Summer Sensory Play

 If your child comes home  from preschool looking picture perfect everyday, it is time to delve into the kinds of activities the class is doing during the day!  Young children learn with all their senses and should have a variety of opportunities for exploration.  There will be times when children may get a little paint on their clothes or play dough under their fingernails, but in the process they are increasing their knowledge as well as developing their sense of creativity.  Children learn by mixing paints to create their individual artistic treasures, by splashing and playing in water to discover which objects sink or float, and by mixing the ingredients of their own special play dough to see how various substances integrate and how the combination changes the properties of the ingredients.   Kangaroo Kids Summer Camp does many  “Messy But Meaningful,”  projects.  

Remember “Silly Putty” and “Slime?”  If you enjoyed playing with either of these as a child here is a homemade version you can make with your child called “Goop” You may encouraging a future scientist!

Goop

1. Two cups glue
2. One cup liquid starch
3. Mix together
4. Store in refrigerator

Too busy for sensory play at home?  Here is one that will give you a sense of accomplishment while your child is having a sensory experience.  Get a big bucket and lots of soap and wash the dog together!  You can teach your child about the fascinating chemistry of how the bubbles form (if you need a little help visit http://chemistry.about.com/od/bubbles/a/bubblescience.htm ), or give your child a lesson in kindness to people and pets to reinforce social skills during the bathing! 

Play dough is a good old standby, even for the toddlers!  Mix the ingredients below and get out the cookie cutters and a rolling pin and let your child explore.   Make a pretend birthday cake or form shapes and letters with the dough! 

Play dough

1. 3 cups flour
2. 1 cup salt
3. 3 Tablespoons oil
4. 1 cup of water

Painting – Be creative instead of just using a paint brush let your child paint with different instruments such as rollers, matchbox cars, or q-tips!  You can even use those old apples to do stamp painting by cutting the apples in half and dipping them in paint.  You never know you might be encouraging the next Picasso! 

Shaving Cream Fun- Here is a fun summer way to work on literacy skills and shape recognition while you are enhancing creativity.  Just put a big squirt of shaving cream on that outside picnic table and let your young artist explore.  You can add to the fun by making the shapes or the letters of their name for them in the shaving cream. 

Give foot print painting a try, but this one is best to do outside! 

Help You Child Become a Problem Solver

In Today’s fast paced society where everyone is connected at all times we expect immediate answers and solutions.  These demands can cause a great deal of stress for adults as well as for children. 

Teaching children to take the time and steps necessary to become problem solvers can alleviate stress and inappropriate responses to challenges.  Here are some great tips from the National Association for the Education of Young Children to help your child become a problem solver.  

http://families.naeyc.org/child-development/help-your-child-become-great-problem-solver        Problem Solving

Children Thrive on Structure

Many times as parents or teachers we want to give our children a great deal of freedom in decision making. Although freedom of choice can have benefits, it is important to remember, "Children thrive on structure," according to school psychologist Laura Marchese, at a workshop at Kangaroo Kids Child Care and Learning Center. Structure makes children feel more secure. It lets them know what to expect. If your child is having a difficult time getting ready in the morning, try creating a sequence chart with photos of him or her doing each expected behavior. This will be both fun and a learning experience. And, if you stick to it consistently, over time your morning routine should improve!

When it comes to choice, children can be overwhelmed by too many choices. As the parent or the teacher, you must make decisions based on what is best for the child and then give our child choices. For example, if you want your child to eat healthy foods, instead of saying, "What do you want to eat for dinner?” give two healthy choices, "Would you like carrots or peas with your dinner?" Instead of giving your child the opportunity to make any choice for what he or she would like to do on Saturday, you can offer two choices.

Laura also recommended positive, specific praise as the most useful behavior management tool you can use. Catch children doing it right! Many times we address inappropriate behavior instead of complimenting good behavior. If your child is wiggling around at an inappropriate time, instead of saying, "Stop wiggling.” try to wait for the moment he or she stops, and instead say, "I love how nicely you are sitting." If there is a sibling or classmate involved, give the child behaving appropriately over the top, enthusiastic, positive, specific praise, “Joey, I love the way you are sitting!” In the majority of cases, the child behaving inappropriately will correct his or her behavior to gain the positive praise. Make sure that as soon as the child behaving inappropriately begins to behave appropriately, you reward him with enthusiastic, positive, specific praise.

According to Laura, if you create a culture of positive, specific praise, and you do it consistently, you should see change overtime.

Holding Back Your Child?

Kindergarten registration has begun! In most school districts, children must be 5 years old by October 1, 2012 to enroll in Kindergarten. Many parents are faced with the dilemma of determining when his or her child should begin school. Today, parents are becoming more aggressive in determining what is in the best interest of their child.

A new phenomena, however, is taking place among many families. According to Preschool Director Mary Innocenzi, parents are opting to keep their young child out of public school an extra year, even if their child’s age falls within the guidelines for school entry. Why? Parents say “I’d rather keep her in preschool an extra year, so she can have an extra year to mature. What’s the rush?” “I don’t feel my son is as mature as the other children. I feel it’s better to keep him out an extra year. Also, he will have more of an opportunity to do well in sports—he won’t be the smallest kid in his class.” “If I keep my child out of school an extra year, he’ll have a decided educational advantage over the others in his class.”

And so it goes…

In the past there were always a few parents who would opt to “hold back” their child, for various reasons. Today, however, many parents feel that they are giving their child a head start by keeping their child out of school an extra year.

It is a difficult decision and some of the social concerns, physical concerns regarding sports, and academic challenges do not often show up until the higher grades. Many parents make the decision solely based on academics. But it is also important to consider social skills, confidence, organization skills, and physical size, as well as family preference. These are important considerations, especially when the new trend to hold children back makes some August and September birthday children almost 2 years younger than their peers. One of the reasons I feel this decision is so important is that the stakes are much higher at 17 years of age, when you want your child to be a leader, not a follower.

If you have any questions where we can help, feel free to stop by the office at Kangaroo Kids to discuss your options and some creative solutions.

25 Tips To Encourage Literacy In Young Children

1. Babble back to your infants
2. Encourage conversation
3. Teach site words – McDonalds, Lucky Charms, Barney
4. Speak another language
5. Encourage drawing and inventive spelling
6. Script what children say about their drawings – write their story, make it into a book
7. Fall in love with language, rhymes, songs and role model reading
8. Label your child’s environment
9. Make shopping lists with your child
10. Cook and read recipes together
11. Look for letters on the Menu when you go out to eat
12. Cut pictures out of magazines that begin with a letter you are studying.
13. Make an alphabet book
14. Read a book and then ask children questions to test their comprehension
15. Glue letters from an alphabet cereal on a piece of paper.
16. Put alphabet cereal on a plate and help child make their name out of the cereal.
17. Keep magnetic letters on the refrigerator
18. Make up silly songs starting with the letter you are studying.
19. Talk to your child
20. Sing with your child
21. Read to your child everyday
22. Limit television watching and watch appropriate shows
23. Visit libraries and bookstores
24. Select a quality child care
25. Read to children and ask them to predict what will happen next.

Money and Young Children

When you’re raising children, one of the most important things you, as a parent, can teach your children is how to handle their money. Children should be taught at a young age that they can't always get what they want, when they want it. This automatically means that you can, and must, say "no" to children every now and then. This is also a good opportunity to teach children that life involves making choices and dealing with money is one of many areas in life where we need to evaluate our options and make a choice.

Get a piggy bank for your preschooler and teach him or her about the different sizes and values of coins. As early as possible, let your child save and spend his own money (perhaps at the dollar store) for certain things that he or she wants to purchase.

Any allowance given to a young child should be small, so he or she will ‘run out’ of spending money and consequently learn how to budget. When you go shopping at the grocery store, give your child a small amount of money for example, $5.00, to buy a certain item and tell her she can keep the change. This will teach her how to get the ‘best deal’ for the item she was assigned to purchase.

One good way to get children to save is to say you will match whatever they save (out of their allowance) if they keep it in the bank for 6 months, 1 to 5 years, etc. Whatever they spend is gone and not matched. This way they will watch their savings grow!

When your child grows older, his needs will change. He may start to nag you for additional money so he can get something that everyone else has! Don't always give in to your child's request without asking for something in return. You may want to give your child some extra chores to earn additional money so he learns that it won’t just be handed out. As a parent, you are obliged to provide the roof over their heads and their meals, but it is also your job to prepare your child for the responsibilities of an adult.

Personally, I also feel there should be certain non-paid tasks that are your child’s responsibility as a contributing member of the family unit. This can start as early as age 2, when your child can help do little tasks like putting her socks in the drawer. It may take a little more time, but you are teaching your child a valuable lesson in helping the family and, in the process, your child will be proud of his or her accomplishments.

Once your child is old enough to understand, sit down and show him or her some of your monthly expenses. Many people keep their financial affairs from their children, but when you share this information with them, they know what to expect in the future.

Thanksgiving Turkey

Here is a fun Thanksgiving Project you can try at home! Get some child safe paint and a few paint brushes and paint each of your child’s fingers a different fall color! Paint his or her palm brown! Have your child press his or her handprint on a piece of paper to create a very special turkey!

Shaving Cream Fun!

Here is a great way to work on literacy skills and shape recognition in the summer, while enhancing creativity, too.

Put a big squirt of shaving cream on your picnic table and let your young artist explore.

You can add to the sensory fun by making shapes with the shaving cream or the letters of your child's name.

Painting – Be creative! Instead of just using a paint brush, let your child paint with different instruments such as rollers, matchbox cars, q-tips, or even their fingers!

You can even use those old apples to do stamp painting by cutting the apples in half and dipping them in paint.

If messy projects aren’t your favorite just give your child a new paint brush and a bucket of water and let them do their water art on the sidewalk!

You never know, you might be encouraging the next Picasso!

Playdough Fun

Sensory play is play that involves the use of one or more of the five senses, touch, sight, smell, taste and hearing. Children learn best when they can experience the world through all their senses. All week at Kangaroo Kids Summer Camp we are doing Messy But Meaningful projects!

Play dough is a good old standby, even for the toddlers! Mix the ingredients below and get out the cookie cutters and a rolling pin and let your child explore. Make a pretend birthday cake or form shapes and letters with the dough!

Play dough
1. 3 cups flour
2. 1 cup salt
3. 3 Tablespoons oil
4. 1 cup of water

You are involving your child’s sense of touch by allowing them to feel the soft flour and gooey mixture, their sense of smell by adding a little cinnamon to your playdough, their sense of site by all the creations and tools they use to make their playdough projects or mixing in different colors, their hearing by the discussion you have while creating the mixture and at times even their sense of taste as you redirect them from experiencing the taste of playdough.

Rover will like this Sensory Fun!

Here is an activity that will give you a sense of accomplishment while your child is having a fun sensory experience. Get a big bucket of water and the doggie shampoo and wash the dog together! You can teach your child about the fascinating chemistry of how the bubbles form (if you need a little help visithttp://chemistry.about.com/od/bubbles/a/bubblescience.htm ), or give your child a lesson in kindness to people and pets to reinforce social skills during the bathing!

Messy But Meaningful

Remember “Silly Putty” and “Slime?” If you enjoyed playing with either of these as a child here is a homemade version called "Goop" that you can make with your child. You may be encouraging a future scientist!

Goop
1. Two cups white glue
2. One cup liquid laundry starch

Mix together to an even consistency and have fun! Store Goop in the refrigerator.

Here is another recipe for a similar substance to Goop called "GAK". For those inquiring minds, see http://www.stevespanglerscience.com/experiment/00000039> for an explanation of the scientific principles involved in creating "GAK".

This week is “Messy But Meaningful at Kangaroo Kids,” so watch for lots of sensory activities you can do at home for some good educational fun!

Messy But Meaningful

If your child comes home from preschool looking picture perfect everyday, it is time to delve into the kinds of activities the class is doing during the day! Young children learn with all their senses and should have a variety of opportunities for exploration.

There will be times when children may get a little paint on their clothes or play dough under their fingernails, but in the process they are increasing their knowledge as well as developing their sense of creativity.

Children learn by mixing paints to create their individual artistic treasures, by splashing and playing in water to discover which objects sink or float, and by mixing the ingredients of their own special play dough to see how various substances integrate and how the combination changes the properties of the ingredients.

Next week’s theme at Kangaroo Kids Summer Camp is “Messy But Meaningful.” Log in all week to Kangaroo Kids Facebook page http://www.facebook.com/pages/Kangaroo-Kids-Child-Care-and-Learning-Center/301126633639 to learn a little more about these wonderful projects, many of which you can do at home!

Healthy Snacks

This is Celebrity Chef Week at Kangaroo Kids so here are some healthy snack tips!

In our house, we always cut juice with about ½ amount of water, which cuts down on the sugar… and the best juices are the 100% variety, without sugar (not the diet kind). Of course, you can also freeze these as pops too, in an ice cube tray with popsicle sticks stuck in the middle. If your kids crave sodas, you can use sparkling water, in place of the ½ water as ‘replacement’ soda.

Unsweetened yogurt, with lots of berries mixed in is a great snack and can be eaten using low salt or unsalted pretzel sticks as ‘dippers’! This mixture can be frozen into popsicles with a pretzel used as the ‘stick’.

Fresh fruit smoothies are filling and nutritious and kids usually like them. Just fill up that blender with some ice and some of the fresh summer fruits, push the button and enjoy! Here are a few more smoothie recipes to keep you healthy all summer long! http://allrecipes.com/Recipes/Drinks/Smoothies/Top.aspx

Muffins can be baked with bananas, carrots, zucchini and even sweet potatoes, so your child doesn’t even know they’re eating vegetables!

Kids usually like veggies with dips such as ranch dressing, hummus, and guacamole!

Popcorn with a sprinkling of nutritional yeast, gives the popcorn a ‘cheesy’ flavor, and adds B vitamins!

This spinach ball recipe is a great way to gets kids to eat their greens! And you can freeze them, and pop them in the microwave as needed - http://kidscooking.about.com/od/snacksdipsappetizers/r/Spinach-Balls-Recipe.htm. You can cut cheese into shapes with cookie cutters to make them more interesting to your kids!

Happy Snacking!

Save Our Oceans

New Jersey is a coastal state and it is important for us to take care of one our most valuable natural resources, the ocean! The world’s oceans not only provide spectacular views as you watch the rhythmic tranquil waves of a calm day or the fierce crashing waves of a stormy day but it also provides much of the food we eat and generates most of the oxygen we breathe. It is an endless recreational resource for swimmers, boaters, and surfers and provides a career for many people throughout the world. It helps to regulate our climate and offers us a pharmacopoeia of potential medicines, not to mention those soothing seaweed wraps that many companies offer as an option for good health. The ocean has inspired artists and poets, and soothed the nerves of many everyday folks as they stroll through the gentle ocean breezes.

Our seas provide a wealth of diverse kinds of life but unfortunately due to the destruction of our coral reefs and some destructive fishing practices this diversity of life is being greatly reduced.

How can we help to protect our oceans?

We can help by reducing our carbon footprint, so turn off those lights and bike when possible or try to carpool or take public transit.

Choose to eat fish that are in abundant supply or are fished without harm to our oceans and coastline. You can visit the Monterey Bay Aquarium website http://www.montereybayaquarium.org/cr/cr_seafoodwatch/download.aspx to download a pocket guide of sustainable seafood.

You can also take care of our oceans by not polluting, properly disposing of trash, and avoiding the use of pesticides that run into our streams and oceans.

World Oceans Day will be celebrated on June 8th, and hundreds of aquariums, zoos, museums, conservation organizations and Kangaroo Kids Child Care and Learning Center, as well as thousands of individuals around the world will participate with fun, inspirational, and educational events. The 2011 and 2012 theme is Youth: the Next Wave for Change

So join Kangaroo Kids and wear blue on June 8th and spread the word about the importance of our oceans and how we can protect them.

World Ocean Day.org has provided a few ways we can do our part to protect our blue planet:
Take the The Seven C's Challenge for Ocean Conservation:
• Commit to making a real difference
This year create a vision for a sustainable future and strive to achieve it!
• Conserve in your home
When replacing appliances, upgrade to “greener" options and install compact fluorescent and LED light bulbs.
• Consume consciously
Rethink what you “need”, purchase “green” products, and buy locally grown foods and locally caught sustainable seafood.
• Communicate your interests and concerns
Share your interest in a healthy ocean with a child, with friends, family, colleagues, and the local media or social networking sites.
• Challenge yourself daily
It’s not always easy but try to walk, bike, carpool, and take public transportation to cut down your coral-reef harming carbon emissions.
• Connect in your community
Meet new friends and make a difference by getting active as a volunteer with a local watershed or ocean group.
• Celebrate our ocean!
Take part in a World Oceans Day activity near you or plan your own for June 8th.

Find more information and inspiration at: www.WorldOceansDay.org and www.SeasTheDay.org