April 11th, 2008 Monitoring progress Posted by Melitsa in Articles, Education, Good reads, play activities, Thought of the week

Play and learning go hand in hand. But fitting them into your everyday life can be hectic. There are infact so many ways that your child can play and learn from being around you and participating in everyday life. Things will take longer but childhood is a time for learning and a new skill as a parent is patience…..right?

We’re there to teach after all and give them the opportunities to fail and try again in a loving atmosphere.

Many are familiar with the Ages and Stages questionnaire used in Doctor’s surgeries for the well baby check ups to see how your child matches up to the average. Like centiles rates, some parents live and die by them. However they do provide excellent guidance if you’re not sure. Early years intervention have a battery of tests and often include this one as it’s written in clear easy to understand questions.

I stumbled upon this great website BornLearning.org. They produce an approved and reviewed by the American Academy of Pediatrics Ages and stages document that gives an excellent overview of a typical child. An example 24-36 months

Sometimes we just don’t know if the play or behaviour our children are showing is age appropriate and often on forums I see posts from worried parents who’ve compared their child with friends and come up short. Maybe it’s because there’s not a developmental checklist through their doctor’s/ health visitor.

How do we know if our children are under achieving, doing fine or actually doing well- objectively and not just compared to family3 who live two doors down?

In this competitive time the ages and stages can really be an objective look to go alongside the views of friends, and well meaning forumites. It also gives you ideas for games and activities to enhance the play or bring on the skills.

For more information about games and ideas see my previous post on development games and activities.

As parents we have so many things to keep track of like dentist, doctors appointments, homework, rotating toys, playing outside, nutrition.

So moving a child on when they are struggling, or not knowing your child is stuck can be disheartening but know there are many great resources out there that don’t require expensive toys just you and your child.

**What do you use to monitor your under 5s child’s progress ?**

Technorati Tags: play, learning, Ages and Stages questionnaire, well baby check ups, Early years, BornLearning.org, American Academy of Pediatrics, developmental checklist

April 8th, 2008 Carnival of Parenting Podcasts #10 Posted by Melitsa in Carnival of Parenting Podcasts, Education, Media, Podcast, Roundups

Welcome to the 10th edition of Carnival of Parenting Podcasts

It’s a place to share and find some new parenting podcasts from the podcaster and recommendations from those who listen to podcasts.

Top 10

Send in your favourite podcasts of the fortnight.

• Financially intelligent parenting podcast: Don’t use Allowances as a Reward or Punishment – FIP Minute #8

• Mindful parenting podcast: Are Your Really There With Your Child?

• The Evolving Parent Podcast- The Family You Want: Raising Responsible Kids Through Money

• Motherhood uncensored: Talking Campaign 2008 with the MOMocrats >

• Parenting my teen: Teenage depression

• Lifehack.org: Life Hack Podcast Episode 4- Interview with Asha Dornfest

• Parents’ perspective: 355: Recess Value of Recess Charlener R. Burgeson, Executive Director of the National Association for Sport and Physical Education (NASPE)

• Momstyle news: topics include Are we raising Risk averse kids and many more

• Shoot the baby: Episode 5: Use Photoshop For Free!

• Two boobs and a baby: Easter Eggs

Send in your recommendations to be included in the top 10 favourite podcasts of the week fortnight.

• What’s your favourite parenting podcast?

  Send in your favourite one. Podcasters submit your favourite shows. For more information see the introductory post.

• If you like what you hear don’t forget to tell them about it. Subscribe to their podcast.

• Next edition: April 22

Technorati Tags: Parenting, podcasts

April 4th, 2008 Toddler play activities 2 Posted by Melitsa in play activities

This is part 2 of a series looking at everyday play activities and toys for toddlers.

Lacing animals is a new play activity for my toddler.

Why he likes it?

• Likes to choose which animal.
• Putting the string in and swinging it around.
• Gets to sit with someone to help him push the string in the other way.
• Enjoys matching the string colour to the animal colour.

Why we like it?

• improving his fine motor control & dexterity.
• improving concentration and determination.
• likes to play with the animals.
• Easy to take with you anywhere.
• Each loop is an achievement that he celebrates- building confidence.

This is really a skill he is trying to master. He returns to it many times a day and plays with it longer each time.

We bought our set on ebay.

Technorati Tags: play activity, toddler, fine motor control, improving concentration