Teaching kids manners at the table

I found a website that talks about ways to teach manners to your children. I thought this was timely for the upcoming holidays. Click Here and tell me what you think :-) Feel free to leave comments on this post with ways you've taught your children manners that have and haven't worked, you might just help someone out! :-)

Who's harder to raise: Girls or Boys?

Interesting article on the subject. I have one of each. I see challenges and beauty in both.

If you have a toddler. . .

The first 18 months of a child’s life are spent largely focused on the development of their gross motor skills, such as crawling and walking. Once these skills have been mastered it’s the perfect time to start working on the development of their fine motor skills. Fine motor skills are essential for your child to be able to complete very functional tasks, such as:

~ tying or buckling shoes
~ zipping and unzipping
~ turning the pages of a book
~ holding a pencil correctly
~ writing legibly without muscle fatigue
~ cutting with scissors
~ painting, drawing, coloring
~ basically any task that requires the use of small, precise hand and finger movements

Here are just a few activities to get you started:

~ tearing paper, creating a collage
~ threading beads or pasta
~ lacing activities
~ stacking blocks, cups, cans, etc.
~ scribbling
~ stamping
~ creating sticker pictures or colorforms
~ button sorting
~ chunky wooden puzzles
~ Family Fun has a great make it yourself puzzle out of popsicle sticks.
~ playdough - use plastic knives, forks, spoons, rollers, and cookie cutters
~ fingerplays and songs that incorporate finger/hand movements
~ playing instruments such as rhythm sticks, sandblocks, and egg shakers

Do you have any additional ideas for developing fine motor skills at home?

What can your child learn from a puddle?

What would it be like to walk through a puddle for the first time? To not notice it coming up and then just hear the rhythm of your walk change from a tap tap tap to splish splish splash? . . . You look down and notice you are standing in water. You see it, consider it, feel it. What an adventure of the senses!

Parents know how lucky they are to see this happen right before their eyes: their child discovering something new – something that has a sound, or a feeling, or shines, or moves. Discovery can be an incredible gift.

By letting your child walk through that puddle, millions (maybe billions) of sensory connections are made. Thought patterns, optical pathways, auditory stimulation, and your child’s perception of the world are altered and strengthened.

Embrace what a difference you make for your child by taking those walks that last a long long time but cover very little ground. Remember, every stone, pine cone, ant, bird, leaf, and puddle holds a world of discovery. Don’t miss it! Don’t worry about the puddle – the shoes will dry and the pants can be cleaned. The work of the child is to experience something new every day, and that’s one of the best ways you can help your kids learn and grow.

-This post was contributed by my friend and fellow Kindermusik educator Helen Peterson. Helen’s Southern Twin Cities program, Kindermusik of the Valley, is in the top 1% of Kindermusik programs around the world!

Babies Eating Lemons for the First Time

Reading with Toddlers

How do you read with a toddler? I found an article that offers suggestions of ways to get started and the benefits to our children when we read to them.

The main thing to keep in mind about reading with toddlers is that it has more to do with pointing and talking than with sitting still and listening.

There are many great options for toddler books. Board books fall into two categories: storybooks and content books. A good toddler storybook often shows the sequence of common routines—such as bedtime, taking a walk, or bath time. Helen Oxenbury’s Tom and Pippo series is a great example. A toddler and his imaginary companion, a sock monkey, go through simple activities together under the loving care of mom and dad. While reading storybooks, take time to talk about what is happening and make connections to what your family does that is either the same or different. Books that incorporate touching and feeling, like Pat the Bunny and any book with flaps, create moments for interaction that are ideal for this age.

Board books by Sandra Boyton combine humorous stories with learning concepts, such as animal sounds, and opposites. Your child’s ability to remember and her vocabulary are growing tremendously, and books that introduce first words and emotions feed her desire for information. The structure of a book helps her organize what she is learning. (It is a good idea to save alphabet and counting books for another year or so.)

Parents read to share their own love of books, to bond with their child, to stimulate their child’s language development (among other great reasons). All of these goals can be reached with a toddler by following these recommendations.

How to encourage reading in a toddler:

~Keep durable books in a visible and easy-to-access location.
~Allow your child to choose what to read whenever possible.
~Provide your child a variety of books—story, learning, humorous, rhyming books.
~Build several moments for reading into your daily routine.
~Resist taking away reading time as a consequence. (“Mommy will not read a bedtime story tonight if…)
~Limit television viewing.

How to manage reading with a toddler:

~Be willing to read only parts of a book and pages out of order.
~Read when asked.
~Let your child hold the book and turn the pages.
~Sit close to your child, as much as possible, while reading.

While you are fostering a love of books, disregard the commonly held idea that you must read to your child for a set amount of time (20 minutes) in one sitting everyday, or that you are a failure if you can’t get your toddler to sit still to “read.” Home literacy has a lot to do with having dynamic conversation, using a varied vocabulary, and modeling a love of reading. If, in your literacy rich home, you continue to make books available and offer to read on a routine basis, your child will take interest. At some point, the momentum to read together will shift from you to your child…and then be ready to sit down with a pile of picture books.

Information source: The Sixty Second Parent (great site!!)