I’ve got dinosaurs on the brain again, so I thought I’d repost this dinosaur unit from July of 2009. What are some of your favorite dinosaur activities?
Playdough Play Time
Playdough is a staple of childhood. It always amazes me how long it can keep a child’s interest, squishing, pounding, rolling, and cutting. I personally prefer homemade Classic Playdough, because it’s cheaper, better smelling, a bit softer and easier for little hands to command, and I have a little less to worry about when my son snitches another pinch to eat. (Should I worry about the fact that he’ll often turn his nose up at the dinners I make, but will gladly eat playdough?) [Read more…]
Play vs Academics: A False Dichotomy
An argument is brewing in the preschool scene. In one corner, you have those arguing for more academics to give children that head start that might correct the troubles of high-school drop-outs and low test scores. They claim that children rise to the occasion and show that they are capable of more than we’ve been asking.
In the other corner, you’ll find those who say play is disappearing from the cultural landscape of America and that its absence is a contributor to many childhood maladies such as obesity, ADHD, and declining social skills. They say that children “rising to the occasion” are really only performing splinter skills , which are more closely aligned with party tricks than with actual learning.
Let’s Go to the Store!
I get it. It’s hard to shop with kids. I’ll be the first to admit I do a lot of my shopping at night and on weekends because I’ve discovered that taking three little boys with me takes about 30 extra minutes and costs about seven extra dollars. But a trip to the grocery store can be such a rich experience to enjoy with your child.
How to Get Your Child's Hands On Math
Numbers can be a pretty abstract concept for a preschooler to wrap her mind around. But just as a storybook turns abstract letters into a meaningful story, the abstract concepts of numeracy, patterning, and comparison find real meaning in the objects they represent. Putting these real objects into the small hands of young children makes the abstract concrete as we connect these math terms and concepts with experiences and understandings they’ve been building over a lifetime.
How to Get Your Child’s Hands On Math
Numbers can be a pretty abstract concept for a preschooler to wrap her mind around. But just as a storybook turns abstract letters into a meaningful story, the abstract concepts of numeracy, patterning, and comparison find real meaning in the objects they represent. Putting these real objects into the small hands of young children makes the abstract concrete as we connect these math terms and concepts with experiences and understandings they’ve been building over a lifetime.
How Do You Talk When You Teach?
Whether you’re doing formal teaching in a classroom, or taking part in the learning that is done around the kitchen table, the way you talk when you teach young children can make a big difference. In fact, predictors of child language and cognition abilities are not only indicated by how much a child is spoken to, but also the types of conversations they have.
Simple Ways to Keep Little Hands Busy at Christmastime
This is an exciting time of year! And sometimes that excitement, left unchanneled, can wreck havoc on your sanity. If you’re finding that the nervous energy in your house is being directed into whining, fighting, or general destruction, consider ways you can redirect that energy in positive, productive ways. To paraphrase from my e- book, it isn’t enough to tell children to STOP what they’re doing. To be more effective, you need to give them things they CAN do. It’s like trying to stop water from running down a hill. You can’t just tell it to stop, or even try to force it to stop with a dam – it eventually runs over the top. But you can dig a ditch, a channel, to move it in a more constructive direction.
Snowy Ice Cream – Perfect for a Stormy Day
We’re crossing our fingers, hoping for a white Christmas this year. Looks like we may end up with rain instead. (We may just have to head for the mountains!) For those of you with plenty of the white stuff in your local forecast, you might want to try this fun recipe for ice cream. The main ingredient: Fresh, fluffy snow! (Taken from this post appearing last year.)
Too Many Toys
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