Tag Archives: child

10 Creative Places to Read a Book

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There are the usual places you read with your child—on the couch, in bed (with child tucked in and you sitting on the covers), at the kitchen table. And then there are the creative places, places that help the reading time you have with your child feel more special, magical, and mystical. They are places new and inviting to adventure. They are places that say, “This is our special time together; let’s discover something while we’re at it.”

You know these places. You’ve probably found yourself reading a good book in them yourself. Now it’s time to invite your child to these places to give him an experience that will help him gain a love for reading.

The following are just 10 places you can enjoy a good book with your child. Of course, you probably know some great places of your own that are not on this list.

  1. Inside a make-shift tent: All you need is a few sheets or blankets and some kitchen chairs. Before reading time, drape the sheets or blankets over the chairs to create a tent. Then cuddle inside with some blankets, pillows, and a good book. With the cozy interior, you can even have a nice little nap after you’ve finished the book.
  2. Under a tree: Maybe under a little grove of trees. There’s always something magical about reading a good book under a tree. It helps you feel a part of nature. With Spring coming up, you’re sure to find some warm weather. On these days, enjoy the sun, the shade, the grass, and a good  book.
  3. In a treehouse or playhouse: Your child may have a special place in a treehouse or playhouse. Why not find a place together inside and read a book that helps the magic and imagination of this special place come alive?
  4. In a hammock: Who doesn’t love cuddling in a hammock? Your child’s company and a good book is just what the Spring weather ordered.
  5. In the closet: Sounds a little funny at first, but children always find magical moments in tiny spaces, like closets. All you need is a few blankets, pillows, and a fun story to make the tiny space more enchanted.
  6. Under the covers: Children love the feeling of being under the covers with a flashlight and a good secret. Why not make that secret a book? You can whisper the words and no one outside the blankets will be the wiser.
  7. Online: If you have a family member who lives far away, you can make reading time special by having your child read a book with that family member over video chat.
  8. On a swing: I have great memories of sitting with my grandparents in their porch swing. It was always comfortable and peaceful sitting there. If you have a porch swing (or even an outside bench or chairs) make good use of these peaceful moments with a good book.
  9. In front of a mirror: What child doesn’t like to watch himself in the mirror? Reading in front of a mirror can be turned into a game—maybe make the same faces as the characters in the book’s illustrations.
  10. In a garden: Just like reading under a tree, reading in a garden can make the time magical, especially if you and your child are surrounded by bunches of flowers.

Do you have any creative reading places around your house?

Feature photo courtesy of jannoon028 / FreeDigitalPhotos.net.

Imitation is Learning

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boy on monkeybars

I recently watched this video about a researcher who used a box experiment to see how children and chimpanzees respond to instructions. The results from this experiment were surprising at first. Then the explanation brought better and more interesting understanding.

Imitation is the key. When our children are imitating us, they are in the process of learning. It’s a skill that sets us apart from other living things, the skill that makes us able to learn languages, interact with objects, and gain cultural behaviors. Doesn’t this sound like Copy-cat is one of the best games to play with our children?

Copy-cat seems to be more noticeable in younger children as they imitate almost anything: the things you say, the actions you make, the way you smile. . . . In preschool-age children, imitation is more evident in playing house, doctor, lawyer, mommy, cowboys, pirates, etc. It’s their way of coming to better understand their world and all the things they are learning about people and objects.

Watch Chimpanzee vs. Human Child Learning to see how humans became the most “successful species on the planet.”

When your child is copying, he is learning.

Your Child’s Story

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Dress Up

I recently read about how children come to tell stories as their minds develop. First, the story may start out with just a few thoughts and very little detail. But as the child gets older and grows in language, the stories become more elaborate and detailed. These stories may be their own experiences or fun stories they have heard that they want to share with others.

Your child is a natural storyteller and is excited to share the things he or she is learning. You can help your child’s imagination and creativity flourish as you encourage your child to tell stories.

Here are just a few ideas:

Help your child create a book. This book can be full of pictures, with few words or lots of words, and be full of lots of creativity. Make the book out of paper and staple the pages together, or you can get a little more creative and bind the pages together with a cardboard cover.

Tell your child a story and then have your child tell the story back to you. This is a great way to also practice listening and comprehension skills. You can be creative with this one as well by creating a play or storybook of the story in your child’s own words. A great example of this is seen in Kid History on YouTube. In each video, children recite a story their parents have told them. The story takes interesting turns, especially as the different aged children contribute their two cents.

Start a story and let your child finish it. The beginning can be as simple as “Once upon a time, there was a pirate who loved to sail the seas…” You and your child will both have fun as you discover where your child’s imagination takes the story.

Help your child create a script or outline for a play and then put it on for the rest of the family or record it to watch later. You can also have fun picking out costumes and props to make the story more interesting.

It’s fun to see where your child’s imagination takes a story. Have you had any great experiences listening to your child’s stories?

Feature image courtesy of Tina Phillips / FreeDigitalPhotos.net.

Having Fun With Your Senses and Holiday Decorations

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Girl with Orange Scent

I love this time of year and all the holiday smells around. Mid-November in our house we start making what we like to call Scentamentals, scented holiday decor. This is a great project to allow children to play with all their senses, even the young ones. My daughter was able to do this pretty much on her own last year when she was barely three. They are that easy to make and enjoy!

What You Need

  • Unblemished Apple or Orange
  • Whole Cloves
  • Ribbon (optional)

Directions

Step 1: Prepare the supplies by choosing which fruit you would like to use and pouring a handful of whole cloves on the table or in a small bowl. We used apples last year and oranges this year. They both smell great, but I’m a bigger fan of the oranges!

Step 2: This is a perfect time to talk about your senses and ask your little helpers what they see (shapes/color) and smell, how the orange and the cloves feel, etc. My kiddos also love to talk about taste, even if I don’t ask them to. If you ask my daughter, she will tell you cloves taste hot.

Step 3: Demonstrate how to poke the cloves into the fruit.  First poke it in slightly so it breaks the skin and then take the fat tip of your finger and push it in as far as you would like. Dried cloves can be pokey and when we did it this way there was less frustration from being poked. You can have the cloves in all the way or sticking out. It’s up to your kids.

Tip: If you have a child who is really sensitive to the poking, you can try a Band-Aid on the finger or thumb they are pressing the cloves in with, and/or pre-poking the holes for them with a knitting needle or something similar.

Step 4: Add as many cloves as wanted. I try to encourage my kids to put as many as they can or would like because it smells so good! My son likes to create a design, often poking the cloves in and taking them out multiple times, while my daughter likes to spread them out all over.

We started doing one orange, which was a great way to practice turn taking, and switched to two oranges so each kiddo could create their own.

Step 5: When finished, place to the side and out in the open to let them dry out. Aim for a week to 10 days. The apples seemed to need this more than the oranges did when we made them. If you are going to hang this somewhere when it is done drying out, tie a ribbon around it now (before drying) with a loop on the top so you can hang it later.

Step 6: After drying, you can hang this scented ball in a closet, pantry, near the front door, or wherever else you would like a burst of this lovely smell. Last year we tied up our apples and hung them out in the open in the kitchen. Not necessarily pretty, but my kiddos loved to talk about them. This year, we don’t have many places to hang things, so our oranges are going to be out on the kitchen counter. It’s only been a few days since we made our oranges and I can smell them six or so feet away. Love it!

Bonus Info: I did some research and discovered there are variations of our little Holiday Tradition called Clove Apples (with oranges or apples, too) and they used to be quite popular back before store-bought alternatives were easily available. You can create them using the same process as above, but you want to cover the entire fruit in cloves.

Getting Involved in Your Child’s Education

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Father and Son

On Tuesday, I had well over 100 e-mails to catch up on. I had five backlogged posts to write, in addition to several planned for the next few weeks, a conference call to prepare for, four proposals to write, doctor appointments that I never schedule, and a career in Social Media that is busy 24/7.

But I looked the other way, because I had offered to read a book to my daughter’s preschool classroom.

Reading a book became making cookies, which became entertaining, which became hand washing and hosting a community coffee for the PTO to help our community of families to become more of a community.

The hours of work? They could wait. My child’s classroom and school community came first, just as they always have.

Volunteering in my children’s classrooms and schools has always been important to me.

My oldest was two-years-and-20-hours-old when his brother was born.  Six days later he started preschool and I signed up to be a room parent. I recall a friend laughing that she wasn’t about to sign up to be a preschool room parent. She had better things to do.

“Oh,” I said, “but you have to find ways to let your kids see you’re involved in their education. They need to see you around the school, interacting with the teacher. They need to know you care.”

She promised she’d find other ways to be involved.

I haven’t been a room parent every year since. Instead, I’ve found other ways to be involved, from directing committees to being the Parent Teacher Organization director. At my older son’s elementary school I do a lot less volunteering. But I still make sure he knows just how interested I am in his education and in being active and involved in his schooling.

As an elementary school teacher (I taught grades 2, 4 and 6), I saw the difference in students’ behavior and education when their parents were actively involved. Now, as a parenting blogger at Just Precious and at Rusty and Rosy I share ideas with other parents, showing them how simple it is to be involved in your child’s education.

Kids believe what they see. They believe you’re invested when they see that you’re invested. Here, at Rusty and Rosy, I’ll be sharing ideas that you can do both in your home and in your schools that help you to have an active role in thier child’s education.

It doesn’t have to be hard. It doesn’t have to be time consuming (though, I can promise that an hour in a classroom full of four-year-olds is a lot of fun). But it does have to be done. And it has to be done with a smile.

There is nothing better than a hug from your child and a big smile of Mommy-pride plastered on her face.

Photo courtesy of Ambro / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Teach with Stories

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Have you ever noticed that you tend to pay more attention to what someone is saying when they tell you a story? Stories have always been a big part of conveying information. I’m sure that the guy, or woman, who invented the wheel had a great story to tell for many years about how the new invention came to be. Or how about the person who discovered the corn? I’m sure that was a great story.

Our children are drawn to stories just as much as we are, most likely even more so. And we can find all sorts of ways to teach them important skills and concepts through story: reading, writing, vocabulary, manners, friendships, honesty, cleaning their room. . . . The possibilities, like in many things, are endless.

Here are just a few ideas you can use to teach your child through story:

Read to Your Child

Even fiction books have a lot to teach. It was someone named Jessamyn West who said, “Fiction reveals truths that reality obscures.” I’ve always believed that the fiction books I read have a lot to teach. Although it may be my own bias and defense speaking, I think Clifford the Big Red Dog has quite a bit to teach children, such as the love a girl can have for her pet.

Write Stories with Your Child

Creating stories helps develop critical thinking skills. There are so many components to a story: plot, characters, setting, conflict. . . . As your child creates their own stories, you can teach about these different story pieces. Plus, as your child puts the pieces together to form a story, they will learn to think through and solve problems, an important skill for everything they will encounter in life.

Tell True Stories from Your Own Life

I remember when my parents would tell me about what life was like when they went to school. Many concepts from their stories have stayed with me. Even words from my grandpa’s stories come back to me from time to time, especially from when he told me how he learned the three Rs in school: Reading, Riting, and Rithmetic (Reading, Writing, and Arithmetic).

I’m sure there are other ways you can teach your child through story. What do you think? Have a good experience to share?

Letter of the Day Box

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Letter Box

Are you feeling a little crafty but want to do something educational for your child?

The Letter of the Day Box is a great project for your crafty hands and fun activity for your beginning reader. Each day, choose a letter of the day and have your child put objects in the box that begin with that letter. For example, if the letter is S, your child might put in objects such as snake (toy), sand, sewing needle, or star. You can even write words (swing, sorry, sit) on paper and stick them in the box for those bigger or more ambiguous objects. Or you can put in objects that represent the word your child thinks of (sing – picture of music note, seat – doll’s chair, sip – cup). You can have all sorts of fun with this activity.

Let’s get started.

What you’ll need

Wood box (buy from craft store)
Scrapbook paper
Ruler
Pencil
Scissors
Markers
ABC Stencils
Mod Podge
Sponge brush
Velcro

What to Do

  1. Box: Measure your box. Be sure to measure lid separate from base. My box had a low-hanging lid and a lip to measure.
  2. Measure and cut out paper that matches the size of your measurements. When I did my box, I had a total of 10 papers I cut out—four for each side of the base, four for each side of my low-hanging lid, one for the lid, and one for the lip.
    Note: Since the lip rose upward from the top of the box, I traced the box on a paper and cut it out. Then I measured the lip, cut that much around the square I had just cut out, and cut the paper so I had a square snake that wrapped around my now-smaller square.
  3. Begin gluing your pieces to your box.
    Tip for using Mod Podge: With your sponge brush, put a layer of glue on the area you are decorating; be sure to cover ever corner. Place the paper; then put a layer of glue over the paper you just place on your box. The glue will dry and leave a glossy or matte finish, depending on the type of glue you bought.
    Note: You may need to let a side or two dry before continuing with the rest of your box. Also, your paper may bubble, but it should flatten out as it dries.
  4. Letters: Cut out 26 pieces of paper to fit the size you want to display on the top of your box. Mine turned out to be squares about 3”x3”.
  5. On each cutout, trace a letter of the alphabet using your stencils and markers.
  6. Decorate your alphabet.
  7. Place the softer side of Velcro in the middle of your box lid.
  8. Place the harder side of Velcro in the middle and on the back of each of your ABC cards.

You are done! Now you can start the activity.

If you feel one day isn’t enough for one letter, make the activity a Letter of the Week.

Do you have any fun education and crafty ideas? We’d love to hear about them.

Clocks and Telling Time

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Sunny Clock
Interestingly enough October is National Clock Month. And what better way to celebrate than to help your child learn how to tell time.

Telling time on a digital clock is easy enough to learn, as long as your child understands how the numbers relate to minutes and hours. And if your child knows how to count to 60, teaching him or her to tell time will be a sinch.

So, how to get started? Start with the hour first; it’s the easiest to understand. Make sure your child understands which number is the hour on a digital clock, since most clocks we see today are digital. And on a traditional face clock, teach him or her about the hands and make sure your child understands that the small hand points to the hour. Throughout the day you can ask your child what hour it is to give practice.

Later, once your child has the hours down, you can start on the minutes. First, make sure your child knows how to count by fives. If your child has never counted by fives before, start by learning how to count by tens and show your child that fives are in the middle of the tens.

Next, show your child that each big number on a traditional clock represents a five until you end with 55 at the 11. Count with your child as you point to each big number: 5, 10, 15…

Once your child understands what the minute hands mean, you can show him or her that the bigger hand on the clock points to these numbers and in between (show the little ticks that represent the numbers between the fives and tens).

You can better illustrate and give your child some good practice with these worksheets:

Time for Time: Shows the minutes and the hours so your child can better understand how the hands point to the different numbers.

Time Worksheets: You can decide how you want your worksheets printed out—one or more clocks to a page or clocks with or without numbers. You can laminate these worksheets and have your child use a dry-erase marker to make them usable over and over again.

Do you have any suggestions for helping teach time to children? Please share.

Photo source: Idea go / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Building Your Child’s Vocabulary

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Family

Do you remember when you were in school and your teacher would give you a list of vocabulary words to learn? How well did you learn the words?

Of course, depending on your teacher’s methods you might have learned all vocabulary words with relative simplicity, or it might have been more difficult to remember certain vocabulary words after the tests were finished. Usually, when I would forget the vocabulary words after taking a test it was because I wasn’t exposed to the use of the words. They were words I rarely or never heard or did not use myself.

So how can you teach your child vocabulary?  Here are a few suggestions:

Have Effective Conversations

The other day I listened as my sister-in-law had a natural conversation with my four-year-old niece. What did they talk about? Shoes, jobs teenagers have, nicknames, butterflies. . . . The conversation went in so many interesting directions and my niece had such amazing responses and questions, I had to catch what I could on video. I was amazed at what my niece knew at her age and the answers she came up with to her mother’s questions. And some of the words my niece used: wow! It’s all because her mom has effective conversations with her children, talking with them and listening to them.

I’ve heard it on the news. I’ve read it in books. Talking is the best way to help build your child’s speech. The more words your child hears, the more words your child will learn.

Read with Your Child

I know. It’s one of those suggestions you hear over and over again. But it does work. Think of all the words children learn from Curious George and Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs. Reading helps children hear words used in new ways, through imagination and creativity that, many times, also teach important concepts.

Welcome Questions

Your child is full of curiosity about the world. You can help your child gain a better understanding by encouraging questions. Some of those questions may be, “What does that word mean?” Take the time to answer your child and help him or her understand. Knowing that his or her questions can and will be answered will foster excitement for learning in your child.

Have you had any good or bad experiences helping your child learn new vocabulary? Have any other suggestions to help teach vocabulary to children? Please share.

Photo source: photostock / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

6 Book Apps Tips

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iphone boy

I noticed that during our #MomStorm Twitter party someone mentioned getting free interactive books on their iPad touch to promote reading for their child. I decided to see what apps I could find just for my phone.

I found a lot of free ones, some of which were a little more interactive with sound and animation. However, there were a few things I noticed that might be helpful for parents. You know, some helpful tips on downloading children’s book apps.

  1. You can find plenty of apps geared toward your young or budding reader. In your phone’s app store, just type in “children’s books” or “kids’ stories” or other. A long list pops up to include traditional fairytales, stories you may remember from your childhood, and original works.
  2. Many apps will provide you with multiple stories you can begin reading to your child.
  3. Some apps are just libraries. The library is free but you have to purchase books from the app’s publisher to add to your library. In some cases you can get so many books for free, or only specific sample books for free, and then you have to purchase additional books. The range of prices can be anywhere from $.99 and up. In one app I looked at, the range pretty much stayed between $1.99 and $2.99, but there was one book priced for $9.99.
  4. I did find more interactive apps with sound playing in the background, narration, and other effects to go along with the narration. However, in a couple cases I decided the app was not worth even a peanut. Sometimes the sound didn’t work or the narration only played part way through the story before quitting. A few other apps I tried included books with ugly or uninteresting illustrations. Good thing the app was free so I didn’t feel too bad for throwing it in the trash right after downloading it.
  5. Many of the apps have easy-to-turn pages. You can just turn the phone over to your sticky-free-hand child and let them flip through the pages on their own.
  6. Some apps have the option for the child to read the story on his or her own or listen to a narration. And, if you want your child to read a story from an app that has automatic narration, just turn down the volume.

I let my nephew borrow my phone to read a story to his sister. He loved it because he got to play with my phone and get his 15 minutes of reading in at the same time. My niece also enjoyed it because of the different pictures. I enjoyed the time because I could concentrate on the road while they were preoccupied with Cinderella in the back seat.

Have you found any interesting buys in your app store that other parents might be interested in? How about some terrible buys? Share with us.

Photo source: Tina Phillips / FreeDigitalPhotos.net