Painting with Veggies

Did your child tell you that they painted with potatoes? Well, they were right! These kids love craft time, especially when we are painting. Giving them an opportunity to paint with something they usually don't touch, like a raw potato, was such a joy.  I wish you could have seen their faces when I was bringing out the cut potatoes to paint with.  We all had a blast.

Road Safety

This month our theme has been Safety.  We have talked about a lot of things related to this: stranger danger, not putting things in your mouth, poisoning, waking too far from home, and obeying parents are some, but not all of the things we have touched on.  On this particular day, we talked bout "road safety": How it is important to look both ways before you cross the road, crossing the road with a grown-up, and wearing a helmet while riding a bike, scooter or wiggle car.  I showed them a picture of my oldest son who was in a big bike accident (he did break his teeth), but he did not hurt his brain because he was wearing a helmet.  Hopefully our fun day had a positive impact on these kids, and they will want to wear their helmets from now on!

Independence

Working by yourself is something that is not perfected until later in life, but it begins now.  Having rotations in preschool teaches two critical things: 1. How to do things on your own. 2. Independent thought.  When a child has to work things out themselves, this makes critical connections in the brain.  Connections that will deepen over the years.  Why is that important?  Research has told us that a lot of critical brain development happens until the age of 5.  So exposure to a lot of topics, environments, people and situations can only have a positive effect on the development of the brain in this critical time period of a child's life.

Coloring

Some would say that coloring is a waste of time.  Well, I think they're wrong!  Coloring for small children is more than an expression of creativity or an emotional outlet.  It develops skills.  You may want to ask your child what Monkey Grip is.  We have talked about this a lot these past weeks.  Basically, monkey grip is the way a monkey would hold a pencil.  I've been working with your kids for weeks to hold their crayons correctly.  Why does it matter?  Three words: small motor skills.  The development of small motor skills is critical in the classroom and also critical to a child's development.  Doing everything for a child will not only make them lazy, but it will put them behind in their development.  So teaching these small skills, like how to hold a pencil or button their coats, is not only critical to their schooling, but critical to their independence.  Freedom!

A Cut Above the Rest

  People tell me I'm crazy for giving 3-5 year-olds scissors, and maybe their right, but it is all in an effort to help them develop their small motor skills.  what are small motor skills?
  Our bodies physical development is categorized into two

groups, large motor skills, like running, jumping and swimming, and small motor skills, like writing, tying shoes and cutting with scissors.  Small children start working on these skills as soon as they are born - holding their heads up and rolling over, large motor skills, grabbing their toys and feeding themselves, small motor skills.
  Kindergarten teachers will be assessing small motor skills right away - can they hold a pencil correctly? Can they turn pages in books?  So working on these skills is just part of their development.
  So, save your junk mail...and let them have a great time...with supervision of course ;)

Fall Poem

Look what cute kids you have!

Preschool Begins

We had a great beginning of the year and a great group of kids this year!  I just love how these kids love to sing.  Ask your little one about "Doggie, Doggie, Where's Your Bone" and "Grizzly Bear" - those 2 are definitely their favorites so far!

Preschool Predictor

Can you believe it? A recent study from Georgetown University found that those who attend preschool are getting better scores in math and reading in Jr. High School!  The researchers follow 4,000 kids in Tulsa, Ok. and found that a high quality preschool, "has a long term cognitive effect."  This continuing study began in 2006 and found that in their 8th grade year, students who attended preschool were ALL scoring higher on their standardized tests and were more likely to be taking Algebra which is a predictor for college readiness.  They have forecasted that since these kids will be making more money and avoiding incarceration, every preschool dollar spent will actually make them $2! 

AH THE POWER OF PRESCHOOL!

Why All the Fuss Over Books?

Reading aloud and sharing stories with your child is a great way to spend time together. Reading and storytelling also helps promote language, literacy and brain development.
According to Sonya Nedovic, early childhood educator from the Royal Children's Hospital Education Institute, reading can:

• help your child become familiar with sounds, words, language and the value of books
• spark your child’s imagination, stimulate curiosity and help his brain development
• help your child learn the difference between ‘real’ and ‘make-believe’
• help your child understand change and new or frightening events, and also the strong emotions that can go along with them
• help your child develop early literacy skills like the ability to listen to and understand words.

One of the first ways that children learn to understand and love book is by picture walking, this is the practice of just opening a book and looking at the pictures.  A guided picture walk, or storytelling, can also have the same effects as the the above mentioned benefits of reading.

So Run, don't walk to your nearest library and Get Reading!

Don't Send Them Sick

I know it is hard sometimes to know when your child is truly sick enough not to go to school, so here are a few things I will call home for.

1. An uncontrollable, deep, junky cough.
2. A fever.  No exceptions.
3. A pale face.
4. Acting droopy or slow with any of the above symptoms.

I realize some of these symptoms may not have happened when they were at home and can come on suddenly at school, but if your little one seems to be getting worse, please leave them home.  Preschoolers are not known to be the cleanest of little creatures.  I do often remind them to cough or sneeze into their elbows and we use sanitizer liberally, but good habits take time to form.

Time to Enroll

Now Enrolling

Little Sprouts

Preschool

We Learn:

colors, shapes, letters, letter sounds,

sight words, cooperative play,

rhyming, memorization, writing,

science, music, reading,

concentration exercises,

large muscle movement...

and so much more!

3-4 year-old

T/TH

10:00-12:00

$65

Fun Fridays

1^st &i 3^rd weeks 10:00-12:00

$12 a month for Preschool students

$16 a month for non preschool students

(space is limited)

Time to Grow That Gray Matter!

  Years ago (1983), Howard Gardner wrote a book titled, "Frames of Mind", where he outlined his theory of multiple intelligence.  This theory, widely accepted today, involves breaking intelligence into like groups including: interpersonal, intrapersonal, spatial, kinesthetic, musical, logical, verbal, existential and naturalist.  An easy way to think about these intelligences is a talent.

    We have often heard people say, "I was just born with it" when talking about a certain talent.  In the scientific world they would say "you have a dominant intelligence".  While all people are born with something they are good at, that doesn't mean that other intelligences cannot be developed, in fact the more a child is exposed to when they are small, the more intelligent they can be when they are fully developed.   This is the approach I ascribe to: "wholistic" learning: teaching children about anything  and everything through movement, music and tactile play.




   Children are very curious creatures.  The way we first display their learning environment either creates a thirst to learn, or they can develop an adverse attitude toward it.  "Wholistic" learning uses not only different intelligences, but also involves the whole brain.  The different intelligences, they have found, are located in different parts of the brain.  When you can activate more than one area of the brain at the same time you are developing literal nerve connections between those two places.

Did you know that a child's brain is the most elastic, developing the most myelination on these nerve cells before the child is 5?  That mean we have a greater chance to change the future of a child in those first 5 years.  Developing the ability to focus is critical in those five years and the amount of exposure they have to different situations, people and experiences, the better.  Exposing them to art, music, books, dance, games, play-dough, sports, counting, memorization, drama, museums, the zoo and so many more activities is a way to build that all important "gray matter".  So preschool in not just a place to get them out of your hair - it's a place they can grown mentally!