SPLATTER PAINTING!!

1, 2, 3 SPLAT!

Knee hi stockings full of sand, paint on trays, paper and somewhere to climb equals lots of fun and learning

Standing or sitting, its all fun!

Learning with a Pendulum!!

Gathering blocks for pendulum play!!

Measuring for success Ready, Set, Swing!

Pendulum Play!!!
I am so blessed to have a dad that is kind and gifted enough to make almost anything I need him to. His wood talents have not only saved me money in the last 5 1/2 years but has provided hours and hours of learning opportunities for our friends. My dad's latest addition to our preschool is this great Bev Bos design made with a few items he already had and few items I purchased at Kmart.

Providing lots of learning and fun!

Math Activities for Mixed-Age Groups!!

I found a pack of colorful small bowls at Ross Dress For Less for under $4, used decorater gems bought at a yard sale for $1 and printed number cards with dots. For older children I used dobbers to make the addition problems seen below and used small bowls I purchased at a yard sale too. This activity can be teacher assisted or the children can work by themselves. The great thing is that there is no wrong way to do this!!! If children count and sort like the 3 year old boy above is so excited about completing or if they match the dots and do one-to-one correspondence or if they just want to pick up the gems and put into bowls - its all good and so much learning is going on!!

During this morning we were also doing activities that encouraged learning about "Bears" - I didnt connect this activity with the theme until I saw a bag of Teddy Graham crackers in my office. I switched out the gems with the little bear shaped crackers and even the children that had already done this activity wanted to come back and do it again. I explained to the children that the crackers weren't for eating but I saved some and they would get them at story time. The bowls and number cards can be used over and over again with different counters depending on your theme.

Hope your children enjoy this activity that cost less that $5 and is rich with so much fun and learning!

Mortar & Pestals

One of our favorite activities at You're Invited is working

with mortar & pestals!!

We provide the children with bowls of different textures, smells & tastes and the children experiment with their very own "creations." There is so much learning going on with this activity! The friends are experiencing science because they get to determine the mixtures and combinations. Also being developed is their creativity and learning cause and effect. Also, all of their senses are being engaged.

This is an easy activity to provide for children and not very expensive once you've invested a small amount into a collection of mortar & pestals and trays.

We found the mortar & pestals on Ebay or at Worlds Fair Market for around $7 each!

The "ingredients" are seasonings from your pantry (or the 99cent store) and we added fresh rosemary, gardenia petals and mint from our own garden.

We also have salt and flour, each each with a koolaid packet mixed in for scent and color. Other great ideas are brown sugar, oatmeal, cornmeal, cocoa, peanuts (watch for allergies), bacon bits (very scentful) and we combine water with a flavored extract in paint cups with droppers!

Notice the mortars are on trays. This is done to give the children their own space and keeps the mess to a minimum!! When a child is done with this activity we either empty their mortar into the trash or back into a bowl for another friend to use.

Mortar & Pestal activites also give children agreat opportunity to develop a sense of their own power when they pound, mush, combine, determine how much and what ingredients they will use for their "creation"

For a list of mortar & pestal ingredients and activity ideas, send me an email at

youreinvitedchildrenscenter@gmail.com

Block play builds life skills

At You're Invited we have a whole room dedicated to honoring the importance of block play. These are some pictures of our friends exercising a variety of skills through their construction process, without even knowing it. The "dinosaur town" was built by two brothers and their process lasted about 2 hours.

One of our wonderful teachers saw the beauty in their process and left it standing during lunch and naptime so the boys could continue when they woke up, and they did!

After naptime the boys constructed bridges!

Block play provides children with opportunities to exercise a variety of skills that will help them as the grow and develop. It may look like they are just building but so much more is going on!

Block play encourages social and emotional skills when they work together in their construction. It is amazing to see the team work, compromising and respect children exhibit when they are working on a common goal.

Block play encourages cognitive skills. Children do lots of problem solving in block play. They also experience concepts of physics like gravity, weight, balance and stability.

Block play offers children opportunities to develop math skills such as spatial awareness, shapes, sizes, area length, and patterns.

Physical growth is developed when children are lifting and moving blocks (and rocks) of all sizes.

Creative thinking is also encouraged because of the planning that is involved in block play.

Block play is easy to offer to children without spending lots of money! I purchased most of the equipment in our "construction room" through yard sales and ebay. Our rocks are a wonderful mothers day gift that my daughter collected from the beaches of Santa Barbara.

Block play is important play for "building" healthy children!

Will they be ready for Kindergarten?
By Jami West

AT YOU'RE INVITED CHILDREN'S CENTER (SEE LINK) WE DO NOT SPEND OUR TIME WITH THE CHILDREN MAKING SURE THEY KNOW LETTERS AND NUMBERS OR THAT THEY KNOW HOW TO WRITE THEIR NAME, OR IDENTIFY COLORS. WE KNOW THAT THESE THINGS WILL COME. HOW DO WE KNOW?

BECAUSE OUR ENVIRONMENT IS SET UP TO PROVIDE MORE THAN ENOUGH OPPORTUNITIES FOR WRITING, READING, COUNTING, FIGURING THINGS OUT, MUSIC, BECOMING FAMILIAR WITH PRINT, SEQUENCING AND MORE. WHEN THE CHILD IS READY IT IS THERE FOR THEM TO ENGAGE AND EXPERIENCE
.
WHAT WE DO, ALL DAY, EVERY DAY, IS HELP GET THEM READY TO BE SUCCESSFUL PEOPLE. HOW DO WE DO THAT?

BY LOVING THEM TRULY AND UNCONDITIONALLY

BY KNOWING THEM AND RESPECTING THEM

BY ENCOURAGING THEM TO TAKE RISKS

ALLOWING THEM TO DIRECT THEIR OWN LEARNING AND OFFERING ACTIVITIES WHERE THE END RESULT IS NOT DETERMINED BY ANYONE BUT THEM. BY GIVING THEM FREEDOM TO BE WHO THEY ARE

BY OFFERING LARGE AMOUNTS OF FREE TIME, AND BY KNOWING THAT, DEVELOPMENTALLY, EACH AND EVERY CHILD IS EXACTLY WHERE THEY ARE SUPPOSED TO BE.

"Say Im sorry"

Hello friends, sorry I have neglected this blog, I am knee deep in writing my Masters thesis but have been thinking about this hot topic (especially since my last Challenging Behaviors workshop) so I will just give some bullet points for thought:

1. Young children have not developed empathy yet,

2. Young children are not able to see things from other children's or adults points of view (remember, egocentric)

3. When we help young children label emotions (particularly if their behaviors caused the emotions) we help them to develop these skills

4. When children are forced to say "Im sorry" it is difficult for the child to trust that adult really knows them

5. When a child is told to say "Im sorry" they are being told to be insincere and that these empty words are the easy fix.
- how many of us know children who automatically say either "Im sorry, Im sorry" or "I'll say Im sorry" when an adult has caught them offending another child?

6. When we force children to say "Im sorry" we are forcing children to LIE!

7. Children learn empathy by seeing empathy. It is okay for the adult to say sorry to the offended child

8. It is necessary to bring the child to the hurt child and label the emotions and make the connection that his/her behaviors led to that emotion

9. Provide natural, immediate & logical consequences for the child that offended ("I can not let you play with your friends, sister, brother, etc because you hurt him/her" an older child can be told that it is your job to make sure they are all safe)

10. An older child can begin to be given the option to say "Im sorry" not as an easy fix but as a means to help the other child feel better. This is an option to begin to help the child understand social rules, not exhibiting our power over them.

Id love for this to start a discussion, so let's hear what you think!!!

“you need to share!”

Lets talk about "sharing" - I think this is one of the BIGGEST issues for children, no actually its a big issue for grown ups! Parents often shudder when they see their child not willing to give up their toy to another child, most times this comes from a valid concern that their child be caring and compassionate. It is important that we encourage the development of compassionate, giving children but perhaps a common response to this issue is doing more damage than good. Let us begin the discussion:

-Young children are at the developmental stage of being egocentric. They are only capable of thinking of their own needs and their own desires. It isn’t until 7 -8 years that children began to see the world from someone else’s perspective.
When adults expect/demand a child to share it is developmentally inappropriate and an unrealistic expectation. Children are negatively affected when they are consistently expected/demanded to do something they are unable to do.
Children will learn to “share” when they are allowed to complete their experience (have their beginning, middle and end). When they can trust they are going to be given the opportunity to meet their own needs. When children have completed their task they are willing to allow other children to use the materials. When adults do not allow the child to get the whole experience or complete the task, we are teaching the child not to trust the adult and really pushes the child towards not being able to let anyone else us the object. Think about what happens when a child is engaged with an object and another child comes up and wants the object. Often the adult response is “friend, you need to share” or “you’ve had it long enough” and forces the child to give it to the friend. Do you see how this actually encourages the child to hold even tighter to the object and be more wary when a child approaches them to play. Also, the child becomes more concerned about losing the object then even playing with it.

So, what to do:
Taking turns – I tell a child “when you are done with that it will be Amy’s turn okay, when you are done give it to Amy” I also encourage him to tell Amy “Amy when I’m done it’s your turn.” It really works! The child with the object is learning that he is being respected and he can trust his needs will be meet. Amy sees the other child is being given as much time as needed and knows she will get the same opportunity when it is her turn. I am also intentional about following through when I see that he is finished, to remind him when he said Amy could have it when he is done and ask him if he wants to give it to Amy now.
We are charged to develop in our children healthy relationships that consist of trust and respect and help them begin to develop the desire to meet others needs. My desire is that each child knows they can trust us, that we really know and respect them and will do everything in our power to make sure their needs are met.

Any thoughts, comments, questions?

You are your child's best advocate!

I was blessed by Bev Bos's message I today. If you are not familiar with her name, I encourage you to read any of her books.

For the past several years I have encouraged parents to be their child (ren)'s advocate, telling them how special and unique their child is and how it is our job to encourage and develop them as special and unique individuals. Unfortunately our society (public schools) is most often providing environments where children are being taught in a "one size fits all" style of teaching and curriculum. I believe most teachers want to provide for individual learning styles and personalities but the requirements of the job do not make this so possible.

My son's Patric's school years experience, elementary and now in high school has been an ongoing struggle to help teachers appreciate who he is was and is, an energetic, super friendly, always happy, talkative, hard to keep focused, needing extra help kinda kid.

Bev's message shared a quote by Docia Zavitkovsky, some of you might remember Docia as a past President of the National Association for the Education of Young Children. She coined the line, “our job is not to get children ready for school, but to get schools ready for children.” I was so tickled when I read this because it is so similar to the truth I share over and over with parents and told myself (and many teachers) over over again in my sons life.

"it is not your child's job to change for the teacher, it is the teachers job to change for the child"

I encourage all parents - be your child's advocate. We certainly provide our children with clear, healthy and consistent boundaries with love AND nurture, develop and encourage the wonderful unique human being that your child is!

To Ms. Zavitkovsky and Bev Bos, thank you for sharing your wisdom

PS - I haven't forgotten about sharing and Im sorry!