Some Tips for Educational Toys That Will Stimulate and Also Teach Your Young Preschooler

When a child is very young, their minds are very impressionable, they learn by what they see and touch. This is why children must be taught correctly at a very young age in order to give them the advantage they will need when they arrive at school age.

From the time your child is born, their minds are like clay and must be molded and taught correctly and you can do this with educational toys for an infant to six months old. These types of toys are made with an infant in mind. They are made of bright colors so that they will catch their eyes and gain their interest. They also sport large buttons and handles so that an infant can easily grasp and push them. These types of toys generally teach simple things like animal sounds, counting, and simple spelling. They are made of child safe materials because we all know how infants like to put things in their mouths!

From six to eighteen months the educational toys start to get a little more complicated and are not only geared towards teaching your child sounds and spelling but they are also geared towards getting your child's motor functions established like walking, talking, pushing, and riding. The toys at this stage are still very colorful and large to grab the child's interest while making them easy to handle and safe.

At eighteen to thirty six months, educational toys now start to get a little more compact as the child's motor skills should now be improving. While yet still colorful, the toys get a bit more complicated with more gadgets and smaller buttons. Electronic and video learning games are available at this stage. These games are geared towards teaching the child how to spell simple words and to do easy math, getting your child ready for preschool. Toys at this stage start to mimic gadgets that are used in everyday life.

At three to five years of age and older, these toys are now mostly electronic and are geared towards making sure your child is ready for school. Most of them are designed around cartoon and action characters to keep the child's interest. At this stage as the child should be speaking, the toys are now geared towards having the child spell simple words and put together simple sentences, these could be simple toys that just spell words or a reading book that teaches the child to spell and read at the same time. There are also toys that teach the child simple adding and subtracting using objects. There are also toys that will spur the creative side of your child like children's digital cameras that will allow your child to explore their creative side by taking pictures and movies that they can upload to the computer and web to share with friends and family.

It is essential that educational toys are made available to young children. While they teach them, they also allow them to grow and establish their own personality and explore their own worlds. These types of toys are what starts an infant off and enables them to become self-starters and well rounded adults. A child who is deprived of these types of toys is only destined for a life of hardship because their minds have not been developed, as they should have been. So give your child the head start that they deserve so very much. Purchase them some educational toys from vtech toys and get them started on their way!

Teaching Sight Words - Quick Tips for Parents Helping Their Children Learn to Read

Reading is one of the critical development skills that children are expected to learn as they grow. In many schools, children are expected to be able to read with basic competency by the end of the second grade. For this reason, many parents are taking matters into their own hands when it comes to the topic of how to teach a child to read. Parents are reading to their children, playing rhyming and word games, teaching the alphabet and even the basics of phonetics.

That is a fantastic start, but one more thing you can do as a parent is try to familiarize your child with a group of words called sight words. What are they? They are a group of basic, common English words that children are expected to recognize "by sight" (hence the name) even if they do not yet know the meaning. These words actually comprise 50-70% of written and spoken language. They are words such as "the," "and", and "it." Sight words also include the pronouns, conjunctions, prepositions, and certain nouns, adverbs, adjectives and verbs.

Children are encouraged to recognize sight words without use of phonetics, but matters become tricky when you think of how to teach a child to read these words. A lot of these words cannot be deciphered phonetically. Another problem is that you cannot draw a picture for most of them to describe the meaning. Thus, memorization appears to be the most efficient way to learn these words.

Start by giving your child just a few sight words to learn each week. Make memorization fun by turning it into a game like Memory or Word Search. Have your child circle each sight word they recognize in magazines and books- luckily, there's a plethora to be found on each page. Say and repeat sight words with your child. Even better, say or write sentences to make the words memorable. Lots of sight words are in song phrases, so if it helps, sing that line of song to your child; it certainly makes it easier to remember.

Lastly, to help ensure your child learns the essential sight words, look to proven teaching programs. A good program to try is the Fat Brain Phonics system. This was developed by a parent who has a young child who was having trouble learning to read. It has many proven methods of teaching sight words, and a list of 101 of the highest frequency ones. In addition, there are effective phonetic lessons that you can go through with your child.

Learning sight words is essential to a child's reading and learning development. Luckily, as a concerned parent there are many ways for you to become involved in ensuring your child learns these critical words. Rather than telling a stranger to "help my child read," you can take matters in your own hands. With creative word play games and a supplemental learning program such as Fat Brain Phonics, your child can learn to read in a fun, productive way.

This article is copyright © Jasmine Newhart

Parenting Curriculum

A curriculum relies on specific goals and objectives that should be achieved within a certain timeline. When it comes to parenting I find the results of this stilted and mundane. Our children are not products; they are autonomous beings who need to be in connection with their parents. When I threw out the curriculum and simply created a safe place for collaboration, wonderful changes occurred within my family. Having expectations for a child to achieve certain goals and objectives by a certain time is just setting them (and us) up for failure. I needed a way to reframe the curriculum that I had started out with and this is the best way I can put it into words.

I started to look at it like a musician entering a jam session. I am one person who has learned how to play my instrument who is in collaboration with the other people in my family all bringing their gifts and talents to our jam session. Together we share ideas on how we want our song to sound and then we just start playing. What flows in that moment is what matters, not the preconceived notions about what we thought the song should sound like. The art of this jam session is that we meet on common ground, which is the wellbeing of the family, then we improvise and see what we can come up with. The tune often sounds nothing like the original preconceived idea...that is the art of living without a curriculum.

I use the word art purposefully, no two families are exactly alike, just like a painting or sculpture. In a family jam session standard activities like meal time, watching TV, personal hygiene or deciding what to do that day, provide the setting for this type of improv. The skills and knowledge we have at our fingertips are not employed according to plan, we (parents) are not the boss or even the lead player, and we let things unfold naturally using our "expertise" only when we are asked. We are like the drummer who supports the other artists and keeps the rhythm going. The magic happens during the interactions, in the space between the participants, no one member can take the credit.

Parenting without a curriculum means looking at life with our family as a philosophy of experiential learning, one that downplays the intellectual tendency to predict and control. Integrating spiritual principles like "leads by following", "finding perfection in things as they are and not as we think they should be", these are principles a conscious parent will live by. It is an experience, NOT a script or a bundle of dogma! The idea is to live moment by moment, being true to you.

Christian Childcare: Spiritually Good Child Care Centres

One of the greatest concerns parents have in bringing their child into a child care centre is safety. Would their kids be in safe hands? Would the childcare centres really promote the good of their kid? What would their kids learn from their playmates and teacher? Let's admit it. Parents tend to be very protective and conservative about their child. That is why, as much as possible, some parents keep their kids in the comforts of their home. Providing all the toys and educational materials a pre-school age kid in his or her strong formative years needs. However, parents can't lock up their kids at home forever. Every kid needs to mingle with his or her peers. Putting kids into a daycare is also necessary to prepare them to a more challenging and crucial world of a formal school. For parents who really can't let go of their concerns then a Christian preschool should be the fitting option.

Christian childcare is like any other preschool or kindergarten around offering child rearing and child development services. What makes it unique is that a Christian Church or group and charitable institutions run most of these day care centres. Thus, child rearing and child development goals are geared towards spirituality and good moral values. Nuns or passionate Christian group members, who would surely not harm your kid, usually staff a Christian child care centre. Since good Christian values would be taught or inculcated to the young kids from respecting God to being kind and loving to other people, your child will surely be mingling with good playmates as well. So a Christian child care centre would surely erase all those worries away.

What makes Christian day care great is most of these charge almost no fees! Most of these child care centres operate on donations. So if you're a parent who can't afford costly and expensive day care centre, a Christian daycare would surely be a blessing to you. Facilities at a Christian childcare are also at par with regular childcare centres that charge exorbitant fees. There you can also find valuable toys and recreational equipment, educational materials, and highly trained staff or teachers to look after your child.

One can find hundreds of Christian childcare centres on the Internet. There are privately and publicly run Christian centres that cater to different kinds of market segment. So to put your mind to a rest whether your kid would be in safe and good hands in a daycare, choose Christian child care centres that would help you raise an intellectually, emotionally, and spiritually smart kid.

Lessons From the Playground

One of the more enjoyable activities I was assigned when I taught was that of supervising pre-kindergarteners and kindergarteners on the play ground. Now some people might find that strange. After all who wants to be out there on cold windy days or on hot stifling days with all those kids?

I found that I learned a lot about children and their development on the playground. This unstructured time was a golden opportunity to observe how well children could problem solve, be imaginative, be accepting of children who were different than they and how well they could handle the social emotional demands of being in a group of children.

To me, social emotional development is a key component to a child's ability to succeed in the early years of school and beyond. While some people might believe it is their ability to learn to read or do math problem solving, I would strongly disagree.

Social emotional development is a strong indicator of a child's ability to sustain attention and compete with his peers. A child should to be growing adequately in this area so they can succeed. Now what does social emotional development have to do with a child's success? Plenty.

Social emotional development is the ability of a child to relate with his peers and the adults in his life. While this area is looked at as one domain of development, it is actually divided into two key parts - social and emotional development. A child who is able to express himself in an appropriate manner emotionally will be able to get his needs more fully met. Basic emotions of happiness, sadness, anger and fear and learning to express and regulate these emotions can determine how well a child is accepted by his peers and teachers. When children are not able to express themselves in an appropriate manner the consequences can be dire. If a child is working on a group project and someone does not let him have is way, the child might react adversely - sometimes with anger. Or the child who is not able to regulate emotions of excitement and happiness may have problems transitioning from the playground to classroom. When this happens, he is at risk for not being able to absorb key information the teacher may be presenting right after recess. This puts him behind his peers. So regulation of emotions, which develops with age, becomes a problem.

Socially, a child who is developing normally will be able to establish relationships with peers and teachers. These relationships will enable him to grow and learn. A child who can successfully interact with peers and adults feels comfortable asking questions, expressing opinions and getting information he needs to understand what is being taught. When observing children in kindergarten classrooms, the level of inquisitiveness is so exciting! But the child who is not socially able to keep up with his peers begins to lag behind in getting his needs met and learning important information.

Children of kindergarten age can be so open to others, showing empathy for companions and even strangers. When children are able to comprehend empathy and relationships, they are able to learn better in the classroom. Children who have developed these skills can relate to characters in books, to others during play time and characters in story problems with ease. After all, relating to a character's emotions in a story helps us to understand what that character may be feeling or even how he will solve a problem.

The skills in the area of social emotional development are interdependent. Children who have difficulty with these, especially in the early years, are put at a disadvantage when competing with their peers. If they are not at the same level in this development, they run the threat of being isolated and developing behaviors that put them at risk in later years.

What can parents to do to help in this area of development? It is important for parents to recognize that this area is as critical as the academic areas. Too often the emphasis is placed on academics rather than looking at the child as a whole. Research has indicated that children develop in this area very rapidly through the preschool years. These social emotional skills are learned in good quality group programs such as preschool and pre-kindergarten programs. Observe your child in play situations. Look to see if he is ready to compete with others his age in this key area of development.

Preschool Teacher Care - Teachers UNPLUG!

Summer is coming! Really, it is! Many teachers work in programs which close for the summer months. Many of you work in a center that runs year long. Regardless of the program, summer is the time for you to unplug and recharge, both in your classroom (if you teach during the summer) and, especially, at home.

The school year can be pretty intense with all the programs for family days, Christmas programming, Art Shows, Open Houses, Field Trips, etc.

If you teach during the summer, you will still need to write curriculum and plans but, for most, this is a time to investigate and explore those themes and activities that can only happen in the summer! You will still need to have a consistent schedule for your preschoolers but, for the most part, your room will have a more laid back, camp type feel.

What about at home---for YOU? As one who cares for children with passion and concern, you most likely forget to care for yourself! This can be the main reason many early childhood professionals burn out. Don't let that happen to you!

This summer, commit to planning some events that are just for you! Are there hobbies or activities that you enjoy but put aside during the school year? Make it a point to focus on one or several of them! For example, when is the last time you read a book or magazine that was not focused on children, early childhood or curriculum planning?

Perhaps you enjoy crocheting, knitting, jewelry making, bowling, gardening, just hanging out with friends and family, etc. For me, I love walking and especially taking my dog for walks. However, I get so caught up in the administrative piece of the preschool when I get home that I'm still on preschool mode and my dog's walk with me happens after dinner rather than late afternoon.

I now use that walk as a way to leave preschool mode! And Cammy, our adorable Corgi, KNOWS that it is walk time. He's waiting at the door when I get home, very excited to go on his daily jaunt! It is a great way for me to leave that "preschool mode" and be Cheryl again instead of Miss Cheryl!

So, what's your thing? You decide what it is that you have not done enough of that you enjoy this past school year. The motto of Preschool Plan-It's website can be your steps to personal planning as well. Search it, Find it, Plan it! Here's how:

1. Search it!

Choose the hobby or activity you want to do more of.

2. Find it!

Find out when that event or activity can happen. For example, is there a book club that meets on specific days or evenings? A summer bowling league that is just forming? A How-To class starting on something you want to learn how to do?

3. Plan it!

Make the phone call and plan it! Sign up for that class or book club! Book a weekly night with friends or bi-monthly cookout.

Follow through is key. Do not let "writing those lesson plans" become the reason you do not do something for yourself. You need to find a balance!

The scientist-Versus-Play Debate

Children are active, concrete, experiential education students to acquire information and knowledge with all your senses. Studies have shown that:

* The movement is the child's preferred mode of learning.

* Classes that are physically experienced, have more immediate and more lasting effect.

* The integration of body systems provides optimal learning can take place.

* The senses most used in the learning process, the more information stored.

* Play is offlineto be more creative and problem solving skills, improving reading skills and higher IQ scores.

* There is a strong correlation between the time the children are the most playful and the time when the brain is the most connections.

Given all this, it seems pretty clear that there is no debate: the game is much more suited for a child's first experience of formal academic school. Yet, despite this information, the educational efforts of groups like the NationalAssociation for the education of children, and the fact that for years educators have stressed the importance of educating the "whole child", children of preschool age are now required to do their homework more and more. This includes producing worksheets that purport to demonstrate their learning and the curriculum originally designed for kindergarten and first graders too.

Why are schools dedicated to making children simply sit quietly and learn? Part of the explanation comesanchored by the company has long been convinced that the functions of the brain are the most important functions of the body. In addition, we have worked for years under the mistaken idea that mind and body are separate entities. So schools have insisted on the minds of formation on the eyes and ears only.

In the past, based on what they knew of and observed in young children, early childhood teachers develop their programs to meet their development needs of students. Play and activeLearning were considered important tools to meet those needs and facilitate the education of children. Typical activities include:

* Sorting and stacking blocks and other devices (mathematics).
* Singing and dancing, or acting out a story (emergent literacy).
* Growing plants from seed, air, and the study of sand and water tables (science).
* Trying on different roles and interact with each other in home economics and otherdramatic play centers (social studies).

Today, this kind of lessons are constantly disappearing as the "first-is-better" syndrome attacks affecting the critical early experiences with formal education. Today, the curriculum is appropriate for a time, as the first and second grades, children are taught in kindergarten, nursery school and the curriculum is in children who are not pushed under the age of five.

Even through the nurserythird grade students should be doing less work and more active learning class, seen as evolutionary, they are more like pre-school children of upper elementary as their counterparts. But instead of actively experiencing a higher proportion of primary-quality classrooms, but we make the early training of less developmentally appropriate for each, starting in preschool.

Recent brain research confirms what many educators have always believed: the mind andBody are not separate entities. Eric Jensen, author of Brain-Based Learning: The Science of Teaching and Training, confirms not only that children learn by doing, but also that physical activity activates the brain is much more to do than work in silence. During the session, increases fatigue and reduces the concentration, movement, oxygen, water and glucose to the brain, optimizing performance. Moreover, learning by doing creates more neural networks in the brain and throughout the body, so thatthe whole body is a tool for learning. Active learning is more fun for kids.

Parents should not worry about being left behind if the child in a nursery school, play and discovery stressed members. Studies have found that children who are enrolled in kindergartens oriented game are not disadvantaged compared to those who are enrolled in nursery schools with a focus on academics early. A study has shown, in fact, that it benefits neither short nor long term of the firstAcademics and play, and that there is no discernable difference from the first grade. The only difference was that children who experienced early scholars more anxious and less creative than their peers who were in traditional games based on nursery - a distinct disadvantage. In another study, fourth graders, play-oriented kindergartens, where children often start their activities have taken part, had better performance than those who had attended universityacademically oriented kindergartens.