Eczema in Babies
Read more at www.the-parenting-magazine.com Eczema in Babies
Some other sites
- The Value Added by LA Teachers « The Quick and the Ed
- Every time you type on Windows Phone 7, it plays a subtly different sound – istartedsomething
- Realistic robot hand H-Type from Squse | GadgetLite – Latest gadgets and technology news
Teaching the alphabet
Letters are important – they are the building blocks towards a lifetime of reading, writing and learning and should not be taught solely with paper pencil worksheets. Instead, parents can plan fun activities their child will enjoy taking part in. There is no better way to help kids learn the ABC of letter than by making the learning fun.
Any alphabet learning activity you begin with your child should last only five to ten minutes per day depending on your child. As a parent, you already know the length of your child’s attention span and can time each activity accordingly. Also, plan only one activity per session introducing five letters at a time. Learning the alphabet in no particular order is difficult for children, howevert is a key skill needed for their success as readers. Keeping activities short and engaging will make an enormous difference to children as they begin to learn the basics of reading.
Here are some ideas you might like to try at home.
Letter of the day
Nominate a letter of the day – for example the letter S – and plan a couple of activities around that. For example, print and color coloring sheets of a favourite character such as Spongebob Squarepants whose initials are SS and at sites like Spongebob Coloring Pages you’ll find the best Spongebob coloring pages. Also, eat food beginning with S such as sausages or sweetcorn and do some of the other activities mentioned in this article involving the letter S.
Bath time foam letters
Parents can purchase a bucket of foam letters from any dollar store. These letters are fantastic fun for your young learner in the bathtub. Parents can place letters on the side of the bathtub, spell our words and review letters.
Shaving cream letters
Parents take a cookie sheet or spray shaving cream directly on your kitchen table. Ask your child to smooth out the cream to form a square. Hold your child’s index finger and assist him with forming a letter. Then ask your child to wipe that letter away and begin again.
Letter art
Using bingo dabbers or finger paints have your child create one large uppercase letter filling the entire space of an A4 piece of paper. Create each letter following the alphabetical order and decorate the child’s bedroom or playroom with these letters. The art your child creates will be much more meaningful to him or her than any store bought alphabet poster.
Magnetic letters
Place five magnet letters on a cookie sheet and tell your child the letter you would like for her to find. Be sure to alternate turns when your child has mastered all letters.
Rice printing
Spread out a thin layer of uncooked rice on a cookie sheet. Choose a letter with your child and ask him to draw it in the rice. Repeat using other letters. This will give a child who enjoys sensory learning another way to internalize letters.
Fine motor skills and your toddler
Parents and caregivers of toddlers have no doubt heard the term ‘fine motor skills’ as it is often bandied about when talk turns to child development and preschool goals. Fine motor skills entail the small muscles of the body that allow such functions as writing, grasping small objects and fastening clothing. Fine motor skills involve strength, fine motor control and dexterity.
Fine motor skills, are skills that involve a refined use of the small muscles controlling the hand, fingers and thumb. The development of these skills allow a person – at any age – to be able to complete tasks such as writing, drawing and buttoning.
The preschool attainment goals that are expected of children include their ability to hold pencils and markers with a mature grip, the child’s ability to draw recognizable shapes and objects and a child’s capability to cut out shapes while turning the paper as necessary. Fine motor skills are important in most school activities as well as in life in general.
Limitations in fine motor skills can impinge on a child’s ability to eat, write legibly, use a computer, turn pages in a book and perform personal care tasks such as dressing and grooming.
As children improve their motor skills, they are much better able to help themselves by completing daily activities independently. For instance, children between the ages of 2 and 3 are able to put on and take off simple articles of clothing. They are able to ‘operate’ clothing with zippers, use spoons, string together beads with large holes and open doors that have doorknobs. When children are between the ages of 3 and 4, they are able to dress in clothing with larger buttons, use scissors to cut paper and can copy simple lined shapes using a pencil. By the ages of 4 to 5, children are able to dress and undress themselves without assistance. They are also able to manipulate a fork and have increased their dexterity to cut around shapes with a pair of scissors. Finally, by the grand age of 6, a child is able to cut soft foods with a knife and can tie his or her shoe laces.
Because all children develop at their own rate, the ages given are not an exact timeline because every child will acquire their fine-motor skills in a different timetable – however there is much you can do to support a toddler’s acquisition of fine motor skills. In fact, the more your preschool child uses his or her fingers in activities that help to strengthen their hand coordination, the sooner they will master dexterity.
Develop fine motor skills by drawing and coloring with your child using markers, pencils, crayons and even pavement chalk. Drawings need not be perfect – scribbling is great fun – and coloring pages of a favourite TV or movie character should encourage even the most reluctant colorer to literally try his or her hand at coloring. At sites like Spongebob Coloring Pages you’ll find the best Spongebob coloring images while little girls would perhaps enjoy the coloring sheets at Fairy Coloring Pages.
Despite parents’ best efforts however, sometimes children need some assistance when developing their fine motor skills. This requires caregivers to find diverse methods in order to assist children with their development. Occupational therapists are experts in the field of fine motor and handwriting development, therefore, if you think that there may be an issue with the fine motor development of your child, you should ask for an evaluation by a licensed occupational therapist.
More than just doodles
To the casual observer a child who is drawing or coloring in, is just scribbling. The marks seem to be haphazard, almost meaningless. But there is much more happening in your young child’s mind as s/he engages in the physical act of drawing and coloring.
In fact, examining children’s drawing may give us important insights into how drawing fits into the overall physical, emotional and cognitive development of the young child. From toddlerhood through primary school, children choose to draw and color, but the process starts much earlier – during toddlerhood.
At around the age of 18 months, toddlers become interested in scribbling. It appears to provide sensory enjoyment, but the child is also interested in the marks that are made. The act of doodling or scribbling can serve several useful purposes for the young child. Small muscle coordination and control improve with practice, cognitive abilities are exercised, opportunities for social interaction arise, and the physical movements provide emotional release.
Because a toddler’s small muscle control is not fully developed, he or she may approach the coloring sheet by grasping the marker with his or her fist and may have difficulty placing the marks exactly where he or she wants them. Movements are typically large, involving the whole arm with very little finger or wrist control. This is because the pattern of physical development proceeds from the center of the trunk outward.
With practice, the toddler will naturally improve his or her control, full control, however, will not be achieved until much later. Some toddlers will rest their forearm on the drawing surface to give them additional control. A rhythmic, repetitive, scrubbing motion is common among two-year-olds, providing sensory enjoyment and making drawing a very physical act.
By providing children with the materials and opportunities to scribble we can promote physical skills. Just as babbling is a natural way to gain language, scribbling is a natural gateway to muscle control and coordination.
Intellectually toddlers are concerned with both the process and results of their art. They do not intend to represent objects at first. Instead, they are concerned with color and line. However, they may actually look at the scribbles they have made and, in surprise, recognize a shape and name it. While they may not have intended to draw a dog or tree, the scribbles suggest the shapes. Children interpret, rather than intend. This is called fortuitous realism and becomes common as a child approaches three years of age.
As a parent you can encourage your child to draw and color by offering him or her opportunities to do so. Provide them with blank sheets of paper to let their creativity run wild or supply a coloring book or coloring sheets – many of which are available free of charge online. Little boys may enjoy coloring images of cars and trucks or of favorite characters such as Pokemon and at sites like Pokemon Coloring Pages you’ll find the best Pokemon colouring pages
Little girls on the other hand tend to prefer images of fairies and princesses and these too are plentiful online.
Remember to always supervise toddlers while they draw and color – due to the choking hazard that crayons pose.
12 – 24 Months Expected Evolution
Development within babies is what every parent awaits to see with great anticipation. Every particular action requires preparation within your babies. The development within babies varies due to many external factors.
Nutrition plays a vital role in development. Apart from that, sleep is the maximum growth period. Sleep time varies with your baby’s age. This is why new born babies sleep almost all day. Each day your baby grows and the muscles in his body increases with time. By the time your baby reaches one year, he will begin to pick things up, try getting into a standing position, feed himself and clap his hands.
If you feed your baby with more nutritious food, growth and development will be faster. A malnourished baby does not develop soon. At the time your baby reaches 13 to 15 months, he will play with his toys and try to talk. He will also walk without support. Some babies walk during 6 months. This is very unusual. Toys play important part in developing babies. Your baby will move his hands and legs and try to dance if you play a bosendorfer piano . When he reaches 18 to 20 months, he will not only walk but run and walk up stairs. Now he can feed himself very well and play with building blocks. Also he will like to look at cartoons and watch television. At this age your baby will say quite a lot of words and do a lot of mischief.
When your baby reaches his second birthday, he will become more active constantly doing mischief and messing up everything. Therefore, you too have to be active and maintain safety precautions at home. Every child is different so you may have to be cautious more or less. Your baby might dump and fall into everything and hurt himself quite a lot. This should be prevented because if in case he hurts his head, this is harmful for his brain as the head is still very sensitive.
Many sweet memories are associated with these development stages so enjoy it as much as you can.