Month: May 2024

With summer holidays fast approaching you may be thinking about how you will keep your child engaged and stimulated while school is out. A perfect Saturday or Sunday plan is a day at the park. Bangkok has a number of great parks that are suitable for families with young children. Here are Trip Advisors top 10 –THE 10 BEST Bangkok Parks (Updated 2024) – Tripadvisor Here are some tips to plan a great morning or afternoon at the park. When heading out to the park, it is good to have a rough game plan, but it’s also important to be flexible and  to “go with the flow”.   Give your child the opportunity to lead you… follow them on their wanderings of interest and you just might see something from a new perspective. Have fun… It’s a walk in the park!

By Teacher Ravisara Children possess an inherent curiosity, their minds serving as fertile ground for embracing new experiences and ideas. The initial stages of a child’s life mark a period of remarkable growth and maturation. It is within these crucial years that children thrive in learning, not solely through instruction, but by immersing themselves in various experiences. Through experiential learning, children engage with their surroundings, fostering a sense of belonging and comprehension of their role in the broader world. Field trips provide a tactile method of education that stimulates children’s senses and ignites their inquisitiveness. They offer genuine, firsthand encounters that cultivate a child’s comprehension of their surroundings. These outings may range from a visit to the neighbourhood library, where children can explore the pleasure of reading. Having field trips that relate to the academic side of teaching can always be more fun. Students have the basic knowledge and understanding on the topic. Once they go outside school to the location they will only enrich their understanding and see for themselves how things work and how what they have learned is similar to the world outside of school.   To sum up, short field trips for preschoolers are priceless for fostering experiential learning and cultivating a sense of belonging. They afford children the chance to interact with their surroundings meaningfully, promoting personal growth and advancement. Although obstacles may arise, collaborative endeavours among educators, local authorities, and businesses can surmount them, opening avenues for a more enriching educational journey for our youngest students.

By Teacher Shannon When sent to school students are often separated by age group. Depending on their age and birthday they will be placed in a group with students in the same age group as them. Prior to this the student may have been surrounded by adults, siblings of various ages, or even cousins. This is most likely the first time the child will be around many students of the same age. Although each year group will have goals to work on and hopefully achieve throughout the school year each student will be at different places in their development.  At school students have various opportunities to interact with students from different age groups. During outdoor times, class collaborations, free play, project exhibitions, class assemblies, and school wide events students at Kidz Village have many opportunities to interact with their fellow peers. This can be extremely beneficial to both the older and younger students.  For younger children it can help build their confidence to be around students who are older than them. They can build friendships while enhancing their language and behavioural skills. Younger kids can observe and notice how various skills are completed without having the skills to complete them yet. They may even build the confidence to try something new that may challenge them a bit, but they would not know if they can do it until they try.  Older children have the opportunity to be role models for younger students. They can gain skills such as empathy for younger children, they can practise teaching and demonstrating different skills to their peers, as well as build a sense of responsibility. Older students can become leaders in their community which helps them build on their own independence.  For all students involved in mixed age groups there are only positives to gain. A child old or young may not always see someone in their own class that they can relate to or see themselves in. When we open up the school to provide more opportunities for students to mingle with students from different age groups it provides more chances for that child to find a role model, someone who they can relate to, and hopefully more friends.  Overall having a school community that works together and sees every member of the community as someone who can benefit the team is a school that will be successful. 

Art Exploration with Toddler Children Toddler children are developing their sensory awareness . Offering art each day to your toddler provides an opportunity to explore and try various materials and refine fine motor motor  skills necessary for later writing.   Art gives children practice in learning to focus while they create art.   Art for toddlers is a means to express themselves freely and feel confident and independent as they make their own creations. Art will develop your toddlers creativity and give them a sense of  enjoyment. What is art? And how is it different from a craft? Art does not have a clear wrong or right in the process of creating the piece of art. It is not making a product. Creating an art piece is about the process of doing the work.  Whereas creating a craft is an activity with multiple steps to follow and directions that will create a type of product at the end. When and how to offer art activity to the children. children?  Art activities can be offered anytime throughout the day.  Many times art is used as a tool in Preschool education for children to express their thoughts and ideas at the end of a lesson.  Art also incorporates science concepts when children explore with mixing colors, textures and using various art supplies. When children create an art piece, parents may show interest by asking  their child questions about what they made? Or what their child likes about their artwork. . This will help you to know the idea or story of your child behind the art work and it also gives your child an opportunity to speak and explain their ideas in words.  However, to do art, parents or adults will need to find a space for children to create or express themselves with materials that are child appropriate. Art can be expressed in many forms and media such as painting with poster paint, water colors, food colors, crayons, colors from natural materials such as with flowers, soil, leaves, or vegetables.  It can be done using various materials or tools such as with color pencils, paint brushes, sponges, sticks, twigs, feathers, scrubs, spoon, or fork.   Painting can be on various surfaces such as paper, cardboard box, egg carton, plastic trays, ice, floor and wall surfaces, wood, plastic, ceramic tiles, mirror, cement, brick, tree, bench, fabric, paper towel, or even on natural materials such as painting on the tree trunk, or different types of leaves. Creating art in various ways will expand your toddlers creativity  to express themselves and encourage unlimited ideas.  Benefits of Art Offering art to your toddler will help your child to express their self  with enjoyment, feel calm and relaxed and encourage their free flow of ideas and imagination.   Have fun trying out some of the suggested activities with your toddler. by Teacher Nancy Sivilai