Dec 20, 2011 by Anna Quarles, LCSW, MPH |
Filed in: General
As the parent of a young child you may already know how your skills of focus, patience and empathy are needed on a daily basis! Did you know that research has shown that long-term stress can in fact override these parenting efforts and significantly impact children?
With holiday seasons can often time come stress. These can include coordinating travel, planning for relatives or just having spouses and kids home for an extended period of time! Luckily, these stressors are short-term and there can be many ways that parents can avoid becoming over-stressed during holiday breaks. One easy way is to add activities or excursions to your plans. Changes in schedules as well as the lack of a daily structure can be hard for kids that have settled into the rhythm of preschool or school. As you look ahead to the next few weeks of unscheduled time look back over our blog posts for ideas about reading, crafts or other activities (below are just a few). Adding a few extra minutes to plan something can help you and your children to take time to enjoy each other and offer positive ways to fill downtime, which both can help make family time as stress free as possible.
Local activities
Personal Gift Idea
Game/Craft Idea
North Carolina is well known for its great beaches and mountains, yet if you’re in the Triangle there are many other great ways to spend time outdoors as a family. This week is Take A Child Outside Week, which is an annual reminder to find time to turn off the TV and step out our front doors to be explorers of the nature around us every day.
This week’s weather looks to be great, but as explorers of nature you and your kids can begin the adventure by making sure everyone is equipped with sun block or raincoats depending on the forecast. Parents, in planning your nature adventure keep your kids in mind. What would make this a positive experience for my child and for us together? If you want to support your child’s observations of the world around them consider finding a place you can both sit comfortably to close your eyes and listen to the sounds around you. Ask questions: What can you hear? What may be making that noise? How do you think that sound is being made? Can you tell where the sound is coming from?
If you want to activate your child’s imagination and individuality to have their own ideas you can look to books like Not a Stick or It Looked Like Spilt Milk (see more ideas from Topic 3: Imagine That! from Lucy’s Book Club). You and your child can walk around outside looking at or picking up objects and thinking of all the possible uses or ideas about what they are. Or you all can find a spot to cloud watch and describe the different things you can see float by in the sky.
You can find more inspiration for activities to do on your outdoor adventure at: http://takeachildoutside.org/activities/gettingstarted.html
Whatever you chose to explore with you child, take this week to do it outside. The Triangle offers many museums and trails to explore nature, but be certain that many educational family adventures are just waiting for you in your own backyard or neighborhood park!
Explore NAEYC Resources!
The NAEYC (National Association for the Education of Young Children) website (www.naeyc.org) is a superb resource for parents as well as educators. Click on the “Families” tab and find research reports, articles, books, and a wealth of ideas on topics such as how to expand and enrich your child’s play experiences or what/how your child should be learning in preschool - what is really developmentally appropriate? Get answers from the experts. You can also sign up for a free newsletter or check out the link to NAEYC radio which offers monthly forums on a wide variety of subjects (www.naeyc.org/newsroom/naeycradio). Listen to the current as well as archived programs and gather helpful information from knowledgeable professionals in the field of early childhood.
The Lucy Daniels Center is proud to announce that it has recently received accreditation from NAEYC! This prestigious designation is the mark of preschool programs that exemplify excellence.
TV As Background Noise
An interesting study… television can be a distracter to children at play. Daniel Anderson, (University of Massachusetts) and Marie Evan Schmidt, are prominent researchers on the topic of children and television. Their studies revealed that television can be a major distracter – even if it is just on as background noise. When the TV was on:
- Children’s episodes of play were only half as long.
- Focused attention periods were only three-quarters as long.
- Children tended to move from toy to toy.
Their conclusion was that television background noise does indeed affect the quality of a child’s play and the length of time for which they can focus. Check out this reference for further information:
Schmidt, M. et al., “The Effects of Background Television on the Toy Play Behavior of Very Young Children,” Child Development 79, no.4 (2008): 1137-51
I was struck and troubled as I watched a group of young children clustered around a computer screen at a mall kiosk watching animated story books, complete with music and sound effects. They stood staring with an occasional smile or a clap, but the experience was one of passive engagement. How much different it would have been to take that same story book and hop up on the inviting lap of mom or dad to talk about the pictures, make up the voices for the characters (adding excitement or perhaps giggles to the dialogue), and imagine together what would come next – offering guesses about the possibilities with shared anticipation. The kiosk experience was much like seeing a movie before reading the book!
Have you heard about our upcoming community event? Take a look under the tab Bookmarked! Event for all of the current details about this exciting two week long series of events. There will be multiple opportunities for you and your child to attend a free Lucy's Book Club reading beginning May 22nd, including a reading by our special guest, author Judith Viorst, at Quail Ridge Books in Raleigh on Saturday, June 5th, at 10:00 a.m.
Bookmarked! A celebration of reading with children will feature a Lucy’s Book Club book fair at Quail Ridge Books in Raleigh and two weeks of free celebrity heroes readings for young children and their parents at venues across Wake County, culminating in a special fundraising event, An Evening with Judith Viorst, acclaimed author and poet, on Sunday, June 6.
More details to come! In the meantime, take a look at the information we have posted online.
This post has been submitted by Debbie Mugno.
How delightful to snuggle up with a baby and share a book! The soothing rhythm of your voice and the warmth of your body make reading together a positive and pleasurable experience. In the early months of life, babies may seem most interested in touching and mouthing books. At this stage, it is wise to have a few cloth or vinyl books available. Board books with bright, clear images and well defined pictures or photographs are most attractive to very young children. Keep in mind that particularly in this first year, children relate to their world in a very concrete manner, so choose simple stories and picture books with familiar objects. Children will often want to “read” the same book or even the same page repeatedly. Follow their lead. Help young children begin to understand that reading books can generate a wide variety of experiences. Be expressive - even dramatic, and act out the emotions in a story. Exaggerate sounds, imitate characters, and encourage children to join you. Above all, make this a time to share and enjoy – be relaxed, flexible, and focus on the experience!
For more information on reading to and with your children, take a look at our reading tips and recommendations.
Nov 24, 2009 by Jenn Reid |
Filed in: General
Welcome to the Lucy’s Book Club blog! Here you will find information related to the Lucy’s Book Club, details about upcoming book club events, reading tips and suggestions, and general information about early childhood literature and literacy.
Take a look at our reading tips and recommendations by following the link below. We welcome your feedback and questions:
http://lucysbookclub.org/page/reading-tips-and-recommendations
Have you picked up a free bookmark with our current list of recommended books? Follow this link for a list of places to find our bookmarks:
http://lucysbookclub.org/page/meet-our-project-partners
Check back again soon, subscribe to our blog, or sign up for membership now to keep up to date on all things Lucy’s Book Club.
