Playing Well With Others

In school, at work, in social situations and all through life, working in teams is an important skill to master. Children are put in groups at young ages through playgroups and then as they start school. So how can you begin to reinforce team work and cooperation skills with your child? Here are a few tips that can help your child build these much needed skills.

Play Dates: This is the earliest form of working in a group. It doesn’t take long for children to organize themselves to complete common tasks and to act out roles through play. Children are actually learning group roles and dynamics through play dates.

Outside Play: The playground is one of the first experiences children have with working and interact with others. Once your child goes into the sandbox with other they start interacting, grabbing toys from each other and learning how to interact and work together.

Playing Organized Sports – many sports like soccer start as early as age 4 or 5. It’s truly amazing to see the cooperation and team work start to develop as children score goals through working together. They also learn the importance of winning and losing as a team.

Pretend Play: Acting out elaborate stories and establishing roles isn’t far from the corporate roles grownups play every day. Imaginary play is one of the best ways for children to learn interaction, coping and leadership skills in a safe environment.

Give your child as many opportunities to interact in a group setting and watch them learn and grow.

Making Friends

Making new friends at any age is difficult and it often leads to social discomfort. Toddlers, are just getting used to the world and what’s around them and this can bring added pressure to your toddler when their making friends in a new environment like a daycare or school. Parents can do a lot to guide their children to feel more confident in social situations ultimately helping them make new friends.

Your child’s personality plays a role in how easy or difficult they make friends: Easygoing, cheerful children tend to make friends easily and adapt well to new situations. Sensitive, cautious kids often have a harder time and are more likely to cling to adults and be left out of other children’s activities and games. Observe your child’s temperament in social situations to get an understanding of where they fall on the scale and try using some of the tips below:

Play dates/Socialization

Play dates are the perfect opportunity to allow your toddler to socialize independently. If your toddler is hesitant about meeting a new friend, start by introducing them to the child. Explain that you will remain close by. This will let them explore the concept of making new friends independently with the safety net of knowing your close by.

Small-group sport activities such as gymnastics, dance, or swimming are a great environment for your child to learn valuable social skills. The sport represents a common interest or goal that your child can talk to other children about. This common interest will make it easier for a shy child to make new friends, plus they will reap the health benefits of an active lifestyle.

Take advantage of the free activities at local libraries or community centers. Story times, musical groups and open play dates offer socialization for moms, dads and your toddler. This will allow your child to interact with other child with you still close by.

Play through learning

Use your child’s imagination to role play a new friend encounter. This will allow your child to practice making new friends with nothing to lose. Pretend that you are a potential new friend and ask questions you might expect from a young child. Practice makes perfect and it will prepare your child for the real thing.

Teach your child how to interact in different common social situations. For example, if you are on the playground with your child and they refuse to share when asked by another toddler let them know the appropriate response “yes you can have a turn”. Follow it up with prompting your child to ask the other child’s name and introducing themselves through offering their name.

Making friends can be tough for anyone, hopefully some of these tips will help. Most toddlers will grab hold of the concept quickly after they make their first good friend.

Sources: http://www.greatschools.org
http://www.justthefactsbaby.com

The Perfect Bike

It’s spring and your child may be ready for their first bike. Here are a few tips on selecting the right bike.

• Check the recommended ages for each bike when you’re shopping. Getting the wrong size bike can make learning to ride a difficult experience. One rule of thumb for selecting the right size is to make sure your child can sit on the seat with their feet flat on the ground.
• Go to the bike store – many bike stores have specially trained sales people who can help you select the right size bike for your child.
• Every child is different and only you know when yours is ready to ride a two-wheeler. However, an average 6 year old should have the motor skills needed to balance and ride a bike.

If your child still isn’t ready for their own bike, try a tag-along. This is a small bicycle that attaches to your bike. Instead of a front wheel, it has a connector that attaches to the seat post of another bike. It looks like a tandem bicycle, but it is more portable, can easily fit on a bike rack and provides your child with the independence or pedaling, balancing and stopping.

Safety is the first rule of riding a bike. Make sure your child is wearing their helmet and other safety equipment. Adult supervision is important in making sure young riders stay safe.

Helping toddlers learn rules

Rules are an important part of our social structure. Kids think that rules are set primarily by parents but as they become school-aged they realize that rules are a necessary part of life. But how and when is the best time to begin setting rules for your child?

Believe it or not, by the time your child reaches their first birthday they can begin to tell the difference between right and wrong. And this is an important milestone that can be used to introduce simple rules into your child’s life.

Here are some suggestions on how to introduce rules to your child:

· Be consistent – kids thrive on consistency. Don’t waiver on your rules and apply them on a regular basis.

· Concise – keep rules simple and brief. Don’t set complex rules with conditions like “if, then” statements. This just makes the concept of rules more difficult.

As an example: a child understands that coloring on the wall is not acceptable. If you begin to explain that coloring on a wall painted with chalkboard paint is acceptable this may lead to confusion.

· Be Specific – provide enough details to make the concept real for your child. Stop and don’t do that are too vague and may lead to confusion.

Homemade stickers

Kids love any stickers but they'll love making and designing their own. This activity won’t take you long to prepare and it will provide your child a lot of enjoyment.

Materials

• office labels
• colored markers
• crayons
• pens
• colored pencils

What you’ll need to start

Parents: start with standard office labels and cut them into interesting shapes.

Kids: can use pencils, pens, markers, stamps and more to decorate the office labels. Have them practice writing letters and words on the stickers to make the activity educational. Once the stickers are done, all you need to do is peel of the backing and presto, you have your own personal stickers.

Independence

Children are always striving for more independence. As your toddler moves from preschool to elementary school they are going to want, and need more responsibility and more independence. But as parents you might be apprehensive about how to give them enough freedom without giving them too much.

Here are a few ways that your child can get more responsibility around the house that will help build their confidence and teach responsibility.

Organizing Their Belongings

Kids are perpetually making messes around the house. Often parents simply accept messy behavior, but now is a great time to teach your child how to take care of their belongings. Have your child organize their clothes, books and other belongings into plastics bins. When they come home from school make sure that they put their stuff away and praise them for their organization and responsibility.

Getting Ready for School

Give your child the responsibility to collect their books, pack their book bag and prepare their lunch. Buy prepackaged fruits, help them make a sandwich and pour their drink. They can feel proud when they open their lunch at school knowing that they packed it themselves.

Help Set the Table

If you’re lucky enough to still eat dinner together as a family then you might get your child to set the table, especially if paper plates are involved. This teaches children valuable life skills and pride in the fact that they can contribute to the family’s dinner.

It’s difficult to judge how much responsibility is best for your child. Just make sure that you provide the proper supervision and make certain the task isn’t too difficult for them to handle.

Making Time For Your Family

Today’s parents have a lot to balance; work, school, kids’ schedules, doctors’ appointments, shopping, cleaning, making dinner and more. It’s hard to find time to spend quality time with the kids. That means you need to put the smart phone down too.

• Meal Time: One of the easiest ways is to eat breakfast, lunch or dinner with your kids at least 2 -3 times a week. Talk to your kids about their day, what’s going on in school or even make plans on how to spend time together in the future.

• Reading Together: For younger kids it means you read a story to them for older kids have them read to you or read a chapter from your favorite book or a great article that you saw in the paper today

• Family Games: Whether it’s old fashion board games or even a video game that the whole family can play. It’s a great way to spend time together with your kids.

• Movie Night: Make some fun treats, get out the pillows and blankets and cuddle up with your kids and watch the latest hit on DVD. Make it a monthly event and give each kid a chance to pick their favorite movie.

There are many easy ways to spend time with your kids, you need to make time on your to do list to get it done.

Dealing With a “Strong-Willed” Child

At times you envy their determined nature and at times you have just had enough. If you are a parent of a strong-willed child, you know what I am talking about. If you punished your child for everything they did they would be in their room all day, every day. Since that’s just not reasonable, here are a few tips that can help you deal with your strong-willed child.

1. Make sure you are applying the rules of the house consistently. Waiver on a rule and the strong-willed child will take full advantage of it.

2. Patience is a virtue and when it comes to a strong-willed child patience is an absolute necessity. As much as you need to be clear and stick to your decisions realize that a strong-willed child will not change overnight. Structure, patience and time are all critical factors to long-term success.

3. Show that your decisions are final. A strong-willed child will often take debate to a whole higher level. They may even elevate the debate to a tantrum. Make sure they know that no is final and explain what the consequences will be for breaking the rules.

4. Absence makes the heart grow fonder. With the help of a qualified caregiver, take a little time away from your strong-willed child during the day. This can help you regain perspective. It can help you reach for that deeper level of caring and understanding and let you again appreciate the strong will that will propel your child through the challenges of life. Look at your strong-willed child’s strengths and cherish the independent individuals that they will become, with your help.