How Children Learn from Us

Children Learn Through Observation 

One of the best ways for children to learn is observing others and then trying to do the same thing. From birth through adulthood, we frequently pattern our learning on the behavior of others. Adults are all powerful influences who can foster learning every day.

  Young children naturally follow behavior patterns they observe in other people. One of the earliest signs of this is when babies learn to respond to others with a smile. This comes after days and days of watching someone smile at them.  Speech patterns develop as babies hear the sounds of language over and over again. That is why it is so important that parents talk, sing, and read to their little ones frequently during the day. You can echo the sounds babies make and later they will try to echo your sounds. Little children learn to point, clap and play with toys as we show them what to do. Be sure to respond with enthusiasm when your little one tries to mimic the movements or sounds you show them.

Big Observers       

As babies become toddlers, they 

Pattern Behaviors for Children

become big observers of adult behavior. This is an important time for patterning eating and bathroom habits. Kids this age enjoy games like peek-a boo and start to mimic the speech and actions of adults in pretend play. 

  Preschoolers have fun with motion games like “Simon Says”, “Can You Do What I Do?” and “Follow the Leader” where they follow directions to do what the caller shows or tells them to do. Hokey Pokey, a singing game where everyone does the same motions is another game. Children watch and learn as we show them hand movements to nursery rhymes and finger plays. Imitative behavior continues to be an important skill as children join sports, dance, or learn to play musical instruments.

Imitators 

  Preschoolers love to be the leader and have parents or other kids mimic their motions in games and songs. It is fun to imitate animal movements and sounds together.

  While personal discovery is an important way to learn, imitating others is a quicker way to build many skills. Imitation takes observation, attention, and concentration. Adults need to recognize the power of imitation and be on guard to

Monitor What Children Watch

provide positive models. Studies have shown that children mimic negative attitudes, speech, and behavior as well as the positive behavior.
Of particular concern to many people is the influence of watching violence and aggression either in real life or any device for children of all ages. Child psychologists urge parents to monitor all media coming into the home. Narrow the functions of all devices and place a high level of parent controls. New parent controls will send a print out of internet sites teens view. See grandparentsteachtoo.blogspot.com and wnmufm.org/Learning Through the Seasons.

Photos: Fran Darling,  fdarling fotos

Kids Love Project Egg Drop

Engineer a Safe Egg Drop!!

There are scrambled eggs, fried eggs, and then eggs for the famous raw egg drop engineering activity.  It provides an opportunity for some real life problem solving using physics principles,  creative engineering fun, and materials found around the house. The beauty is all ages can do this and have a great time together.

  Question and Pool Knowledge

 How can you protect something really fragile like a raw egg if   it is dropped?  Discuss how packages are shipped when 

there is something breakable inside   What are are the problems to consider? Some are the speed which gravity makes it fall and jarring and shaking when it crashes. Start by dropping a simple Lego space ship with an action figure on top.  Take a look at what happens. How can you protect the action figure?

   How are babies protected in cars? How are children and adults protected in cars, on bikes, or playing hockey? What do soldiers have to slow them down and land safely when they jump out of planes? How could you work in teams to protect a raw egg that is dropped from a height of 4 feet?  10 feet, or more? There are so many questions waiting to be answered.

Engineering Materials

  Help children search around the house for construction materials like cardboard, packing material, cotton, drinking straws, tape, string, newspaper, balloons,

Choose Your Engineering Materials

 pipe cleaners, wire, or foam rubber.  What else could be used to slow down the speed of falling and violence of the crash?

  Lay all of the materials out so children can use pencils, markers, and paper to make a few sketches of possible solutions. This important step encourages children to plan. Then they can construct a few devices and discuss possibilities. 

 Keep asking how will you slow down the descent and make the landing gentle? If possible, have a construction team to talk together. Remind your children that they need to look at the egg and put the contraption back together to perfect and try again after the drop. Make a few models, name them, and predict what will happen.

  The team can test by dropping them from a ladder or stairs onto a cookie sheet or tarp. If the first few don’t work, scoop up the cracked eggs to cook later and remind children what Thomas Edison said about resilience when he and his team

Become an Engineering Team!

were inventing the light bulb.  ”I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.” You can take some movies and pictures to share. 

   Really spectacular packages were dropped on Mars in 2004. Google or Bing ” Spirit rover landing on Mars “ and view a video version of the rover parachuting and bouncing around safely on the surface of Mars.  For more science at home see grandparentsteach.blogspot.com and wnmufm.org/Learning Through the Seasons.

Teaching Grandchildren to Help and Thank Others

Do Good Deeds; Use Good Social Skills 

 A New Year’s resolution might be to continue teaching children to do good deeds and have good social skills. Children can show gratitude to those who rarely receive a thank you. People who deserve a lot of gratitude are those in the the service industries such as truckers, grocery workers, all in the restaurant businesses including take-outs and bakeries. How often are they working very early in the morning, late at night, or holidays when we are enjoying a rest?

Thanking Restaurant Workers

  We can start with restaurant workers. One family teaches their young children to write thank you and other little notes to people who work in the restaurants they visit. 

Thank Your Waitstaff

The family takes along paper the size of thank you notes and crayons. The activity also keeps the children occupied and helps practice writing skills. While waiting, adults help children ages seven and nine write thank you notes to the server and cook. During a holiday they might write a little note that says “Merry Christmas and Happy New Year, thank you, their first names, and add pictures. Then they leave it on their table.

  The family also teaches children to thank servers for their food and to use “please” with a smile when asking for something. When the server comes around to ask how everything is, they say “Thank you. This is really good.”

  The young children help to clean up their area, organize the used dishes, and pick up anything they drop on the floor. The family discusses how hard restaurant and other service people work, especially around any holiday, as part of the children’s economics lessons.

No, Thank you

  Another reader shares this good social skills tip. Since her

Use Your Words - Socially

children were very young, instead of saying “No” to them, she says calmly,” No, thank you.” Now when adults ask her children if they want something and the children don’t want it, they say, “No, thank you.” It’s automatic. “No” and “thank you” are linked. Immediately other adults will raise their eyebrows and say, HOW did you do THAT?” The parent adds when her children are in the middle of a tantrum, “Forget it! There is no link. They aren’t perfect.”

Young children think about themselves, making themselves comfortable, and getting what they want. However, with these easy activities families can teach them to be “good” children and think of others in a very natural and positive way. Doing little acts that show appreciation like writing thank you notes to hard working retailers, grocers, mail carriers, restaurant employees, and others helps children learn that being nice to others has more benefit than being nasty and ill mannered at any age.

  For more ideas see grandparentsteachtoo.blogspot.com, wnmufm.org/ Learning Through the Seasons live and pod casts; Pinterest, and Facebook.

Balloons Make Physics Fun

Have Fund on Cold Winter Days - With Balloons!

For under two dollars the whole family can have some physics fun on cold winter days. Ten inch round red balloons are very dramatic as they fly around the house. A packet of a variety of balloons makes the time even crazier. Watch the very young children and pets so they don’t chew holes and inhale the balloons when they burst, but other than that the flying balloons should be safe.

  Ben Franklin would be proud. Balloons help teach an important physics principle: propulsion. The opposite action of air molecules rushing out of the balloon’s entrance is the fast movement of the balloon in the opposite direction. For every action there is an almost equal reaction.

Preparing Rocket Balloons

  One tip for prepping balloons without hurting your ears is to stretch the neck of the balloon to loosen it up. Tire pumps also work well. Teaching children to blow their own properly helps, too.

Discuss Rockets and Space

  Family STEM fun begins with a discussion of the science principle and thinking of examples of propulsion like jet engines and space rockets.  Then ask how we can use the balloons and the principle of propulsion to have some fun with science and solve a problem.  How can we prove or show that there is air coming out of the balloon neck?  What happens if the balloon is released under soapy water? Children may suggest that they can feel the rush of air or the rush will make some pieces of paper move.  You can try out a few of their ideas.

  Children can take out a few markers and gently draw silly faces or rockets before or after they expand their balloons. That adds an art component and makes the activity last a bit longer.

Creative Science

  

Read a Book!

Now it’s time for a little fun and noise. How far can a balloon go down a hallway? How high will it go?  Can it fall into a clothes basket target?  What happens if one puts a marble inside the balloon?  Can you strap on an action figure like Luke Skywalker with masking tape and let Darth Vader chase after him? Whose balloon goes the farthest? Does anything change if the balloons are fired off outside in the cold weather?

   What happens when one squeezes the balloon neck to demonstrate how musical instruments work?  Can children do a little song with it?

  Interesting books about rockets include “Roaring Rockets (Amazing Machines)” by Tony Mitton; “Elon Musk: This book is about rockets” By Evan Loomis; and “The Way Things Work Now” by David Macaulay.  More science fun can be found and archived at grandparentsteachtoo.blogspot.com; wnmufm.org/Learning Through the Seasons pod casts and live; Pinterest and Facebook.  Thanks for sharing these around the world, especially to family members in the military.