All Hallows’ Eve’s involving preschool children – more unsuccessful than not. I’ve come to the conclusion that successful Halloween experiences contain the same traits: the children are old enough, the celebration is short, too much candy is avoided and it isn’t scary.

Parents intend to delight – and delight in – their preschool child’s playful participation in this fall ritual. But less is more when it comes to keeping a preschooler comfortable and entertained. Here are some guidelines:

Age

Halloween is really meant for school-age kids and adults who have no trouble telling fantasy from reality and whom are way past being afraid of the dark and of scary masks. The preschooler is less likely to laugh and more likely to anxiously ask the mask-wearer a question – cute, but neither funny nor entertaining.

Length

Tying Halloween into dinner plans often stretches the evening out beyond your preschooler’s stamina, making all the other strange stuff inherent to the event harder to manage and understand. Plan to stick to your routine, and celebrate well before bedtime so your preschooler has a chance to settle down.

Sweets

Candy is the antithesis of your normal bedtime snack, giving your child a sugar rush. So, keep them away from the candy bowl. You may want to reconsider having them stay home to ‘help hand out the treats,’ tempting though it may be to have them ‘safe’ with you at your own front door.

Scariness

Because the preschool mind is just mastering the difference between reality and fantasy, things that slip back and forth over the edge of that distinction – like Halloween itself – aren’t very comfortable training grounds for this kind of learning. Older children can see the joy in being scared because they understand the difference. A preschooler is not quite ready for this kind of ‘fun.’

For your young ones, then, I suggest you make it a dress-up party without the gore, leave the trick or treating to the grade school professionals, check your favorite parents magazine/Web site for some simple games to play with peers and get them to bed at a reasonable time. Giving them and yourself a few more years to get ready for the delightful weirdness will be deeply appreciated by them and you.

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Posted in Dr. Kyle Pruett, Events, Preschool, Safety | 1 Comment »

What Am I Learning Today? The Goddard School Daily Activity Report

October 10th, 2011 by Sue Adair

At The Goddard School, parents receive Daily Activity Reports to provide ongoing communication about the experiences their child has at school each day. The Daily Activity Reports allow for informed, open conversations among our teachers and parents and, more importantly, between parents and their child.

Studies have shown that when a parent discusses their child’s day with him or her, their child feels the importance of their place in the world, develops self-worth and builds self-esteem. It’s also been discovered that reviewing and discussing a child’s day allows information to move from short-term memory to long-term memory, a great way to extend their learning experience at home!

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Posted in Development | 2 Comments »

Media Use by Young Children

October 3rd, 2011 by Dr. Kyle Pruett

Remember when the American Academy of Pediatrics issued its recommendation five years ago that children two and under should not watch any television, and that children over two should limit exposure to two hours per day? Many parents seemed as reassured by this advice as they were confused. How could such an esteemed organization give advice that was “so out of touch with real American family life,” as one mother commented to the evening news? In those five years, children’s media appetites have hardly slackened. In fact, ‘screen time’ has eclipsed ‘TV watching’ as the name for such activities, given the plethora of devices on which real or animated moving and talking figures can now inform, distract, stimulate and baby-sit our young. So what is a parent to do?

An enlightening new study by the Joan Ganz Cooney Center and Sesame Workshop,, “Always Connected: Young Children’s Media Use is On the Rise (March 2011),” tells us what parents are actually doing. It seems like many parents don’t know about the guidelines anymore, given that the majority of parents ignore them.   They may feel a need to ‘plug the kids into something besides me [i.e. the parent],’ or they turn a deaf ear because they feel that media exposure stimulates intellectual growth and development or they feel that ‘it’s something the world will expect my kid to be able to use, so the earlier the better.’ The report goes on:

  • For the time being, television remains the favorite medium.  90% of the average families sampled with children over five had kids who were regular, even enthusiastic, viewers. They watched an average of three hours per day.
  • Media use by young children ranges across a variety of platforms. 80% of sampled kids five and under are on the internet at least once a week and slightly less than half of all six-years-olds regularly play video games.
  • Media multitasking is growing quickly, with over a third of two- to eleven-year-olds using the television and the internet simultaneously (sound familiar?).
  • These usage patterns are likely to change, given that four of the top five electronic devices owned by children are mobile platforms.

So, back to that question of what is a parent to do, given that the expert advice out there seems not to have kept pace? [Keep your eyes open for some fresh guidelines from NAEYC on this topic coming to its website this year – maybe they WILL have kept pace].

  • If you want your kids to play imaginatively (great pre-literacy foundation!), keep the playthings away from the screen. University of Massachusetts researchers found that toddler play erodes and disorganizes when TV is on.
  • Keep the media diet balanced.  Print materials, screen devices, video games and DVDs should be rotated and refreshed (if not occasionally ‘lost’). Think of nutrition’s representation of a healthy, balanced diet. The food pyramid evokes positive images of a ‘media pyramid.
  • The best way to use the positive impact of TV (yes, there is one and this is it) is to engage parent-child pairs in co-viewing programming that stimulates learning and delight with the use of humor and playfulness (not silliness), novel topics and perspectives. This prevents the use of TV as a baby-sitter, but that’s the point. There is no stand-in for you, or the delight that you take, in your child’s growth and health.

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Your Preschooler and Sleep

September 29th, 2011 by Dr. Kyle Pruett

Sleep troubles are among parents’ most exasperating experiences with their preschoolers. There are so many considerations in how parents decide to respond when sleep goes off the rails: is this the first child, is the mother or the father more (or less) distressed and do they agree that it is a crisis, the gender of the child (we tend to be more secure in handling kids of the same gender as the parent) and the parents’ sleep habits. There is also a new aspect of sleep that differentiates preschool sleep from toddler sleep: dreams.

Toddlers do dream, but for preschoolers, because of their exploding language and imaginations, dreams are more interesting and powerful and can wreak havoc on a previously good sleeper. When I hear of a sudden deterioration in sleep, dreams are my first suspect. If that’s the case, the child may fall asleep okay, but erupt in the second half of the night.  The child will need reassurance that the dream woke her up, is over now, was not real, will not come back and can’t hurt her. If the child is fighting sleep from the beginning, it is still good to check if the child is afraid to sleep because of dreams. Otherwise, it’s more likely a separation issue (perhaps triggered by something in the family’s life). Then, the parents are in for a tough time of re-structuring calming pre-sleep rituals (reading stories and face massages are good), insisting on the five-minute ‘sit with you’ rule (use a timer), reassuring the child that they’ll be fine and a few sleepless nights of walking them (in a calm, boring way with few words) back to their bed, taking turns if it burns one parent out. I discuss this in greater detail in my book, Partnership Parenting, and there is always your pediatrician to help if these measures aren’t sufficient.

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Simon Says: An Exercise for Academic Excellence

September 27th, 2011 by Sue Adair

A recent study published in the Psychological Assessment journal found that preschool children who regularly participate in “Head-Toes-Knees-Shoulders” tasks like Simon Says may do better academically. According to Megan McClelland, an associate professor of human development and family science at Oregon State University, games like Simon Says can help children improve their self-regulation skills through listening carefully and following directions. Click here to read more about this very important study.

The Goddard School believes in the importance of self-regulating games and the power of learning through play. Goddard Schools across the nation participated in a record-breaking game of Simon Says!  On Friday, September 23rd, children, parents, faculty and guests at Goddard Schools nationwide attempted to break the Guinness World Records™ “Largest Game of Simon Says (Multiple Venues).”  This unique synchronized event, illustrated the power of play for learning in an exciting and innovative way!  Stay tuned to see if we broke the record!!

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Five Tips for Healthy Eating

September 20th, 2011 by Sue Adair

Goddard Schools Celebrate the Importance of Play, Fitness & Nutrition

Goddard Schools believe in the power of play for learning, as well as the importance of providing a healthy, active lifestyle for all children. In an effort to spread the word to families in their community, the educational preschools will sponsor The Goddard School Block Party events from Monday, September 19 through Saturday, September 24, 2011. The events will engage children and their families in a variety of exciting fitness, nutrition and playful learning activities based on the core curriculum and enrichment programs that are an integral part of the FLEX™ Learning Program offered at The Goddard School.

To gear up for the big celebration, Sue Adair, director of education at Goddard Systems, Inc., offers five tips for parents to help their children develop healthy eating habits:

  • Offer encouragement – Encourage your child to eat a variety of foods to help them get the nutrients they need from each food group.  By doing so, they are more likely to enjoy trying new foods!
  • Be a good role model – It’s no surprise that children are likely to mimic their parents’ food choices.  If your children see you enjoying fruits, vegetables and whole grains, they will more likely enjoy them as well.
  • Stock up on healthy choices – Make sure that your cupboards and refrigerator are filled with healthy options rather than prepackaged foods filled with sugar and sodium. Read food labels before purchasing so you know exactly what’s in the foods you are buying—just because it’s made with whole grains doesn’t necessarily mean it’s healthy.
  • Serve balanced portions – The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) has turned the Food Pyramid into a plate. The USDA’s MyPlate illustrates balanced portion sizes for the five foods groups—Fruits, Vegetables, Grains, Protein and Dairy—in a familiar way by using a standard mealtime place setting.
  • Follow a schedule – Set a daily schedule for meals and snacks (3 meals & 1-2 snacks per day is recommended), with plenty of time between each.  This will help children learn the importance of structured eating and help them to stay feeling full throughout the day.

“Nutrition and exercise are important to all children’s overall health. That’s why the children attending The Goddard School enjoy various physical fitness programs as part of their teacher-planned, child-directed learning activities each day,” says Sue Adair, director of education at Goddard Systems, Inc.  “We also work closely with our families to help guide good nutritional choices as an integral part of our home-school relationship.”

To learn more about The Goddard School Block Party and The Goddard School, parents are encouraged to visit www.goddardschool.com/blockparty or call 1-800-GODDARD.

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Five Tips for Healthy Activities

September 15th, 2011 by Sue Adair

Goddard Schools Celebrate the Importance of Play, Fitness & Nutrition

The Goddard School believes in the power of play for learning, as well as the importance of providing a healthy, active lifestyle for all children. In an effort to spread the word to families in their community, the educational preschools will sponsor The Goddard School Block Party event from Monday, September 19 through Saturday, September 24, 2011. The event will engage children and their families in a variety of exciting fitness, nutrition and playful learning activities based on the core curriculum and enrichment programs that are an integral part of the FLEX™ Learning Program offered at The Goddard School.

In addition to The Goddard School Block Party event taking place in our Schools, Goddard Systems, Inc. (GSI), franchisor of The Goddard School, is the exclusive preschool sponsor of Play for Tomorrow’s Ultimate Block Party: The Arts and Sciences of Play, a powerful global movement designed to recognize and celebrate the power of play for learning. The Ultimate Block Party will take place Sunday, October 2nd, at Rash Field in Baltimore’s Inner Harbor in downtown Baltimore, MD and will feature an amazing day of play for families and children, designed to bring playful learning back to the forefront. At the event, GSI and the Baltimore-area Goddard Schools will host the Let’s Play Café. Children will enjoy manipulating play dough, shopping at a pretend farmer’s market and participating in a series of engaging pretend restaurant activities while learning about nutrition, counting, sorting and other important lessons through play.

To gear up for the big celebrations, Sue Adair, director of education at GSI, offers five tips for parents to help their children partake in healthy activities:

  • Make it into a game. Create a game out of everyday tasks such as chores, cleaning and gardening. Think outside the box to create activities that are active and stimulate the mind. Play helps children learn to solve problems, promotes flexibility and motivation, teaches regulation of emotions and builds resilience and confidence.
  • Get outside. Preschoolers need plenty of time and space to run around and play.  Taking your child to a playground or park is a great way to release energy and exercise! Play outside with your child and teach hand-eye coordination by showing the basics of throwing, catching and kicking a large, soft ball.
  • Add music to the activity. Play “Statues” by playing up-tempo music.  Have your child move while the music is playing and freeze into a statue when you pause the music.  Encourage creative dancing.
  • Be active with your children. Support young toddlers’ mastery of walking by allowing them to be active!  Play with them as they learn to run, hop, dance and throw.  Have them chase bubbles or invent a silly walk — play becomes exercise.  Remember to provide encouragement to your child as they build self-confidence.
  • Get active inside, too. When weather interferes, get out the large balls, exercise mats and Twister® games, or do some stretching and balancing exercises together. Limit TV, video game and computer time to encourage your children to become active.

“Focusing your child’s physical fitness on fun activities will increase your child’s ability to move with confidence and competence,” Adair said.  “At The Goddard School, we also work closely with our families to help guide healthy activities, because exercise increases overall metabolism; builds a healthy heart and lungs, strong bones and muscles; and improves coordination, balance, posture and flexibility.“

To learn more about The Goddard School Block Party and The Goddard, parents are encouraged to visit www.goddardschool.com/blockparty or call 1-800-GODDARD.

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Posted in Events, Fitness, Goddard News, Learning through Play, Nutrition | No Comments »

School Lunch Timesavers

September 14th, 2011 by Sue Adair

  • Involve your children in making lunches. After dinner, gather in the kitchen to prepare sandwiches or leftovers and snacks for the next day’s lunches. If they’ve helped make their lunch, children are more likely to eat and enjoy it.
  • Make a weekday lunch calendar and ask your children to help decide what they will have for lunch each day. This will also make grocery shopping for the week that much easier!
  • Consider using divided lunch containers. With separate sections available for each food group, they’ll help you easily put together healthy, balanced lunches.
  • Prepare a variety of fruits and veggies and place a serving of each in separate containers in the fridge. When packing lunches, have each child choose one item from each group and place in their lunch bag with a sandwich and drink.
  • Prepare large meals like pasta or stew over the weekend and then divide into single-serve portions to pack for lunches throughout the week.

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Posted in Nutrition, Preschool, School | No Comments »

Grandparents Day

September 9th, 2011 by Sue Adair

National Grandparents Day is just around the corner (Sunday the 11th)! Here are a few charming gift suggestions:

  • Help your child write a letter to Grammy to tell her why she is so special. Decorate the envelope with stickers, stamps, glitter and more.
  • Get out the paints, markers, crayons and your spare scrapbooking supplies and encourage your child to make a masterpiece for Pop-Pop. Place in an inexpensive frame—violá!—it’s the perfect gift.
  • Show Nanna your child’s sweet side! Whip up a batch of sugar cookies and provide colored icing, sprinkles, etc. Your child will love decorating this custom cookie gift!

How will your child recognize a favorite grandparent this year?

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