Draw will take place on September 30th and will include only those who appear on the facebook page. Winner is responsible for pickup of block set at our office.
Block set retails for over $70.00
Thursday, August 18, 2011
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Draw will take place on September 30th and will include only those who appear on the facebook page. Winner is responsible for pickup of block set at our office.
Block set retails for over $70.00
Good Judgement Takes Practice
In a world where teens and young adults face many choices, parents want children to develop their thinking skills so that they learn to make good decisions. You can use everyday opportunities to teach decision making and, most important, to give children chances to practice.
Child-led play
Play time is perfect for letting children practice decision making in areas where the choices matter little to adults. Children can choose for themselves which colour of block goes on the top of the tower, what gets served at the dolls' tea party or whether they play on the swings or the slide at the park.
Offer Choices
Even very young children can start making simple choices: which glass they will drink their juice from, which shoe to put on first. Choices get more elaborate as the child gets older: what clothes to wear to school, at what time to do homework.
Set limits
Parents need to determine the limits within which choices get made. For instance, your child can choose to go to bed in red pajamas or blue pajamas, but you set the bedtime. Your child may choose what gift to buy for a friend's birthday, but you decide on the price range. Your children's age and their individual abilities will influence which decisions you allow them to make.
Ask questions
Parents can ask questions to stimulate children to think about the factors that go into making a choice. For example, if your child is deciding what to wear today, you could ask questions about the weather and the planned activities: Is it raining? What is the temperature? Do you think it will be warmer later in the day? Will you be playing outside? Your own experience will tell you what things you need to ask questions about. If you dictate the choices, the child won't learn or practice the steps in the process.
Teach information gathering
Sometimes a child doesn't yet know how to get the information that is required. In the above example of dressing for the weather, you could show your child how to read the thermometer or find the weather forecast on TV or radio or in the newspaper. There will also be times when you will be the one to supply the information; they then can decide how to use it.
Practice with stories
You can encourage thinking about the consequences of choices when you read books or tell stories to your children. Ask them what they think will happen next, what would have happened if the character had done something different, what they would do in that situation.
Give responsibility
When you let children decide for themselves, they may make choices different from yours. This is why it is important to set limits and give them responsibility for decisions in cases where you can live with their choices, even if you don't agree. If you can't stand the thought that they might eat dessert without finishing their main course, make everything in their lunch box equally nutritious.
Allow consequences
Giving responsibility also means allowing children to experience the consequences of their actions. Sometimes these consequences will be uncomfortable for children, and it may be hard as a parent to see your children unhappy. However, if you rescue them, you send them the message that it doesn't matter what decision they make, their parents will fix anything that goes wrong.
Resist feeling incompetent
Sometimes, when you let your children make their own choices, other people will blame you for what goes wrong. You will be held responsible for decisions that your children make, whether you agree with their choices or not. That's why parents whose preschoolers choose to match a striped shirt with polka dot pants wear a button that says, "My child dressed himself today!"
It takes strength and conviction to stand up to this attitude from others. A sense of humour helps too. Perhaps there should be a button for parents of teens: "My child paid for getting her hair dyed purple with her own money."
Be patient
Learning to make good decisions takes time, and mistakes along the way are part of the learning process. As Mark Twain observed: "Good judgement comes form experience. And where does experience come from? Experience comes from bad judgement." It takes patience to raise a thinking child.
By Betsy Mann
From The Canadian Association of Family Resource Programs
www.frp.ca
Child-led play
Play time is perfect for letting children practice decision making in areas where the choices matter little to adults. Children can choose for themselves which colour of block goes on the top of the tower, what gets served at the dolls' tea party or whether they play on the swings or the slide at the park.
Offer Choices
Even very young children can start making simple choices: which glass they will drink their juice from, which shoe to put on first. Choices get more elaborate as the child gets older: what clothes to wear to school, at what time to do homework.
Set limits
Parents need to determine the limits within which choices get made. For instance, your child can choose to go to bed in red pajamas or blue pajamas, but you set the bedtime. Your child may choose what gift to buy for a friend's birthday, but you decide on the price range. Your children's age and their individual abilities will influence which decisions you allow them to make.
Ask questions
Parents can ask questions to stimulate children to think about the factors that go into making a choice. For example, if your child is deciding what to wear today, you could ask questions about the weather and the planned activities: Is it raining? What is the temperature? Do you think it will be warmer later in the day? Will you be playing outside? Your own experience will tell you what things you need to ask questions about. If you dictate the choices, the child won't learn or practice the steps in the process.
Teach information gathering
Sometimes a child doesn't yet know how to get the information that is required. In the above example of dressing for the weather, you could show your child how to read the thermometer or find the weather forecast on TV or radio or in the newspaper. There will also be times when you will be the one to supply the information; they then can decide how to use it.
Practice with stories
You can encourage thinking about the consequences of choices when you read books or tell stories to your children. Ask them what they think will happen next, what would have happened if the character had done something different, what they would do in that situation.
Give responsibility
When you let children decide for themselves, they may make choices different from yours. This is why it is important to set limits and give them responsibility for decisions in cases where you can live with their choices, even if you don't agree. If you can't stand the thought that they might eat dessert without finishing their main course, make everything in their lunch box equally nutritious.
Allow consequences
Giving responsibility also means allowing children to experience the consequences of their actions. Sometimes these consequences will be uncomfortable for children, and it may be hard as a parent to see your children unhappy. However, if you rescue them, you send them the message that it doesn't matter what decision they make, their parents will fix anything that goes wrong.
Resist feeling incompetent
Sometimes, when you let your children make their own choices, other people will blame you for what goes wrong. You will be held responsible for decisions that your children make, whether you agree with their choices or not. That's why parents whose preschoolers choose to match a striped shirt with polka dot pants wear a button that says, "My child dressed himself today!"
It takes strength and conviction to stand up to this attitude from others. A sense of humour helps too. Perhaps there should be a button for parents of teens: "My child paid for getting her hair dyed purple with her own money."
Be patient
Learning to make good decisions takes time, and mistakes along the way are part of the learning process. As Mark Twain observed: "Good judgement comes form experience. And where does experience come from? Experience comes from bad judgement." It takes patience to raise a thinking child.
By Betsy Mann
From The Canadian Association of Family Resource Programs
www.frp.ca
Make-it Topic: Grandparents
Imaginative:
- Set up a grandparents house place out cookies, rocking chairs, and other things the children feel remind them of their grandparents house
- Make a bakery for baking grandparents favourites
Language:
- Read “Grandmothers chair”
- Do the finger play grandmas spectacles
- These are grandmas spectacles (make fingers around the eyes)
and this is grandmas hat (hat in triangle on top of head)
this is the ways she folds her hands (fold hands in lap)
and puts them in her lap
these are grandpas spectacles
and this is grandpas hat
and this is the way he crosses his arms and that is that. - Learn to say grandma and grandpa in a different language ex. Opa ,Oma ,Baba Papa
Art:
- Make a grandparents goodie jar using baby food jars with glued on tissue paper filled with candy
- Place out shapes and yarn allow the children to make a picture of their grandparent
- Make a photo frame for grandparents
- Allow the children to make cards for grandparents
- Make hand and feet prints
- Measuring cups and spoons in the water table
- Place wood pegs in the sand
- Place crochet needles in the sand table
Gross Motor:
- Learn a folk dance
- Go on a grandpas glasses hunt
- Get different shoes such as boots have the children walk in grandpas shoes
Science/Curiosity:
- House sounds: place out items that make sounds from a house
- Soft and hard: place out items that are soft and hard from around the house
- Have pictures of how things were before electricity; make candles
- Match the hearts
- Modeling clay with cookie cutters
- Match the grandparents
- Card lacing
- Match the eye glasses
Music:
- Sing Down on Grandpas Farm
- Add some shakers
Quiet:
- Place large pillows and teddy bears
Cooking:
- Make blueberry muffins for grandparents day
- Make bagel faces
Field Trips:
- Visit a senior center
- Invite the children’s grandparents in for a tea
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