FacebookXPinterestLinkedIn
(518) 290-7607

How To

Summer Activities to Encourage Learning

Summertime plans often lean toward travel and vacations, but some of the best parts of summer are the relaxed days that families spend together at home or close to home. There are lots of fun, inexpensive ways to spend time with your children and to help them develop a healthy, receptive attitude toward learning new things about the world around them as they explore their own skills too. You can help your kids discover an interest in science by simply spending time in your own backyard or at a local park and observing nature. While eating lunch outside, see how many different animals you can notice, from butterflies to squirrels. Be sure to listen as well as look for animals. Educational websites like Scholastic.com have lots of ideas for nature-themed activities for the youngest children. For example, if your child is curious about bugs, try scooping the flesh out of an orange or grapefruit, turning the empty halves upside down, and leaving them outside overnight; in the morning, turn them over to see what insects have come to visit. Plant life also catches the interest of tiny scientists-in-training. Take a nature walk around your neighborhood and collect bits and pieces like leaves, twigs, and blossoms. If you buy a pack of solar print paper at a local toy or craft store (or online), you can then arrange the pieces you collect on a piece of special photo paper to leave in the sun and make a sun print. Kids enjoy arranging their collections of treasures from nature on the photo paper and then seeing the shapes left behind when the print develops. Gardening is another fun learning activity. You can incorporate skills like counting as [...]

By |June 28th, 2016|Arts and Crafts, Childhood Development, How To|Comments Off on Summer Activities to Encourage Learning
Read More

The Importance of Setting Limits for Young Children

One of the surprises of parenting is learning that children actually like for their parents to set limits. Limits help children to know what to expect every day, and help them feel safe. Of course, this is hard to remember in the moment when a child is engaged in resisting even the mildest limit you’ve set, such as not going out into the rain without wearing a coat. Children aren’t going to say thank you for setting limits—quite the opposite! On a deeper level, limits help develop young children’s sense of security. Limits will also help you feel more secure as a parent, because when you know your child is used to hearing and following guidelines from you, you will feel more comfortable in a situation where safety is an issue (such as approaching a busy street when walking together), that your child will listen rather than ignore you. It’s important to be able to set limits and enforce consequences when limits aren’t followed. Fortunately, for young children, consequences can be simple. One technique is to give a child a “time-in” where he or she sits quietly in a chair in the same room with you for as many minutes as the child’s age—so, for example, a three-year-old would sit for just three minutes. Setting a timer to keep track of the time will work well as it helps the child connect the consequence to another cue besides the parent. Timers can be helpful in other ways when it comes to setting limits. For example, you might tell children that there’s just ten more minutes of playtime before dinner and that when the timer goes off, they’ll need to put their toys away. This type [...]

By |April 1st, 2016|Childhood Development, How To, Parents|Comments Off on The Importance of Setting Limits for Young Children
Read More

Ideas to Increase a Child’s Attention Span

In 1950, psychologist Gertrude Hildreth described the attention spans of six-year-old children by saying, “Children of this age seem built for action rather than sitting still.” As parents and teachers know, toddlers and preschoolers often seem to be built for nonstop action. It’s common for adults to find themselves on the verge of losing their patience when young children resist even the most gentle encouragement to focus on a particular task. The good news is that we can help children slowly but surely increase their attention spans by modeling focused attention ourselves. A good place to start is to practice giving a child your undivided attention. Sometimes our attention is unavoidably scattered as dinner’s in the oven, the phone rings, a sibling needs a diaper change, or all of the above. When you can find stretches of time to focus one-on-one with a child, this provides a solid model for how to pay attention. It doesn’t have to be long: aim for 10 to 20 minutes, but even five minutes of undivided attention will model focused behavior. Another tip is to spend time in close physical proximity with your child. It’s easy to wander in and out of the room when your child is playing, but it can really help to make an effort to set aside chunks of time where you’re close together. This closeness makes it natural to pay attention to each other as you engage in a shared activity or even just talk to each other. When your child calls out a question or starts talking to you, be sure to come into the same room, sit or stand close to your child, and make eye contact as you respond. It’s tempting [...]

By |March 21st, 2016|Childhood Development, How To, Parents|Comments Off on Ideas to Increase a Child’s Attention Span
Read More

Building Self Esteem in Young Children

When children feel good about themselves and have a healthy sense that they are valued as people, it doesn’t mean that they have an inflated idea of themselves—instead, it means they have a realistic perception of themselves and their developing strengths. It also means that they feel OK about practicing new skills and trying and trying again when something doesn’t go their way the first time. You can start early by responding to cues from your infant in a prompt and consistent way to help your child feel connected to you and that you’re listening to his or her needs. When a baby cries and is comforted, and when a child looks at a parent and sees a loving smile, this creates a sense of well-being that lays important groundwork for your child’s entire life. Dr. Bill and Martha Sears, parents of eight children and longtime pediatric medicine practitioners, describe the positive and negative influences on children’s self-esteem as “builders” (positive) and “breakers” (negative). In short, you want to bring more builders into your child’s life and avoid or teach techniques to deal with breakers. Later on in childhood, breakers are harder to avoid as children encounter more influences in the world, but for toddlers and preschoolers, breakers are typically ways that children interact with their parents. For example, as a parent, you want to avoid self-esteem breakers like teasing your child, ignoring or dismissing children’s concerns, labeling or passing judgement on children (saying things like “you’re so difficult!”), pressuring your child, and expecting and/or encouraging perfection. One of the most important things you can do to build self-esteem in your child is to demonstrate good self-esteem in yourself. Be sure not to talk down [...]

By |February 23rd, 2016|Childhood Development, How To|Comments Off on Building Self Esteem in Young Children
Read More

Ideas for a Restful Bedtime Routine

Bedtime can be challenging. Kids sometimes feel reluctant to go to bed and allow a good day to come to an end—and on a hard day, it can be even more difficult for kids to relax into sleep. Fortunately, children thrive on routine, and establishing a comforting and predictable series of bedtime activities can be a calming way to end the day and ease your child into sleep. Start by establishing a schedule for bedtime and for wake-up time as well. It helps to stick with the same schedule on the weekend, too. Making sure that your child gets enough sleep is important when it comes to physical as well as emotional health. The National Sleep Foundation recommends that toddlers between age one and two get 11 to 14 hours of sleep each day, and that preschoolers between ages three and five get 10 to 13 hours. In the evening, try gradually shifting into your bedtime routine by encouraging quieter activities. Set aside the hour before bedtime for quiet playtime. It’s best to avoid TV or other screen time as the bright light and mental stimulation from screens can make your child more wakeful. For the first part of a bedtime routine, a warm bath can be a time for relaxing play, and it raises the body temperature slightly, also making it easier to feel sleepy. Another good transitional activity is to give your child a light, healthy bedtime snack about an hour before bed. Young children have small stomachs and need to eat small amounts throughout the day. A bedtime snack that combines protein and carbohydrates can help your child feel sleepy as well as allow him or her to sleep more comfortably during [...]

By |February 8th, 2016|How To|Comments Off on Ideas for a Restful Bedtime Routine
Read More
Copyright © 2017 SmartEarly. All Rights Reserved.

Enter your phone number below to be contacted immediately by a SmartEarly representative.