Tag: daycare center

When you are looking for a day care center for you toddler there are many things to look for, safety, great teachers, proper nutrition, and activities that will help them develop physically and intellectually. For many children, a daycare is also looked on to help with the energy level of children. It can be such a challenge to have an energetic child that is is a great help to have a team member to take over for a few hours a day. Darlene’s Wee Care 4 Kids can help. We have programs to help children develop age-appropriate skills as well as have fun and get their energy out. We have some ideas to help you in your hour of need, and the hour of endless energy that your child is in.

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Dance Party

• When your child seems to have the energy of several children it can be a challenge to get them worn out enough for a nap, or even to sit still for a meal.
• One activity to get them moving is a dance party.
• Dancing helps gross motor skills, balance, coordination, a sense of rhythm, strength and teaches them about where their body is in space, or proprioception.
• There are lots of children’s CD’s available to help children learn letters, numbers, sound play and nursery rhymes.
• One group we recommend is Sharon, Lois & Bram’s Mainly Mother Goose. This CD’s is filled with beloved songs and presented in a way children love.
• Set some fun lights on and turn on the music.
• This is a great activity for hot or rainy afternoons when you just can’t get outside.
• You can lead your child in activities that will help them develop gross motor skills such as hopping on one foot, walking backward, or the motions involved in motion songs like “I’m a Little Teapot”, or “Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes.”

Have fun and help your toddler use up some of their seemingly endless energy. Darlene’s Wee Care 4 Kids is the daycare to turn to for high-quality, dedicated day care in the Upper Darby PA area. Call us today for a tour of your great facility. We look forward to meeting you and your little one.

Darlene’s Wee Care 4 Kids day care center knows that some toddlers and preschoolers just have more energy than others. In fact, it might seem that some have the energy of several toddlers in a single body. We know it can be a challenge to manage this energy level at home. We have some ideas to help you while also helping your child develop their fine or gross motor skills.

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Fun Gross Motor Skill Activities

That Arm!

• If you have a child that seems to think that the most fun she or he can have with any toy is to see how far they can throw it, we have a few suggestions for you.
• First, find out if there is a Major League Baseball farm team near you to sign them up!
• Then, get two laundry baskets and place them at opposite ends of the room. Fill up one basket with balled up socks.
• Show them how you can throw a balled up sick from one end of the room and get it in the other basket.
• Let them throw and aim the socks.
• Many children love this game and will like to fill up the basket and then turn around and throw the socks in the other direction.
• In addition to getting their energy out, it may buy you enough time to move the laundry on, or do the dishes, or even go the bathroom by yourself!

We know it can be a challenge to keep up with a toddler who has tons of energy. You have to keep up with them, or even one step ahead to make sure they are safe. Call us today to tour our facility.

Fine Motor skills are what we depend on as an adult to express ourselves and manipulate the world around us. Whether you are a mechanic or a brain surgeon, our occupations almost always involve some level of fine motor skill or dexterity.

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At Their Own Pace

• Every child develops, to some extent, at their own rate.
• Some children develop their gross motor skills to a high degree before the fine motor skills develop, while other children develop fine motor skills ahead of gross motor skills, while yet others develop them more or less at the same rate.
• Don’t force your child to master a task, they will do it in their own time.
• Of course, you can continue to encourage tasks and join them in the activity to show them how to do it and to enjoy their company.
• As long as your pediatrician says they are on track, don’t worry, and even then remember that children are unique individuals and will develop the skills eventually in almost all cases.

Fine Motor Skill Activities

• Working the muscles of the hands and the fingers is key to the proper development of fine motor skills.
• Whenever you can make the ‘work’ fun, a child will be developing the skills without knowing what they doing.
• Pinching and poking motions are key to many activities, from holding a pencil to using a computer, which many children do at staggeringly young ages nowadays.
• Working with Play-do is a great way for toddlers to work on hand and finger muscles while having fun.

Darlene’s Wee Care 4 Kids knows children learn through play and we encourage activities that are developmentally appropriate and that will develop skills they will rely on their whole lives.

In our last blog, we went over the basics of motor skill, both gross and fine motor skills. This week, we’ll take a close look at the role of fine motor skills and how you can help your child development. Fine motor skills are the driving force behind activities such as writing, dressing, making art and feeding yourself. Here are some activities that will teach and reinforce your toddler’s fine motor skills.

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Dumping and Sorting

• The classic toddler toy of fitting triangles through triangle whole and circles through circle holes is a great learning toy.
• This toy introduces children to shapes and is an activity to develop fine motor skills.
• Being able to aim and manipulate the shape to fit through the appropriate whole involves cooperation between the brain and the muscles of the hands and fingers.

Scribbling

• Beginning shortly after their first birthday, toddlers will start experimenting with rudimentary writing skills.
• Many a parent has learned that their child has reached this stage the hard way, by finding a scribble on a wall, a date book, or the interior of their car.  
• This is a normal stage and should be encouraged – in the appropriate context.
• This is the stage to hide the permanent markers and to buy No-Mess markers and paper so they can keep their marks on paper, and off your walls.

Cherish your child’s accomplishments, for they are the building block of they people they will become. Darlene’s Wee Care 4 Kids is dedicated to helping your child develop the skills they will need to be successful adults. Call today for a tour of our facility.

Darlene’s Wee Care 4 Kids is staffed by experienced teachers who know how to promote appropriate development in young children. In the toddler years, the development of motor skills is a joy to see and facilitate. Along with language skills, they make up some of the major developmental milestones that young children will hit. We’ll cover some motor skill basics in this blog and many more in the future.

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Motor Skills

• Motor skills are the skills of the muscles and brain working together to create coordination.
• They include gross motor skills that involve the large muscle groups and fine motor skills that include hand movements.
• These are things that parents look for and pediatricians keep track of to make sure that there are no developmental issues with a child.

Gross Motor Skills

• In infants these can include rolling over, sitting up and standing with assistance.
• In toddlers, standing and walking are some of the main gross motor skills that develop by 15 months.
• After walking, walking backwards and walking up steps are main gross skills that toddlers acquire.

Fine Motor Skills

• From the time your baby first grasps a soft toy, you will be amazed what their tiny hands and fingers learn to do.
• Picking up smaller and smaller objects are milestones you’ll anticipate and celebrate as they grow.
• Practicalities such as eating and dressing themselves are all results of developing fine motor skills

We’ll cover this topic extensively in coming blogs and will include ideas for how you can help you child develop skill they’ll depend on their whole lives. If you are looking for a quality daycare center in the Upper Darby area of PA, call our daycare center and schedule a tour.

Darlene’s Wee Care 4 Kids is dedicated to providing the most nurturing educational sound foundation for your children. We are a daycare with a difference. We provide enrichment that is aimed at stimulating a child’s natural curiosity and natural disposition toward learning. In this blog series, we are discussing raising a bilingual child. There are many myths surrounding raising a bilingual child and we will address some of those this week.

Should I not speak my native language with my child?

• It used to be the practice that parents, namely immigrants, would not speak in their native tongue for fear that their child would not integrate into American society.
• This is false, and immigrant parents will be surprised at how quickly their children pick up English when they go to school. Especially if they take advantage of ESL classes for their children.

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Will bilingualism confuse my child?

• If you look around the world you will see that most of the world is, in fact, bilingual and many parts tri-lingual.
• Confusion is a natural part of learning a language and occurs even with monolingual people.

Will my child become delayed in their education?

• Research shows that there is no delay that can be caused by bilingualism.

• While children who are introduced to English for the first time in school may struggle, if they are given proper instruction, they shouldn’t fall behind.
• Many school districts in areas where a non-English language, or heritage language, such as Hmong, is spoken offer instruction in that language.

This is so much to say on this topic! We will continue this series in our next blog. In the meantime, if you are looking for high-quality day care in the future blogs.