Social-Emotional Learning

Adam and I are always looking for activities to do with the girls, and there’s plenty of learning and fun to be had this Halloween.  It can be as simple as counting and sorting Halloween candy, drawing a spooky picture, or making a paper plate spider web. The learning is always there – you just have to look for it!

1. Pumpkin Coloring Contest

Get out the crayons, print out this pumpkin picture, and watch your little artist’s imagination come to life! Points for the silliest, spookiest, and most creative pumpkins.

2. Paper Plate Spiderwebs

Fall trees aren’t just full of leaves – they’re also full of spiders! Garden spiders are most active in the fall so you’re likely to see more of their elaborate, beautiful webs in the trees in autumn, too. Join the fun and spin your own spider webs out of a paper plate!

1. Cut the center out of a paper plate.
2. Let your kids color the outer edge of the plate with beautiful fall colors like red, orange, and yellow.
3. Using a single hole puncher, punch 12-14 holes around the edge of the hole.
4. Tape one end of a length of yarn to the back of the paper plate and wrap tape tightly around the other to form a ‘needle’.
5. Demonstrate how to weave the yarn back and forth through the holes to create the web, then hand the plate over to your child.
6. Once, the web is spun, remove the pin from the end of the yarn and tape that end to the back of the plate, too.

Add a pipe cleaner spider for the perfect fall finishing touch – cut four black pipe cleaners in half and twist to create an eight-legged creepy crawly!

3. Frankenstein Fun

Start with a blank sheet of paper, then guide your kids, step by step, to draw Frankenstein’s head. Instructions are below:

1. Draw a large rectangle, short sides up and down, long sides on the sides, to form the head.
2. Add a rectangular ear on either side of the head.
3. Add a zig zag line just below the top of the head to make hair.
4. Draw two parallel lines coming out of the bottom of the head to form the neck.
5. Add the start of another rectangle beneath the neck to form the top of the body.
6. Draw two circles for eyes and two half circles inside the circles to form pupils.
7. Add rectangular eyebrows at an angle over the eyes.
8. Add a rectangular mouth.
9. Using the bottom of the mouth as the base, draw three triangles, then connect the pointed tops of the triangles to the top of the mouth’s rectangle to form teeth.
10. Shape a nose between the eyes and the mouth
11. Once the outline of Frankenstein is complete, kids can go crazy with details – add bolts, scars, etc. Outline the creation in Sharpie, and color him in with crayons, colored pencils, markers, even watercolor paints. You’ll be surprised how differently each of your children’s drawings are!

4. Spooky STEM Sculptures

Put all that Halloween candy to good use, with STEM sculptures! Use candy pumpkins and toothpicks to create STEM structures designed to introduce early math and science principles like gravity, balance, angles, and more. Younger kids can try building a simple tower with a three-pumpkin base supporting a single, floating pumpkin. Challenge older kids to create a taller tower, pyramid, spiral, or spider web!

5. Skeleton Puzzle

This double sided skeleton puzzle not only makes a great Halloween activity, it’s also a great way to teach your kids about the name of bones!  It also makes a great front door decoration to help greet your trick or treaters. 

Happy Halloween!

How often do you find your child lost in their only little world of imaginative play? In our house, it’s a daily occurrence – and since school has started again this Fall, I often find the girls playing school. Pretend play is not only a critical part of early child development, it can also help you learn more about your child and their current school experiences.

4 Things You and Your Child Can Learn Playing School

Have you ever been struggling with a project at work, and you come home and think through it while you go through the motions of your day, maybe even in your dreams? Our kids are no different! While you may ask them how school was and get little more than a word or two response, left to their own imaginative play devices, they may reveal far more about their day.

So the next time they want to play school, you should not only encourage it, but listen up.

You Learn 95% of What We Teach to Others  

Ever heard the saying “We Learn . . . 10% of what we read,  20% of what we hear, 30% of what we see, 50% of what we see and hear, 70% of what we discuss, 80% of what we experience, and 95% of what we teach others.

”It originated from William Glasser, a famous American psychiatrist, who pioneered work in choice therapy and its applications in education. What it means for playing school? If your child can come home and pretend to teach what they’ve learned to their stuffed animals and dolls, they are more likely to master the material.

Last week, my daughter’s preschool class was beginning a year-long alphabet study by reading Chicka Chicka Boom Boom by Bill Martin, Jr. John Archambault. She was playing school, and asked me to write the repetitive refrain from the story on her pretend play school board – she’s a pre-reader, but after I wrote it, she used the pointer to point and read each word on the board!

So instead of doing more math worksheets, or practicing sight words on paper, ask them to teach addition to their favorite play things.

Gain Insight into What’s Happening at School 

How many times have your picked up your child from school with a glum face? You ask, “How was school today?” and get met with a single word response if you’re lucky. You can push the question, but you know it often leads them to shut down even more.

If you back off, and let them play freely when you get home, you can often learn exactly what’s going on at school without even asking. Whether they are playing school, or re-enacting dialogue with princesses or stuffed animals, you might just hear what’s bothering them. Or if nothing is bothering them, you can often discover what they are learning about, who they are playing with, who’s being reprimanded by the teacher, and more.

I recommend letting them play as independently as possible, and revisiting what you learn with them when you have quiet 1-on-1 time. I find the best time to really get them talking is just before bed, after stories, when you are tucking your child in for the night.

Role Playing Develops Social and Emotional Skills 

When your child is playing school (or engaged in any form of pretend or imaginative play), you will often hear them replaying dialogue they observe in the world around them. Maybe they are re-enacting scenes from their favorite show, or replaying what happened at school that day.

Practicing the exchange of dialogue and re-enacting events are an amazing way to help your child develop social and emotional skills they will use for the rest of their life. Role playing during imaginative play is also a great tool for you as a parent to help guide your child when they are struggling with feelings, or even after they have behaved inappropriately.

If they have had an argument with a sibling or a friend at school, or even with you, when they are calmer, you can recreate the situation and offer up words, phrases and alternative actions they can use the next time the situation arises.

Discover Your Child’s Passions

Want to find out what your child is really into? Leave them to their own imaginative devices. When they are playing school, see what lessons they choose to teach. Are they reading books to their stuffed animals? What books do they gravitate towards?

When they are playing school, do they re-teach science experiments or math lessons? The areas they choose to explore voluntarily are likely the subjects they enjoy most. Be sure to encourage those passions… but also take note of the areas they often avoid. This may be an indication of subject areas they struggle with, and may need your help to develop in those areas.

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So the next time you happen upon your kids ‘playing school’, be sure to sit back, let them play and catch the conversation. Not only are they having fun, they are cementing their learning while offering you valuable insights into the part of their day you don’t often get to see firsthand.Grab your own self-storing Pretend & Play School set here. For more great play ideas for kids, check out my Imaginative Play and Kids Activities boards on Pinterest.

The lazy days of summer have come and gone. It’s time for your little ones to take the next big step as they kick off their upcoming school year. Back to school isn’t just about getting backpacks and school supplies ready. It is the time when parents focus on prepping their kids for success in the classroom.The parent organization Learning Heroes conducted a national survey of K-8 parents, which revealed that peer pressure and their child’s happiness topped parent worries. Most parents said it is most important that their child be happy and free of stress vs. topping their academic class.Nearly 9 in 10 parents believed their child was performing at or above their grade level, while only a third of American students are at the level they need to succeed.One of the best things parents can do to help their kids adjust to the change of pace and perform at their academic peak is to get organized!

Let’s look at the top 10 tips to get your kids off to a great start this year…

1. Multiply productivity with a homework station: Clutter can make your head spin. When you’re heads spinning, it’s not easy to learn. Collect all those pencils, papers, and folders in a nifty homework station. Keep supplies stocked so your kids can jump right in and blaze through their homework assignments – imagine what they’ll do when they aren’t concerned about finding a stray highlighter or needed eraser!

2. Snack attacks = no problem: Give your kids the fuel they need by creating a handy snack station! By organizing foods, you can cut much of your lunchtime prep time or after school bites. Bag apples, carrots and other perishable snacks, as well as premade PB&Js, cheese sticks, yogurt, and other munchables and toss them in a drawer in the fridge. Keep a pantry shelf for bags of chips, juice boxes, and sweet treats. This helps kids to minimalize the process of food selection and eat regular, healthy meals.

3. Dress for success with an organized closet: Take some time on Sunday evenings to plan your kids wardrobe for the week ahead. Make the process super simple by creating hanger labels for each day and pre-select outfits. Young fashionistas can take their time to express their personalities without early morning stress of digging through drawers and laundry baskets to find their favorite go-to items.

4. Make a quick getaway: Keep get-out-the-door essentials where you can actually find them. Every parent knows how last minute rushing around can cause uber stress – say goodbye to the days of rushing up and down stairs to grab a forgotten this or that. By creating a designated place by your main household exit, you’ll be able to find that sunscreen stick or those needed swim goggles. Other items to go here are the day’s lunch money, a pen for permission slips … keeping these items handy in a select drawer or basket will help to keep anxieties to a minimum.

5. Organize books and resources: It’s oh so easy for books to go missing in a bustling household. Keep library rentals and course books in book baskets where kids can “borrow” and return them as needed. You’ll find you won’t be scrambling on due dates. And your young learners will have easy access, which will enable them to study when they need to. They may even find material in there they wouldn’t otherwise explore, which helps to encourage and boost an interest in reading.

6. Screen time guidelines: Wipe away the worry of disputes over TV/game/computer time by setting guidelines before the school year begins. Put your concentration on what is most important for your kids… homework, outdoor activity time, and face-to-face socialization should be considered. Help your kids to make a chart that your kids can check off, outlining what needs to happen before its time to plop down in front of a screen.

7. Organize your street shuttle: How often do you drop your kids off from school and they’re tripping on everything they’ve tossed in the vehicle? Clear their way for fantastic day of learning by organizing a section of your ride for the items they tote. Some ideas include hangers out of suction cup hooks and portable containers for your rear hatch or trunk. Use this practice when you pick them up and you won’t be cleaning out your vehicle when you’re ready to kick off evening fun.

8. The meal of champions: Breakfast provides youngsters with the nutrition they need to get going and sustain through their day. Get them off to a great start, minus the mania! Prefilling Tupperware containers with favorite cereals is a great go-to to turn to on busy days. Keep a jug of milk handy with spoons readily available. There’s no reason to not start your kid’s day off right!

9. Celebrate in style: Parents love to display their child’s school work and awards. Make a special place for such items – utilizing magnetic refrigerator frames keeps these items in order while providing an artistic presentation your kids can take part in and pride in. Or think of a post-it board that is in clear view in a family-centric area of the home. This little trick keeps messy papers to a minimum and provide a special touch to the display.

10. Schedule downtime: Keeping a calendar is helpful – especially for parents who have multiple kids in different grades with various interests. Do your best to input regular activities such as groups, clubs, athletics, etc. But go a step beyond and take time for NOTHING. Having time to relax helps young students to reboot and reload, and get ready for their next big adventure.

The coming school year offers the opportunity to start your family off on the right step. What are you waiting for? It’s time to get organized and get those kids out the door and onto the school bus. It’s coming soon… are you ready?

It’s no secret that kindergarten today is much more challenging than the kindergarten of your childhood. It’s more academically rigorous, with less play, no more naps and longer days. Is your child ready? How do you know? With my oldest entering kindergarten this month, I share these same questions. So I turned to my mother, a 30 year veteran kindergarten teacher, for her insights on what she expects from kids on the first day of school.

 Let’s Get Ready for Kindergarten

For many children, kindergarten is no longer the first school experience – with most entering students having one or more years of preschool behind them.  However, there will also be kids for who this is their very first time in school, and a kindergarten teacher will be well prepared to teach to wide range of academic and social capabilities.If you are questioning whether or not your child is ready to start kindergarten, use the following checklist for the basic skills they need to succeed in their first formal year of schooling. It’s a perfect guide to use alongside the Learning Resources All Ready for Kindergarten Readiness Kit.

1. Recognize Name

Your child’s name will be ALL over their kindergarten classroom – on cubbies, folders, tables, and more. Help them recognize their written name on sight, name the letters in their name, and write their name to the best of their ability. Need some easy name recognition exercises?

• String Learning Resources Lacing Alphabet Beads (part of the Kindergarten Readiness Kit) to spell out their name
• Use dot stickers for this simple Sticker Name Recognition Activity from Busy Toddler
• Try Name Recognition Soup from Munchkins and Moms, also using Alphabet Beads

 2. Name the Letters of the Alphabet

To be ready for kindergarten, your child should at a minimum be able to name half of the capital letters of the alphabet. The Kindergarten Readiness Kit includes lots of alphabet activities, activity cards and manipulatives. Here are a few more of our favorite alphabet activities:

• Use the Alphabet Marks the Spot play mat for an Alphabet Scavenger Hunt, working on both naming letters and letter sounds
• Play Letter Recognition Games with an ABC Bottle made out of a recycled water bottle and colored alphabet pasta

 3. Determine Hand Dominance

Is your child a righty or a lefty? Hand dominance is determined in-utero before your child is born. But clear, proficient use of one hand over the other may not be fully established until your child is 4-6 years old – right around kindergarten.If your child’s hand dominance is already clearly established, your kindergarten teacher will readily recognize it. If it’s still unclear to you, be sure to let your child’s teacher know as well.

4. Know How to Hold and Use Scissors Correctly

If you haven’t put a pair of scissors in your child’s hands yet, it’s time to start. If you are worried about scissor safety, or they get frustrated because they lack the hand strength or coordination to use scissors properly, this is a great series of activities to teach scissor skills and scissor safety.The Learning Resources Helping Hands Fine Motor Tool Kit is also a great resource to use in play and build fine motor skills to support using scissors.

5. Name and Recognize Colors 

Your kindergartener should be able to recognize and name basic colors – red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple, black, brown and white. Color recognition helps children with one of the earliest basic math skills – sorting. The Kindergarten Readiness Kit includes manipulatives for color recognition. You can also play one of our favorite games – Color Match – using just colored paper and whatever toys you have at home.

 6. Count and Recognize Numbers to 10

Most preschoolers learn to count, recognize numbers to 10 and understand one-to-one correspondence (count objects) to get ready for kindergarten. If your child isn’t there yet or needs a refresher, this easy counting activity for preschoolers from Busy Toddler is a great place to start. For a more hands-on challenge, try this counting meets simple engineering activity for kids to build a bridge for elephants!

7. Make Rhymes

Nursery rhymes have been the beginning of literacy development for generations. Recognizing words that rhyme is an important first step to get ready for kindergarten and in learning to read.

If nursery rhymes are not part of your family’s repertoire, you can play a simple rhyme game. Say any word (“Cat”), and ask your child to say a rhyming word back to you (“Hat”). Take turns until you run out of rhymes (“Sat, Mat, Pat, Rat, etc.)!

8. Play and Share with Peers

Kindergarten is as much about laying the ground work for academics, as it is about social development. To get ready for kindergarten, encourage your child to play and sharing with peers and siblings.  Remind them to “Treat others the way you want to be treated.” Schedule playdates with peers at home, the park or playground, or you can play this simple sharing activity to role-play this important social skill.

 

9. Take Direction and Accept Disappointment

 

Your child’s kindergarten class will likely be the largest class they have been a part of to date. Students will be expected to follow directions from teachers, and may not always get their way. A great way to get ready for kindergarten to practice both taking direction and handling disappointment is by playing games as a family.Focus on following the directions, playing fairly, and help coach them through disappointment when they lose. For great game options for kindergarteners, check out Math Marks the Spot,and Riddle Moo This!

 

10. Basic Hygiene and Self Care

 

To get ready for kindergarten, your child will need to be able to use the bathroom independently, including wiping themselves and washing their hands. They will also be expected to eat lunch and snacks, largely independently as well, including clearing their places and properly disposing of trash. Be sure to review school lunch options with them, or send food they can and will eat.If they don’t already do these basic self-care skills independently, it’s a good idea to work on it before school starts at home.

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Is your child ready for kindergarten? Many kindergarten programs will have entry screening to aid the school in placing your child during the registration process. The screening will examine many of these basic skills, and often alert you at that time if they have concerns over your child’s readiness for kindergarten.

 

Remember as you start the school year that your child’s kindergarten teacher is a tremendous resource and your partner in your child’s education.  Teachers always welcome open communication, and encourage you to share both your and your child’s concerns, desires, and personal preferences.

 

SAVE THIS LIST… PIN THIS!

You already love to play with your 3- to 5-year-olds. Now, turn those play times into rich learning experiences. It’s easier than you think and lots of fun. In fact, your child won’t even know how much they’re learning!

 1. COLORS

Learning colors helps children identify the world around them as well as develops their ability to categorize. 

• Throughout the day, ask your child “What color is this?” or “Can you find the red one?” with foods, toys, or things in nature.
• Celebrate one color each day. Each day focus on one color and see if you can find things of that color, a giant color scavenger hunt.
• Sort toys like the Farmers Market Color Sorting Set and Super Sorting Pie into color groups.
• Using washable paints, let your child experiment with mixing colors. What do red and blue make? How about yellow and red?
• Make colored ice cubes with water and food coloring. Use the colorful ice cubes to paint the sidewalk.
• Play “I Spy” with colors. Have your child point out things of different colors in the play he or she is doing.

 2. NUMBERS

Kids learn numbers by observing and talking about what they see. Numbers, counting, and making sense of numbers are all vital skills in developing a child’s mathematical ability. 

• Count everything you can. Count the steps you take, the bites of food you chew, the number of fingers on your hand, the numbers of rocks you collect, and so on.
• Make numbers with playdough, tape, paint, sand, sticks, or markers. Give your kids something to trace or copy first to show them each number’s shape.
• Practice matching the Number Pops numbers to the corresponding dots on each pop.
• Match numbers to your own groups of items. Start number jars from 1 - 9. Collect items and put the correct number in your number collection jar, one thing for 1, two things for 2, and so on. You can use anything for your collections. Things like pennies, buttons, marbles, toys, or blocks.
• Play hopscotch.
• Play dominos.
• Play “What Time Is It Mr. Wolf?”.
• Use your Dino-Sorters and count the number of dinosaurs in each color group.
• Pretend play store using your Cash Register.

 3. SHAPES

Learning to distinguish shapes helps children become discerning and observant, important thinking skills.  

• Create shapes using play dough, Wikki Stix, pipe cleaners, tape, or craft sticks.
• Search for shapes in your house or backyard. Look for one at a time. Find circles, squares, rectangles, and triangles. It’s helpful to show your child the shape in a picture or an object so he has something by which to compare and refer to. Let him hold that shape while you search.
• Ask “what shape is that” with everyday objects like a plate, a book, or a cell phone.
• Make 2-D shapes with craft sticks and play dough.
• Sort puzzle pieces, stickers, or cut-outs by shapes.
• Draw lots of shapes with crayons and markers.
• Do a shape art project like this house project.

 4. SCIENCE

Science helps kids wonder, observe, and problem solve. What’s more, science is all about the world in which we live. 

• Learn sandbox physics! Compare the dry sand in your sandbox to wet sand. How is it different when you add water and try to build something?
• Drop different items into a bucket of water to see what floats and what sinks. Try rocks, feathers, pom-poms, balls, fruit, and toys.
• Freeze food-colored water in balloons. When frozen, peel off the balloon’s skin and observe the melting process. Try one in the sun, one in hot water, and one in cold water. Observe and enjoy the process.
• Bury dinosaurs in the sandbox. Pretend to be a paleontologist and dig to find them.
• Put different materials in a cupcake tin to see what melts in the sun. Be sure to include a crayon. Make predictions and observe.
• Go to the zoo. Learn about the different animals.
• Try the engaging science activities in the Primary Science Lab Set.

 5. ENGINEERING

Kids naturally gravitate toward building things. Engineers build and problem solve so given the opportunity, you can develop both with a little playful fun.

• Use blocks to build a skyscraper. Experiment with the base to see if it makes a difference in height.
• Build a creative castle or rocking robot using a Gears! Gears! Gears! Kit.
• See if you can build a bridge that holds the weight of a favorite toy. What will you use to make it strong? Try bricks, books, and paper.
• Build a marble run using cardboard rolls and tape.
• Make houses for your stuffed animals using recycled materials.
• Make a fort out of cardboard boxes and furniture.
• Build the three little pig’s houses -- one of straw (grass works), one of sticks, and one of blocks.
• Build puzzles like the Puzzle Globe.

 As you can see, play is learning, particularly at the preschool ages. All the activities above playfully incorporate foundational skills that will become building blocks for future learning success.