Magical Stories of the Past
I have yet to meet the person who doesn’t like ‘once upon a time’ and who doesn’t feel a twinge of regret when they hear ‘And then they lived happily ever after… The end.’ Stories transcend age, gender, cultural constraints and can provide a powerful way for families to bond more intimately. Parents don’t need the library or an extensive bookshelf to find stories to tell to their children, their own lives can provide wonderful tales of adventure and lessons learned. Why Tell Stories About Your Past To Your Children? A well-known...
Read MoreThe Joy of Learning to Read
Reading opens worlds unseen in a child’s mind. I love to see the light in a child’s eyes when he realizes for the first time that c-a-t makes cat! This week I had the privilege to see my six year old daughter’s eyes twinkle with excitement as she learned to decode her first word. She’s a special girl, always reaching for what is just beyond her grasp. To see her determination to decode a couple of three letter words was an experience. I learned more than she did. I can literaly see the gears grinding in her head as she is entering this world of literacy. Halting tries...
Read MorePoetry and Tea
Children has a wonderful capacity to enjoy beauty. Not only beauty in nature, but also beauty in art, music and literature. They don’t need classic works of art dumbed down or cartoonized to appreciate it. Over the past few years, we’ve been having regular Poetry and Tea mornings to give our children the opportunity to interact with great minds of the past and present. I’ve seen an awareness of art and culture emerge in my children because of that. For a period of time, one of them wouldn’t go to sleep without Vivaldi’s Four Seasons playing in the...
Read MoreExpanding Vocabulary with Picture Books
Don’t you just love to hear your child’s expanding vocabulary? Most children go through growth spurts in language development where they pick up new words quickly. They may mispronounce the words initially, often with hilarious results, but will eventually learn to pronounce it correctly. Picture books are one of the best ways to encourage vocabulary development in children from an early age, because it helps children to learn more advanced words by providing a context (the story) and visual aids (the illustrations). Using picture books for vocabulary enhancement...
Read MoreFourteen Tips To Bond With Your Baby (Newborn To 6 Months)
Bonding refers to the process of attachment that develops between parents and children. This bond is characterized by strong emotions such as affection and trust. According to Dr. Caron B. Goode, a licensed counselor, author and educational trainer, “The bonding period for you and your baby begins long before birth. As your baby grows and develops within you, the special relationship between you and your child is already beginning to form.” Some parents easily feel attached to their babies soon after birth. Others need a bit more time to adjust to their new role as parents. Wherever...
Read MoreImportance Of Involving Different Senses In Learning
Learning styles (or learning modalities) describes how young children use their senses in the learning process. There are three types of learning modalities – visual, auditory, kinesthetic. Parents and educators can also combine these three types of learning modalities. This is called multisensory learning. According to teaching experts, the more senses or modalities an educator can activate, the more learning can take place. The English alphabet can be defined as a set of letters used to write one or more languages. According to Wikipedia, it was first written in the Anglo-Saxon runic...
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