Author Archives: Janelle Durham

Unknown's avatar

About Janelle Durham

I am a parent educator and social worker, and teach music and science to children age 1 - 8.

Link

Check out this helpful resource on Screen Sense – Research-Based Guidelines for Screen Use for Children Under Three Years Old.

They make some familiar recommendations, such as

  • Avoid having the TV on in the background. Turn the TV off when no one is watching.
  • Avoid using screens as part of the bedtime routine
  • Be mindful of and limit your own screen media use when children are present.

However, they also say:

“Although children learn best through hands-on exploration… they can learn from [screens]. What is most important is that 1) content is age appropriate, 2) viewing time is limited, and 3) parents are involved, and help children make the connection between what they see on the screen and the real world.”

And, they offer great tips on how to choose content and how to extend your child’s learning. Some examples:

“Help your child make the connection between what she sees on a screen and the real world.Play games with her afterward using objects similar to what she has seen on the device, such as blocks or a ball. Point out and label objects in real life that she has seen on TV or on touchscreens, such as animals and flowers.”

“Create ways to extend your child’s learning from media.If a program focuses on animals—such as an armadillo—when it’s over, make up a pretend story about armadillos that you and your child can act out. Apply the colors your child has learned from an app by labeling the colors of the family’s clothes as you sort laundry together.”

Preschool Choice Time

Leave a reply

choiceThe holidays are over. You’re ready to sit back and relax.

Then suddenly you start seeing ads for preschool fairs, and lectures on choosing a preschool, your parent educator tells you the discussion topic is preschool, and other parents ask you if you’ve decided what you’re doing next year, and tell you that you need to think about it NOW before all the best places fill up.

It can be very stressful.

If your child will be 3 or older on September 1, then it could be a good year for you to start preschool. (But you don’t necessarily have to.) And January and February are prime time for preschool open houses, and for enrollment to begin, so now is a good time to think about it. (Though if you don’t think about it till August, you’ll still have good options.)

If your child is younger than 3 this September, you don’t have to make any decisions yet about their future preschool. But now is a good time to check out some of those preschool fairs, just to get some sense of what options are available in your area.

Check out these posts:

First decide: Is preschool necessary? Is it something you want for your child?

If you decide you’re looking, the first thing to think about is logistics: What do you need in a preschool in terms of location, schedule, cost, and so on.

Then, research your options.

Then visit, or attend an open house, and ask these questions to learn more.

photo credit: JoshSchulz via photopin cc

Fun with Toddlers: Winter Theme

1 Reply

Bring the snow inside!Sensory Activities to Do:

Snow in the Shower. When it snows, parents will often excitedly bundle up their toddler, and take them out to play. Then the child just sits and shivers and looks sadly up at the parent. It’s not as fun as you expected it might be.

Instead, try bringing the snow inside! Make sure your bathroom is nice and warm, then bring a big bucket of snow and dump it on the floor of your shower or bathtub and put your child next to it with shovels and toys. (He can even be fully clothed to stay warm.) As the snow melts, it disappears down the drain, so no clean-up required! When your child is done playing, run a warm bath or shower to warm him back up.

Ice Play

  • Hockey rink: freeze a cake pan of water. Make mini “hockey sticks” and use a checker as the puck. Hit the puck back and forth to score.
  • Excavation: Use a loaf pan or large bowls to make blocks of ice. Freeze items inside (e.g. plastic penguins or Legos). Set it out on a tray to catch the water as it melts. Give your child a toy hammer and other tools to excavate the toys.
  • Melting experiments: Give your child ice, water with pipettes or eye droppers, salt to sprinkle. Let them explore how to get the ice to melt. Add food coloring or liquid watercolors to make it prettier.

Dry Ice Experiments: Check out my post for lots of ideas. Note – this requires close supervision!!

Games to Play:

Indoor Snowball Fight. Make or buy big white pompoms, or soft white balls. Or just wad up a bunch of paper into balls. Or ball up pairs of socks. Fill a basket with them. Then spontaneously start snowball battles anytime you want to! Not only is this tons of fun, I like playing games where I throw (soft) things at my kids. It helps them be a little bolder about ball games later in life – a little more willing to “head” the ball in a soccer game. This also allows them to get out their throwing energy indoors without much risk of damaging anything.

Crafts to Do:

http://www.howwelearnathome.com/2013/01/build-shape-snowman.html

howwelearnathome.cm

Mittens: Cut out 10 paper mittens. Have your child decorate them. (Or for younger kids, have them scribble / finger paint all over a piece of paper, THEN cut out mitten shapes.) Then do the 10 little mittens rhyme together.

Tracks in the Snow. Take some colored construction paper. (Green, brown, or whatever you have.) Squirt white paint onto it. Use a paintbrush to spread it around, smoothing it. Then walk some toy animals or dolls across it. Point out their tracks. Drag a stick across it. Drag across a fork or a comb. Notice the paths they make in the paint. Then spread the paint back out again smoothing it over, and make some more tracks.

Tracks in the Snow, take 2. Make white play-dough. Play with toy animals and dolls in it, and point out the tracks they make. (Source, with pictures.)

Shape snowmen. Check out original idea here.

Snowy Day. Make a drawing (or find a picture) of an outdoor scene with trees and more. Put out white paint and show your child how to put one finger in, then dot it on the paper to make a snowflake. They make more and more snowflake dots till the landscape is covered in snow.

Rhymes to Say

Up the Mountain rhyme
Sit child on your lap
Up the mountain (run your fingers up one of their arms)
Down the other side (then run fingers down their other arm)
Brr it’s cold out… (hug them tight)
Let’s climb inside! (tickle their neck as you reach your fingers under their collar)

Five little snowmen
Five little snowmen standing in a row (hold up 5 fingers)
Each with a hat (pat head) and a big red bow (pull at neck like a bow tie)
Along came the sun (arms form big circle over head)
and it shone all day (lean sideways)
And one of those snowmen melted away! (put down one finger)
Continue until there are no snowmen left.

Disappearing Snowman
(make a paper snowman; cut as you tell story, making snowman smaller)
On Monday, I made a snowman. Just like that.
On Tuesday, the wind blew some snow away. Just like that.
On Wednesday, it rained on my snowman. Just like that.
On Thursday, the hot sun started to melt it. Just like that.
On Friday, it melted into a puddle. Just like that.
On Saturday, it snowed again. Just like that.
On Sunday, I made another snowman. Just like that.

Three little snowmen.   (mime 3 fingers perched on sled made by other hand)
3 little snowmen riding on a sled.  One fell off and bumped his head. Mama called…

Songs to Sing

For the first two songs, make your child a paper snowflake and have them put it on their head, their knee, etc.

Little Snowflake Swirling Round (tune: London Bridges)
Little snowflake twirling round
Twirling round, twirling round
Little snowflake twirling round
Lands on my head!
Repeat with different body parts.

It is Snowing (Tune: Frere Jacques)
It is snowing, it is snowing,
All around, all around.
See the pretty snowflakes, See the pretty snowflakes,
Touch the ground. Touch the ground.

Snow is Falling (tune: Skip to My Lou)
Snow is falling, what do I do? Snow is falling, what do I do?
Snow is falling, what do I do? What do I do, my darling
I’ll build a snowman bigger than you! …That’s what I’ll do, my darling!
I’ll ride my sled fast, how about you?… That’s what I’ll do, my darling!

Sing the My Mittens song in those inevitable moments when you’re searching for your child’s missing mittens.

Books to Read:
Amy Loves the Snow by Hoban. Sweet simple story for little ones.

The Snowman Storybook or The Snowman by Raymond Briggs. These are the same story, but the Snowman is wordless – you tell the story in your own words. Beautiful illustrations. Story of a snowman who comes to life. Note: This book has a sad ending. (I think that’s OK – helps to build emotional literacy. But some parents prefer to avoid.)

Red Sled or Red Hat by Judge or The Mitten by Jan Brett. All three are stories of woodland creatures getting into mischief with children’s belongings. On the long side for toddlers, so save for when they’re feeling calm and patient.

The Snowy Day by Ezra Keats. A little boy in the city enjoys a snowy day. This book, published in 1963, was noteworthy for being one of the first picture books to feature an African-American child. Note: this combines really nicely with the “tracks in the snow” activity above, where you can show how the doll tracks or the track from the stick is like what was shown in the book.

Other books toddlers love: Books that sing – Itsy bitsy snowman, I’m a Little Snowman. Counting Books – Millions of Snowflakes. A Winter Walk in the City. Other: Dr. Seuss’ Winter Things. Biscuit’s Snowy Day. Colors in the Cold. Snow Kisses. Let it Snow;

More ideas (and source citations) at: http://www.pinterest.com/bcparented

For my full collection of theme-based “Fun with Toddlers”, click on “Fun with Toddlers series” in the right hand side bar. These are great for parents or for teachers and librarians doing story-time for toddlers or preschoolers. If you would like theme information in printable handout form to share with students, click here.

Benefits of Play for Learning

Leave a reply

Gwen Dewar has  nice collection of examples of research that supports the idea that children learn best by playing: http://www.parentingscience.com/benefits-of-play.html

Here’s my favorite section:

“1. Most play involves exploration, and exploration is, by definition, an act of investigation. It’s easy to see how this applies to a budding scientist who is playing with magnets, but it also applies to far less intellectual pursuits, like the rough-and-tumble play in puppies. The animals are testing social bonds and learning how to control their impulses, so that friendly wrestling doesn’t turn into anti-social aggression. Play is learning.

2. Play is self-motivated and fun. Thus, anything learned during play is knowledge gained without the perception of hard work. This is in contrast with activities that we perform as duties… Play is an obvious gateway to the state of flow.

3. … kids treat play as a tutorial for coping with real life challenges. All around the world, children engage in pretend play that simulates the sorts of activities they will need to master as adults (Lancy 2008), suggesting such play is a form of practice. And when kids are fed information during pretend play–from more knowledgeable peers or adults–they take it in….

Kids Love to Build

9 Replies

sand

A few years ago, I went to one of the best birthday parties I’ve been to over my 20+ years of parenting. It was a construction site themed birthday party for a four year old boy.
When they arrived, the kids got construction helmets with their names on them (so helpful for me, as I only knew a third of the kids at the party) and construction apron / tool belts from Home Depot. (Note: you can also get 6 Construction Worker Vest with 6 Helmets pretty cheap on Amazon.)

The party was held in a community room with an easy clean floor. There were 4 stations:

  • The quarry – a kiddie pool filled with sand, construction trucks and little shovels; surrounded by some big storage tubs and stacked up sandbags to climb on (and a construction broom to sweep all the sand back to the quarry).
  • House painting – big cardboard boxes, paint, paintbrushes and rollers. Put a BIG plastic tarp and drop cloths under it for easy clean-up. (An alternative would be to draw houses on big paper to hang on the walls, and let kids paint that.)
  • Architects’ office – tables with architectural blueprints spread out and markers for drawing anything you want. (We later ate snack at those tables.)
  • And the best part: the construction site – 6 foam insulation panels, miscellaneous foam blocks from packaging, golf tees, and toy hammers (including a couple squeaky hammers).
    The kids assembled a building out of them. For an hour and a half straight (!) these kids focused on this building. They were working intently, hammering non-stop, negotiating design issues with each other, re-building when there were accidental dis-assemblies of the building, problem-solving when they discovered they’d forgotten to put a door between the rooms (they solved this by putting a foam “step” on each side of the wall so they could easily step over it.) They were totally engaged in the project and the imaginary play that accompanied it. This was all self-guided by the kids. Parents rarely stepped in to offer any guidance – almost no dispute resolution was needed – the kids worked it out. And note: some of these kids knew each other in advance, but many were strangers to each other. It was the work that brought them together.

house1house2

Since this party, I have replicated this house building project several times in my Inventors’ Class. You can read more about it and see more pictures at this post about our class session called If I Built a House. That post also has lots of other ideas that could be adapted for a birthday party or preschool class themed around construction, Bob the Builder, etc. We draw blueprints, excavate in the dirt, build plumbing in the water table, connect electrical circuits, and lots more.

Get Kids Building

People will often say that children this age (4 – 8) have short attention spans and are hard to entertain / control / keep focused on a task. But if you find engaging, hands-on projects and let the children guide their own creation, it’s amazing just how hard kids will work on a project and how much satisfaction they’ll get out of it.

Kids love to build. They love to be competent at a skill. They learn by using tools and by the trial and error that goes with the building process. They can work together collaboratively. We just need to come up with good projects to help them do so. And there are long-term benefits to building. (Check out:The Importance of Learning to Make Things: http://harvestamericacues.com/2014/03/10/the-importance-of-learning-to-make-things/)

Some more ideas for building projects:

  • Give a child scraps of wood, sand paper, glue. Hammer and nails if you’re feeling bold. Encourage them to build a boat, or a castle, or whatever inspires them.
  • Cardboard forts. Ask your friends for their giant cardboard boxes (the week around Christmas is a great time to post this request on your Facebook page!). Give your kids packing tape, and markers, fabric for curtains and flags and so on. Help them cut doors and windows as needed.
  • Building tunnels. Tape flaps on cardboard boxes open or cut flaps off so that boxes form a tunnel – string several together to be an animal den or a prison escape route or whatever pretend play the kids want to do. (There’s an amazing scene of this in the Ant Man and the Wasp movie!)
  • Marble runs / ball runs. Use cardboard tubes, or foam insulation cut in half, or PVC pipes and a lot of tape to build mazes to run marbles or balls through. (Learn more.)
  • Water walls: Use PVC pipes and PVC connectors on suction cups or water bottles and tape, and create great “mazes” to pour water through. Good for outdoors or the shower wall. (Here’s the one we built.)
  • “Paint” your house with water. In the summer, put out paint rollers, paint brushes, and paint trays of water. Let kids paint the house, the patio, the car…
  • Sanding wood. If you’re working on a project with wood, even small children can help with the sanding. Show them how to sand with the grain, how to touch the wood to see if it’s getting smoother, etc.
  • Using screws. Your child can use a screwdriver and screws – it may be easier to screw them into a bar of soap first, before trying wood.
  • Screwing in bolts. We have a fun toy drill driver with plastic bolts and wrench, but you could also use real bolts and a real wrench.
  • Construction snacks: Use materials like graham crackers or marshmallows or gingerbread. Mortar them together with cream cheese, frosting, or peanut butter. Let kids create buildings with them. Decorate with candy or dried fruit or cereal.
  • More ideas for songs, books, and more related to construction: http://www.everythingpreschool.com/themes/construction/
  • And more great ideas: http://notjustcute.com/2011/03/11/lets-build-activities-for-a-preschool-tools-and-construction-theme/

In our STEM enrichment class, we do lots of building activities. Go here to learn more: http://inventorsoftomorrow.com/category/math-engineering/