Preventing Summer Brain Drain

Summer fun means that studying goes right out the window. Studies show that kids can lose up to three months of learning over the typical summer vacation. In fact, math skills suffer the most loss over summer vacation. How do you help to protect your kids from summer brain drain?
Here are a few steps you can take to keep the loss of learning to a minimum.

Frequent trips to the local library – the more children have access to new and interesting books the more they will pick them up and read them. Your local library can also keep kids active in learning through free educational events and activities. So pack up the car and take the kids to the local library.

Some libraries and community centers offer educational camps where children can stretch their math, science and reading muscles. So try substituting an educational camp in place of a sports camp.

Try to concentrate on math – it’s hard to keep children interested in math so jazz it up. For younger children try board games or card games like go fish. These can keep basic counting, subtraction and addition skills sharp over the summer.

Take a Summer Trip Centered On Education - Virginia has so many educational and historical areas. Williamsburg offers an excellent opportunity to have fun while learning about our countries rich history. Ask your child to read about colonial times before they go to Williamsburg to make the experience even better. Take a day trip to Washington DC. With so many museums, you’ll really be flexing your child’s science, math, reading and history muscles.

Take an active role in preventing summer brain drain and your children will thank you for the summer fun and through better grades this fall.

Playing With Goop

What is Goop? Well, here is a hint, it is a very easy and fun to make, it is inexpensive and it provides hours of entertainment. Goop is a little bit like a homemade version of play dough, only much more delightfully messy, goop is a squishy slippery substance that can provide a bunch of bored kids with hours of good clean (messy) indoor fun on a rainy day.

What Do Kids Learn From Playing With Goop?

They develop their fine motor and sensory skills by manipulating and handling the goop. They also learn about cause and effect when they touch the goop, move it around, and see how the material comes back together.

Making and playing with goop

What You'll Need
* 1 ½ cups cornstarch
* 1 cup water Measuring cups
* Spoons
* large bowl(s)
* Airtight container

Here's How To Do It
Set up the ingredients, the bowls and the pans. Have your child help you make the mixture. Measure the cornstarch and water in a container. Mix it with a spoon. Add more water if the mixture seems too dry. If the mixture seems too wet, add cornstarch.

Ask your kids questions

* How does it feel?
* What happens when you stir it together?
* How long can you keep the goop in your hand before it slips away?
* Can you squeeze it into a ball?

Just remember to cover the kids and the table with plastic or something else that’s easy to clean, put the girls’ long hair up in ponytails, goop can be messy but it’s worth the hours of entertainment on a rainy summer day. Keep in mind that goop is made from edible ingredients, it's not really made to eat. Very young children should be supervised carefully, and encouraged not to eat the goop.

Books for Little Ones

Summer is the perfect time for reading. Sitting on the porch, on the beach, at the park on a blanket, there are just some many great places to read in the summertime. So it’s a great time to get you little one’s into reading or to keep older one’s in good reading habits during school break.

But how do you decide which books are best when standing in the children’s area of your local book store. If you find yourself looking and just not knowing which books to buy, or your budget isn’t able to stretch to far, maybe the children’s book buying tips below will make short work of your shopping.

Where to Find Books for Babies and Toddlers

Your local library and garage sales are great places to find used books for children. Most libraries hold a used book sale each year where you can buy great children’s books at rock bottom prices. Libraries also have books available to borrow for babies and toddlers. This can be a great way to regularly introduce new books to your children.

If you’re planning to build up a library of books for your child book of the month clubs are available where you can select books from a catalog and order them from home. This is a great way to involve your child in your book purchase decision. They will get excited about selecting a new book each month and then you can watch the excitement build as you wait for his or her new book to arrive in the mail.

Choosing Storage for Children’s Books

It’s very important to store books on low book shelves or in low drawers. You want your child to feel like they can have access to books so they will be encouraged to pick them up and read them.

With a cardboard box or storage container you can help your children feel a connection to their books by decorating their own bookshelf.

Which Book is Best for Babies and Toddlers?

For babies colorful board books that are easy to hold and easy to handle work best. Thick cardboard like books are more durable and books with soft sides and vinyl covers allow babies to chew without getting hurt.

Simple story lines that rhyme and books that relate to their life are the favorites of toddlers. Such as stories about potty training or going to school, something the toddler is experiencing now.

Picture books are great for both babies and toddlers. Babies like to look at the colorful pictures and toddlers like to make up story lines to go with the pictures.

Selecting a Time to Read to Children

Try to work reading into your normal routine. Bed time or after bath time is recommended by many child development specialists. If reading becomes a routine soon your child will want, expect and even demand that you read to them.

It’s important to take every opportunity to bring a love for reading into your child’s life. So when your toddler brings you a book and asks you to read, you should take advantage of the opportunity. Reading time will build more the just memories with your children.


Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/

Manners Matter

It’s important to teach children that having good manners. They are important for a few different reasons. Teaching a child to be polite is a great way to set them up for success in adulthood.

Teaching manners is teaching your child to think about other people’s feelings. Manners are a basic building block of social skills and are important for learning how to build relationships, how to effectively communicate and more.

Teaching manners can be a positive experience for everyone involved. Teaching to your child to share with others is a good example. If a child shares and takes turns, then they have made the other child happy. If it was fun to play with your child, then that child will be excited to play with your son or daughter again. This helps reinforce manners with your child as they receive positive feedback in the form of friends asking for play dates.

Teaching manners can be easy if you start early. Children as young as one year old can learn to say “please”, “thank you”, and “you’re welcome”. At this age, they will learn simply by imitating you as a good role model for your children.

Here’s one technique you can use to teach manners if you’re experiencing some resistance. Get some new preschool toys and tell your child that these are “big boy” or “big girl” toys that are made for sharing, something easy to share, like a train table or an activity table. When your child does share, or at least let another child play with the same toy, praise them as much as you can.
Some manners are easier to teach than others. Be patient and be a good role model. Teach your child one manner at a time. There are table manners, phone manners, visitor manners, school manners, and more. Reinforce the old adage,” treat others as they would like to be treated” and it covers most of the bases.

The Goddard School includes a Courtesy and Respect program as one of the personal and social development resources in their core curriculum. Learn more about Goddard Guide to Getting Along™.

Source: http://www.articlealley.com

Water Play

This week water is the focus of our lessons with the students and there are so many things your baby or toddler can learn through playing with water play at home.

Here are some ideas on how to blend fun with water with learning. Some things you might need are:

- different size pots and pans
- containers of different size and shape
- funnels
- scoops (use big plastic serving spoons. in fact, many kitchen utensils often come handy in child's play)
- wine corks (they float)
- a small water toy or an empty shampoo bottle
- food coloring added to liquids offer different colors (you can buy them in a baking section of your supermarket)
- tongs (try to find ones covered with plastic or rubber as the metal ones can be quite sharp)

Obviously, water is going to get messy with all the splashing, otherwise it wouldn't be so much fun! So, choose a play area carefully. During warm weather days setting up outside makes clean up easy. If you can’t go outside place the objects in the tub without filling the tub up and make a mess in there.

If your little one is a little older you can play with water using large pots and containers placed on a table and cover the floor under the table with a large plastic tablecloth.

Examples To work on your child’s coordination skills:
- "fish out" wine corks (or other floating objects) with a scoop, tongs or just fingers
- try counting them out loud when you place them into a container
- fill up and squirt water with a shampoo bottle, try aiming at some light weight objects that could fall when you hit them with the water, like toy soldiers or cars (or even those useful wine corks)
To work on your child’s color and observation skills
- fill up different-size containers with water to different levels and pour the water out into other containers through funnels.
- add some color to the water with food coloring and learn colors while you are playing. They will also be learning how fun and interesting it is to mix colors.
Imaginative play with water:
- play "fishing" in the tub
- give dolls a bath, washing their hair
- play wash the dishes
So go on, start splashing - water can be fun all year around!

Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/

Potty Training Part 2

Earlier this week we talked about the signs of potty training readiness, if your little one is ready to start learning how to use the potty, these tips may help:

• Devote the time needed to get the job done. Recognize that you need to build extra time into your busy schedule for extra long trips to bathroom both at home and when you’re out.

•Don't make your child sit on the toilet against his or her will.

• Look for clues that your child’s getting ready to poop. By now you probably know that look very well, faces turn red, the grunt and squat. Some kids poop the same time everyday. Try to recognize the signs and rush to the bathroom. Sometimes you’ll catch them and sometimes you won’t but it will reinforce the proper training.

•Learn by watching. Have your child watch you in the bathroom. Even better, have your child sit on the potty seat and watch while you — or one of his or her siblings — use the toilet.

• Your body naturally wants to evacuate itself after a meal. So plan a visit to the bathroom after a meal.

•Make going potty easy on your child. Dress them in the proper clothes, overalls and shirts that snap in the crotch. Make sure everything is ready and the training potty is ready to go.

•Establish a routine. Have your child try when they wake up, after every meal, before bed time and anytime they ask. And don’t get frustrated if nothing happens. It’s more about establishing the routine.

•Remove a bowel movement (poop) from your child's diaper, put it in the toilet, and tell your child that poop goes in the potty.

•Reward your child for a job well done. Stickers, treats or mommy time or character big boy/girl under pants works well as incentive. Keep a chart to track of successes.

Try to keep positive in all aspects of potty training. It’s difficult and there will be setbacks but you will be successful.

Source; articleally.com
http://kidshealth.org

Potty Training

Yes, that's right, June is National Potty Training Awareness Month, as if we need more incentive to potty train our children. So in honor of the momentous occasion, we are going to talk about potty training and give some advice to lead to fast success through the process.

First, it’s important to recognize that there is no magic solution for potty training. It’s a trial and error process. The second fact to remember is that it’s not fashionable for teenagers to walk around a diapers so chances are you’ll be successful.

That said, there are proven potty training strategies that have worked for parents over the years.

1. It’s important for you to wait until your child’s ready for potty training. Parents sometimes rush into potty training because the idea of no diapers is appealing to convenience and your budget. Your child must be mentally and physically prepared to learn to use a bathroom, otherwise the process will be frustrating for both of you.

Here are some signs that your child is ready to begin:

* Curiosity about the toilet
* Recognition - a child tells you just made or have to pee.
• Keep a diaper dry for two hours or more
• Physically sitting on and then get off the potty
• Pulling down diapers, or throwing away training pants or underpants
• Curiosity about wearing underpants

2. Make sure you have the proper training aids.

• A small portable potty – maybe even keep one in the car for emergencies,
• Floating objects can be placed in the toilet to peak your child’s interest.
• Pullup diapers

3. Buy clothing that’s easy to put on and take off. There is nothing more frustrating than a child wetting their pants because they took too long to get their clothes off. Slip on pants are the easiest and, of course, skirts and dresses make it easy for girls.

Each child learns differently it’s true in school and it’s just as true with potty training. Be patient, be positive and be prepared! Later this week we will offer some tips to help with potty training.

Bubble Fun

Who doesn’t like bubbles, they make you laugh, they float without effort and they can keep you clean. But if you’re looking for a summer activity, bubbles might be what you’re looking for. They are great way to play and learn with your child. Try a science experiment with kids who are little older by make predictions on what you think the bubbles will do once in mid-flight. Let younger kids experiment with art and movement by dancing while blowing bubbles and trying to recognize shapes and sizes in bubbles. This bubble activity encourages curiosity and reinforces the skill of observation.

What You'll Need:

* Bubble solution that you purchase from the store or make your own with 10 parts water to one part dish washing soap
* Straws
* Plate
* Bubble wands
* Pipe cleaners

Have some observations you can have your kids make

* Are your bubbles bigger when you blow slowly or quickly?

* Are your bubbles bigger when you dip the wand in slowly or slosh it around?

* Use pipe cleaners to make homemade bubble wands. Can you make a square bubble?

* What household items can you use to make bubbles? A slotted spoon? A flyswatter?

* Pour bubble solution onto a dinner plate or cereal bowl and use a straw to blow bubbles at the base. How tall can you blow your bubble tower?

* Add food coloring or tempera paint to your bubble solution and try blowing colored bubbles. Try to catch them; let your bubbles land on a piece of card stock paper to make bubble art.

* What color is a bubble? Bubble colors come from the light refracting through the soapy water.

So go out and have some bubble fun!