Month: February 2019

Kids are natural creators, and when left to their own devices, they’ll come up with new games and activities on the fly. Creativity is essential for people of all ages, and developing a sense of imagination at a young age paves the way for healthier, more intelligent kids. It strengthens critical thinking and problem solving skills, and it can even boost a child’s emotional intelligence and help them cope with stress. Below are some ways that parents can support their child’s creative flow and keep it alive over time. 1. Foster a Creative Environment Your child doesn’t need a fully furnished art studio, but they should have a space in the home specifically for exploratory play and creating. This could be a corner in the living room that has arts and crafts supplies or an entire playroom where they can build, draw, and play make-believe. Rather than worrying about the area being huge, parents should focus more on making a space where their child is in charge of the creative process. This is meant to be a place where kids can get messy and unleash their ideas. 2. Get Back to Basics Children don’t need state-of-the-art supplies, and they don’t expect them either. Legos, PlayDough, Lincoln Logs, and scrap or construction paper will do the trick. Even in underdeveloped countries, kids find ways to play games and make things with random objects around the house. It’s amazing what children come up with while playing with such basic items as leaves, tissue paper, and pipe cleaners. Depending on a child’s interests, they may prefer to play with building blocks, coloring books, or mom and dad’s old clothes. 3. Encourage Unstructured Playtime The creative process doesn’t happen in a vacuum, and sometimes setting a schedule for art or playtime can cramp kids’ style. Instead, try getting artsy in various settings and at different times of day. A child might enjoy helping out with dinner prep or working in the garden. An impromptu romp in the snow or leaf collecting are fun outdoor activities that can awaken kids’ imaginations without being structured playtime. It’s important for children to realize that thinking outside the box isn’t just for playtime, but it can be applied to all sorts of everyday situations. 4. Engage the Five Senses Art isn’t just about what people see; the five senses can play a crucial role in creativity and imagination. At mealtimes, parents can prompt their children about the food on their plates – what it tastes, smells, and feels like. Which foods have similar qualities? What other dishes could be made with those ingredients? Another idea is taking kids to a new location, such as an art museum, park, library, or community center. Looking at paintings or reading books can help children imagine new worlds and distance lands. Engaging the five senses helps them get a better picture of these new places, and their creativity will soar. 5. Talk About It The more parents know about their child’s creative process, the more they can help with it. Ask kids questions about their favorite time or place to play, and try to incorporate that more into daily life. Sometimes it’s useful to have a sketchbook handy that can travel with kids when they go to the library, park, or school. They can write down ideas and inspiration down and go over it with their parents at the end of the day. It’s a great way for both parent and child to be on the same page and work together on bringing out their full creative potential. 6. Approach a Different Way of Thinking Creativity and problem-solving skills go hand-in-hand, so parents can use art and playtime to boost their child’s critical thinking skills. Opportunities for this pop up throughout the day, such as when cooking, drawing, building with blocks or Legos, and reading books. While reading, parents can ask their children what they would do if they were in a character’s situation. Maybe kids can think of another way to achieve a similar result when playing with Legos. Or, they can imagine how their food would taste differently if they used other ingredients or spices. 7. Let Them Be the Boss It’s easy for parents to want to be involved in every aspect of their child’s life, but being a helicopter parent has its downsides. Constantly managing what kids do or how they approach a problem can limit their critical thinking skills and even discourage them from using their own imaginations. Just as unstructured playtime can be great for children’s creativity, so can stepping back and letting kids come to their own conclusions about how things work. Youngsters tend to deal with failure well, and they’ll often try to tweak their approach to get a different result. Step back and enjoy that learning process. 8. Include Their Hobbies and Interests Kids are much more likely to participate in games and activities if they focus on their own interests. Almost any hobby can be centered around art or creating, so parents should try to feed their child’s interests in an imaginative way. If they’re into dinosaurs, give them figurines and books about them. If their passion is music, listen to different genres with them and try crafting homemade instruments like drums, maracas, and a guitar. Some other possibilities include cooking, dancing, and sculpture. 9. Get Yourself Involved Children are like sponges, and they absorb what their parents do. They tend to follow in their footsteps. If they never see mom or dad participating in creative activities, they might be less likely to follow their own artistic pursuits. By joining their kids in dress-up, coloring, building blocks, or make-believe, parents form a closer bond with their children and reawaken their own creative spirit. It’s a win-win for everyone. These nine tips can bring more joy and fun to everyday life while increasing kids’ confidence and social skills. Being creative doesn’t only mean drawing pretty pictures and constructing Lego towers; it gives

A lot of people in today’s time do not realize just how important reading really is. Without the ability to read, getting through daily life would be significantly more difficult. This is one of the many reasons why it is crucial that you teach your children how to read from a young age. Even if your child is very young, building the foundations for reading in your child’s head can do a lot for your child’s future. Thankfully, there are many things that you can do to strengthen those foundations in young child’s mind. Even something as simple as talking to your child as he or she learns to read can be beneficial in the long run. As your child approaches school age, there are even more things that you can do for him or her. Not only will you be able to have a thoughtful, or at least semi-thoughtful discussion, about what was in the text, you will also be able to help your child advance by associating reading with good things. For instance, reading a recipe with your child can lead to you making a delicious batch of cookies that your child can have as a reward for reading and understanding a recipe. These are just a few of the things that you can do to help encourage your child to read. What Can You Do for Young Readers? You can begin teaching your child how to read from a very young age, even as young as two or three years old. Of course, you shouldn’t expect substantial progress at this age but it will still help your child make connections and build the foundations necessary for learning how to read in school. Young children often have a harder time with reading for a number of reasons. Focus is often one of the largest problems that parents have with young children. However, there are a few ways that you can fix this issue. Talk to Your Child Even if your child is not old enough to really form coherent sentences, it is important to talk to your child. This will help your child develop verbal skills as your child will be able to watch and hear you talk. When you do this, you should talk in simple and short sentences to make it easier for your child to understand. You should also talk about things that your child is experiencing as well, such as what the child is doing, the environment around you and your child, and the objects in the environment. You can also consider singing songs and poems that have repetitive sounds and rhyme schemes in them. This repetition will be easier for your child to pick up and it will help your child understand a little bit more about speaking and eventually reading. Read with Your Child While some people might not see the point in doing this as your child is far too young to understand the words and comprehend the story, it is important to do it quite often. Even reading a book for 30 minutes a day can help your child out as he or she will be able to watch how it’s done. There are some simple yet important ideas that your child will be able to grasp even if he or she doesn’t understand the words being said. For example, your child will be able to see that you typically read from left to right and from the top of the page down to the bottom. When you run your index finger under the words, your child will eventually be able to grasp the idea that those printed letters on the page actually have a meaning. As he or she gets better at reading, you can interact a little bit more and ask him or her to identify letters and sounds as you read. This also helps your child develop good reading habits, which will become very important when your child reaches school age. What Can You Do for School-Age Children? As your child reaches the age where he or she can go to school, such as preschool or kindergarten, you can breathe a little bit of fresh air. After all, teachers will generally take care of some reading activities in class, which will help your child out in the long run. With that being said, when your child returns home from school, you should still encourage reading. There are still many things that you can do. In fact, there are even more things that you can do now that your child has some level of comprehension. From reading with your child and asking your child about the content of their book to being able to establish a set reading time, there is so much that you can do to encourage a school-age child to read. Talk About Reading One of the best things you can do to encourage a school-age child to read is to talk about reading. You can establish a reading time, even if it’s as short as ten minutes a day, to help your child get a little bit of experience in. During that allotted reading time, you can ask your child to take notes about what he or she is reading. Once your child has done this, you can talk to your child about the book. Not only will this bolster your child’s reading comprehension skills but this can also be good for your child as well. If he or she is reading an enjoyable book, there’s a good chance that your child will be happy to talk about it with you. You can also consider asking your child to read aloud. Reading aloud is a little more difficult than reading to yourself. This means that when you get your child to read aloud, you are ultimately helping his or her reading skills. If you decide to ask your child to read aloud, you should consider giving your child praise and open up discussions

When it comes to taking care of preschoolers, there’s a lot that you have to consider. After all, preschool is a tumultuous time for everyone involved. Your child will be transitioning from being an infant to being of school age. You will be transitioning from handling an infant to slowly helping your child understand how to take care of himself or herself. One of the most important things that you will need to teach your child is personal hygiene. A lot of people don’t think about it too much but everyone has learned to clean up after himself or herself from someone. Now it is your turn to teach your child how to clean up after himself or herself. Personal hygiene can include many different areas such as using the bathroom, using toilet paper, and washing hands. These are all crucial skills that your child will need to know in life, making it all the more important that you know how to teach your preschooler. When your preschooler is not, well, at preschool, it can do wonders when you take it upon yourself to help your child learn personal hygiene. By understanding what to do and how to teach your child, you can rest assured knowing that your child will get the hang of it before you know it. With this being said, knowing a few tips on how to help your child is always a good thing. Patience As many children’s stories say, patience is a virtue. Arguably one of the most important things you will need when teaching your children about personal hygiene is patience. In the beginning, as your children ask you for help wiping and washing, you might feel frustrated that you have to do this for them. Being a parent is no easy task and it is often tiring. However, if you are tired and accidentally snap at your child for asking for help, nothing good will happen. In fact, there’s a good chance that you will have to deal with a meltdown from your child, which will end up taking even more time. Nobody wants this to happen. Even if it’s the third or fourth time that your child has yelled across the house that he or she is done using the bathroom and needs help, sometimes all that you as the parent can do is grit your teeth and act calm about it. Depending on how mature your child is, you could consider telling him or her that you will be there as soon as you can but also mention that nagging will end up making you take longer. This will not only give you a little bit of breathing room when it comes to dealing with an impatient preschooler but it can also help establish the idea that sometimes you just have to wait for people. Keep Yourself Supplied Since the majority of kids who are of preschool age don’t quite understand how important patience is, there’s a pretty good chance that they won’t be too happy about waiting for you to come help them. This is especially the case when you have to grab extra toilet paper, wet wipes, or hand soap every time your preschooler uses the bathroom. Making your kids wait will overall make it more difficult for them to learn for themselves as they will simply become impatient. This is not good for your children. Thankfully, this problem is pretty easy to solve. All you really have to do is make sure that you have extra hand soap, wet wipes, toilet paper, and other similar supplies on hand with you. You could store this stuff under the sink, in a drawer, or even just in a closet. As long as it is easy to get and won’t keep your impatient child waiting, it will be good. Make it Enjoyable This tip ties in directly with the last one. When you run out of bathroom supplies, you could consider bringing your kid with you when you go shopping for them. For example, you could tell your child that you are going on a hunt for the supplies and you can ask the child to “help” you find the supplies. While you probably know where the supplies are, it will make it an enjoyable experience for your child. When your child has fun picking out bathroom supplies, it can easily lead to your child associating good things with the bathroom. This can ultimately help your child get better at personal hygiene. In addition to bringing your child with you to pick up various types of bathroom supplies, you can also consider other methods, such as singing a song with your child as he or she washes up. Not only will your child be able to enjoy singing a fun song but this will help your child get a better grasp on how long he or she should be spending when washing his or her hands. Plus, it can often come as a proud parenting moment to hear your child singing this song alone as he or she washes hands without any guidance from you. Offer Incentives Children, especially young ones, love being rewarded for doing things. As most parents probably don’t enjoy washing and wiping up after children, you could try offering incentives for when your child cleans up on his or her own. For instance, some parents will consider putting a token in a jar every time the child washes and wipes up on his or her own. Once that jar is full of tokens, you can reward your kid with something that he or she enjoys. This could be going out to get some ice cream or it could mean a small shopping trip where your child can pick something out. These incentives should help motivate your child a little more to clean up while also making him or her more eager to do it again in the future. Praise Your Child In addition to offering incentives