Keeping Toddlers Safe Challenging By Esther Macalady

Water Safety Starts with Knowledge

Someone once said that silence is golden unless you have a very young child and then it is suspicious.  Keeping this age safe is a 24/ 7 job.  Here are tips from the Department of Health and Human Services and emergency physicians.

Water

  Stay with young kids every minute they are around water.  Records show they can drown in as little as one inch of water.

 Use flotation devices that fit since water wings and noodles can create a false sense of security. Teach children not to dive head first, instead they can jump into our arms. Dunking is never allowed.

  Learn CPR and first aid for young children. YouTube has many good videos of how to perform CPR on babies and young children. Pediatricians suggest showing them to baby sitters, refreshing, and practicing. 

  Double check that pools and spas have the proper drains that will not trap hair and loose clothing.  Empty a play pool when finished and turn it upside down.

   When you feel your children are ready, enroll them in Red Cross approved or university swim classes and keep taking them until they pass tests, then refresh skills. Make sure they know how to float and tread water. Have an extra flotation device handy and watch for signs of dangerous tides. Teach children to keep their head, hands, and feet inside boats.

  Accompany little ones to public bathrooms and outdoor portable bathrooms because older siblings may not be strong enough to hold little ones securely.  

Sports

Choose the Proper Gear for the Activity

  Encourage children to drink water before, during, and after active playtime.  Stick around to ensure a safe playing environment and enforcement of safety rules including well- fitting helmets and other gear.

 Cars

  Safety experts ask families never to leave children in the car while going shopping or doing other errands. Children get over heated, too cold, or enjoy pressing dangerous buttons and turning switches. 

Batteries and Tech

  Keep small electronics or devices especially those with small button batteries out of reach. Remote controls, musical greeting cards, and flameless candles are common hazards. Keep in mind that children are natural explorers and can climb unbelievable high. If you think a child has ingested any kind of battery to not induce vomiting. Take your child to the emergency room. The national battery hotline is 800- 498-8666.
  Families are watchful for small pieces that toddlers love to put into their mouths and possibly choke on. We sometimes forget that now scientists warn that families must be watchful for what toddlers are putting in their minds. Interacting with technology may be actually changing the functioning of their developing brains.  

For ten years a source of information for families: see grandparentsteachtoo.blogspot.com; wnmufm.org/Learning Through the Seasons live and podcasts, Facebook and Pinterest.

Photos: Fran Darling, fdarling fotos

Kids Love Learning Summer Symmetry

Leaves, flowers, bugs...look for symmetry

Insects and other bugs are all around us in summertime. Most children are fascinated with bugs and what they look like. This is an opportunity to make some funny looking bugs while talking about symmetry which means both sides are built exactly the same. You’ll need several eyedroppers, or straws to us as a pipette, colors of paint, markers, and sheets of paper. To make a pipette straw, dip a drinking straw in a liquid with your finger pressed tightly over the top hole. Take your finger off the top when you wish to empty the straw.

Making Symmetry

  First help your children fold a paper exactly in half. Open the paper and let them use eyedroppers to drop several colors of paint onto the center of the crease. With help, young children can fold the paper over the paint. Now they can rub gently over the paper to blend the colors. Open the paper. Talk about the “blobby” shape that has appeared. Point out that what is on one side of the fold is also on the other side of the fold. Explain that this is symmetry.

  Nature is full of symmetry.  While the paint is drying, look for symmetry in leaves, flowers, bugs, and other objects in your own back yard. You can talk about what makes a bug an insect.  Discuss what an insect does with its antennae, wings and six legs.

  Once the paint is dry, encourage your children to use markers to add the antennae, wings, eyes and legs.  

Insects and Bugs are Everywhere in the Summer!

Together you’ve created a new bug so it needs a new name.  Help your children write the new name under the picture and then hang the picture where everyone can enjoy it!

Study Summer Bugs

 Use a magnifying glass and study some bugs you find. Talk about what makes them the same and different. Together see how many different bugs you can find. Help our children make a list of these bugs. Together discover the scientific name for a person who studies bugs. Visit the library to pick out some interesting books about bugs and enjoy them together. Use the computer and visit the National Geographic site to investigate more about bugs.

  Understanding symmetry helps children look very carefully 

Find Symmetry Everywhere in Nature!

at objects. You can also use the same technique to make more symmetries and use imagination to discover what else 

children see once the paper is unfolded. Children can use markers to add details to the picture. Together draw half a shape on the folded paper and then cut out shapes so that one side is the same as the other side. Talk about the characteristics of each shape. For more summer fun and learning see grandparentsteachtoo.blogspot.com also wnmufm.org Learning Through the Seasons live and pod casts, Facebook, Pinterest, and You Tube.

Photos: Fran Darling, fdarling fotos

Picnics Are Fun for Teaching

Summer Is Picnic AND Learning Time

Summer is the perfect time for combining skills with a picnic. This easy activity filled with fun and learning is another way to have more TIME IN with children. 

You’ll need picnic materials, children’s favorite picnic foods, a frozen drink can of juice or water, carrots, fruits, cookies, plastic knife, peeler, camera, and drawing materials.

Plan Together

Step by step plan a picnic lunch together. Even with nonreaders write a list with careful printing and correct capitals and lower case letters. Where will you go? What things should you bring? Making lists improves thinking, planning, reading, and writing skills.  Children who help adults write lists learn it is a useful skill.

Make some of the food together at home. Read out loud, follow directions on the frozen drink can, and measure the water together to increase math and reading skills. Children learn by example. If adults show that reading and math are important, kids will mimic adults and think those skills are important, too.  Families are the most powerful teachers.

Learning is Fun

While making sandwiches, children can help spread the butter, or peanut butter and jelly. Talk about cutting the sandwiches in halves or fourths. Make triangles, trapezoid, and rhombus (diamond) shapes. 

What Are Your Favorite Foods?

Discuss how many pieces you will need.

With a little help, children can peel the carrots, wash the fruit, and place things in containers to develop fine motor skills. Then pack up.  Did you remember everything?  Check off the list you made together. If the weather is not picnic perfect, the back yard or a place in front of a fan or air conditioner can be a good spot.

Once you have the place, children can spread out a blanket, set up the food, and pass out supplies. Planning and setting up a sequence of activities is an important learning skill. 

If you are eating outside, look around and have a conversation. What kind of summertime plants and animals do you see?  How is the weather (wind, clouds, sunshine)? 

What Kind of Summertime Plants Do You See?

What foods are your favorites? If there is sand close by, make squares, rectangles, circles, semi circles, rhombus, trapezoids, triangles, letters, and numbers in the sand. Count the number of sides and corners (vertices).

You can take pictures of the whole process to make a little word memory book or to send to relatives.

Afterwards, children can draw pictures about making food or having the picnic.   Young children can tell you how to label each object or print a sentence about the pictures.  Then families can make a little book with the pages and read the words together.

Photo: Fran Darling - fdarling fotos 
Sketches: Mark Nowicki

For more science and math STEM adventures go to -  grandparentsteachtoo.blogspot.com and wnmufm.org/Learning Through the Seasons live Tuesdays at 4:30pm and Saturdays at 8:30 am and pod casts archived on the site.

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