When what and how do you begin teaching your preschooler

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A while back LeeAnn from Las Vegas asked my opinion on just when is the right time to begin teaching her 2-year-old daughter. She has already begun teaching basic concepts such as alphabet, colors, and numbers, but some members of her family feel that she is pushing her little girl.

In my opinion, the easiest way for LeeAnn to test whether or not she is pushing her daughter can be found in this quote: "Is it too soon, or should I let her keep going as long as she is interested and is having fun?"

If LeeAnn's daughter is interested in the concepts that she is learning and having fun while learning then it is definitely the right time to teach her.

Young children are interested in the world around them and they are interested in what their parents know. Building on that interest to teach basic concepts (just as LeeAnn is doing) is not pushing your child -- it is meeting your child's needs. One of the most important things you can do for your child is to offer an environment rich in learning opportunities. If you give your child the opportunity to learn then he will learn -- it really is as simple as that.

Remember, young children are learning a great deal about themselves, their family and caregivers, and their world ever day. For most of those lessons you are the teacher. By the time your child has reached the age of 2 you have already taught hundreds, even thousands, of important lessons about how to function in the world and society. Indeed, many of the everyday activities you perform with your child also have academic implications. For example, the books that you read to your child and the songs you sing with your child have a lasting impact on literacy. It is no great stretch to add other concepts into your repertoire and this can make a great deal of difference in how prepared your child is for preschool and kindergarten.

There are really only three things you should remember:

~ Keep it fun Making learning into a game and your child will always enjoys what you have to teach her.

~ Keep it light Educational products and activities that are actually games are wonderful but don't force your child into spending time each day with flashcards or the like. They'll most likely learn faster and more meaningfully if you have an alphabet scavenger hunt at the supermarket.

~ Embrace the teachable moment but don't schedule lessons and force educational activities on your child. When the opportunity presents itself (and it will countless times in a day!) take advantage and use it for a lesson. For example, simply putting on socks can be a lesson in right and left, colors, or counting!

HOW TO TEACH

So how do you teach your preschooler without scheduling lessons and forcing them to pay attention? You embrace the teachable moment!

What is the teachable moment? It is simply an opportunity that springs out of normal, everyday life or as children become older and more verbal a timely question or comment.

Time when you and your child are in the car, for example, is a wonderful teaching opportunity that many parents overlook. If you are reunited after a day's separation then you can share stories about your day-and in the process work on vocabulary and literacy skills as well as teach your child about the world around them. You can also use cars and trucks to teach colors, road signs to teach shapes, and so on.

Mealtimes are also wonderful teaching opportunities. Counting is easily worked into almost any meal, such as telling a child they can have two cookies or giving them five tater tots. Shapes and colors can also be brought into mealtimes. For example, my son likes to choose the shape for his sandwiches-triangles or squares? As a child grows older you can also do letter sounds with the various foods, such as milk starts with "mmmmh".

WHAT TO TEACH

Skills you should work on with your child fall into eight basic categories, according to early childhood educators:

~ Social/Emotional Skills, which will be the greatest predictors of success in life.

~ Self esteem, which is crucial for all learning.

~ Physical Skills

~ Communication Skills: listening, speaking, singing, drawing, gesturing

~ Basic Concepts such as colors, letters, numbers, vocabulary

~ Categorizing Skills, what is the same and different

~ Compare and Contrast Skills, which is the higher order level of Categorizing

~ Experiences on which to draw. These are perhaps the most important of all, as they provide a frame of reference for future learning. The more experiences from which a child can draw, the better s/he will understand both learning and the world.

These are all literacy skills and they are all key to your child's future success. If you need still more help identifying concepts that your child should master then study the developmental milestones for your child's age at PreschoolersLearnMore. com.

So rest easy, LeeAnn, you are doing exactly the right thing for your daughter!

Learning to apply information

There are many definitions of intelligence, but the one I have learned in high school claimed that intelligence in nature is the ability of an animal or a human to use the information they have learned.

I have also read about the idea that there are several levels of learning. The lowest level of learning, is just memorizing the material and being able to "regurgitate" it in the same term it was presented, and the highest levels of learning are the learning styles that use the material in other contexts, and the learning style that builds on top of the material learned.

For example, when you teach your child about addition, and he immediately understands the concept of subtraction. Or if you teach your child about the structure of the dinosaurs teeth in relation to their food, and your child looks at your pet and tries to guess the structure of their teeth, based on their food.

Well - you don't need to wait for your child to develop that level of learning by himself. You can develop this habit and way of thinking on purpose. Here are some examples:

If you have a baby, and you are looking for books to read to your baby or to read with your baby, choose for several books with related subjects. For example, if you have a book that tells a story about an animal ( a bear, a duck, whatever animals often appear in children's books), prepare another book that gives different information about the same animal. The child will associate the information in one book to the information in the other book.

For school age children: if you are helping your child with math, always find a use for the concept you are learning. For example: addition. Tell a story that demonstrates the use of addition: for example: "John went to the store to buy candy. He bought one bar of Snickers that cost him 1 dollar and 1 bag of Chocolate Kisses that cost 2 dollars. How much did he spend?

If you help your child with history, and the discussion is about a certain place, pull out a map and show him exactly where the place is, and learn something about the geography of this particular place.

You don't have to wait for your child to do some school activity. Whenever you discuss something, or observe something that calls your attention, when you come home find a piece of information about that subject in the encyclopedia, to read about. For example, you have taken your child to visit a friend, and you have heard that one of the friend's parents is a lawyer. When you come home, find a story about a famous lawyer, or some other bit of information about lawyers. Remind your child that the friend's parent is a lawyer, just like in the story.

In this way, you are developing in your child the habit of looking for a way to apply the information they acquire. To look for the association between different bits of information. To relate their knowledge to other fields and subjects. This is true intelligence.

Ymca helps families bring healthy habits home

Keeping kids physically active and healthy isn't exactly child's play. Efforts to keep kids fit are most successful when scheduled as a family affair, according to Chicago-based YMCA of the USA. Children are more likely to stay active and to make smart, health-related choices when parents lead by example.

"Families that make health, activity and exercise priorities in their daily life enjoy many benefits like strengthening family ties, developing similar interests, preventing chronic diseases and, most importantly, simply having fun as a family," said Mike Spezzano, national health and fitness specialty consultant for YMCA of the USA.

The YMCA offers six "get started" tips for embracing a healthier lifestyle at home:

1. Commit to 20-30 minutes of physical activity as a family each day. Walk the dog as a group before dinner; share an afternoon bike ride; play a game of tag; plan fun weekend outings like nature hikes or skating.

2. Prepare healthy meals at least five days a week. Select recipes that use lower fat, sodium, and refined sugar; choose natural and unprocessed ingredients when buying prepared meals; buy fruits and vegetables over unhealthy snacks.

3. Choose to eat meals together in the kitchen or dining room. Eating on the go or in front of the television leads to unhealthy eating habits.

4. Hold a weekly family meeting to set group goals about health and activity. For extra encouragement, display goals for everyone to see.

5. Stress and conflict are major culprits in undermining healthy goals. Reduce stress at home by agreeing to respect the property and feelings of fellow family members; accept responsibility for personal actions; and behave in a caring and thoughtful manner.

6. Celebrate success with simple rewards. Enjoy movie night or a YMCA family night; buy a new board game; create hand-made awards; reinforce achievements with positive verbal feedback.

Families seeking inspiration and information can find it at YMCA Healthy Kids® Day celebrated nationally April 8, 2006 and at 1,420 YMCAs nationwide (local dates may vary). The free event engages families in fun, physical activities and offers helpful information to encourage healthy lifestyle choices.

YMCA Healthy Kids Day is sponsored by Disney Channel, Tropicana, Kimberly-Clark Corporation and Kimberly-Clark's Huggies, Pull-Ups and Neat Sheet brands.

Baby names - book review roundup

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Best Baby Name Book In The Whole World

This book lists over 13,00 names and offers up meanings and lists. However, these are some basic baby name book requirements and certainly aren't enough to earn a "Best" title. Unfortunately, this is where the book falls. Not quite great, but not necessarily bad. It doesn't have a huge number of names, it doesn't offer oodles of extras, and some of its meanings are even a bit questionable. There are better books out there.

The Baby Name Wizard

This unusual baby name book really stands out from the crowd. Not simply a huge list of names, The Baby Name Wizard gives detailed information about each baby name in its database. Graphs, lists, and all kinds of fun information are invluded. The only downside to this addicting book is its rather slim list of actual baby names. It doesn't rank up there with the 50,001 name books, although perhaps you may appreciate the more limited scope. Aside from this, The Baby Name Wizard comes highly recommended.

Cool Names For Babies

This is a fun book that will inject some enjoyment back into your baby naming process. It's full of left-of-center baby names that will stimulate your thinking and probably lead you down some baby name paths you wouldn't have thought of. Not all is perfect, of course. Cool Names for Babies lacks a user friendly index and makes it difficult to find a specific name. The coolness of these names is likely to change as time passes since it is (naturally) focused on trends.

Baby Names: A New Generation

This book, as you may glean from its title, is focused on the ever-changing popularity of certain baby names. Want to make sure you aren't given your child a name that will seem old fashioned? Then this is the book for you. Its forward thinking and pleasing layout will help remove some of the tedium of selecting the perfect name for your child.