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 be added for extra value!

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July 2009, Issue #062

1. Hello from Shirley

I am about 2000km away from home as I write this ezine – to attend the wedding of my youngest brother. I was 11 when he was born and looking back now, I see how much I learned about parenting from watching how my parents taught and trained him – and from having fun helping them do it too. I remember teaching him colours and counting and other fun stuff!

Sadly, I think that few children nowadays, have the opportunity to learn by being alongside a much younger sibling like I did. Most families have only about 2 children and during their formative years, much of their time is spent at school and with their peers, rather than alongside adults and as a result, many first time parents feel insecure and overwhelmed by the task set before them.

I realize how important ante-natal classes can be, for equipping new parents-to-be and for finding social support from other couples who are about to have the same experience. However, since we all begin parenting as amateurs, we need to find good, wise mentors to encourage and advise us along the way – our own parents or other older, wiser parents of ‘healthy’, grown children.

2. Check my website

New craft activities to try this summer:

Sand Collage Craft - ideal to add to an ocean theme.

Starry Night Glitter Collage Craft - use this as part of a Biblical Creation theme or Preschool Astronomy! (Now that sounds impressive!)

I recently created a new set of free Preschool Alphabet Writing Pages, including some patterns and letter formation activities.

Please be sure to read these Tips for Teaching Handwriting first.

NOTE: Make sure your child always draws and writes with the correct pencil grip from an early age, so that you don’t have to break bad habits later on.

On that note, I’d also like to advertise a new e-product that I have created that is for sale on another website:

These copywork pages in downloadable pdf format are intended to go along with the God Our Provider CD, so that children are hearing, seeing, saying, singing and writing the Bible verses repeatedly to make memorization a multi-sensory learning activity.

The CD, God our Provider is included in the Sonlight Core 2 homeschooling package – so if you have older children or know families that homeschool, please send them this news!

3. Quote

"Children should start memorizing Bible passages as early as six or seven years. It is wonderful to have beautiful, comforting, inspiring scriptures stored in the memory. And who knows how this seed of scripture might grow and what kind of fruit it may yield? "

Charlotte Mason, Home Education, Vol 1.

4. Tips

Part 2 -Are your kids part of the Silent Epidemic?

Last month I shared some information about child toothcare that I found to be revolutionary. After 15 years of parenting, I had never before learned this anywhere!

Click here to read Part 1 in section 4 of the previous issue of this newsletter.

Summary of last month’s info

40% of children under 5 in the USA suffer from tooth decay.
Why bottles of juice = acid mouthwash
Saliva – our bodies natural defence for acid attacks on teeth
Drinking water or milk is good for teeth
Sweet treats are best given after a meal
The benefits of xylitol and chewing xylitol-containing gum

This month I will focus on a topic that we probably all think we already know, but which was all new to me -

How to brush your child’s teeth effectively

Dr. Gilhespie apparently recommends the Aquafresh Milk Teeth brand of toothpaste here in South Africa for both adults and children, as it has the correct levels of fluoride – 500ppm. Too much is not good for your body and too little is not good for teeth!

Do not wet the toothbrush with water before brushing as toothpaste is more effective without water added.
(Apparently in the old days when tooth brushes were made of hogs' hair, it was necessary to soften the bristles with water beforehand, but this is no longer required with our modern synthetic brushes.)

Sit down on a bed and lay your child along your legs with her head in your lap, looking up at you. In this position you can first inspect her teeth, if necessary, and then floss them.

Teeth (both adults’ and children’s) should be flossed daily using dental tape (like fine ribbon). Dental tape should be among the toothcare products at your local supermarket or pharmacy. Dr Gilespie says tape is superior floss! Floss tends to split into shreds sometimes.

Flossing is important, no only to remove remnants of food, but to disturb the harmful bacteria that breed in the mouth and prevent their 24 hourly multiplication process! Establish a habit of flossing once a day at a young age, even if your children have large spaces between their teeth!

Now, with your child still in your lap, brush her teeth for a minute or two if she will allow it that long.

If your toddler is like mine and insists on brushing her teeth herself too, then make sure you insist that you both get a turn to do so! This may take some discipline and perseverance!

[Recently, I have started singing the preschool song “The Wheels on the Bus” as she brushes so that she will brush “up and down” like the windows on the bus, “open and close” (left-right brushing motion) like the doors on the bus, and “round and round” like the wheels on the bus!]

For more information on PREVENTATIVE tooth care, visit www.teethforlife.co.za or invest in Dr Gilhespie’s book, The ABC’s of Children’s Teeth. It could save you some huge holes in teeth as well as holes in your pocket!

5. Reviews or Recommendations

Good and Angry -Exchanging Frustration for Character in You and Your Kids! by Scott Turansky and Joan Miller

I have read many parenting books and am pretty tired of the same of discipline and training techniques that many promote. I now own 3 of the Turansky and Miller books and have found them all to be fresh and effective for resolving demanding family issues and getting to a child’s heart, not just changing his outward behaviour!

I think this book is a MUST-READ.

“Parents often feel angry when their children do the wrong things. But responding to children in anger rarely brings about the desired result and can even have a damaging effect on relationships instead. Yet anger doesn’t have to be the enemy. It can be a trigger that makes parents even more effective.

Good and Angry taps into the constructive side of parents’ anger and teaches welcome strategies for addressing the things their children do to drive them crazy.”

We all have repetitive patterns that occur in our relationships – the authors show us how to develop new, more effective patterns of dealing with recurring issues.

6. Readiness Activities

You will need to have Adobe Reader installed. It’s a free download. Repeat these activities often - with your own variations too!

July

1. Gross motor skills

Balance: Encourage your child to walk along a straight line, such as the joins in the concrete sidewalk, the floor tiles or a painted line. Then see if he can walk backwards along the line, without ‘falling off’.

2. Fine motor skills

Manual dexterity: Let your child try threading large wooden beads onto a lace, or macaroni onto string.

3. Visual skills

Colour perception: Play colour matching games with construction blocks. Place a blue block in front of your child and ask her to place one of the same colour beside it. Repeat the game with other colours or other toys.

4. Auditory skills

Teach your child a new song, Bible verse, nursery rhyme or other culturally relevant verse. Sing it often as you go through your daily and weekly routines. There are many benefits to learning songs and rhymes.

5. Mathematical skills

Numerical relations: Let your child practice counting while you tidy up. She can pick up two toys and say ‘one, two’ and then pack them away. Then repeat the process. If she can count to three, then let her do so. On average, children can count to the number that matches their age, but often they can count further than that. Use this activity to make a game of tidying up.

6. Language and thinking skills

Visit your bookshelf or the library and pick out some books to read and talk about together – board books, lift the flap books, first words books or even story books. Look at the pictures and discuss them together. Repeat your child’s favourite stories often. Children enjoy the familiarity of a favourite story.

7. Faith-building

Set an example by allowing your child to witness your own relationship with the Lord. For example, pray out loud for a parking or for protection of your home and property when you leave. Pray for a safe journey or for healing when it is needed. As they say, children need to see us ‘walk the walk, not just talk the talk.’

Greetings until next month
Shirley

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