Helping with Impromptu Child Care

  

What's In Your Cupboards and Drawers?

Preschool children are coming in half an hour for child care. No problem. You’re always well stocked. There are many educational toys found in your kitchen. Open up your low kitchen cupboards and drawers. They are full of mostly safe playthings for children and hide anything that is not safe.

   The first go-to toys are cans. Children may make low towers on the floor or higher ones if they have heavy shoes. Cans may be arranged to make houses and castles, or they may add folded heavy paper to make bridges.

  If they have brought figures, cars, or a few stuffed animals they can play raceway, house, or action figure adventures.  The activity will give you time

Empty the Cupboards

 to wash the can cabinet you have been putting off and get down on the floor to play, too.

Random Containers

  Your other drawers may hold plastic containers and lids.  They make excellent puzzlers.   Are there tops and bottoms that fit? If you have some that do not make a pair, they can be used for sandbox, beach play, or recycling later. They can turn the containers upside down and make a few drums using a wooden spoon to pound for a few minutes.

Empty the Cupboards

   Children can gather all of the containers and help set chairs and guard chairs next to the sink. Fill the sink or dish pan half way and add a few drops of soap and a cloth. It’s time for washing, rinsing, and drying dishes for about 15 minutes.

   While supervising the washing you can empty another drawer of wooden spoons, spatulas, other utensils. and gadgets. Double check for sharp edges on items like potato peelers and set those aside. You can explain the purpose for some of the odd looking gadgets as you add them to the washing water.

   While adding the items ask yourself, “Do I really need this?”  If not, out it goes into the donation bag.

Children Have Fun Filling Containers

 By now you should have cleaned, put away and culled at least four drawers, double dried these dishes, and have wet children.

   You can scoop up the little wet people, throw their clothes in the dryer, and head for the bathroom. There should just enough time for a warm bath with a few of the containers you are not going to use.

  Children have fun filling different sizes of containers. It’s similar to filling cups to equal a gallon.  Which containers will float? How many action figures will it take to sink a container boat? Teach children to check for hand and toe wrinkles. Then they will help decide it’s time to get out of the tub. put on warm dry clothes, and have a snack. For more see grandparentsteachtoo.blogspot.com and 

wnmufm.org/Learning Through the Seasons.

Photos: Fran Darling, fdarling fotos

Storms Teach Science and Acts of Kindness

Storms Grab Children's Attention

Storms like hurricanes, tornadoes, and blizzards grab children’s attention and are excellent times for families to teach weather, geography, and how people help each other. Emergencies can bring out the best in people. One never knows how children can be inspired to become a scientist, meteorologist, first responder, builder, and medical person based on childhood teaching.

  Getting the facts

  Technology can be a useful tool that always needs to be monitored to protect children and to ensure the content is not too scary. However, if something is happening near an extended family member’s home, they will hear conversations and it is a good time to teach.

  There are many opportunities to use maps to teach the geography of the situation.  

Getting the Facts

The library has atlases for children. There are also placemats of maps of the world and the United States in local children’s stores and online at the Rainbow Resource Center for under $3.00 so children can see geography every day and you have an opportunity to grab a children’s map quickly.

Teaching Weather Facts

  Besides local news, the weather channel has many interesting maps and videos. You can select age appropriate ones, turn off the sound, and use your own commentary, if needed. There will be many examples of courageous rescues and acts of kindness and few minutes may be enough.  Your children may have many questions so this is a good time to discuss.

Very young children will be hearing about events and may draw their own scary false conclusions, unless you help them learn the facts. National Weather Service is an excellent source of information, videos, and pictures. You can Click 

Check Up-To-The-Minute Events

around the site to find exactly what you want.

  Books about weather and storms include: “Weather or Not” by Maryann Dobeck; “Fly Guy presents:Weather” by Tedd Arnold; “The Magic School Bus presents Wild Weather” by Sean Callery. Families can show some of the pictures and add their own simplified narration for young children. Older children will enjoy the creative presentation.  Some good online family teaching sites include weatherwizkids.com and weatherforkids.org. The Google maps site is an excellent example for older children to experience how technologists work with first responders to spread information and keep people safe.

Kindness

   There are many opportunities for families to teach how people pull together to help each other. Children will have opportunities to help give money and donate through schools, faith organizations, the Red Cross, Salvation Army, Scouts, Rotary and many other civic groups. Children can help gather and pack donated supplies.  These often can include children’s drawings of courage, strength, and love that may be just what people need for the challenge of recovery during the months and years ahead. For more see grandparentsteachtoo.blogspot.com and wnmufm.org/Learning Through the Seasons .

Photos: Fran Darling, fdarling fotos and http://www.weather.gov 

Sorting Helps Science and Math Skills

Walks With Young Children Are FUN!!

Walks with young children are especially fun in fall when the leaves turn brilliant colors and many flowers have interesting seed heads. They can observe birds flying south in giant V’s and other animals frantically burying food for the winter. It’s a great time for children to collect objects, too.

 You can prepare by gathering some small bags, paper plates, glue, newspaper, a marker, and magnifying glass.

Collecting Fun 
   Learning goes better on a full stomach. Right?  You can pack a picnic snack and explain you are taking a walk to look for signs of fall and collect colorful leaves, seeds, and pebbles which stay the same in any season but are fun to collect. Take along an extra bag for paper garbage to clean up the area, too.

  Fields, bike paths, shorelines, cemeteries, and college campuses have a variety of trees and beautiful surroundings. Encourage children to collect and count many different types, sizes, colors, shapes, and textures. You can include a library book of tree identification to help answer questions about why leaves change colors and fall.

Collect and Count

Sorting Skill

  After collecting and snacking return home to sort out materials on newspapers based on characteristics. Print a title on each paper plate like leaves, seeds, or pebbles.

   Next label more plates with characteristics (attributes). For leaves, you may use five plates labeled red, orange, green, brown, and mixed colors.  Plates for seeds may be acorn, maple, and flower and weed seeds, large, and small. Pebble labels may be large, small, shiny, dull, smooth, rough, sharp, soft (sandstone) hard black, brown, white, speckled.

   Casually help your children decide where the objects belong. Before you take a break, spread leaves in paper toweling and insert them in a large book. (Back to back cookie sheets will also work.) Then place some heavy weights on top to flatten the leaves as they dry.

 When you’re ready for another 

Discuss What You Collect - Similar & Different??

project, take out paper plates, marker, and glue. Children can glue the sorted objects to make designs, a number, category, or their name. Children like to glue leaves, seeds and rocks on plates as a collage, take a photo, and send it to extended family or show during the next FaceTime.

 Discuss different attributes of objects as children glue them on the plates. Young children will develop small hand muscles and learn to use small dabs of glue.  It is very tempting to take a glue bottle and squeeze it neatly for children or place an object just so.  Instead give tips on how to hold the bottle and leave the rock where it is. The end product is not really important. It’s the process. For more family fun see grandparentsteachtoo.blogspot.com and wnmufm.org/Learning Through the Seasons podcasts and live.
Photos: Fran Darling, fdarling fotos

Helping Kids Learn to Read Their Name

Help Younger Children Learn To Spell Their Names

As big brothers and sisters return from school and talk about what they are learning, autumn is a perfect time for younger children to learn to spell their name and share what they are learning, too.  There are some fun activities to help remember the letters of their name and the sequence of those letters.

  You will need some heavy stock paper cut in 4”by 16” strips, white glue, marker, elbow macaroni or penne pasta, sandpaper, felt, child’s scissors, poster paint, colored glue, and confetti. Texture Helps Learning

  Print your children’s names with marker on one of the tag board strips. Precut heavy stock paper can be purchased at most craft or school supply stores and is great to have on hand for projects.  The letters need to be 

Texture Helps Learning to Print Names

large enough and spaced far enough apart so children can glue pieces of macaroni to the strip to form the letters over your printing.  Make sure the only capital letter is at the beginning of the name. It’s a good idea to start with only the first name.     

   Carefully, go over each letter, explaining to children that these letters in this order spell their name. Show them how to glue the macaroni onto each letter, saying the name of the letter as they are gluing. When the glue has dried, have them trace each letter with their finger and spell as they trace. They can paint the name with their favorite color when it is very dry.

  The letters of their name can also be cut from sandpaper or felt and glued to another tag board strip in the correct order. Cut the letters yourself, but your children can glue them onto the tag board.

   Using colored glue to outline the letters is fun, too. Glue can be tinted with food coloring. Children can add sand, glitter, or confetti outdoors to make a colorful art project from the name.

  Touching clues can be very helpful when children are learning letters and words.  Tracing over the noodles, sandpaper, or felt with a finger can help your children remember how to spell and print their names.

Great ABC Books

  Families may wish to check out some alphabet books at the library to practice remembering letters.  Some favorites are 

Many ABC Books Help 

“Chicka Chicka Boom Boom” by Bill Martin, Jr., “Thomas’ABC Book” by Rev. W. Awdry and “Dr. Seuss’ ABC’s.”  Another book that will add some motor activities is “Movement ABC’s for Little Ones” by Rae Pica.  This book gives ideas on how to make letters with your body.  Make letter cards together and play games like “Memory” and “Go Fish” to review letters. Also check out the many puzzles and games that feature the ABC’s. For more ideas see grandparentsteachtoo.blogspot.com and wnmufm.org/ Learning through the Seasons.