Enjoy Your Children!

Enjoy Your Children!

Kirby reminisces fondly about her mom being the only parent who got out and played with the neighborhood kids. Kirby followed in her footsteps. The kids noticed. "You like being with us!" 

Outdoor play can be for parents and children. It's really important to play outside with kids, not just to send them out and invite neighborhood kids over. Their development will leap ahead -- socially, cognitively, physically, relationally (especially toward the parent playing with them).

But you may not have had an experience like Kirby's. And if you have not seen it modeled, you may not be able to picture it.

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The Importance of Quiet

The Importance of Quiet

Children today experience a very different environment to the one their parents grew up in. Back in the day, Mr. Rogers knew what he was doing when he built a time into his program simply for thinking. We need to spend time every day just thinking. Just imagining. 

As a parent, remember to carve out time for your child to have a quiet, slower time to stop, look, and listen. A time to be outside and observe.

For further reading see:

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More Ways to Strengthen Finger Muscles

More Ways to Strengthen Finger Muscles

As mentioned previously, children today are learning to type but their hands aren't strong enough to write or do other tasks like being able to eat without spilling on themselves which is a skill that requires hand strength and coordination. People want and need to write legibly and quickly. Arts and crafts, the playing of musical instruments, cooking, measuring....all parts of life require finger strength.

Here is a list of some ways to build finger strength:

  • climbing trees or jungle gyms
  • folding clothes (make a matching game out of the socks)
  • crawl through toy tunnels or cardboard box tunnels
  • pretend to be animals and crawl around
  • sweep with a child-size broom
  • wash the car (or make a car wash tunnel with a garbage bag cut into strips - this can also be seaweed that they can crabwalk through on the ocean floor)
  • cooking! stir, knead, cut, roll
  • play with playdough or clay (which is even better for strengthening)
  • give the baby doll a bath or handwash the doll clothes - wring them dry and hang them out on the line with clothespins
  • sewing cards that progress to learning stitches, sewing on a button, and more
  • ball puppets (see below)

How to make a ball puppet:

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Travelling with Littles

Travelling with Littles

Travelling with children can be a special time, even on a road trip! The kids have the potential to triple their vocabulary on a week-long car trip if that's what is chosen to work on. Relationships among family members can improve with interactive car games. Whether infant, toddler, or early elementary, littles can have fun and leap ahead in cognitive development and fine motor skills while en route to your holiday destination.

While technology is a very handy tool to have when travelling, make sure your children are not on their devices the whole travel time. Pack a backpack/travel bag per child that they may fill with their travel treasures. Elementary age children can usually make independent choices on what to leave and what is important to bring. This may include dolls (with add-ins of ribbons, pieces of fabric, etc.) that would be useful for making up stories so be sure to include several that can interact with each other. Comic books, graphic novels, magazines, coloring books, and educational workbooks are all lightweight for easier transportation. Crayons are recommended over markers for use in the car but be sure to keep them in a baggie in case there is weather hot enough to melt them.

A separate family trip bag can be filled with toys that are never seen except for on a trip. These toys might be:

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If They Repeat It, They'll Likely Complete It

If They Repeat It, They'll Likely Complete It

When Kirby Worthington, co-founder of Growth and Giggles, was working toward her Master’s degree, she spent time as a director of a Montessori preschool. She had read research on repetition and decided to test it out. On a very cold winter’s day, after three days of freezing rain and no outside playtime at school, the sun came out and it was time to go outside again. However, under the swing there was a giant mud puddle full of the freezing rain. Before going outside she gathered the children and told them: “We’re going to get to play outside, and you can play on any of the equipment – except no swinging today”, and she explained about the puddle. As they went out the door, she stopped each child asking them, “Where are you NOT playing today?” And they would repeat back to her, “No swinging and no playing in the mud.” Do you know, the experiment worked and not one child broke the rule. She was outside observing their behavior and, sure enough, they had in their minds what to do and what not to do. And they stuck to it.

If they repeat it, they’ll likely complete it.

If you get children to say the rule or expectation, they’ll generally choose to listen to it. (Not always, of course; let’s be realistic!) It helps to have them repeat it the first time. But what really helps is to have them repeat the rule every time you have that expectation of them.

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How to Make Grocery Shopping a Learning Experience

How to Make Grocery Shopping a Learning Experience

​Grocery shopping with preschoolers isn't easy. We get goal-oriented about shopping and feel frustrated that our kids are slowing us down. But grocery stores offer a wealth of stimuli for a child's brain, and shopping is a great opportunity to help your little one learn and grow. Below are some ways you can engage your child while getting your shopping done.

Name everything. Everything you buy, hold it up and name it. Let your child hold, feel, and smell items. This will help your child's vocabulary explode.

Work on colors. Once your child knows lots of nouns, you can begin to work on colors. Hold up a banana and say, "Yellow. Yellow banana." Do this with anything that has a clear color. Show your child something red, and then say, "Can you find anything red?" Let them name everything they can find that's red. Play "I Spy." Keep in mind that kids under 3 probably won't remember what they picked, so they may say no to everything you guess!

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Learning Games to Play in the Car

Learning Games to Play in the Car

​Does the idea of a car trip with small children fill you with dread? Road trips don't have to be torture. In fact, they can be an immersion learning opportunity for your kids. If you fill your time in the car with fun games and activities, you can expect your children's vocabulary and knowledge to grow exponentially in a short time while you cultivate fun memories and a strong relationship.

The real challenge of road trips is keeping kids entertained. Here are some ideas that will engage your kids and help them learn and grow at the same time.

Play rhyming games. Let the youngest child say a word and have everyone else say a word that rhymes. Try to come up with as many rhymes as possible. Read Piggle by Crosby Bonsall, and play "Piggle" by saying four words that rhyme, mixing up real words and nonsense words.

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Teach Your Preschooler Colors

Teach Your Preschooler Colors

Colors are one of the first things that parents think about teaching their children. Teaching your preschooler colors can be a lot of fun.

You should wait to introduce colors until your child has a solid vocabulary of nouns. A preschooler's brain is wired to learn the names of objects before learning to describe those objects. Kids have what is called the "language explosion" between 18 and 24 months of age, during which they will be learning lots and lots of nouns. Work with their brains during this time by naming everything, and by not confusing things by adding adjectives.

After about the age of two, your child may be getting ready to learn colors. The best way to kick off this process is by having a "red day." (Really, it can be any color you want.) Pick a color, like red, and focus on it. Have everyone wear red. Pick red foods to eat. Pull out red blocks or red toys. Finger paint with red paint. Put up red streamers and balloons and hang red tissue paper over the window. Get as much red in your day as you can. Every time you see something red, point it out.

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How to Have a Happy Grocery Shopping Trip With Your Preschooler

How to Have a Happy Grocery Shopping Trip With Your Preschooler

Is grocery shopping a nightmare for you? Fussy kids, grumpy mom, whining for Lucky Charms, strangers staring, coming home with the wrong items because you couldn't concentrate. Sound familiar?

We used three simple rules that made grocery trips a whole lot smoother. We recited both the rules and the consequences together in the car before every shopping trip, because little ones can't always remember the rules from week to week. Kids also need to say the rules themselves, not just hear them.

Rule 1: Don't touch. For the safety of the children and the merchandise, kids are only allowed to touch what mom hands them. Let them help with anything they can't damage. They can put items in a child-sized basket or in the big basket.

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