“Practice makes perfect.”

These words couldn’t ring truer for preparing a child to become a writer.  Writing isn’t an acquired skill; it is learned and practiced long before pencil is actually placed in hand.  Here are some great ideas to get your preschooler ready to write - and still have a great time doing it!

1. Take a ziplock baggie and place about 1/4 cup of hair gel inside.  Seal the bag, squeezing out all the excess air (depending on the size of bag, you might need more or less gel, and colored gel works better).  Place the sealed baggie on a flat surface and use as a writing “tablet”.  Children can draw and doodle in the gel, wiping their “slate” clean by simply smoothing out the gel.  Place the gel baggie over a piece of paper with squiggle lines or simple shapes and have the child “trace” the shape with his or her finger.  This can even be used with large letters written on paper as well.
2. Spread sand on a cookie sheet or other edged pan.  Have children use this surface as a writing surface.  It can be easily “erased” as well.  Use fingers as well as other items, such as straws, unsharpened pencils, pasta and even small cars to “write”.
3. Place a dollop of shaving cream on a table.  Have the child spread the shaving cream out and then use it as a writing surface.  Children can “erase” by simply covering their marks with more shaving cream.  (I use this method at the end of the day, and the shaving cream helps “clean” my tables!)  To make it more interesting, add a drop or two of watercolor.  Children can make shapes, squiggles, pictures or even write letters.
4. As children become more intentional in their strokes, give them several markers or crayons.  Have them trace the same shape over and over with different colors.  These shapes can be arcs, circles, lines, zig-zags, or even letters.  My class calls this “rainbow writing”.
5. As a culminating activity as we learn our letters, I give each child an unbaked breadstick (Pillsbury makes a good one, as does my generic store-brand).  Children then form their breadsticks into either their favorite letter or the first letter of their name.  Bake and eat!

As a Friday treat, I would like to point you to Nicole’s site.  Nicole is the mom to four beautiful girls, and I have enjoyed reading through her site since we added her to the Wonderbrains Blogroll (see our sidebar for more blog-worthy reads!).

Nicole shared a wonderful exercise in detail that she and her husband did with their daughters.  The basic idea is to teach children about detail in the form of nature.  It is a great activity for families and classes.  Give each participant a large cut-out shape (like a frame - I actually created construction paper “frames” for my pre-k class to do this).  Go outside in a grassy area and place the frame on the ground.  Then, lay on the ground with the frame and observe all the details you can find within the frame.  In Nicole’s “frame” she found a twig, some green grass, dead grass, an ant and three black seeds.  Next, meet with a partner and share what was in your frame.  Trade places with your partner and see if you can find all the details he or she found.

I love Nicole’s second activity as well - make sure you have a well-treed area for this.  Blindfold a person and lead them to a tree.  Have them touch it, feel it, discover it.  Then, lead them back to the starting point and take off the blindfold…can that person find their tree?  In Nicole’s family, the girls were each able to find “their” tree.  Talk about enhancing your senses when one is taken away!

Thank you, Nicole, for some wonderful activities for family time!

I spend three days a week with a class of twelve children, ages four and five years old.  As one of my boys was leaving the class to go home with his mom last week, I overheard her ask her son, “How was your day today?”  Her son replied, “Great!  All we did was play today!”

Playing is one of the most beneficial gifts we can give our children.  While we may look at play as simply the “surface value” of what we see, play is much more than that.  Playing carries with it an amazing number of benefits and learning development strategies which children need later on to help them on their journey of learning.

First of all, playing builds coordination.  Children are more apt to take greater risks when playing, simply because they are taking on the persona of someone or something else when they play (most of the time).  While a child might be too timid to run and leap on their own, they might become the most agile gorrilla when playing in their make-believe jungle.  Playing allows children to try new skills out without feeling pressured or threatened.  There are no expectations when playing, only the imagination and the child dictate what will happen. 

Speaking of the imagination, playing is a huge tool in building imaginations.  Children who can imagine and create will more easily be able to hone in on higher order thinking skills and problem solving skills as they grow.  Children can learn to solve problems in a non-threatening environment.  While playing, children can create their own situations and devise solutions to their problems.

Playing also fosters good social skills among children.  By playing in a positive way with peers, children learn how to appropriately treat others and how they like to be treated as well.  Children realize in a positive environment that good manners and nice words will carry them far in life, moreso than bossy, critical behavior.  Playtime is an excellent opportunity for children to learn social skills that will stay with them forever.

The mom of the child mentioned in the beginning winked at me as she walked out the door to her car.  She knows the power of play and the important skills playtime addresses for children.  Play isn’t just for fun; it is a powerful tool in learning life’s lessons.

If a picture is worth a thousand words, what does that make a puzzle worth?  Puzzles are wonderful learning tools without even appearing as such.  Children love to piece together puzzles at almost any age, from toddlers through the teen years and into adulthood.  The benefits of “puzzling” are innumerable, but here are a few areas that puzzles really shine.

Puzzles are excellent for visual discrimination.  Children must learn to match shape to shape (or cut out area to cut out area), looking for specific details on each piece.  In younger children, peg puzzles help develop matching skills and shape identification, whether those shapes be “standard” shapes or unconventional ones.  

Putting together puzzles also increases a child’s fine motor skills, which is necessary for pre-writing skill development.  Fitting puzzle pieces together “just so” works on finger dexterity and strength.  This, in turn, aids in writing skill development with control over pencil/crayon movement. 

Puzzles are excellent tools for developing problem solving strategies.  Children must figure out how to put the pieces together, where to start, and what method is easiest for them.  While many may choose to work the “edge” of the puzzle first, there are those children who will find starting with a specific design or picture within the overall puzzle is easier.  Both ways are correct ways to fit together a puzzle; both ways develop different strategies in problem solving.

Have a variety of puzzles on hand for children.  Puzzles are a great way to have fun and learn at the same time!

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2. Regent Sports Recalls Soccer Goal Nets Following Strangulation Death of a Child

(aka how I got my sons to be active participants in the way our household runs)

First off, let me just state that I am NOT Supermom.  My kids have tantrums, all my ideas don’t necessarily work - all the time, and I have been known to yell from time to time (like today).  However, I have found ways to get my children to happily participate in the way our household runs.  “Chores” is not a bad word in our house.

My biggest suggestion to bringing kids on board to helping out with the daily work is to START EARLY.  As soon as my son could reach the top of the counter, he was clearing his dishes off the table.  At three, he makes his bed (okay, not the way *I* like for it to be made, but the point is that he makes it), he sets the table for dinner each night, and he takes our recyclable items to the recycle bin.  On weekends, he is the paper-getter and retrieves the newspaper from the driveway.  These are not new jobs for him; he has been doing them for a while.  They are habits we have instilled in him from a young age.  It makes clear the expectation of participation in the way the house runs.

It is important to stay on top of children with their chores.  Consistency is extremely crucial.  If children realize that they don’t HAVE to do a particular task on a given day, they will push for that result over and over again.  My boys know that their chores are done each day (or every other day, depending on the chore), and we even practice them to some degree when we are away from home.  For instance, if we are visiting relatives, my children automatically make up their beds or roll up their sleeping bags in the morning.  It is expected at home, and it is expected when we’re away.

An important part of bringing children on board with chores is to make it a positive experience for them.  My boys keep a chart - a simple list of each of their chores for each day.  I have a packet of incentive stickers hanging next to the chart on the refrigerator, and they mark off their duties each day with a sticker.  After a certain number of stickers, they can “cash them in” on a special treat, such as a “date” with mom or a special dinner request.  While I do not agree with paying children to complete chores, I also understand the need for recognition and reward.  We use lots of positive verbal reinforcement.  I do not ever criticize the way my nine year-old wipes down the table or the way the three year-old only fills our dinner glasses about 1/4 full.  As long as they are doing their best, that is what I want to see.

Be sure and start small.  My boys didn’t start with four or five chores; we started with one or two.  They were simple, easy to complete tasks that were quick to complete and provided almost immediate feedback, such as taking out the recycling or putting dishes in the sink.  After a time, my husband and I felt they were ready for another chore and worked to incorporate it into our daily plan. 

Make it a cooperative effort.  My children know that I am doing my job, just as they are doing theirs.  I’m cleaning the dishes, my three year-old is bringing me the dinnerware, and my nine year-old is wiping down the tables.  My husband is busy sweeping the floor.  At recycle time, I wash out the items to be recycled and my younger son takes them to the bin.  On trash morning, my older son brings the smaller trash cans from the rooms to our main trash can and my husband gathers it for the curb.  No one does a chore alone - we are all in it together.

The biggest key to making chores work is constant praise.  I make a point to let my boys know how helpful they are and how appreciative I am of their efforts.  Criticism is kept to a minimum.  Pointing out what is wrong with what the children are doing will only make it that much less “fun” for them.  Getting the right kind of attention (positive attention) will only lead to the desire to repeat it again.

We still have days where one boy might whine about carrying out a chore or complain a bit about it, but that is to be expected.  We handle those moods in a positive and calm way, yet the boys know it is still expected and do it anyway.  Besides, we usually have a good time doing them together, and working together is the best lesson of all.

My nine year-old came bounding into the living room yesterday, weilding an unsharpened pencil and wearing his Harry Potter robe from last Halloween.  “To your feet ye scallion and walk the plank or fix me snack…please!”  I jumped to my feet, swooped into a low bow and said, “Please, my Lord, spare me the murky waters of the unknown and I shall prepare a lovely plate of apples and caramel dip to your liking…and thank you for using ‘please’ when you asked!”

To say it is never a dull moment in our house is an understatement.  One moment I’m the queen of the castle, signing papers and watching magic shows.  The next minute I’m the proud owner of a 3 year-old ‘puppy’ that looks strikingly like my younger son.  Pretend play is probably the most important aspect of development for children at any age.

Pretend play lends itself well into so many developmental areas.  Most notably, pretend play allows children to practice real-life scenarios.  We can be Best Friends and have a disagreement that we work out.  We can meet a stranger in a store and work on how to handle that situation.  We have even pretended that our house was in danger (fire, flood, even dragons once in the chimney!) and worked out how to handle it.  Pretend play is a safe way to explore those “scary” things in a child’s life while still having the comfort of it only being pretend.  Children can solve problems that they may encounter in a safe and nurturing way.  And, it opens the door to great discussions between adults and children.

Pretend play is also great for improving and enhancing vocabulary skills.  Oral communication is a key component to language development at any age, so utilizing dialogue in pretend play only enhances those skills.  While younger children benefit in obvious strides from conversational pretend play, older children also learn to use difficult and new words in context while still being in a “safe” environment.

Children who actively engage in pretend play tend to have better social skills as well.  Putting themselves in self-created situations gives the children a chance to learn to appropriately interact with peers and others.  They can work on manners and correct behavior while still having a great deal of fun.

An important part of pretend play, for adults, is to join in if the child will let you or wants you.  The interaction with a child engaging in pretend play can open the doors to deeper discussions about problems - with friends, in school, or just in life in general.  Use pretend play with puppets or stuffed animals to encourage a child to open up and share something that may be bothering him or her.  Sometimes, children can communicate better in third person than speaking on a more personal level; just remember to be open and non-threatening as well as non-judgemental.

It has been a long, hard road, but we finally crossed the bridge into Big-Boy-Pantsland.  My younger son is almost four, and I wasn’t sure he would live to see his next birthday at the rate we were going.  While my first son was Mr. Compliant, Number Two taught me some valuable lessons in potty training.

First of all, each child is his or her own person, and the more you honor and acknowledge that, the more eager and ready your child will be to “do the right thing”.  Once I backed off the potty-pressure, he was on his potty-game, as long as it was on his own time.  And this is where I probably had the most trouble: learning to trust my three year-old to KNOW when he needed to go to the bathroom.

Our son had huge issues with bowel movements.  It was obvious he didn’t like them because it would be DAYS before he would finally go, usually accompanied by abdominal cramping and pain.  Since it was quite a horrible experience for him, he didn’t want to go again and would, once again, hold it for several days before finally giving in.

We tried so many things with him - radical techniques like holing up in the bathroom until he would finally relent to bribery with little chocolate bars.  Each trick worked about once and then we were back at Square One.

What finally worked for us was a series of revelations and a bit of intervention.  We came to realize that:

• Our child was his own person and needed to learn this on his own.
• Our child did not want to be “singled out” by bribes or stickers.
• Our child knew what the potty was and how to use it. 

Then we intervened.  It was a radical move, but it worked for us.  We added a teaspoon of the age-old remedy, Castor Oil, to a serving of his favorite side dish: applesauce.  He spooned that applesauce down like usual, and by the next day, he was easily experiencing bowel movements.  He has not had one accident in the five weeks since we added that ONE TEASPOON of Castor Oil.  It was a little “push” that he needed to get on track.

That’s not to say everyone should run out and buy Castor Oil to get your child to go on the potty.  The timing has to be right.  The development level of the child needs to be appropriate.  There are other alternatives as well that work.

Please comment and leave any tips or stories you’d like to share about your potty training experiences.  Each one is unique, and that is how we all learn what works for our own child; by trying what has worked for others.