There are times in a young child’s life that parents may not totally comprehend. It can be quite time consuming trying to figure out just what is causing their reaction to various situations.

Take for instance the times you are cooking dinner and your three-year-old insists on having a Popsicle. She yells, cries, pulls on your pant leg, all the while knowing the rule that there are absolutely no treats until after she has finished her dinner. She is relentless in her actions, no matter how hard you try to calm her. Finally you relent and just give your child the Popsicle to get some semblance of peace back.

Your question to these familiar rituals is why does your child seek your attention in such negative ways; ways that can annoy you to tears? Most of all you want to know why you always seem to give in.

Dr. Joan Simeo Munson may just have answers to the questions you have. She is an expert at EmpoweringParents.com. She is also a practicing therapist and mother of three. This busy mother knows first-hand the attention seeking behavior that many children are so adept at.

Dr. Joan has notated the dos and don’ts of handling these habits and how to stop them once and for all. The Do’s include:

· Be empathic. Empathy doesn’t mean that you completely understand your child’s behavior; rather, it means that you know it’s coming from a place of developmental immaturity.

· Learn to ignore. It is okay to tell your child that whining will not get them what they want, and that you will speak to them when they can speak calmly.

· Display the rules. Let your child know exactly what your expectations are. You can do this by creating a “Rules Chart.”

· Be consistent. The biggest hurdle parents face stems from not consistently enforcing the consequences when their child acts out. Too often, parents give in because they are tired, frustrated, or just want their child to be quiet. While it is completely understandable, make no mistake about it: your child is taking mental notes each time you give in to their demands. This fuels them for the next time they want something, and they will double their attention-seeking efforts to get it.

The good doctor wants you to know that the key to all of this isn’t so much about figuring out why your child is acting out in this type of fashion, but for parents to learn the proper responses when your child does act out. Make certain to read through the attached link for even more ideas on how to deal with this terrible yet timeless issue.

Read More:
https://blog.himama.com/challenging-behavior-in-toddlers/

https://www.himama.com/challenging-behavior-young-children

https://blog.himama.com/how-to-identify-stress-in-child/

Getting preschoolers: Ready to LAND on their feet!

Take a moment and think about your own sports skills….
Think about your ability to LAND, in balance and in control!

After you received that quick basketball pass, you bent your knees, pushed UP to aim a shot and THEN had to LAND.

How did that go?

These markers give an athlete confidence:

• Landing with a functional separation of the feet.
• Keeping head lifted.
• Keeping eye focus.
• Making shoulders level.
• Holding arms IN to body.
• Absorbing the body weight through safe use of hips, knees, and ankles.
• Returning to a strong stance, READY to make the ‘next’ move!

Lots of games and physical activities and sports have controlled landings as part of successful movements.

For youngsters, this fundamental movement skill has 2 parts:

1. Taking off: pushing off [repulsing] elevating the body, legs, arms head.
2. Landing: absorbing energy with whole body, legs and feet.

HOW TO TRAIN the Skill of LANDING Firmly:

By planning a few experiences, done in a safe spot, you can build your child’s movement vocabulary. Presenting simple tasks, in a progressive series of practice sessions, you can give your youngster that “I CAN Do That!” confidence.

IDEA # 1
1. A basic idea to suggest to your child is trying to stand on a slightly higher place: 4 to 5 ” [10 -13 cm.].
2. Then, with a slight bending of both knees and a slight swinging forward of both arms, push against the support, AND LAND on both feet.
3. Encourage good placement of feet: side by side with 2-3 ” [5 cm.] of a space between each foot.
4. Encourage the child to keep their head lifted.
5. Suggest they look straight forward as they LAND.
6. SAY: bend your knees to the child as they touch the ground wit their feet.
7. SAY: GLUE feet or FREEZE, but both knees must be bent.

IDEA # 2
1. Keep the idea of ‘good posture’ in mind as your teach and coach.
2. Keep held lifted.
3. Shoulders should be EVEN.
4. Keep focus forward.
5. Feet should be place directly under the hips.
6. Slight lean of the body: forward.
7. Allow for knee actions: bending somewhat to absorb the landing energy and then stretching straight to gain control and maintain balance.
As you can see, mastery of the LANDING, try a slightly HIGHER start SPOT.

Teaching TIPS:

Use only a safe place, that has no obstacles, maybe a slightly cushioned surface.
To remember to use the same cue words, each practice session.
Keep the practice times, positive and upbeat.
Stop when interest fades, or child tires.

With practice, this fundamental move with be part of your child’s skill set and they will use it often as they play early childhood games and begin team activities.

If you enjoy being your child’s coach and teacher, or know someone who teaches movement skills to children, visit : https://blog.himama.com

Raising a family of readers is not rocket science. Kids will automatically love books if you love books. Family literacy starts at home and all it takes to teach reading skills is good reading habits. And the way to do that is with children’s literature. Here are other ways to raise family literacy rates, teach reading skills and develop good reading habits. Celebrate children’s literature with these daily reading habits.

Read and talk about what you read. Everywhere you hear how important reading skills are. You hear how reading skills are falling off. People watch television programs that teach reading. But do they actually read? Not as often as they watch TV, play on phones, computers and video games. Like Nike says, to raise a family literacy, you have to “just do it”. Read to kids, read with kids and read yourself, that is. Your kids should grow up seeing you read in your spare time. Read for education and for pleasure to show your kids you love books.

Fill your home with books. We have shelves and shelves of books. Many of them are tattered from use. To build family literacy, invest in books. You don’t have to spend a lot of money. Buy secondhand books. Comb through used books at thrift stores, Goodwill, garage sales, library book sales and used book stores. Check out discount books at Barnes & Noble. Order from Scholastic and get bargain prices. Get starter books from kids book clubs and cancel.

Minimize movies and maximize books. To build family literacy, your home should have five books for every one movie. Keep movies out of sight and books readily available. Put little ones’ books on the bottom shelf so that can access them. Put baskets of books in every room. Take a minute and read to kids when they ask. Even toddlers will love books if they are surrounded with them.

Encourage reading habits by placing books, magazines and reading material on your coffee table, end tables and in your bathroom. Our living room decor consists primarily of books. And they are not for decoration. They are for educational and entertainment purposes. I fully expect people to read and enjoy them. I love seeing kids’ friends curled up in a chair perusing our books while they wait. I keep several good reads in the bathroom magazine rack. Calvin and Hobbes and Far Side treasuries are the favorites.

Read to kids before they go to bed at night. Begin with picture books and progress to chapter books. Our kids loved bedtime because we got to find out what happened next in our story. My stylist once confided that her son was wild before bed. I shared how bedtime stories helped. She said books “riled” her son up so they let him watch TV to fall asleep. And therein lies the problem. Read to kids to calm them down. Let them watch TV if you want wild, sleepless kids. Choose calming children’s literature selections that help emotional development.

To get kids to love books. don’t censure your children’s literature selections, unless what they are reading frightens them. Our oldest son tested at second-year college level reading skills at age 12 and loved Stephen King. We were afraid it would be too mature reading. But we read a few with him and he felt trusted we learned to broaden our horizons. Censoring stifles curiosity. Prohibiting fantasy books for example, takes the fun out. Forcing books and disallowing others makes reading a chore. Expose kids to the best in children’s literature: the classics, Nobel prize winners, Pulitzer prize winners, New York Times best-sellers, Edgar Winners, Newbery and Caldecott books.

Get kids to love books by giving books as birthday party prizes, Halloween giveaways and stocking stuffers. Celebrate the joy of good reading habits with your family.

Daily Active Play: Just a reminder that providing a time for active play will bring these benefits for your preschool youngster.

They will:

1. Make gains in their movement skills,
2. Build Confidence
3. Boost their motivations to be active now and for their lifetimes

You may be the child’s parent -or- maybe your role is that of a teacher. Often we serve in both roles: parent and the first teacher. Model positiveness about moving and being active everyday,

Recall the terrific feeling that you have enjoyed when:

you ran fast, made a successful tag-out -or- caught a pass! The confidence that practising a fundamental movement brings will allow your youngster to thrive!

Build some time into each day:

1. To share with your youngster
2. To explore a playground
3. To try simple tasks: climbing a ladder, landing safely from a slide
4. To build those connections between muscles and mind

Today’s suggestion: for a task to try

Use a small hoop during active play
Try this hoop play with your preschoolers

1. As you child tries to slip through a hoop, they will be increasing their abilities to sense “how big they are”.
2. They will learn how to bend and slip through the hoop without touching, if you suggest that challenge.
3. Extend the learning session by holding the hoop horizontal to the ground.
4. Have the child place their toes at the rim of the hoop.
5. Ask them to keep their feet close together and JUMP into the center of the hoop.
6. Have then JUMP a second time and LAND outside the hoop.
7. Use these simple tasks to build language.
8. Use the words: into the center; outside the hoop.
9. Turn towards the hoop and JUMP IN again.

Youngster Need Active Play Everyday

While you guide the active play and model some fundamental skills give lots of positive feedback as you two play and your child will:

Move to Learn and Learn to MOVE….AND

LEARN to LEARN…in this active process!

Before they reach school age, preschoolers need several important foundational skills that will allow them to become successful readers in the future. Literacy skills are fundamental to a child’s success as they become an adult, so providing the resources and materials to encourage pre-reading in the early years is especially crucial. Read more about Early Childhood Education here.

March is Reading Month. What a good time to enjoy some wonderful books about friendship. Plus these books can provide children with models for behavior that they can understand and enjoy. Stories can also provide opportunities for discussion about how to be a friend.

Some book suggestions
Now One Foot, Now the Other by Tomie dePaola is an endearing story of the friendship between a little boy and his grandfather.

In The Little Yellow Chicken by Joy Cowley, a group of friends learn how to work together after one of them plans a party with no help from his friends.

Mem Fox’s story of a pirate, Tough Boris, illustrates that while pirates are fearless and scary they also have a tender side.

The book I Was So Mad by Mercer Mayer helps children identify the emotion of being mad in a humorous yet effective way.

The book Wilfrid Gordon McDonald Partridge by Mem Fox is a lovely story of a young boy who lives near an old people’s home and makes friends with several of the residents there.

Other useful stories
A few other stories that may be useful are: Peter’s Chair by Ezra Jack Keats, Dogger by Shirley Hughes, Alfie Lends a Hand by Shirley Hughes, The Rainbow Fish by Marcus Pfister, Max by Rachel Isadora, Goggles by Ezra Jack Keats, The Hating Book by Charlotte Zolotow, Bear’s Bargain by Frank Asch

Books about friendships and emotions can help instill some positive behaviors in young children. They are also good springboards for discussion. And reading these books (or any book) is a wonderful way for parents and children to bond.

Check out your local library for these and more books about friendship. In Manistee County the Library is located at 95 Maple Street. They have a wonderful Children’s Room with cozy couches that are perfect for looking at books. Happy Reading Month!

Summer is the time when ice cream is a favorite treat. There are many ways that parents and early childhood educators can use ice cream as a great tool for early learning skills. A simple activity to begin with when serving ice cream is to talk about the colors and flavors. You should have a variety of colors and flavors to choose from when beginning this activity. Set out several choices of ice cream in pink strawberry, brown chocolate, and green pistachio. White vanilla can also be added. have the children use combinations to make a sundae. The skill of putting objects in order and discovering how many combinations can be made is a possible math activity. Have the children put their choices of flavors in scoops for a sundae, and watch to see how many different scoops are put in a variety of orders: brown, white, green, pink: pink, brown, white, and green. Children will be excited to figure out how many combinations can be made.

An early science activity involves using the sense of taste. Children can vote on their favorite flavor of ice cream and the math skill of making a Favorites Graph continues the learning activity. Older children might like to explore how ice cream is made, and even the history of ice cream can be brought in as a topic for research with older children.

Ice cream is a treat for children and adults around the world.

Children can gain perceptual awareness as the play when they explore and handle many different -but safe- objects.

By exploring the weight and characteristics of a variety of objects:

• balloons
• balls
• scarves
• feathers
• hoops
• ropes
• beanbags

under the careful guidance of a caregiver, the scientific principles such as gravity, weight can be experienced.

Youngsters, of course, imitate the recreational activities of their older siblings and adults. The basic skills of tossing and catching or bouncing and targeting are underdeveloped. And a great way to build fundamental movement skills in children is to introduce them to the handling and exploring of safe items: soft, squeezable, light.

While the children are trying to move these items: giving them to others or receiving items to their own hands: they begin to understand the dynamics involved.

Their brains begin to store the results of their explorations:

• what happened when a ball is bounced
• how high to toss a balloon to keep it floating
• where to stand when someone else is trying to bounce a ball to the child

Active play is a great way to build sensory knowledge and the physical activities that accompany play build great pathways to the brain by moving muscles!

Keep basket of safe items in a basket or box for play times. We move to learn and learn to move and in that process learn to LEARN!

Read more: https://blog.himama.com

Soap is useful for more than just cleaning things. It can be used in this science experiment! You and your child might enjoy using soap to “power” a boat. Plus the natural curiosity of a child make this, and other “experiments,” a great way to bring out the little scientist.

To do this experiment you will need 1 index card, scissors, and a baking dish or sink full of water, and liquid dish detergent.

Here’s what you need to do: cut out a “boat” shape from the index card, making it about 2 ½ inches long and about 1 ½ inches wide. Leave a little notch at one end of the boat. Put the boat gently on the water in the dish or sink. Then pour a little detergent into the notch at the end of the boat. Your boat should scoot across the water.

The science is this: water molecules are highly attracted to each and stick very close together, especially on the surface. This makes a sort of moveable web on the surface of the water, known as surface tension. When you add the soap, the composition of the water molecules is disturbed; breaking the web and making the boat go forward.

Check out more activities for children: https://blog.himama.com/category/preschool-activities/

Puppets offer a wonderful way for children to use their imaginations and practice language skills! And puppets are quite inexpensive to make, a good consideration with the still struggling economy here in northern Michigan.

Sock puppets are fun and easy for you and your child to make together. What a good rainy-day project! You will need:
~~ an old sock
~~buttons (larger than one inch in diameter to prevent swallowing)
~~ needle and thread
~~ odds and ends of fabric, ribbon, yarn for decorating
~~ felt tipped marker
~~ glue (or better yet a glue gun!!)

 To make the sock puppet sew on buttons to represent the eyes and nose. Then use some red material, sewn or hot glued for the mouth. You can use a remnant of ribbon or yarn to make a “tie” around the neck of the puppet.

Now have fun with the puppet. Children will enjoy talking to the puppet and pretending with it. It will also provide another way to improve your child’s coordination as they make the puppet “talk” to you!! Any opportunity to help your child increase his or her language skills is always good.

More Preschool Activities: https://blog.himama.com/category/preschool-activities/