Category: Uncategorized
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Boosting Child Development Through Outdoor Play: Get OUTSIDE!
Winter is long and this Spring has been brutal! (imho). Weather conspires to keep teachers, parents, grandparents and caregivers indoors which, consequently extends to the kids. This is a problem! Disclaimer: No judgement, no particular child I work with in our preschool is inspiration for the comments that follow. I promise. I have previously written…
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Fostering Executive Function
I work with the under 5 set. Every day, me and my team (husband and co-teacher) nudge 2, 3 and 4 year olds as they play, argue, damage, pull, touch, hurt, create, discover, dump, clean, eat, dress, yell, sing, speak softly their way to their next developmental milestone. And we love (most!) every minute of…
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Three year olds
It’s been a minute but here goes! Three’s are transitioning from toddlers to preschoolers. While it’s a gradual growth, there are certainly ways to encourage behaviors and teach skills that nudge your little towards being able to do for themselves (and in turn, you!). The first step in this process is for parents, grandparents and…
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Play…play…and learn?
In an effort to understand the importance of play in a child’s development, let’s look under the hood of play. We instinctively know that playing is important, but do we give much thought as to HOW important it is? As the basis for learning, practicing and generalizing (using skills in a variety of situations), play…
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Biting! Oh no!
When toddlers bite, it’s important to figure out why they are biting. A bite can be a learned behavior; let’s face it- it get’s immediate attention! However, biting typically appears around 18 months, rarely after age 3 can be attributed a a couple of things going on. Typically, this is when toddlers become much more…
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Writing Begins with Tummy Time!
Fine Motor Friday! Writing begins with Tummy Time! Every time your little one is on their tummy, they are building their neck, shoulder and core strength. They are building the stamina and strength to support their crawling, sitting and reaching! As they perfect their reaching and grasping, their flipping over, crawling and sitting up will…
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Newborn Sleep Shaping
It’s easy to forget how the way routines and conditions that we (parents or parent supporters!) put into place in the present really does impact how smoothly (or less-than-smoothly) events unfold in the future. When things are going swimmingly, it’s so easy to forget how we got there; to take for granted what we did…
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What is developmentally appropriate about early literacy?
There are so many ways that the ground work for learning to be a reader get’s laid from the earliest of ages. Today I will talk about one area that is essential and needs no books, letter knowledge or even a broad vocabulary. Phonemic Awareness! What is phonemic awareness? Phonemes are the smallest unit of…
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What does a sleep coach do?
Many people struggle getting a good night’s sleep. The nights we have affect our days. Patience, concentration, physical stamina, physical and mental health and much more is affected by the duration and quality of our sleep. Do you know how you slept as a young child? Children who struggle with sleep throughout their childhood very…
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Reading Aloud to improve comprehension
If the purpose of reading is to comprehend something, to gain insights, new information that connects to previous knowledge and learn how to think more critically, systematically, creatively or ..whatever, just differently, we need to have some ‘strategies’ to help our kids connect to what we are reading. Remember, first connections are text-to-self, then text-to-text…
Margaret Watkinson 