Learning Activities For Children » Social Development

Kindness Tree

Melissa — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 23:11:43 +0000

Children love to be ‘caught’ doing nice things for others, some children might be a little shy or embarrassed if you draw attention to them while in action. Make a note of all the nice things you see your child/ren doing and use it for the ‘Kindness Tree’ activity that you can do with your child once a day or once a week or what ever works for you!

With brown construction paper make a large tree trunk with branches and tape it to the wall. With colourful paper make flowers for the tree. When you sit down with your child for the activity tell them all the nice things you saw them doing for others, write it on the flower and have your child put the flower on the tree. Also have your child/ren mention some of the nice things he has seen you and other family members or classmates do.

Children will love to watch the Kindness Tree bloom!

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A Garden For Toddlers

Melissa — Thu, 28 May 2009 13:44:01 +0000

If you have young children who want to dig in your garden or pull out the vegetables (before they are ready to be harvested) consider giving them their own garden.

For children too young to understand how to take care of a garden, have plastic fruits and veggies in a sandbox or in a designated area of your yard. Provide your children with child sized spades a rakes for their garden. This will provide you with a wonderful opportunity to help teach your child the names of the fruits and vegetables, colors, shapes and sizes (larger, smaller). Your child will also use his find motor skills as he digs and pulls out vegetables. Try a baggie garden with your child to teach that vegetables start out as seeds.

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Educational Memorial Day Activities For Children

Melissa — Tue, 19 May 2009 22:08:04 +0000

Memorial day is a day set aside for Americans to honor those who have died in military service to their country. It was originally called Decoration Day as after the Civil War people would decorate soldiers graves with flowers, wreathes and flags around the anniversary reunification after the Civil War.

Memorial day is a wonderful day to teach your children about the history of the Civil War and to take them to grave yards to pay their respect to fallen soldiers.

Here are some other activities you may enjoy with your children:

Teach your child how to properly fold a US flag.
Have your child make a red, white and blue bracelet or necklace. For younger children this would be a good opportunity to teach colors and patterns.
Print out printable memorial day coloring sheets for your child to color.
Help your child memorize a patriotic song or poem.
Help or encourage your child to write a letter to troops who are currently serving overseas.
Have your child write an acrostic poem (a poem that has the letters of a word written vertically and you usually begin your sentence using the letter of that vertical word) Example:

F…….
R……
E……
E……
D……
O……
M…..
Other words that could be used are American, Flag, Civil War, liberty

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Ready To Behave

Melissa — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 20:29:58 +0000

When my two year old misbehaves I have found that putting her in time out and letting her decide when to come out can be more effective that leaving her in her room and then telling her when she can come out.

My daughter is very independant and wants to make as many of her own decisions as possible. Giving her the opportunity to make the decision to leave time out makes it her responsibility to follow the guidelines that we set.

For example if she throws a toy at her little sister, she goes into her room. She will calm down and then come out on her own. Usually she apologizes to her sister and gives her hugs and kisses but if she throws a toy again or does something else that is unacceptable she goes right back into her room.

I also find it important to make it clear to children what is ok and what is not ok and to be consistent in following through on consequenses.

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