Toddler Care in a Day Care Setting

It’s been said that children learn more before the age of three than they will over the rest of their lives. We can take that concept one step further and declare that the first five years of a child’s life are the most formative and arguably the most critical.

During these early years, a child needs love and nurturing – both at home and in social settings – in order to thrive and grow. When a child feels loved and cared for, they feel as if they belong and become confident little beings who are encouraged to learn and participate in any situation.

With more families relying on the services of a good day care center, it’s important that the facility they choose can provide that all-important loving and nurturing environment – one that encourages learning and exploration.  The day care environment should provide work, play and learning areas that are stimulating but also meet the developmental needs of each child. And while each child’s specific needs should be met, the learning environment should also encourage and support children who thrive in learning in a group environment as well.

When deciding on the best day care facility for you and your child, it’s well within your rights to ask what kind of environment your child will be in during his or her time there.  You should know who will be taking care of your child and what credentials and experience they have that qualifies them to do so. You should know how many children there will be in your toddler’s age group. And finally you should know what kind of learning/interactivity activities your child will participate in during the day and if they have special needs – how will they be met? Will there be dramatic play? Art activities? Blocks? Reading? Communication?

Day care may be a necessity for your family, but it doesn’t mean you have to settle for the first one that you come to in your search. Shop around and find the best one to enrich your toddler’s experience. 

How to Instill Friendly Competition in Children

Nobody likes to lose – winning is fun, right? Instilling friendly competition into your children is a good way to lead them down the path of being well-rounded individuals. A healthy dose of competition doesn’t only have to apply to being a better player in the sports arena; it can also apply to being a better business owner, a better employee and a better person all around.

Healthy and friendly competition can be the basis of motivating children to exceed expectations – expectations that they may not feel they can beat. Many parents feel that teaching children to be competitive because of the expectations some coaches put on their players.  Many experts disagree, citing that this friendly competition taught at a young age teach them to successfully compete in the world as teenagers and ultimately as adults.

Again, competition doesn’t just apply to sports. When children learn how to compete in a friendly manner, they are learning to try the hardest. These same values will carry over into life when they are competing for a new job or promotion. By learning to compete as children, they are given a leg up on the competition who may not have had that same experience.

Liken teaching your children to compete to the gazelle and the lion: in Africa, when a gazelle awakens each morning it is well aware that if it doesn’t wake up and run it will be eaten by the lion. The lion on the other hand, knows that it must be faster than the slowest gazelle or it will starve to death. The moral of the story? It doesn’t matter if you’re the lion or the gazelle – each morning wake up and be ready to run. 

Parents Can Be Good Teachers to Their Children

From a very young age, children are exposed to different people on a regular basis – any of whom can form their thoughts and beliefs. None of the people they are exposed to on a regular basis are more important than their parents. 

Many parents don’t see themselves in a teaching role, but the fact is, as parents we are our children’s first teachers. We teach our children to walk, talk, dress themselves, feed themselves, how to be polite, how to be tolerant and a million other things that shape the people they become – all before they’re every expose to teachers in a classroom setting. 

What parents do forget, especially those who work full-time, is that even when children enter the classroom, they can still be the best teacher that their children will have. While we want to instill good morals and values into our children – these are both valuable to them as functioning members of society – it’s also important that we teach our children to think for themselves and form their own beliefs. While classroom teachers can instruct them and provide them with a sound educational experience, they are unable to reach a child in the same way a parent can. 

While we all have different teachers teaching us different things in our lives, we must remember as parents, we are the best and most important teacher our children will ever know. 

Best Apps for Small Children and Toddlers

Winter is coming and outside play will become less and less possible as the cold winds and even snow start to blow. But that doesn’t mean your small children can’t be entertained and stimulated.

Thanks to the mass quantities of technology that now consumes our lives on a daily basis, it’s no surprise that it’s even becoming a part of everyday life for even toddlers. Educational developers and computer experts are constantly working together to develop literally thousands of games and apps specifically geared toward small children and toddlers in order to keep them stimulated, help with better hand-eye coordination and well-developed fine motor skills.

Here is but a small list of the most popular apps that combine education and fun for your little one:

1. Pat the Bunny is based on a children’s book from the 1940s and is used as an interactive reading tool. While this iPad app doesn’t off the feel of the faux fur that the original book offered its readers, there are still plenty of scenes that your child can explore and interact with. For example, there’s an Easter egg hunt in all of the scenes as well as coloring activities
2. PianoBall allows your child to explore their musical side by using this app to create their own musical scores. The colorful keyboard attracts your child and keeps their attention as they explore the five different modes that allow the music to be heard the way it would sound with different instruments.
3. Potty Time with Elmo approaches potty training in a whole new way. The wildly popular Sesame Street character will help your toddler with the transition from diapers to using the “big kid potty” by using songs, puzzles and even animated stickers.
4. Drawing Pad is another app that helps your child explore and release their inner creativity. With this app they can use realistic crayons, markers and even paint brushes to create a virtually unlimited portfolio of projects.

Again, this is but a small sampling of the apps available to entertain and educate your child. This winter, replace the toy box full of unused or broken toys with apps like this and let your child explore a whole new world.