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Water Sensory Play

February 16, 2019 by Melanie

This month’s information sessions helped parents and caregivers understand the benefits of water sensory play, and how to encourage this kind of play with children. Below are some tips from staff at Creating Together, which were shared with families this month:

WHERE: You can provide opportunities for your child to play with water in the bath, in the kitchen sink, in a washing up bowl or a baby’s bath, weather permitting, in a paddling pool or bins with water.

PREPARE FOR A MESS: This type of play is likely to lead to some mess, but your child should not feel under pressure to keep dry or not make a mess. It is better to try to encourage children to limit the mess and for them to help clean up afterwards.

THE VALUE OF SENSORY PLAY: Sensory play is a valuable part of quality early childhood programs. Children are provided with sensory materials used to enhance their senses of touch, sight, taste, smell, and hearing. The use of sensory materials allows children the opportunity for hands-on and self-directed play to encourage the development of fine / gross motor skills, creativity, self-esteem, social development, and cognitive development.

A FEW THINGS CHILDREN LEARN WHEN PLAYING WITH WATER:

To improve their skill at pouring by developing their arm and hand muscles
How water behaves when you pour it from one container to another
How water feels and that it can be squirted
Objects either float or sink
That containers hold the most or the least
That water leaks from containers with holes
Eye-hand co-ordination

The staff at Creating Together are trained in helping children achieve indicators of success in a number of key areas of development. While many of these were shared in our information session this month, we wanted to include them here so you can be more informed when playing with your child, so you too can encourage their development and success!

Fine Motor – holding objects with hand.
Coordination – holding and transferring object from hand to hand; manipulating small objects with improved coordination.
Autonomy – initiating activities.
Tactile – tracking moving objects with eyes; touching, rubbing, squeezing.
Words with Gesture – speaking with words and gesture.
Vocabulary – repeating words.

Moving forward, we hope you’ll take the dive and explore the benefits of water play with your children!

Family Time Baking!

February 9, 2019 by Melanie

Baking together as a family is filled with benefits for the whole family. The wisdom that gets shared is absolutely worth the effort. Here are some benefits, to name a few:

1. Math Skills: If you’re working with older kids, doubling a recipe requires addition/multiplication skills, while halving requires division. What’s more, recipe fractions like 1/2 cup and 3/4 teaspoon bring math into the kitchen. For younger ones, its a great first exposure to measures – how many of one cup can go into another?

2. Real Life Science: Cooking is such a science experiment, and gives an opportunity for kids to get hands-on experience with basic science. With toddlers, make sure you choose recipes that don’t take too much time, and allow your toddler to help with small jobs such as tipping in ingredients, stirring the mixture, and passing utensils.

3. Self-Esteem: Cooking gives kids instant feedback, which helps them learn and grow in understanding themselves. Learning a new skill, such as baking or cooking, is known to help children develop a healthy self-esteem, and a also a stronger, more positive relationship with food!

4. Communication: A relaxed atmosphere in the kitchen gives parents and kids an opportunity to talk about anything! It also helps younger children practice their vocabulary with words used in cooking, and follow instructions (e.g., mix, stir, combine).

5. Life Skills: Cooking is a life skill, and starting at a young age helps children when they are older, to transition to adult cooking responsibilities.

6. Fun! Having fun together in the kitchen builds great memories, good vibes, and good relationship with food.

At Creating Together, we have a monthly family baking activity for families, where everybody comes together to learn a healthy muffin recipe and practice baking it with their little ones. This month, we created “Maple Apple Oatmeal Muffins”. If you weren’t able to make it, try out the recipe below at home! And be sure to keep your eye out on our calendar for the next one!

*February 5th 2019 Family Baking Recipe, Creating Together*

Child Behaviour Tips and Strategies

January 16, 2018 by Melanie

Every child is unique in terms of their activity level, distractability, and sensitivity. In addition to this uniqueness, each child is at a different stage of development and their behaviour is a reflection of this stage. Still, even when we accept these facts, it can be difficult for parents and caregivers to know how to respond to challenging child behaviour in a way that stops it from continuing, while also guiding them to gain confidence, competence, and social problem-solving skills.

At Creating Together, there are a couple of strategies staff and students use, and we wanted to share couple of tips and strategies for dealing with challenging child behaviour. Below is a brief summary of a few tips, but staff would have also made themselves available this month on the 22nd and 25th (see times below) to discuss these and other topics parents and caregivers would find helpful.

Set Realistic Limits and Expectations

Limits and expectations are kept simple and clear by keeping them few in number, and by relating to the safety and protection of self, others, and the space. When enforced consistently and in a way that the child can understand, they create a healthy container for play. For example:

“The sand stays in the sandbox.”
“It’s time to wash our hands for snack.”

Positive Framing

You’ll notice in the above phrase examples, the limits are framed in a positive way – rather than focus on what NOT to do, they focus on what TO do. This reinforces the behaviour you want to see more of while also decreasing the likelihood for the child to get defensive or resistant. In fact, research tells us that when we focus on what NOT to do, that is exactly what the child ends up doing more of. Here are some more examples of positive framing:

“Walk.” (Rather than: “Don’t run.”)
“Speak softly.” (Rather than: “Don’t shout.”)

Redirecting

When a child is upset, before the behaviour you are trying to avoid escalates, offer an alternative toy, activity, or location.

Also, as much as possible, redirect the child towards activities that are in line with their needs.

For example: “I can see you have a lot of energy. Let’s go try out the slide.”

Focusing on the Behaviour, Rather than the Child

When speaking with children, messages can easily be framed in a way that can seem to the child as attacking and critical, creating guilt, shame, and a lower self-esteem. You can preserve the child’s integrity with positive guidance by framing messages in a way that separates the child from the behaviour. For example:

“When you grab the train from his hands, it makes Allan angry.” (Rather than: “You are mean when you grab the train like that from Allan.”)
“Playdough stays in the playdough area.” (Rather than: “You naughty girl.”)

Reinforce The Behaviour You Want to See

To build confidence and encourage children to repeat behaviour you would like to see, use positive reinforcement to focus on the specific behaviour, rather than on the child. For example:

“Thank you for helping Sam when she fell down. That’s called being caring.” (Rather than: “You good girl.”)
“When we tidy up, it makes the area safe for everybody.” (Rather than: “You’re the best helper.”)

Be Alert

When adults observe children in their activities, they are in a better position to anticipate potential difficulties and step in

to prevent problems. Keep phone / tablet use to a minimum, and sit in proximity to your child, so they can use you as a resource as needed.

If you found this article helpful, and you have any other questions about how to work through a challenging situation as a parent or caregiver, please speak with the staff – we are always here to help. Also, bring your questions and learning needs to one of our upcoming information sessions this month (Jan 22 / 25th – see below). The feedback gathered from parents and caregivers at these information sessions will tell us what kinds of resources we should bring in over the course of the year. If you can’t make either of these dates, be sure to let a staff know!

Water Sensory Play

Family Time Baking!

Child Behaviour Tips and Strategies

Creating Together Parkdale Family Resource Centre

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