Kindergarten Preparation Starts at Birth by Melissa Vulopas, Elementary School Academic Learning Facilitator From birth, babies are curious. They develop a solid foundation for learning through everything they experience. For parents of newborns, kindergarten is a concern for the future, but research shows that children are better prepared for success in kindergarten when their development...
Reading, singing and talking to your baby all day long are great ways to expand his vocabulary. Here are a few specific tips to try: Be silly. Pretend to put him in the tub without taking his clothes off first, try to put his shoe on his hand instead of his foot, or hand him...
In order to prepare children born today to thrive in the global community of the 21st century, the National Education Association (NEA) has replaced the 3 R’s (Reading, Writing, and Arithmetic) with the 4 Cs: Critical Thinking, Communication, Collaboration, and Creativity. The goal of the NEA is to fully integrate the 4 Cs into every...
Responsive caregiving is a term that simply refers to parents and caregivers supporting the learning of babies by sitting close to babies during play and offering verbal and non-verbal gestures to communicate support and assurance as the baby explores and plays. Simply by providing age appropriate, safe toys, and smiling, nodding and encouraging, babies get...
By scaffolding, we just mean “building” on your baby’s language. When he says one word, agree with him, but add another word, then another. Keep doing this until you are giving him short phrases to say and he can repeat them after you. Add two syllable words after he masters one syllable words. When you...
We have big ideas about how we are going to parent and how our babies will respond to us, then our baby comes along and has something else in mind. Your baby probably started to display his temperament as a newborn, and though you are still getting to know him, you probably have a pretty...
Again…again….again! That is what you are going to hear when you start this game! When I teach prenatal classes, work with parents in the NICU, and work with young babies, many dads have asked me when they can “throw their baby up in the air.” Moms are typically horrified, but I tell them that...
Talk to her while you run errands, shop, drive, ride the bus, go for a walk. Narrate what you are doing and explain what you see. Ask her questions and engage her. Point out colors, shapes, animals, objects, and people. Don’t worry about what people think about you talking to a tiny baby. Know that...
Get those hands dirty! The benefits of play are numerous, but unstructured, exploratory “messy play” allows your baby to make discoveries by using all her senses. The sensory experience of messy play enables your baby to understand how things feel, smell, and taste and gives her control over the experience. Playing with actual toys is...
