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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Cultivate Patience

No matter how much you love your child, there will be times when her behavior will exasperate you.
Try to remember that she will never be this age again and that this, too, will pass.
Let her know how you feel when what she does upsets you. But try to keep your sense of humor and perspective.
Be patient with her attempts to do things for herself. She may not do them well at first, but she’ll learn with practice.
Like every other skill, responsibility for oneself takes practice and lots of room for mistakes before it’s mastered.

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Scribblers Just Can't Help Themselves

Scribblers just can’t help themselves. They’ve just got to close their fists around those fat crayons and scribble. Around and around they go, in circles, zigzags, blurs, and blobs.
Unfortunately, scribblers sometimes like to use walls for their canvases.

If you provide an alternative for the scribbler, like a large chalkboard and colored chalk, an easel with newspaper and paint, or lots of plain paper (the back of computer print-outs, recycled paper, or a roll of shelf paper) you’ll have fewer pictures on your walls.

Scribbling may look like nonsense to adults, but there is some sense in it for a child. When children learn to stop their arm movements in time, those big circles becomes faces.
Tight, round scribbles make eyes, looser ones make curly hair. Sweeping lines stop short for arms, fingers, mouths, and spiky hair. Pounding with the point of the crayon makes snow.

Scribbling is necessary preparation for drawing—and writing, too. But it’s hard to know what to say when you’re presented with a scribbled work of art.
“I really like purple scribbles” is probably the most honest, appreciative and gracious thing you can say!

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Brite-Kids Fun Pack now Downloadable!

Available Now ~ BRITE-KIDS FUN PACK is now downloadable for only $15.00!

Your download includes:
- Full color flashcards for each letter with 4 to 5 activities for each
- Approximately 2 or 3 letters and 1 number each month, as well as several different themes
- Monthly calendar pack with full-color decorations and date shapes
- Daily calendar of events with recommended reading list
- Circle time song sheet with over 10 different songs included in the lesson plans
- A monthly progress report for each child
- A monthly two page parent newsletter for each child

Click Here to Order your Download.

Will it float?

 

Suggest that children look around for things that are expendable — twigs, leaves, stones, egg shells, pencils, straws, popsicle sticks, aluminum plates, ping pong ball, napkin, comb, and so on.
The objective is to predict whether or not these objects will float. To test the prediction, use a large container with water and check floating vs. sinking.
Children are natural scavengers, so why not make them collectors for a purpose?

In addition to the actual experience, kids will learn about the words that describe water. For example, you can discuss the different sounds made by water—splashing, bubbling, dropping, roaring, and trickling.
How about the way water feels? Hot, cold, lukewarm, icy, fast running, slow running.
What are the various uses of water? To drink, play in, wash clothes, cook with, water gardens, clean windows and take a bath.
And finally, how many places can you name where water is found? Lakes, oceans, streams, inside plumbing, puddles, dams, ditches, ponds, fountains, and so on

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Good manners start early — at home

The basics of good manners for children are:

• Respecting other people’s prop­erty and privacy;

• Behaving well at the dining ­table;

• Not being rowdy in public;

• Not interrupting or contradict­ing;

• Not demanding one’s way all the time.

Choose the manners that are most important to you and your family and concentrate on those.

If you start teaching manners consistently and with purpose in the preschool years, they should be a habit by the time a child enters school.

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Start on tellng 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.”

Point to where the hand will be as you say this.

Then make every effort to meet this prediction accurately.

If she is not familiar with the clock, you will have 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.

However, by kindergarten many children will understand the concept of hours.

www.star-brite.com
1-888-858-2954