April 08, 2007
The Whole Child e-zine brings you free preschool activities each week to maximize your child's potential, build skills and parent-child relationships in just a few minutes per day. Useful tips, quotes, resources, opportunities and articles will added for extra value!
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April 2007, Issue #037
CONTENTS
1.
Hello from Shirley
2. What's New at Shirleys Preschool Activities?
3. Preschool Activities Egroup
4. Quote
5. Book Reviews
6. Readiness Activities
1. Hello from Shirley
It’s the Easter school holidays here in South Africa but instead of having a good rest, my days seem to have been filled with all sorts of activities, including a fabulous breakfast cum baby shower that a friend held for me last week.Its about 2 weeks until my due date, so we are all ready for this new baby and counting down the days left!
As I have said before, please expect my ezine to be irregular for the next few months while I adapt to all the upcoming changes – the new baby and moving house sometime soon.
2. What’s New at Shirley’s Preschool Activities?
To view updated or new pages added to my site, go to Shirley’s Blog or subscribe to the RSS Feed.
I have changed the look of my website by giving it a new header and navigation bar. Please tell me what you think – I am still getting used to it myself!!
3. Preschool Activities at Home Egroup
If you haven’t yet joined and would like to, send a blank email to preschool-activities-at-home-subscribe@yahoogroups.com. Join us as we chat about the ups and downs of life with little ones and share our ideas and experiences.
4. Quote
“Kind words can be short and easy to speak, but their echoes are truly endless. ” Mother Teresa (1910 - 1997)
5. Book Reviews
You will find my favourite parenting or teaching books that I recommend at Shirley's Store on my site.
1. The Five Love Languages of Children by Gary Chapman and Ross Campbell
Two Christian parenting educators describe five ways we can connect with our children: physical touch, quality time, words of affirmation, gifts, and acts of service. When we learn our children’s love language, as parents we are better able to meet their emotional needs and make them feel loved, accepted and appreciated and in response children are more receptive to our guidance and discipline.
2. The Blessing by Gary Smalley and John Trent
Many people spend a lifetime striving for approval and acceptance which they feel they did not receive from their parents and which is an important element of their self-esteem and emotional well-being.
In The Blessing, Dr. John Trent tells of his search to receive the blessing from his father and the new insight-and deeper blessing-he received from God as he sought to pick up the pieces of his shattered dream. And Gary Smalley expands the concept of the blessing to include eight ways to bless adult children.
The Blessing explains practical ways that you can make sure that your children know that they are a blessing and that they will be secure in themselves and confident of their destiny. This could prevent them making many bad choices or getting involved in bad relationships later in life.
This book will also show you how to ensure that your parents and spouse feel the security of family approval.
7. Readiness Activities
I continue to receive enquiries from moms of toddlers under 3 asking for ideas to stimulate their little ones.
The following activities are aimed at ages 2-3. For older children, adapt the activity to their ability or alternatively repeat the activities previously suggested for ages 3-5 in the Backissues of The Whole Child publication.
To download the activities in a printable pdf, click here.
You will need to have Adobe Reader installed. Its a free download.
Repeat these activities often - with your own variations too!
April
1. Gross motor skills
Balance: Let your child keep her balance while sitting on a large ball. You may need to support her.
2. Fine motor skills
Fingerpainting: Allow your child total freedom to express herself by means of this handpainting activity. Provide her with plenty of large pieces of paper – brown paper, newsprint, old boxes etc. Use one color paint at a time.
Here is a recipe:
Finger Paint
Ingredients
1 cup flour
1 cup sugar
2 cups cold water
4 cups boiling water
4 teaspoons non toxic powder paint (or food coloring)
Method
1. Heat flour, sugar and cold water in a pot, stirring constantly.
2. Add the boiling water and keep stirring until the mixture thickens.
3. Mix the paint to a paste with a bit of water and add it to the mixture. Stir well.
4. Allow to cool.
5. Store in an airtight container for a few days only.
3. Visual skills
Visual discrimination: Take an appealing picture from a magazine. Look at it with your child and discuss it. Now cut the picture in half and ask her to piece it back together again. Cut it in quarters and repeat the exercise, cutting the picture into even smaller pieces as she progresses.
4. Auditory skills
Auditory discrimination: Look at picture books together and teach your child the sounds that various animals and things make. E.g. Baa says the sheep, moo says the cow, tick-tock says the clock.
5. Mathematical skills
Relations: Encourage your child to compare the sizes of different items around your home. E.g pencils, plasticware containers, etc. Read or tell your child the story of Goldilocks and the Three Bears to reinforce this concept.
6. Language skills
Active Language Development: Show your child different facial expressions that express various emotions like happy, sad, angry, shy, frightened. You could also show a tired face, a started face, a sleepy expression etc. Let your child try to identify the expression and then imitate it. Take turns pulling faces and guessing the expression.
7. Faith-building
Bible Reading:
Continue with your Bible reading as part of your bed-time routine. Some families read from an adult Bible, but we enjoyed reading The Beginner's Bible
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