Board Games and Preschoolers

My preschooler has recently discovered the joy of board games. He loves to have the one on one attention that he gets when playing a game with a parent or his friends. Board games have been a great addition to my home daycare. The kids are busy doing something educational and they love it. Some of our favorites are

-Candy Land
-Hungry Hungry Hippos
-Chutes and Ladders
-Eye Spy
-Leap Frog Games

Preventing Public Toddler Tantrums

You've seen other mothers dealing with a screaming toddler in public, but when it is your turn to go through this rite of parenthood it can be an embarrassing initiation.

Life B.C. (before children) was much different. Back then, when you saw a screaming toddler in the store you shook your head and wondered why that mother didn’t control her child. Now things have changed. You are the mother with the screaming child and the eyes of what feels like everyone in the store watching you. Read More at Suite 101

Kids' Toys Think Before You Buy

Kids' Toys Think Before You Buy
By Sherry Frewerd

There is a chore in my home that brings out the procrastinator in me. This particular chore is so big and so difficult, that I create new tasks just to avoid starting the dreaded job. What could be so bad: My toddler’s bedroom – a.k.a. fighting the battle of ‘too many toys!’

The problem doesn’t arrive from a lack of organization or space to put things, but from just too many toys in the first place. His room, when tidy, looks like a little toy store gone mad. My husband built custom shelving just for the toys and books, with varying shelf sizes to accommodate different types of toys and sizes of books. However, when I take a close look at the contents, it’s obvious that there’s lots of ‘stuff’, but little thought went into most of it.

How should you select and organize your child’s toys? Choosing quality kids’ toys, selected by their developmental stage and abilities, is the first step. Most toys have a recommended age on the package to let you know the appropriate age group. Take cues from you own child to guide you in whether he is ready for a certain toy.

Make sure that the toys you’re buying actually "do" what they are supposed to. If puzzle pieces aren’t cut correctly, your child will get angry and frustrated when they play with it. I’ve recently made the mistake of buying a puzzle that was supposed to be appropriate for ages 18 months to 3 years, only to find that the pieces were very difficult to place, and my son became upset every time he played with the puzzle.

Some suggestions for Toddler and Preschool Toys

• Puppets

• Activity tables/centers

• Sorting boxes

• Snap together Blocks – Leggos

• Puzzles – up to 5 wooden pieces

• Figures for dollhouse, farm, etc.

• Dress up clothes

• Trucks and wagons to haul things

• Housekeeping and shopping toys

• Sewing cards

• Buttoning, zipping, snapping dolls or boards

• Preschool age games like Memory and Candy land etc.

Most importantly, choose toys that stimulate your child’s mind and that create learning experiences. Provide an adequate amount of toys for your child. Don’t do as I have and overwhelm your child with too much ‘stuff’ causing both of you to become frustrated. As we all know, most little kids have a more fun playing with the box the toy came in while the new toy sits idly on the floor. Now it’s time for me to stop procrastinating and fight the battle of ‘too many toys.’

About the author: Sherry Frewerd is a WAHM to three and is a licensed child care provider. Visit her website, ‘Family Play and Learn’ for fun and creative activities and resources for your Toddler and Preschool age child. http://familyplayandlearn.com

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Sherry_Frewerd

Paper Christmas Tree

I'll have to post pictures of this when I get a bit more time. We took three triangle shapes cut out of green paper and glued them onto another piece of paper. We overlapped them slightly with the bigger part of the triangle facing down so that they looked like a Christmas tree. The kids decorated them with whatever supplies they wanted and glued buttons on to look like ornaments. This is very simple and quit to do and doesn't require too much clean up.

Christmas Vacation

Every year I take the week after Christmas off from daycare. It's kind of like my Christmas present to myself. I get some time to just enjoy my kids, get things back to normal after the holidays, and recover from all the stress. Ryan hates it. He would much rather have his friends over to play. After I get a bit of rest I am much more excited to start daycare again in the new year and that benefits everyone. So I'm off to finish some last minute Christmas preparations and then ready to relax and enjoy my children.

The Secret of Daycare

There is something daycare providers have not told you. My own kids are far more challenging than all of my daycare kids put together. My daycare kids put their best show on for me. They are excited to come and when they get tired they go home with their mommies. I don't have to wrestle with them to go to bed at night. They don't argue with me about every little thing just to make me angry. They don't know what buttons to push to really make me want to hide in the closet and cry. You are more emotionally invested in your own children. That is not a bad thing to say. They are yours. You made them. Your heart and soul is in them and when they hurt, you hurt. But that also makes them draining. It can make you want to trade kids for the night, as much as you love them, just to get a few minutes to go to the bathroom by yourself. When Richard was born I figured the transition to two kids would be easy, and for the most part it was. It was much easier than going to one child at least. I thought I could just cut back on one daycare kid and it would be the same old routine. I didn't count on a child who is every bit as stubborn and oppinionated as I am. He isn't even one and we are already having power struggles. This child has opinions on everything from what he has for breakfast to what he wears for the day. What one year old has shirts that he simply refused to wear? I'm scared for him to get older.

There is also more guilt associated with your own children. Ryan has days where he needs more attention than others. He is my sensitive one. He feels things deeply, and I love that about him, but he needs a lot of attention to be his happiest. He loves having his friends come to our house. He wouldn't give it up for the world. There are days, however, that he feels secondary and he really needs to be first. He gets jealous easily. It tears me in two because I have a responsibility to these children who come into my home to provide the best care that I can, and I really try to, but that takes some of the attention away from my own kids. That's where the guilt comes in. I give them my time by doing daycare instead of working outside of the home, but it also takes me time from them. Life is full of compromises.

Loosing a Daycare Child

Yesterday the parents of a little girl I have watched for three years gave notice. Her mom has the opportunity to work from home and I think that is wonderful but we will miss her. She came to my home when she was 5 months old and she is Ryan's best friend. I really hope that they can stay in touch. Ryan would be so sad if he doesn't see her anymore.

I'm kind of torn because I hate starting new kids but now I have an opening. I have a really nice schedule right now. I don't start too early. I don't end too late in the day and I have Fridays off. I can't imagine doing anything else every day but I'm a bit too exhausted right now to start the search for a new client and go through the training process with someone new. I guess we'll see what happens. We may put our house up for sale again in the spring so who knows where we will end up. I'm not big on change but I want some sort of an adventure.

Pine Cone Christmas Trees

There was something similar to this in an Oriental Trading Company catalogue. It seemed easy enough to do so we created our own version. I found scented pine cones at Bed Bath and Beyond. I probably could have just gone down the street and harvested some from the park but lets face it, it's really cold outside and I try to ignore winter weather as much as possible. I had some gingerbread play-dough left over from a few weeks ago so I took it and formed little balls to use as bases for the trees. We turned the pine cones upside down so that the flat side was on the bottom and squished them into the play-dough. By wiggling it gently back and forth everything stayed in one place but it went deep enough into the play-dough to stand on its own and be pretty stable. Once we did that the kids painted the whole things green. We let it dry for a few hours and then glued red sequins and buttons on the undersides of the pine cone that was now facing up. Ryan insisted that it just wasn't a Christmas tree without a star on top so we finished the whole thing off with a yellow foam star. The kids had so much fun with this and they had the freedom to decorate their "trees" however they wanted.