The holidays are a time for the old familiar family traditions. But if you are looking to shake things up a bit, and expose your children to a more global outlook this season, here are some fun and easy traditions from around the world that are easy to integrate into your merriment.
More than milk and cookies.
One of the easiest ways to get kids excited about new cultures and traditions is with food. And there are as many different dishes from around the world associated with this time of year as there are elves in Santa’s workshop. In Mexico, it is traditional to celebrate Christmas Eve with delicious tamales. In the UK, Santa doesn’t get milk and cookies, it’s sherry and mince pies that warm his late night sleigh ride (makes sense no!?).
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Add your commentAs a working parent you probably rely on child care for your children. But don’t you sometimes wish your kids could do more extra-curricular activities? Getting your kids to day care and yourself to and from work seems hard enough, let alone planning for any additional evening enrichment. Luckily, we have some tips for how to strike a balance:
1. Look for child care that already offers enrichment activities.
Some daycares incorporate enrichment activities like dance, music, sports and technology into their program whereby kids can enjoy an activity without leaving the child care facilities. Be sure to ask when you are interviewing child care providers if these and other services are available. Most child care providers offer some sort of extracurricular activities as part of the curriculum. Others, however, might offer these classes at an additional cost because they invite outside companies to lead these special classes.
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Add your commentEarly Childhood Development, Early Childhood Education, Preschool
Tagged with bullying, Daycare, help, kids, parenting, Preschool, tipsAs much as we try to protect our children, studies show that more than half of children will experience bullying at some point in their lives. Bullying can take place as early as preschool. To protect your child, learn to recognize signs of bullying and the steps you can undertake to prevent your child from being bullied again.
Recognize the signs of a bullied preschooler:
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is the season! No not that one…cold and flu season. And cough, and runny nose, and all manner of bugs and viruses that like to strike as soon as the weather turns chilly!
For kids in day care, this means that your little one may seem to be home sick more often than they are at school. As soon as the thermometer reads a temperature, odds are your facility has strict rules keeping your little one from attending.
If your kid is anything like mine however, one tablespoon of Tylenol and, though still under the weather, they are very much themselves and in need of entertainment. Here are five ideas on how to keep your patient happy and healthy while they ride out their latest winter bug!
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elp your little ones understand the meaning behind Thanksgiving with this fun and super easy craft project. Your kids will create a Thankful Turkey and be able to list the things they are thankful for. Before your family digs into your Thanksgiving feast, pass the Thankful Turkey or Turkeys (if there are multiple) around the table and ask everyone to share at least one thing they are thankful for. This is a great activity to bring your family together and share the meaning of Thanksgiving.
Supplies needed for each Thankful Turkey:
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ne of the things I’ve learned in my years of working at a preschool and having my own as well as clients’ kids go to preschools is that many children do not sleep well in a daycare or preschool. The last thing you want is to be away from your child for hours and then have to pick up a cranky overtired kid. Plus, if they do not sleep well during the day, they are more likely to sleep poorly at night. There are several ways to help your child sleep better and to help your child care provider help your child sleep better so you can pick up a happy, well-rested camper!
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Add your commentEarly Childhood Development, Preschool
Tagged with breakbadhabits, childcare, Daycare, kids, nosepicking, parenting, Preschool, tipsD
aycare and preschool are great learning environments for children, not only to learn hard skills like math, reading and writing, but also soft skills like patience, communication, and teamwork. While socializing and interacting with others is critical for young children, being surrounded by other kids also means that your little one may pick up a bad habit or two. Nose picking, biting, and loud ear-splitting shrieking is not something you hope they’d learn, but it could happen. So be prepared and learn how to help your child break these bad habits.
1. Nose Picking. EWWW!
Nose picking is embarrassing but resist the urge to say anything negative. Most children pick their nose because they are bored, curious, or trying to relieve stress. Often times it is an unconscious habit. Children may also pick their nose because they have an excess of mucus and it “feels like something is stuck up there.”
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he first time I dropped my son off at day care, I was split between two distinct emotions. 1) the guilt/sadness that surrounds handing your beautiful baby over to another for the first time and 2) the unabashed giddiness that came on like a rush of free-time to the brain. What was I going to do with all these baby-free hours? I had work and errands naturally but all of those had previously been juggled with a baby on the hip, in the car, in the shopping cart. I smelt freedom!
Fast-forward two weeks and somebody had clearly been up to something sneaky with the time-space continuum. What had previously seemed like a huge block of free time had become mere minutes. Nine to five had compressed itself into the space of one read through the email, a load of laundry and a conference call. Maybe I ate a granola bar for lunch in there somewhere. How could it be so!
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e recently wrote a post about questions you should ask your daycare to decrease your child’s chance of catching a bug this season. We got a lot of positive feedback from parents so we decided to come up with a list of things you can do at home to protect yourself and your family. After all, kids don’t just get sick at daycare, they can also catch a bug at home! Also, the 5 steps listed below not only apply to your children, but to parents as well, so make sure you implement these too 🙂
