What GTT Learned in Twelve Years

 After publishing 624 columns, 280,800 words, two books in English and Spanish, and 312 podcasts, the teachers at Grandparents Teach, Too/Learning Through the Seasons are retiring. Iris Katers will continue podcasts on wnmu.org live and online thanks to the help of NMU Public Radio 90.

  Thank you to our families, publishers, editors, and readers throughout the U.S. who helped us inform parents and grandparents of the many ways to prepare their children for school and a lifelong love of learning. Thank you all for sending our column to families around the world and writing to us. 

   Here are some important tips we shared with fathers and grandfathers in the County Detention Center training sessions while we did activities, an experience that all of us found most personally moving. The tips are based on twelve years of research and listening to you.

Useful Tips

·       Conversation is the key, especially during early childhood and middle school—the greatest brain development years Ninety percent of the brain develops between ages 0-5.

·       Give children 100% of your attention when you do activities. Turn off media.

·       Have learning fun together.  It’s the way into their brains.

·       Activities with preschool children should be short. Every child has different abilities and attention span.

·       Read to children every day, including bedtime.  It’s the difference between 3,000 words and 20,000 words to begin school.

·       Explore geography. Visit places around the United States and world in person when you can. Canoe rivers, climb hills, view waterfalls and forests. Visit cities and National Parks.

·       Teach the history and culture of the United States. Tell stories of your family’s history, traditions, culture, resilience and fun times. History is personal.

·       Teach economics and how to make, save, spend, and donate money.

·       Teach how the government works and how people have the responsibility to be involved if we want it to work well.

·       Teach the blessings of liberty.

·       Integrate math into daily life and conversation.

·       Do activities and creative projects with them, not for them.  They are learning even if the outcome is not perfect.

·       Practice the Rule of Six.  Give six praises to one correction. The practice helps develop self- confidence and worth.

·       Teach children to be kind and charitable to others by example.

·       Alternate between noisy and quiet activities. Children need one daily hour of active exercise:  running, jumping, throwing, kicking, hitting a ball, swimming, sledding, walking, hiking…

·       Use a timer for Time In, as well as, Time Out, if you need it.

·       Display art and other products.  Show and give them to others. Use Zoom or others to communicate with family members far away.

·       Take leadership in the family about teaching children skills, preparing for an occupation, building religious, moral principles, and good health, finding happiness, and helping others. Teach the dangers of all kinds of substance abuse, by example.

Thank you all!  Bless you.  Please be safe and well.

More Ideas and Activities....See the authors’ book “Learning Through the Seasons” at area bookstores and grandparentsteachtoo.org. For more help to prepare young children for success in school see the authors’ web site: www.grandparentsteachtoo.org. Also check our audio Podcasts WNMU Radio 90; Youtube video activities; and join us on Pinterestphotos: Fran Darling: fdarling fotos

Thanksgiving Day is Still Thanksgiving

 No matter how we celebrate Thanksgiving Day this year, teaching children to give thanks and be grateful is a critical part of developing a good, kind, and loving person. Thanksgiving is a perfect time for families to spend more discussion time together that builds knowledge, vocabulary and binds the family together. Creating a Thanksgiving book together is a gift in itself. You’ll need several sheets of paper or large paper plates, pencils, crayons, and stapler. Optional are paper punch and yarn. 

Conversation and Creating

   Start by having a conversation with your children about things that both of you are thankful for. Keep it simple! After a few suggestions, sit together and begin to print an “I Am Thankful For… book. Depending on the age of the children, the book can either be dictated or printed by the children. Children just beginning to print can tell you the words. You can carefully print them on paper, and they can copy the proper spelling and letter formation.   Keeping with the Thanksgiving theme, help your child trace their handprint to make a turkey outline on a few sheets of paper or plates. The thumb curves away from the fingers to make a head. This is a good time to talk about the makeup of turkeys with very young children. Turkeys have two wings and legs. They have a flap of skin on their necks called a wattle. Since they have feathers, they are birds. Young children can print one word on each turkey that represents something to be thankful for. Some children will attempt sounds they know; others can write the whole word or short sentence while younger ones need to dictate the words to you. Then children can illustrate their book. After completing several pages, add a cover and assemble the book.  Print the title, author, and illustrator’s name on the cover. Now you are ready to cuddle and share this book your children can read. Encourage other families to make their own books.  Then on Thanksgiving Day find a way to share your love and gratitude. Americans are an inventive creative people.  We always find a way or way around.

Thanksgiving Skills

  How does this help your children? Writing involves creative thinking. Forming letters correctly, tracing and coloring all help develop fine motor skills. This also models the idea that writing has a purpose and showing gratitude is a wonderful social skill. A good book for a read aloud is “I’m Thankful Each Day” by P.K. Hallinan. Use this idea to write books throughout the year about the changing seasons, holidays, science learning, our great country, and our love for each other. They also make precious gifts for grandparents who are far away.

More Ideas and Activities....See the authors’ book “Learning Through the Seasons” at area bookstores and grandparentsteachtoo.org. For more help to prepare young children for success in school see the authors’ web site: www.grandparentsteachtoo.org. Also check our audio Podcasts WNMU Radio 90; Youtube video activities; and join us on Pinterest

Photos, Fran Darling, fdarling fotos

Making Math Count for Youngsters

  Life is like a math equation. In order to gain the most, you have to know how to convert negatives into positives—unknown

   

 Families can use everyday activities to help children prepare for math in school and have a life- long awareness, understanding, skill and good attitude toward numbers and problem solving with numbers.  Here are a few family activities to begin.

Grocery Store Math

   Grocery shopping is an ideal place to use math skills.  Young children can look through grocery ads and learn to read the numbers. They can look for prices of fruits, vegetables nutrition bars, yogurt, and other things they like to eat. Point out money signs in the store. You can play grocery store often at home with real or plastic food and play money. Take turns being the cashier.

  Review numbers while choosing groceries looking at prices of apples to reinforce decimals and compare cost of items. While many items no longer have individual sticker prices, there are often signs for sale prices.

   With older children you can teach them to round off numbers and add or multiply. For example, your child can round up to $3.00 and figure out about how much two cartons would be.  Talk about how we arrived at that number. Point out how the estimate differs from the true cost. Estimation is very useful in life.

 Cooking math 

  The kitchen is a great place to practice math, as long as, there's an adult around to supervise. Half and double recipes.  Drop dough 5x7 on a cookie sheet.  What is the total?  Count how many pepperonis are on the pizza?  If there are three people in your family divide nine strawberries equally among them. How many strawberries will each person receive?

Mapping

  Show children how to use all the forms of on-line Google maps directions, and Google earth. Tap on street view to find their house. Tap on the search icon, navigator wheel and others to explore from your kitchen table. You can even plan local road trips to find water falls or look at the depth of the Great Lakes shoreline. Search for free National Geographic geography games for kids. Paper maps work, too.

 Change up

   Teach children to recognize the value of coins early. They can start a penny collection and read the dates on the coins. They can use pennies to count by ones, nickels to count by fives, and dimes to count by tens. Four quarters equal a dollar. Do a little at a time.

  Put a piece of fruit on the table and teach to count out the price of 45 cents.  Start counting with pennies.  When they are ready use other coins.

More Ideas and Activities....See the authors’ book “Learning Through the Seasons” at area bookstores and grandparentsteachtoo.org. For more help to prepare young children for success in school see the authors’ web site: www.grandparentsteachtoo.org. Also check our audio Podcasts WNMU Radio 90; Youtube video activities; and join us on Pinterest

Photos, Fran Darling, fdarling fotos

Sketches: Mark Nowicki

Increasing Math Awareness Pays Off

 We have heard: read, read, read every day. Perhaps families should also say do math, math, math every day. It’s just as fun. You can increase your child's awareness of numbers by looking around the house to find examples: the kitchen clock, the calendar, a cereal box, a TV dial, a stamp or inside shoes. Children can write down the numbers they see. Give them a number and ask them to look around the house for examples of the number. Boost your older children’s awareness of how numbers are used by pointing out weather forecasts and sports statistics in the newspaper or on-line.

Estimate -- Estimation is one way to increase children’s number sense. Before placing a stack of folded towels on a shelf or filling a bowl with apples, ask to estimate how many will fit. Then count afterward to compare the actual number to the estimate. Helping children learn to make appropriate predictions will help them see how numbers are used in everyday life. Learning to ask, "Is my answer reasonable?" will help them tackle math problems in the classroom.

Concept of one hundred --Understanding the concept of 100 is difficult for young children, even if they can count that far. Suggest that children start making collections of 100 things - rubber bands, watermelon seeds, pebbles or Legos. You can divide the objects in groups of 10 or 2 or 5 to see how these smaller groups add up to 100 in different ways. Glue seeds onto a piece of colored construction paper for a math collage. Seeing 100 will help them conceptualize it.

 Unlock the code --Help children recognize numbers and think critically by using mysteries. Write out all the letters in the alphabet on a sheet of paper, leaving room underneath each letter for a number. Under each letter, write the numbers from 1 to 26. In other words, a=1, b=2, etc. Practice writing coded messages using numbers rather than letters. You can use the code to leave simple messages.

How Tall? --Many families record the height of their children on a door or wall chart. If you do the same for everyone in the family, your children can join in the measuring and see how the heights compare. Measurement and understanding relationships between numbers are crucial to the development of mathematical thinking.

What's on the menu? -- At a restaurant ask children to find the least expensive item on the menu, then all the items that cost between $5 and $10 or three items whose total cost is between $9 and $20. This will not only fill the time while you're waiting to eat, it will show your children how math is used every day.

More Ideas and Activities....See the authors’ book “Learning Through the Seasons” at area bookstores and grandparentsteachtoo.org. For more help to prepare young children for success in school see the authors’ web site: www.grandparentsteachtoo.org. Also check our audio Podcasts WNMU Radio 90; Youtube video activities; and join us on Pinterest

photos: Fran Darling, fdarling fotos

Building Language Ages 12-12 Months

“If my parents had done these things with me, I probably wouldn’t be in this place.  This stuff is fun and easy. I’m going to read to my grandkids and show my daughter.” Person at the Marquette County Detention Center GTT training sessions. 2014

 

  Between ages 12-18 months your child will probably say a few words and understand sometimes what you say if you speak in a normal voice and short sentences. There are many ways to interact with your 12 -18 month old in a way that will help develop language. It is a stage of giving them words for what they are doing and carrying on the strangest conversations. You can often pretend to understand, repeat what you think they are talking about, and question.

  By this time most babies have good balance while sitting. They will enjoy hitting various sizes of pots and pans or cardboard boxes.  You can turn on music and sing with the beat. Pound fast, slowly, loudly and softly. Experiment. Will they copy you? Talk and listen to them talk back to you with partial words or their own words.

At the Sink

  Children 12-18 months may stand on a chair by the sink with a guard chairs on each side. Make the water warm and add a few drops of gentle dish soap. Supply some plastic dishes for them to wash and show how to clean with a new little sponge. Remind them not to put bubbles in their mouth. If they do, they will learn a lesson, too. Provide towels on the floor and a plastic bib. Explain what they are doing with words, phrases and complete sentences. Use the correct words without baby talk. Otherwise, they will need to unlearn baby talk later. Avoid saying, ”Let ME help you.“  Instead say, “I will help you.” “I” begins sentences.

Messy

 The 12-18 month old loves to squish and splat while you chat, question together and provide words for actions. Place different textures on their high chair tray like gelatin, spaghetti, jelly colored water, or mashed potatoes.  They will joyfully do their own brand of talking with you before bath time. 

 Peek, Seek, Sleep

   Fill a pillowcase with items from around the house and discuss what they find. Hide items under, on top, beside and behind pillows to help them solve problems with you. Ask “Where is Teddy?” Then model searching and thinking out loud together. Teddy is also a useful model to put to sleep, groom and feed, chatting all the while.

  Read Often

Even looking through a book, talking about characters, and telling the story in your own words is reading. You are developing language and getting ready for the next stage. 

More Ideas and Activities....See the authors’ book “Learning Through the Seasons” at area bookstores and grandparentsteachtoo.org. For more help to prepare young children for success in school see the authors’ web site: www.grandparentsteachtoo.org. Also check our audio Podcasts WNMU Radio 90; Youtube video activities; and join us on Pinterest

Reminder:  The last article for Grandparents Teach, Too will be Nov. 20,2020.  Thank you for helping  families learn how to be meaningfully engaged in their children's early learning and development.

Photos: Fran Darling, fdarling fotos

Zoom Cooking with Grandparents

“What children need most are the essentials that grandparents provide in abundance. They give unconditional love, kindness, patience, humor, comfort, lessons in life. And, most importantly, cookies.” – Rudolph Giuliani

Zoom Cooking

  These times sometimes require an abundance of grandparent ingenuity, too.  Grandma Cheryl has introduced Zoom cooking to her long-distance family.  To sign up for a free Zoom go to zoom.us/sign up on your computer or ask local teens to bring over a laptop or Chromebook sign you up and show how to use it.  Then schedule a time to meet online with multiple people for Zoom Cooking. Facetime and Skype are also available. Fair warning, you will have only 40 minutes before being kicked off  Zoom unless you pay for a subscription.

Pumpkin Cookies

  Cooking something easy like pumpkin cookies is a good start.  To save time, gather all of the ingredients and cooking utensils before the Zoom, heat  the oven to 350 degrees and line a baking sheet with parchment. In a large bowl whisk together 2 ½ cups flour,1 teaspoon baking powder,1 teaspoon baking soda, 1 tablespoon pumpkin pie spice, and 1/2 teaspoon salt. In another bowl use a mixer to mix until light and fluffy: 1 stick of softened butter with 1 cup granulated sugar, ½ cup brown sugar.  Then add 1 ¼ cups of canned pumpkin puree, 1 egg, and 1 teaspoon vanilla on medium speed.  Fold in the dry ingredients until just combined. You want to keep the fluffiness. 

  Use a little scoop to drop on the cookie sheets and use a spoon to flatten slightly.  The cookie does not flatten while baking.  Bake 15 to 20 minutes.

  While baking you can make the frosting and catch up on the latest family news. For the frosting, cream together 8 ounces of low-fat cream cheese, room and 3 tablespoons butter, and1 teaspoon. Gradually add powdered sugar until you like the consistency. When the cookies bounce back up when touched, they are done. Ice when cool.

  Your time will probably be up for now.   You can make arrangements to call back and have pumpkin cookies and apple cider together.

Homemade Playdough

  Although it can’t be eaten, making and playing with playdough is another fun on-line activity. Mix 1 cup flour, ½ cup salt, and 1 tablespoon cream of tartar together and place in 3-quart saucepan. Stir in 1 tablespoon cooking oil and 1 cup water tinted with food coloring. Cook and stir constantly over low to medium heat until mixture looks like dough. Remove from heat, cool, and knead. Store in plastic bag in the refrigerator. 

  Spend the rest of the time reading books out loud or talking.  Next time challenge each other to make playdough animals and people while chatting. More Ideas and Activities....See the authors’ book “Learning Through the Seasons” at area bookstores and grandparentsteachtoo.org. Also check our audio Podcasts WNMU Radio 90; Youtube video activities; and join us on Pinterest

Photos: Fran Darling, fdarling fotos

Sketches: Mike Nowicki

Hike in Leaves and Breathe Fresh Air

 Now is the time to get outside into the fresh air.  Although leaves are falling rapidly as days shorten, families have just enough time to teach young children the science and art of leaves with simple activities, everyday materials, and conversation.

  You’ll need a bagful of leaves, a paint brush or sponge, paper, five paper plates, a heavy book, white glue, and clear packing tape.

Collecting Leaves

   Take a walk and gather a variety of tree leaves, colors, and shapes like oak, maple, and willow. Then discuss how maple trees are shaped like an open hand whereas many oaks are tough, long, and thin with a few fingers sticking out. 

   Sort before the leaves curl and help children tape a sample leaf on five separate plates. For example: a yellow maple, brown maple, red maple, an oak, and one for damaged leaves. These leaves will label your plates. Now take out a few leaves at a time and help children place leaves on the plate that are similar to the label leaf.

Leaf’s Job

   Carry on a science conversation about attributes like color and shape. Explain why leaves turn from green to red, yellow, and brown. The leaf’s main job is to make sugar food for plants to live and grow. They manufacture with part of the air called carbon dioxide, sunlight, and the green chemical pigment chlorophyll in the leaves. There are many library books and free online videos to show this photosynthesis process to children.  The food is carried by the trunk to the roots and is stored for the winter. 

   As sunlight hours become shorter in October the work of the leaves slows down and a layer of cork cells forms across the base of the leaf and closes it off from the tree.  The water supply is cut off and it slowly dries and dies. As it dies the other colors that were there under the green like red, yellow, and orange show up.  A dry fall produces dull colors. A wet fall has vibrant colors. 

Leaf Art

  After sorting, place some leaves a thick book to press. Use paper towel sheets to keep leaves from touching book pages. You may first spray leaves with hair spray to help retain color. 

  After  a few days leaves will be flat enough for art.  Children may make bookmarks by gluing small leaves or leaflets on paper strips and covering both sides with clear packing tape for great gifts.   

  Children can also make rubbings by placing leaves under a paper and gently rubbing a flat peeled crayon over the leaf.  Veins will show up.  Dabbing paint around leaves placed on top of the paper will create a beautiful collage when the leaves are removed.

More Ideas and Activities....See the authors’ book “Learning Through the Seasons” at area bookstores and grandparentsteachtoo.org. Also check our audio Podcasts WNMU Radio 90; Youtube video activities; and join us on Pinterest

Photos: Fran Darling, fdarling fotos

Learning from Home and School Now

 Whether children are learning from home, school, or a combination about now is a good time to evaluate.  How is it going? How is the home study space working?  People who study this  have some suggestions to setup a learning space no matter what the environment. The key words are routine, organization, breaks, and flexibility.

Routine

 Whether it is a parent or other family member taking this on, experts suggest setting up every weekday like a school day whether the children are going to school full time, part time, or going to a spot in the home. Everyday plan for math, language arts, reading for relaxation, social studies, science, art music, and exercise. Get up, make the bed, clean up, dress up and eat breakfast. Start with the least favorite subject, break for snack, run around outside, and get back to work. Come back in and do the second favorite subject. Eat lunch, go outside. Read for twenty minutes in some way. Then do favorite subjects interrupted by a snack and break.

Finish when the usual school day is over and assess the day. What are three things that went well.  What is one thing that can be improved? Remember to give lots of praise even for tiny baby steps of growth.

Organization

  Reassess often. Is your plan working? Are you and the children getting our work finished in relative peace? Is there good lighting? Are they doing work at a table not sprawled on the couch? Can young children’s feet touch the floor?  Put a box under their feet if they cannot touch the floor. Children need about a 2x3 foot table space to call their own.

  Some children can learn certain subjects with others around. Sometimes they need absolute silence to think. Everyone agrees that the bedroom should be avoided because children will easily get off task and they are very adept at changing sites on the computer. Get in the habit of recharging the electronics every night.

  Bins and folders are handy for papers and materials Keep every paper in case you need to go back to something. All study materials should be handy including a water bottle to avoid distractions.

 Every child is different.  Some will need more breaks than others. A good run around the outside of the house a few times is a quick exercise break before getting back to business.

Breaks and Flexibility   Carrots work much better than sticks, an old teacher saying goes. Breaks and special activities at night and weekends are  good rewards. Have a family conference to decide what rewards you all need.  Most of the time children will choose special time playing games or doing outside recreation with adults

More Ideas and Activities....See the authors’ book “Learning Through the Seasons” at area bookstores and grandparentsteachtoo.org. For more help to prepare young children for success in school see the authors’ web site: www.grandparentsteachtoo.org. Also check our audio Podcasts WNMU Radio 90; Youtube video activities; and join us on Pinterest.

Photos: Fran Darling, fdarling fotos

Sketches: Mark Nowicki

Quiet Time Talks and Reassurance

What are some quiet easily managed activities you can set up especially during this difficult time?  You can talk together while doing some reading or art for starters. Sit together, do an activity, and model calmness. Listen to what they have to say. Use the 10 second rule before jumping in and help children focus on what they can control like wearing, masks, washing hands, and keeping a distance from others for a while. You can practice how to handle uncomfortable social situations, reassure, and practice routines.  

Reading

 Reading every day helps to quiet children and create normalcy.    Arrange to purchase or check out books and find library programs during this unprecedented time.

Painting with Water

  Use quiet activities to teach expectations and answer questions. Science walking can collect rocks of various colors, sizes, and shapes. At home, set young children up with a waterproof area and provide a small paintbrush and a bowl of water or Mod Podge.  Painting builds strong hand muscles to print letters.  Notice how the color shows up like magic.   A few can be kept in a pocket for holding the first day of school. 

 Pet Rocks  

   Help children use permanent markers to draw a face on the surface of favorite large rocks. Help them glue on a little yarn to make hair with small dots of glue to save glue. Teachers will love you. Can you think of a good name for each rock? Place the friends on your table, bookcase, garden or backpack.

Crayon Resist

  Use a crayon on paper to carefully print your young children’s names in big letters.   Use a capital for the first letter and lower case for the following letters.  Then use water with a little paint color to make a wash over the whole sheet.  The name will stand out and be a perfect door decoration or book cover for a whole series of pictures. You can see dots or dashes to outline names. Show children how to start at the top of each letter to correctly follow the dots to print their names. Praise what they can do. They’ll try their best.

 Favorite Pictures   

  Glue family photograph printouts to a paper decorated with favorite flowers, fruits, animals, vegetables, and toys.  Print a title on each, for example:” My Favorite People and Toys.” Talk with children about choices and use a marker to print the name of each item. This is a good activity to practice letters and beginning sounds of each word.  Staple the pages together to make a little comfort book. 

More Ideas and Activities....See the authors’ book “Learning Through the Seasons” at area bookstores and grandparentsteachtoo.org. Also check our audio Podcasts WNMU Radio 90; Youtube video activities; and join us on Pinterest

Photos: Fran Darling, fdarling fotos

Grandparents Stepping up to Fill Needs

 

“You don’t really know something unless you can explain it to your grandmother.” -Einstein

 

Having grandkids is a blessing.  Helping to shape their lives is an honor. – Unknown

 

  Grandparents and other relatives are valuable assets to parents coping with and succeeding during this particular time in our history.  The United States has a history of everyone pulling together to keep the family safe and flourishing, especially the children. 

 Here are some suggestions from people in mental health and education.  First of all, keep in contact and stay alert.  Check in by phone, FaceTime, or Zoom weekly. Grandparents can ask parents how they can help.

Together

 Here are other suggestions. Reading and talking with children are soothing. If you are close by stop in, if appropriate, and read to young children with masks on or outside. You can  use FaceTime or Skype. Teens can show you how to set it up if you don’t already use it.  Arrange a time several times a week and read or tell stories.  Read a page and then turn around the book and show the pictures. 

  Once children can read, they can read to you. Grandparents need this soothing attention, too.   Every community library has its own rules for check out or you can purchase a few book gifts at a local store or online. Joke books are especially fun.   Rob Elliot has an excellent series.

  Search for positive hopeful stories from your religious books.  There are many children’s versions with illustrations. Then talk about the story.  What is the message?

Comfort

   Look for happy, loving stories for any age like “The Lion and the Mouse” by Jerry Pinkney, “Stone Soup” by Marcia Brown and “Mama Miti” by Donna Jo Napoli. Give librarians a call to find science, history, fiction, mystery, sports, or biography chapter books about famous people. They may suggest a few. They may even have a service for you where they pick out books that you can pick up like a take- out restaurant or grocery. Each community library has different rules. However, universally librarians are very helpful people and are good friends to have. Give them a call. Children may also have their own suggestions.

Family 

  Grandparents can send some love packages.  Holidays may need to come in spurts and early this year. These packages may include new crayons, markers, coloring books, colored paper, a new version of Monopoly like the one on the National Parks (ages 8+), a game or puzzle and an envelope to send pictures back for your refrigerator.   Mental health people urge us to find a way to stay close with walks, talks, and bike rides in the fresh air and sunshine while still being cautious.  

More Ideas and Activities....See the authors’ book “Learning Through the Seasons” at area bookstores and grandparentsteachtoo.org. For more help to prepare young children for success in school see the authors’ web site: www.grandparentsteachtoo.org. Also check our audio Podcasts WNMU Radio 90; Youtube video activities; and join us on Pinterest

Photos: Fran Darling - fdarling fotos

Berries, Jam and Muffin Fun with Kids

  “Kuplink! Kuplank! Kuplunk!”  It’s the sound of late summer berry picking in Robert McCloskey’s“Blueberries for Sal” where Sal and her mother meet Little Bear and her mother bear on the same blueberry hill. The moms mistake each other’s children, but all ends well.

  Berries are perfect for young children. They are the right size to pick, count, and eat. They are little, but packed with vitamins and minerals.  If children are wary of vegetables, try offering berries.

 Picking Berries

  Berry picking is a great way to get the family outside and let children munch as you gather some to take home. They can combine their pails for blueberry snacks, pies, pancakes and muffins or place a bowl next to plates at any meal. Then talk about what animals like to eat berries. There are many fiction books about berries.

  You can have a little economics lesson. Discuss how food gets to our grocery stores and why berries are expensive. What people bring berries to market like farmers, pickers, truck drivers, packers, and grocery store employees?

  Show children how to freeze hand -picked or store bought berries. Spread them flat on cookie sheets so they do not touch each other and place in the freezer.  When they are hard, transfer them to freezer bags and lay flat in the freezer.  These easy snacks will not clump together. 

  Kid’s Freezer Jam

  Children can smash some berries and add a few drops of honey for fresh jam, cream cheese, and a bagel. 

Freezer jam takes only 30 minutes and can have little sugar. This jam uses pectin, a natural thickening agent found in and around plant cell walls that helps bind those cells together. Jars can be kept in the freezer for a year or refrigerator for three months. Low sugar freezer jam recipes are found on premium pectin for less or no sugar needed packages in the canning aisle and surejell.com.

Kids’ Muffins

For easy blueberry muffins you will need 1 cup soy milk, and 1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar set aside in a bowl. Meanwhile, in a separate bowl mix 2 cups flour, 2 ½ teaspoons baking powder, ¼ teaspoon baking soda, and ½ teaspoon salt. In another bowl  ix ½ cup plus 2 Tablespoons sugar, ¼ cup plus 2 Tablespoons oil, and 1 teaspoon vanilla. Add a little zest of lemon, if desired. Stir the flour mixture bowl into the sugar mixture bowl. (You may want to save some of the flour to coat the blueberries.) Pour in the soy milk and vinegar curdled mixture. Stir. Finally, fold in the blueberries gently and place in 25 muffin papers in a muffin pan. Bake 20-25 minutes at 375 degrees. Serve cool 

                

More Ideas and Activities....See the authors’ book “Learning Through the Seasons” at area bookstores and grandparentsteachtoo.org. For more help to prepare young children for success in school see the authors’ web site: www.grandparentsteachtoo.org. Also check our audio Podcasts WNMU Radio 90; Youtube video activities; and join us on Pinterest

Photos: Fran Darling, fdarling fotos

Developing Your Tiny Happy People

“A chatty child is a happy child” Tiny Happy People

  Although the United States has many useful sites for parents raising children age zero to  five, the British might have one upped us with the new site supported by the BBC called “Tiny Happy People.”  The web and Instagram sites are free and can be easily found by googling “BBC Tiny Happy People.” Katherine, Duchess of Cambridge calls the site “Gold Dust” for parents.

Starting Now

  According to the British educational researchers and experienced educators themselves, “Most parents believe children who start behind will catch up within a year or two – but that is not the reality. Students who are one-to-three years behind typically make a year’s worth of growth each year, just like all students. The bad news is they are still one-to-three years behind their grade level.”

  The researchers and educators explain that closing a learning gap once a child begins school is costly and difficult because the children need” to achieve their typical year of academic growth plus another year of growth to catch up by even a single level. The data is clear.” All children can and will improve, but may never catch up to their classmates. And this has a lifelong impact. These children will need extra attention by parents and teachers.

Gold Dust

  The Tiny Happy People site includes hundreds of researched evidenced based fun activities, videos, articles and quizzes for new parents, grandparents, and other child care providers. All easy and fun activities nurture children’s language right from pregnancy. Even if you are starting to work with communication and language a bit late, the researchers say, “Start today.”

  Here is one example from the BBC teaching videos.  Dr. Michelle Peter explains that gently touching and talking to babies is a great way to help support development.  Interact with babies to develop a nice bond.  They like a soft slippery blanket edge. Skin to skin hugging is reassuring because they can smell you and hear your heart beat. 

   Look at them at a close range because vision is still developing and they need to see things at a close range. Take this opportunity to make faces. They will mimic you.  Smile and coo. Waltz and hum. Talk to them. They need to hear the range of language sounds they are learning. If you don’t know what to say, sing or read the many hard bound or cloth books that are brightly colored with reds and yellows.  Say and read rhyming nursery rhymes and poems. They are a scaffold for conversation.  Language and touch stimulate babies’ senses. They like to communicate with you and  are born ready to learn and love.

More Ideas and Activities....See the authors’ book “Learning Through the Seasons” at area bookstores and grandparentsteachtoo.org. For more help to prepare young children for success in school see the authors’ web site: www.grandparentsteachtoo.org. Also check our audio Podcasts WNMU Radio 90; Youtube video activities; and join us on Pinterest

Photo scans: https://www.bbc.co.uk/tiny-happy-people