You are currently browsing the monthly archive for March 2009.
Health Care Connect services are available to anyone in Ontario without a regular family physician. Click here to find out how it works.
Please share with your family and friends.
Marg Glendon, Parent Educator
The parenting professionals at Childreach have created a wonderful resource for families and educators. For every child to grow and develop into a healthy, capable and caring person, it is important to acknowledge that what we do today as parents impacts the kind of person a child becomes. Childreach presents … Your Parenting Toolbox DVD with ten practical tips to help parents give their children the best possible start in life. This DVD may be watched by parents to help them enhance their skills and used by professionals who support families. Copies may be purchased through Childreach for $10 each. A complementary handbook is available for an additional $2, unbound, or $5 coil-bound. For more information or to purchase, please contact Lisa McIntosh or Mary Ann Avey at 519-434-3644.
Bath time should be a big adventure. A good soak should soothe, refresh, and renew. It is great for a child who is suffering from silly behaviour, impatience, sibling quarrels, temper, resentment, and grumpiness to name a few. Ensure that the child has lots of bath toys to play with, and you’ll likely have a happier child!
Try rubber duck families and water toys that scoop, fill, dump, and pour.
By now, your child is wrinkled, withered and puckered from playing so long in the tub. He’s clean and happy and ready for bed. Bath toys are available in our toy library – come in and see for yourself!
This well-known children’s entertainer from Vancouver has performed to sold-out crowds of young children for the past 13 years!
She is returning on Wednesday, April 22, 2009 to perform two concerts at Forest City Community Church. Group tickets (15 or more seats) are available at the early bird price of $7 each and may be booked at any time by calling Jane at 519-434-3644, Ext. 36. Individual tickets will be available in March.
The first concert is at 9:15 a.m. and is specifically for preschoolers. The second concert is at 11 a.m. and is trilingual – English, French and a little Spanish too! There will also be a workshop for teachers/parents/caregivers in the evening of Wednesday, April 22. Click here to go directly to Charlotte Diamond’s website.
The 5th Annual Home Child Care Conference “Commitment to Caring” is a full-day conference to rejuvenate caregivers by offering workshops, networking and vendor shopping opportunities. Choice of workshops, continental breakfast and lunch are all included with conference registration.
Date: Saturday, April 18, 2009
Time: 8:00 a.m. – 3:30 p.m.
Place: Fanshawe College, M Building, London, Ontario
Registration Fee: $50 before April 4, $60 by April 14 deadline.
Call Sheri at Childreach, 519-434-3644 ext 39 for more information and/or to register. For a full brochure, click here.
Why do parents yell? Sometimes they’re tired, or kids don’t listen and yelling seems to work. Often parents don’t know what else to do. Yelling disrupts a positive, loving relationship; it leaves children and parents feeling unhappy.
It’s important to build a positive parent-child relationship. Start by spending most of your time together having positive interactions. Set a goal to cut down on negative interactions, which include nagging, blaming and criticizing. Keep track of how often you are negative by using a piece of paper and place an X for each negative interaction or comment you make. This may help you be aware of how often it happens. Try to have 8 out of 10 interactions with your child be positive.
When your child does something you like, mention it. For example: “You put all the toys away. Thanks.” or “That was great listening today in the grocery store.” or “You were very helpful with the baby.” Be specific about what you are praising. Positive attention also includes hugs, kisses, high fives, pats on the back and saying “I love you.”
Lastly, special time together is important. It builds a warm relationship. Try: reading, playing, colouring or cooking together. Go on outings planned by your child. Listen attentively when your child talks to you.
Yelling is a hard habit to quit, but positive time together can make it easier.
Lisa McIntosh, Parent Educator
Rainy days are here again! Two words. Plan ahead.
Have a box full of special craft items or a few toys that are just for rainy days.
The TV can be a lifesaver on long rainy days, but use it sparingly. If it is on all the time, children will watch it all the time and end up tired and cranky. Save the TV for late afternoon or for when you are getting lunch ready.
Rearrange the furniture to create more space and different play space.
Save certain activities for rainy days such as a scavenger hunt, an unbirthday party, an outing to the museum or library.
Plan your day so that the children can have your full attention for certain periods of the day. Children find it easier to let you do chores if you have been fully involved with them for at least part of the day.
Rotate toys so that toys that seem boring can be put away and “new” ones brought out.
Vary high and low-energy activities.
High-Energy Activities
· Make an indoor obstacle course using cushions, blocks, blankets over chairs for tunnels, mark areas with tape, etc.
· Have a “play bath”. This is a bath where you just play with all those fun bath toys and lots of bubbles.
· Play “puddle jumping”. Use carpet squares for puddles, and jump from one to another.
· Sing and dance to music. Freeze positions when music stops.
· Make musical instruments and form a band or have a parade.
· Play musical cushions. Each time the music stops, you remove a cushion until all children have to pile onto one cushion.
· Have paper fights using crumpled newspaper.
· Have a flashlight expedition where you explore the house with a flashlight and all house lights turned off.
· Have an Olympics – children can crawl or hop instead of running races.
· Spiderweb the room with yarn using doorknobs and furniture to attach yarn.
· Rearrange your child’s bedroom with their assistance and ideas.
· Play balloon tennis.
· Hide the button (or whatever – children can take turns hiding and finding it).
· Play hide and seek.
· Exercise to a fitness video.
Quieter Games and Activities
· CRAFTS
· Have a camping expedition. Throw a blanket over a table, some pillows and sleeping bags under it, and have a camp-out.
· Play dress up using Halloween costumes or old clothes.
· Have a tea party.
· Play house in a different area. Use tape to mark out rooms on the floor or set up the house in an unusual spot.
· Sort the button jar or count pennies in the penny jar.
· Have a puppet show.
· Bake together (requires a lot of patience) or make a simple snack with your child; e.g. fruit salad, coloured toast, cream cheese on bagels.
· Build a fort with cushions
· Have an indoor picnic on the floor.
· Read storybooks.
· Clean the playroom – children usually find something they have not seen for a while that they will want to play.
· Teach your child how to play a card game such as Go Fish.
· Play board games.
· Get out the playdough.
Now is the time to join your youngster in learning scientific concepts while gardening. Give your child their own “plot” whether it is a corner of your vegetable or flower garden, a flowerbox or a variety of small containers (pots, an old wagon, a lined basket), it will be his/hers to prepare, sow and watch. Use seeds that will delight little gardeners with noticeable growth within days or weeks (marigolds, nasturtiums, beans, peas, radishes, lettuce). Add some seedlings for instant colour, then water daily and let nature take its course. A spray bottle is fun and exercises hand and wrist muscles. Children love to add “ornaments” to their landscape – rocks, shells, hand-made or purchased ceramic figures, a saucer bird bath, or whatever else catches their imagination.
Here are four practical ideas that you can try with your preschoolers. Enjoy these fun activities together and watch your seeds grow!
Beans in a Bag
You need:
® 1 ziploc bag
® 3 different bean seeds
® 2 cotton balls
® 2 tablespoons of water
1. Place 2 of each different kind of bean in Ziploc bag.
2. Add 2 tablespoons of water.
3. Add 2 cotton balls.
4. Close bag.
5. Tape bag onto a window to watch the beans sprout roots, stem, and leaves.
6. Beans can be transplanted in soil later.
Marigolds in Peat Pots
You need:
® 2 peat pots
® 6 marigold seeds
® Soil and water
1. Fill pots ¾ full of soil.
2. Plant 3 seeds in each pot.
3. Add 1 more tsp. of soil to cover seeds.
4. Add 1 tbsp. of water to dampen soil.
5. Place pots in sunny window.
6. Water daily to keep soil moist.
Grass in a Shell
® You need:
® 2 half egg shells
® Soil
® Pinch of grass seed
® Water
1. Fill shells ¾ full of soil.
2. Sprinkle a pinch of grass seed on soil.
3. Top up with 1 more tsp. of soil to cover seed.
4. Add 1 tbsp. of water to dampen soil.
5. Place in a sunny window and keep soil damp.
6. A face could be coloured on the shell, and grass will sprout as hair on the head!
Magic Soil
Encourage children to help cut up all organic waste such as vegetable and fruit peelings. Layer with soil, grass clippings, leaves and other plant trimmings in a composter or hole dug in the garden. Keep moist, aerate by turning over weekly and voila! A fertile food for plants and reduced curb side garbage.
The simple science experiments in these fact sheets could be useful in helping a young child take an interest further. They may also be a good place to start if you are wanting to increase the visibility of science in your learning environment and don’t have a lot of confidence in this area.
Washing up can be more fun for wee ones when you use a puppet made from a bright red washcloth. As a “doctor” puppet, it serves as a great distraction when nursing cuts and scrapes, and the advantage of the red material is that blood won’t show!
