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

Families have new Photographers: Children

Who Is Your Family Photographer?

This time of the year families get together and create memories.  Often at the end of the visit,  someone will say, “Oh, we forgot to take pictures while we were all together!”  Children can be trained to be official photographers. They can be encouraged to take a few really good and interesting photos and decide which ones to keep.

  Children as young as 4 can take pictures responsibly with guidance. First teach them the basics.  If you want new digital camera, the Canon Power Shot ELPH 180 is highly recommended for youngsters first learning to use a camera. It costs a little over $100 and takes photos almost as good as an expensive Smart Phone.

Where to Start

   If you do let kids use your Smart Phone, there are many editing Apps like Enlight Photofox where a team of teens and youngsters can have surprisingly professional results.  You can search Apps for kids’ photography, Pixlplay adapted Smart Phones for kids, Kidizoom camera, and places to save kids’ photos on line.

   Now back to the traditional digital camera. Professionals 

Decide What You Want to Capture

have suggestions. Show children how to hold the camera with the strap always around their wrist with the camera tight against their body perfectly still. Show them how to use the buttons: power, snap shot, replay, and trash. Then explain how to decide what they want to take by just looking through the screen. They can practice taking close ups and extreme close ups safely inside the house without using the zoom.  Young children are often too unsteady for the zoom.

Photography Patience

   The first time photographer will probably use up the battery clicking away so don’t expect a great deal of keepers. Point out that a photographer needs light or flash but does not point into the light unless there is a reason. Show them what 

Look For the Creative Angle

happens if you do.  What interests them might be very different from what you want or what interests you for a while. At least everything is digital and can be erased.

  Children can practice for portraits by lining up their toys and taking close ups of human faces. They can take photos of hands or shoes so the family can play “Guess Who?” A patient family pet is also a good subject. Try to stay away from selfies, experts suggest. Teach close up, medium, and full body shots.  When they are good at those show them the zoom. However, teach them to choose their shot carefully and hold really still or put the camera on a flat surface for zooming.

 You can encourage them to try creative angles, like being on their back looking up through a tree, or looking down from the top of the stairs. For more ideas see grandparentsteachtoo.blogspot.com and Facebook, wnmufm.org/Learning Through the Seasons, and Pinterest.

Photos: Fran Darling, fdarling fotos

Kids Love Photos and “Kahoot.it”

Show Your History - in Photos

Most basements and attics have photographs, loads of snapshots going back several generations. They sit in boxes or layered in photo albums divided between family members.  Photos are a record of how families looked and lived. They are a history waiting to be shared among new generations of young children who are fascinated when someone says, “Look you have the same eyes and smile!”
Take Out Photos
  Winter is a good time to bring those pictures into the sunlight and place them where young children can see them whether they are organized or not. After all, there is always next year.
   Plan a short sharing time. Look for pictures that may be interesting to them. Is there a picture of Mom covered with mud in the sandbox?  Young children can relate to this. Are there photos showing off a string of fish, helping to dress a deer, or sledding down a hill where there are houses now?
  There are probably yearly school,

Remember What Happened?

holiday, birthday, and religious celebration photos with entertaining stories attached.  This is a good time to let young children know that parents and grandparents have had all kinds of experiences happen to them, too. There have been happy, proud, sad, and scary times.
  Are there pictures of family members or loving pets that have died?  Did you know that Fluffy Jason is buried among the raspberry bushes?  Talking through an event and visiting the resting place may help young children who have lost someone or a pet.
  Go back as far as you can into the pictures of your family history. If another family member has one you are missing, put that on your list to ask for copies of the missing pictures so you have a complete set.
  When showing a picture of great grandpa talk about his cutting down trees for heat, raising Belgian draft horses, or going down into the mines.
   If you see an old piece of technology like a dial phone or phonograph, talk about them.  What? There were no on- line videos, cell phones, or TV’s?  What is a typewriter?
  Discussions like these could lead to a family outing at the local museum, library or another trip to the attic or basement.
Kahoot.it
  If there is a teen in the house introduce them to kahoot.it. It is an application to make

View How-To Slideshow (link below)

your own family quizzes when everyone has a cell phone or other device.   Teens can work with grandparents to make a quiz about family pictures and involve all the generations at family gatherings. How much do members know about family pictures and their history? The application is free, fun, educational, and easy to use. Children may have already used it in their classrooms. 
Get Started with Kahoot.it http://www.slideshare.net/mansoorkhan386/kahootit-game-pin
photos: Fran Darling, fdarling fotos
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

Helping Children With Summer Writing

Save Holiday Memories

There are many fun ways for families to help children get ready for reading and writing at school and practice their skills during the summer. The interest in self-expression through talking and drawing begins at a very early age. Young children become writers as they realize that they can use marks on a paper to stand for ideas they are thinking.

Keep Writing Materials Handy

Later children learn by copying what they see adults do.
  Families have many opportunities during the day to show that writing, either with crayon pencil or on the computer, is a valuable skill. Adults can model that ideas are written down by using letters and words.  The following activity is a fun way to help young children realize that their own ideas can be written down and read by themselves and others. You will need pencils, paper, glue, and photos of families, pets, or trips. 
Make a Picture Poster
  Find some photos of your family. Then spend some time talking about the photos and choose a few favorites. Help your child glue one or two pictures on a sheet of paper or make a copy. Leave lots of space between the photos.  Make up a simple sentence about the picture.  Using your child’s words and ideas, print the sentence under each photo.  Use capital letters only for beginning the sentence or names.  When you are finished, point to each word as you read the sentences out loud.  Hang the paper up on the refrigerator or wall for everyone to see.
Make Little Books
  If you have more time, make a little book using a photo on each page and a printed simple sentence that your child has asked you to write.  Make the printing big and clear on each page.  Staple or clip several pages together. 

Grab Family Photos

You might want to make a cover for the booklet with a simple title and your child’s name on the front like My Summer Trip by Cindy. Children can decorate cardboard or a brown paper bag.  Both are quite sturdy. Grocery paper bags can also be turned inside out and cut to the size you need.  Keep the handles on the bag.  Preschool children will enjoy carrying their special books around the house.  Read books together and add them to the storybooks you have for children to use. These also make treasured gifts.
  Talking, storytelling, remembering, reading and writing together are important activities that develop language.  Understanding that ideas can be written down with letters and words is the first step in the development of writing skill. With adults as their first models and teachers, children who experiment and practice communicating through writing at home will be successful writers in school.
Sketch: Mark Nowicki      Photos: Fran Darling, fdarling fotos 
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