CreativePlay Plus: Ideas in Play and Child Development

Would you participate in this program? Do you think it’s needed?

OneKindWord teaches people who work at public places such as stores, parks, museums, schools and zoos how to help parents when their child throws a temper tantrum in public or when they are stressed and overwhelmed with parenting duties.

“When we see a child having a meltdown or a child standing dangerously in a shopping cart, we don’t know what to do,” Mrs. Ditillo said of bystanders. “We are all kind of helpless and freeze when we see others in this situation. What we want to do is enable people to assist these parents…”

Read more of the Post Gazzette article Sometimes, one kind word can help a stressed parent

Many “traditional” children’s songs have a similar sound when it comes to pitches and rhythms, but there is a great, wide world of music available to enjoy with your child!  Early childhood is an important time to expose your child to a wide range of musical sounds, including a variety of instruments, styles, tempi (speeds), and genres.  In addition to playing recordings geared toward children, also introduce your child to other kinds of music, such as jazz, blues, country, world music, and classical.

When selecting music to share with your child, variety is key.  Select some music with children singing, some with adults singing, and some with just instruments.   Pay attention to the kinds of music your child responds to, and incorporate these recordings into daily routines.  Also, remember to sing to and with your child, in addition to listening to recordings.

What surprises you about your child’s musical tastes?

Some recent news items for you to muse on:

France has banned TV shows aimed at children under three years old.

A new report out warns of the dangers of over scheduling your kids.

Survey says most American parents play with their kids less than an hour a day.

Tips for creating a routine for scaring away nightmares. (Here’s a hint from Parent Hacks: Record yourself telling a story)

Do you have any questions or comments about these? We’d love to talk about them with you!

Loads of learning opportunities can be achieved through sociodramatic play and building scripts for daily activities.

Before going to the grocery store, talk about your routine. This is a wonderful chance to teach the value of lists.

• Why do we make a list?
• Discuss how easy it is to forget things, even for the all knowing parent.
• Encourage your child’s active participation, by soliciting suggestions about favorite foods to include on the list.
• Point out how organized the grocery store is and how this structures helps us to efficiently complete our shopping.

Teach the importance of checking off items on the list, to insure all items have been obtained.

• If your child becomes impatient during the trip to the store, you can give them a special task and redirect their attention to your list.
• You could ask them to help you cross off items on a grocery list by naming items already in the cart. This helps them practice their developing language skills and also gather a sense of what is left on the grocery trip list.
• Non-readers can be asked to decorate the list with pictures corresponding to items on the list. This provides a nice opportunity to advance literacy.

There’s a bunch of great tips in the Creative Play: It’s For Everyone article. Some of our favorites:

• Make some Peanut Butter Play Dough your children can enjoy eating as much as they enjoy playing with it.
• Try a dollop of thick corn syrup and a couple drops of food coloring for Edible Finger Paint.
• Create a bathtub volcano with a tall plastic glass, baking soda, and vinegar.

There’s always the internet fav—soda & Mentos®. Click on the link above for detailed instructions.

Sociodramas are not just confined to coping with the stressors of the doctor’s office.  Children often spontaneously act out scripts they commonly encounter and use pretend play to practice experiences like “going to the library,” or “grocery shopping.”

During trips to the library or grocery store, parents can talk to children about what is happening and what to expect, such as, the rules of the library: staying quiet and borrowing books.  A toddler playing library at home can then practice these same rules and develop, with a parent’s help, a detailed script of what happens at the library. Not only does talking about what is happening on these trips open dialogue between parents and children, it also helps children develop a sense of routine. Children that use pretend play to rehearse their experiences may be more prepared to handle rules and expectations for their daily activities. 

What kind of routines have you established with your child? 

Here’s a great suggestion from ParentHacks.com:

My son is 10 months old and loves to crawl through boxes. I had three empty diaper boxes that he would crawl through one at a time. Yesterday I was looking for a way to entertain him and decided to tape the boxes together. He was so excited he wouldn’t even let me finish taping before he was crawling through and laughing…

Build a fun, free crawling tunnel out of empty diaper boxes | Parent Hacks

Today we should join our mates across the ponds celebrating:

Playday is the annual celebration of children’s right to play. This year’s Playday campaign theme, Give us a go! calls for children to be allowed challenging and adventurous play opportunities and aims to shake off the ‘cotton wool’ culture that can limit children’s play.

Not sure what to do? The Times Online article Children’s games can help you get in shape, give you balance, flexibility and burn calories lists the details on these activities: seesaw, musical chairs, flying a kite, and hopscotch.

Playday

How much protection is too much?

A new study from Play England says that children are missing out on an essential part of childhood—risk.

The study found that half of all children are not allowed to climb trees and one in six is not allowed to play tag or other chase games. Adrian Voce, director of Play England, says that kids “are not enjoying the opportunities to play outside that most people would have thought of as normal when they were growing up.” He also noted that nearly three times as many kids ended up in the hospital after falling out of bed as after falling out of trees…

Adventure - An essential ingredient of childhood - ParentDish

It’s also about kids, parents, grandparents and families. As we find news that’s relevant to YOU, we’ll be sharing it. Here’s a good example of that:

Parents looking for healthy meal choices for their children are likely to find slim pickings on the menus of the nation’s top restaurant chains, according to a report released Monday by a nonprofit public health group.

Nearly every possible combination of the children’s meals at Kentucky Fried Chicken, Taco Bell, Sonic, Jack in the Box, and Chick-fil-A are too high in calories, the report by the Center for Science in the Public Interest said…

Study: Restaurant kids’ meals loaded with calories - Yahoo! News