School Year 2016-2017 Year at a Glance

Check out the Star-Brite Learning Program Year at a Glance for 2016-2017.

Start your new school year preparations!

Each monthly download will provide you with 100 printable craft and learning activities (+ step-by-step instructions). A parent newsletter, progress report, circle time song sheet, additional reading list, and coloring activity book are also included in your download!

All of this for only $27 a month!

To order visit our website at www.Star-Brite.com

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Row Your Boat

Here’s a simple game that requires no equipment—but you will need an even number of participants—children and adults.
Everybody get a partner and sit on the floor facing each other with legs straight out in front.
Put the soles of your feet together, if you can. If you can’t (such as with a small child/adult combination) put the smaller person’s legs on the inside of the larger person’s.
Grasp hands and hold on tight. Now, as one person leans back, the other leans forward and vice versa. Do this in time while singing "Row, Row, Row Your Boat."
The first time sing and “row” at a slow, easy pace. Repeat a second time, singing and rowing faster. Repeat a third time, singing and rowing as fast as you can.
This activity is very good for strengthening stomach muscles for children as well as adults. Best of all, it’s fun for everybody!

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Building Self-Esteem

Children need to feel loved just for being themselves. Here are some ways in which parents can enhance their child’s self-esteem by their love:

• Set aside a special time of the day or a special day of the week when you and your child can spend uninterrupted time together. This may include, for example, going together to the mall to select shoes or some item of clothing for your child, going to the post office together to mail some letters, or stopping by the library to return some books or take out some new ones.

• Keep records of your child’s development. This may include keeping a scrapbook with samples of your
child’s artwork, or a special photo album or a home videotape of your child’s favorite activities. You may want to reserve a drawer where you can store mementos from your child’s life.

• Keep written records. Write down some fun things that happened along the way with the dates. Write down those funny, hard to understand words. In later years, these will become treasured memories.

• On your child’s birthday or some other special occasions, write a letter to your child in which you indicate some of the ways in which your child is special to you. Be sure to keep these letters for your child’s future reading.

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Summer 2016 Preschool Curriculum

 

Check out the Star-Brite Learning Program's 2016 Summer preschool curriculum! To be used during the two months of July and August, provide your children with 100 craft and learning activities for only $27!!

 To download go to www.star-brite.com and click on "Star-Brite Learning Programs" under the Order Now tab!!

Kids Love Puzzles

Puzzles have always had a fascination and appeal for young and old alike.
A child’s first puzzle should be a simple one-piece-per-object one (for example, an apple, a banana, and a pear). Very soon the child will progress to more complex puzzles in which parts must be put together to form a whole.

There are many things a child can learn while working with a puzzle, such as recognizing shape, size, and color. She can also learn new vocabulary.
As your child takes pieces out or places them in a puzzle, she is developing eye-hand coordination skills.
She will also become more aware of the relationships of objects in space (for example, the head is at the top, the feet are at the bottom of the body).

Most puzzles will indicate the age range for which they are appropriate. Public libraries generally have a good supply of puzzles appropriate for different age groups.
This is an activity that is not only a good learning experience, but it will provide your child with many hours of fun.

 

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Telling a Lie

Many parents view truthfulness as the most important characteristic of a good child, more important than obedience or friendliness, for example. Not surprisingly these parents get very upset whenever a child utters an untruthful remark.

Children begin saying things that are untrue at about age three or four. At this stage of development, they are beginning to explore the world of imagination and fantasy.

Parents may hear about the “elephant” in the neighbor’s backyard, or other tall tales of the child’s creative imagination. The child is not trying to deceive. He is just telling the parent a tall story — just like the one a parent read to him the night before!

What to do? The development of a child’s creative imagination should generally be encouraged rather than frowned upon, as long as the child is not seeking to deliberately deceive the parent.
A parent can enter into the child’s fantasy game, yet instill a sense of reality by saying, “Draw me a picture of your imaginary elephant.”

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Healthy Snacks

A few simple tips can keep your family snacks low in fat, healthy and tasty:

• Lots of new/ different chips are available (potato, sweet potato, tortilla) in a variety of tastes. Looks for chips that have been baked, not fried.
• Popcorn is always a favorite (don’t add butter, margarine or too much salt.) Air-popped is best.
• Low fat or farmer’s cheese is good with crackers.
• Fresh fruit is sweet, good for you, and it provides fiber and vitamins. In-season fruits generally cost less.
• Check out recipes for low-fat veggie dips to go with colorful veggies for between-meal snacks. Carrot and celery sticks, broccoli and apples, too, are great for dipping.
• Tired of orange juice? Try one of the new fruit (and vegetable) juice mixes at the grocery store or mix your own.
• Low-fat rice cakes fill up hungry kids in a hurry. Experiment to find the favorite flavors at your house.

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Quiet Time Together

Want to spend some quiet, quality time with your child?
Here’s a short list of things to do that cost next to nothing:
• Prepare a small picnic lunch and eat it together, anyplace in the house except the kitchen or dining room.
• Both of you make a clay figure of a make-believe animal. Give it a name.
• Look through a magazine and count the number of dogs (or cats, bugs or birds) you can find.
• Play “I wish I was” and explain why. (“I wish I was a kangaroo because then I could jump around a lot.”)
• Take a walk and carry a sack for litter. Take turns making up a make-believe story.
• Teach your child a song from your childhood, or a folk tune like “Home on the Range.”
• Draw a picture of each other.
• Color together in a coloring book.
• Share a popsicle.

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New Downloads for Star-Brite Coming Soon!

Listening Helps Settle Arguments

Bicker, bicker, bicker! Sometimes it seems that brothers and sisters are always fighting.
You can’t stop it all, but you can help your children learn to settle their disputes in constructive ways.

• Try to get the whole story of what caused the problem before jumping in and blaming anyone.
For example, say: “You must have been really mad at the baby to hit him,” and then let the older child explain.
Let her know that angry feelings are acceptable but that you can’t let her hurt the baby.

• In an argument between two children who can both talk, give each a chance to tell his or her own point of view.
You can help by describing the situation rather than judging it: “It looks like you two can’t agree on a television program. You both seem pretty upset. Want to tell me about it? Laurie, you go first. Then Joey, I want to hear your side of the story.”

This kind of approach will save a lot of hurt feelings and resentment between the kids, and it will help them learn to settle disputes themselves without fighting

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A Start on Telling Time

When your child is hungry and impatient with the speed of mealtime preparations, point to the large hand of the clock and say to her, “We will have dinner when this big hand gets to the bottom (or the top) of the clock.”
As you say this, point to where the hand will be. Then make every effort to meet this prediction accurately.
If she is not familiar with the clock, you will need to explain that the hand does move, but too slowly for her to see it.
Don’t try to teach her hours and minutes at first. This is difficult even for some first graders to understand, though by kindergarten many children will understand the concept of hours.



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April 2016 Preschool Curriculum Download

A few examples from our April 2016 Preschool Curriculum Download! Only $27 for an entire month of crafts, worksheets, and more!

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March 2016 Preschool Curriculum Download

Take a look at a few examples of our March 2016 Downloadable Curriculum! Flashcards, worksheets, coloring activity books, crafts, and wearable vests for each child! Order for only $27!

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Discipline is Teaching

Discipline is our way of teaching children about safety and societal norms.
Whatever type of discipline parents choose, the key is that some form of it is essential.
When you are faced with a two-year-old who is throwing a temper tantrum, or who is being unkind to a playmate:

1. Be specific. Instead of vague instructions like, “Cut it out,” use specific ones like: “Don’t take Jeremy’s toys. It’s not nice.”
2. Use body language. Move next to your child, put a hand on her shoulder, make eye contact.
3. Toddlers like to say the word “no.” So, avoid the word as much as you can when dealing with the child. Instead save “no” for times when you describe unacceptable behavior.
4. With older children, set guidelines in advance. If your child knows the consequences of his misbehavior, he will think twice about acting up.
5. Be consistent, even when it’s hard to follow through. Children need to know their parents’ word is good—for punishments and for rewards.

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March 2016 Curriculum

It's not too late to order your March 2016 Star-Brite Curriculum Program! Includes three days of Easter fun and activities! Only $27.00!


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Organizing Time

Young children organize time on the basis of important events which are repeated.
Some events like a birthday or a holiday occur only once a year. Grocery shopping occurs more often, while eating takes place three or four times daily.
 The regularity of these events helps children acquire an internal clock about when things will happen.

Preschoolers can participate in some planning for future events. Such planning will teach two related time concepts:
1. The past, present, and future are separated by time.
2. There is a need sometimes to delay gratification of one’s expectations and desires.

Some children have difficulty organizing events in time.
Activities to promote good time organization at the preschool level can be incorporated into daily events such as dressing, using songs and rhymes, or helping with a daily chore.
Routine activities of daily living, such as dressing or bathing, involve the sequencing of events in time.

Children who dress themselves may occasionally put on shoes before socks. Or they omit underpants because they have not followed the correct sequential order.
Discovery of an omission or error is a learning experience.
Equally valuable is the planning, in advance, of what clothes to put on and in what order.
For example, you tell your child to select what he would like to wear tomorrow. Then, he places these items in a row on the bed: what comes first, what comes next, what follows this, and so on.

Songs that have a theme that is repeated have always been popular with young children, and have stories that have a line that reoccurs. (“Little pig, little pig, let me in!”)
“The Farmer in the Dell” is an example. The story unfolds in a sequence, while there is a constant, the farmer, who makes decisions about whom to “take.”

Rhyming and rhythms have the same role—to teach about events in time.
The Dr. Seuss books, for example, often don't make a lot of sense to a young child. But he likes the sounds and the beats which occur in patterns through time.

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Let's Do Math!

Math is a very important part of life.
We use math to set an alarm clock, buy groceries, keep score or time at a game, wallpaper a room, or wrap a present.
We all need math in the world of computers and electronic communication.
It is important to encourage children to think of themselves as mathematicians who can reason and solve problems.

Here are some things you can do to encourage your children:
• Show your children that you like numbers. Play number games and think of math problems as puzzles to be solved.
• From the time your child is very young, count everything. When you empty a grocery bag, count the number of apples. Count the number of stairs to your home.
• Put things into groups. When you do laundry, separate items of clothing: all the socks in one pile, shirts in another, and pants in another.
Divide the socks by colors and count the number of each. Draw pictures and graphs of clothes in the laundry: 4 red socks, 10 blue socks, 12 white socks.
• Tell your children that anyone can learn math. Point out numbers in your child’s life: in terms of weight (pounds and ounces), measurements involving cooking, temperature and time.
• Help your children do math in their heads with lots of small numbers.
Ask questions: “If I have four cups and I need seven altogether, how many more do I need?

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Slowing Down the Restless Child

Children’s behavior can sometimes get out of control, and whatever tactics you use to calm them down just don’t work.

Here are a couple of suggestions for those times that may provide both you and your child with time and space to quiet down and regain control.
• Read to her. Is there a favorite book she loves to hear? Take the opportunity to sit close
• Tell her stories about herself when she was younger, and stories about yourself when you
were her age.
• Keep a collection of colored chalk or magic markers that are used only on special occasions — such as “quiet time.”
• Remind your child that you love her. Tell her at least two good reasons why.

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Getting Along With Others

Children are more successful in their relationships when they feel comfortable than when they are self-conscious.
You can help by being supportive and encouraging rather than critical or discouraging.

Here are some do’s and don’ts:
DO stand up for him, especially with adults. Everyone needs someone they can depend on, no matter what.
DON’T suggest he has trouble getting along with others. (“Nobody really likes you.”)
DO give him positive feedback for getting along well with others. (“I really like it when I see you helping Jack put on his shoes.”)
DON’T force him into uncomfortable situations.
DO allow him to work out his own relationships with a minimum of interference.
DON’T compare him with other children.
DO respect his wishes about how and with whom he wants to spend time.

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