Tag: preschool

The Benefits of Active Learning for Preschoolers
It’s well known that the right learning environment makes a big difference for preschoolers. In fact, it’s practically inconceivable to think of making a preschooler sit at a desk for hours. It simply wouldn’t work. Research has shown that preschoolers learn best when they engage in active learning that’s very similar to play. But why does this work? And how can you harness this knowledge to get the best learning outcomes for your preschool child? Here are some of the benefits of active learning for preschoolers.

1. Movement helps knowledge stick in the brain

Have you ever suspected your preschool child of being distracted and not paying attention because they are moving around everywhere? Actually, the opposite might be true. For children, moving the body is a critical way to help the brain to absorb new information so that it sticks. This is not just for kinesthetic learners; it’s for everyone. And it’s not just for children; it works for adults, too. Think about the last time that you sat through a long conference or seminar where the presenter didn’t give people enough breaks. It’s hard for the mind to keep learning information when you’re stiff and sore because you just want to walk around.

How to harness this tip:

Combine movement with learning when you work with your child. For example, do jumping jacks while you help them to practice counting, or make silly poses while you review flashcards. You’ll be amazed at how well it works.

2. Movement helps promote brain development

The brain of a preschool child is still developing and learning about the world, and movement is one of the big ways that helps the brain to develop. And it doesn’t just develop motor skills, coordination, and balance. It also helps to develop cognition and thinking.

How to harness this tip:

Guide your child through movements that cross the midline of their bodies. For example, have them touch an elbow to the opposite knee, and then switch. Also, try having them touch their hands to the opposite toe or the opposite shoulder. Crossing the midline helps to coordinate the two different hemispheres of the brain, and can help with auditory processing, writing, and using your eyes to track the words from side to side on a page.

3. Movement helps increase a student’s interest

When you’re interested in a subject, you can usually get much farther than when you’re bored. Interest and enthusiasm for a topic help your child to pay attention longer and focus more deeply. Looking for ways to increase their love of learning? Incorporate movement!

How to harness this tip:
- Dance to a silly song with your child
- Incorporate hand movements and actions that go along with what you’re saying.
- Create a drama or a skit to act out a story.
When a child is getting too much screen time, they won’t naturally move around enough, and this could rob them from vital brain development and learning experiences, so do what’s available to limit their screen time and encourage active play.

Enroll in Darlene’s Wee Care 4 Kids today

Our day care for preschoolers is committed to providing high-quality learning experiences that make it fun to learn new things. Start the enrollment process by contacting us.
5 Nutrition Tips for Toddlers

Getting a toddler to eat is easier said than done. Often, even before a child hits the age of two, they develop strong preferences for foods, and these likes and dislikes can be extremely hard to overcome. However, the value of a nutritious, well-balanced diet can hardly be overstated, and it brings immense benefits to the developing mind and growing body of your young child. Here are a few nutrition-based tips to help your child to get a great start in life.

1. Introduce foods with a positive attitude

Toddlers are masters at reading body language, and they are excellent at mimicking or mirroring the nonverbal signals you’re giving off. If you offer your child a broccoli sprout while your facial is a dead giveaway that says, “I bet my kid is not going to like this,” but you offer them a popsicle with a face that says, “Oh, they’ll be excited about this,” your child may reject the healthier snack purely based on what they’re reading from you. When you introduce healthy snacks to your child, try doing it in a way that conveys excitement, delight, and an upbeat attitude. If your facial expression and body language is saying, “This is going to be absolutely magical,” then your excitement may be contagious and your child may end up loving that broccoli or celery.

2. Limit the availability of junk foods

When you feed a child who is a picky eater, it’s sometimes hard to get them to eat anything but junk food. One simple method that works for adults might work for your child, too: Just refuse to buy it. If you don’t have it in the house, you can’t succumb to taking the easy way out when they are putting up a fuss over eating healthier options.

3. Let your child eat with you

One of the mistakes that parents make is having children eat at a separate table or at separate times from when you’re eating. Like we said, children are masters of imitation, and if your toddler or preschooler sees you eating carrots, they’ll be more likely to want to do it themselves. Your good example can only go so far at getting a young child to eat the right things, but it can play a part.

4. Don’t overlook the power of play

Our grandparents’ generation tended to frown on letting children play with their food, but this is how they interact with everything in the world. Watch how your young child explores almost every toy by putting it into their mouth. Why shouldn’t they explore new foods the same way? If you give a child the opportunity to play with the foods they are supposed to eat, they may just unconsciously start tasting them. You can even increase this propensity by playing with the food with your child.

5. Start at as young an age as possible

The younger your child is, the more they will have a palate that doesn’t discriminate between different-tasting foods. Introduce them to a wide variety of nutritious treats early. And to make it easier on yourself, don’t introduce them to the things that you’ll have to struggle to limit later on, such as ice cream, soda, and candy.

We hope these tips have been helpful to you. Choose our preschool in Upper Darby for a day care program that’s fun, affordable, and nurturing to kids of all ages. Contact us today to start the enrollment process.
How Going Outside Boosts Your Preschool Child’s Development

Most of us lead indoor lives. We go from the house to the car to the store or the office. The brief moments when we breathe fresh air and feel outdoor temperatures are vastly outweighed by the amount of time we spend in our climate-controlled buildings and cars. We walk on perfectly flat floors, encounter predictable objects, and encounter a relatively low number of unusual things. All this is also true for our children. But going outside boosts your child’s development in ways that you can’t easily get any other way. Here are some of the thoughts from our preschool in Upper Darby on how lots of outside time helps your child’s development.

Going outside boosts gross and fine motor coordination

When your child walks on perfectly flat floors all the time indoors, their brains don’t learn about all the micro adjustments that they need to make to keep their balance. Outside, even a flat, grassy lawn has slight bumps and dips. These promote the brain’s ability to integrate the visual information from your child’s eyes with the gross motor muscle movements that they need to make to stay upright. This is even more true when your child is walking on a hill or navigating ground that has large stones.

Fine motor coordination also happens naturally outside. It takes a lot of fine motor skill to pick a blade of grass, pluck a delicate flower, or pick up a tiny ant. If you see your child doing these things, encourage them! In the preschool years, if they develop the ability to pick up that tiny shiny rock, they’ll be ahead when they get to school and need to hold a pencil.

Going outside provides sensory development

When a child is indoors all the time, the only things they encounter are manufactured items. This limits the range of textures, temperatures, and smells that they will have the chance to touch, feel, and smell. Think about the materials that you can find in your home. Wood, plastic, carpet, glass, and metal don’t have the textures that you automatically find when you go outside. Your child needs the sensory development provided by shaggy grass, rough tree bark, gritty sand, a wet dog’s nose, and all the other things they’ll find outside.

Going outside promotes your child’s imagination

Have you ever watched a child pick up a stick and play with it endlessly, while that battery-powered singing toy only holds their attention for two seconds? What is it about the simple things you find outdoors that children love? Whatever it is, playing with a simple thing like a stick means that your child is using their imagination to make the object interesting. Developing your child’s imagination will help them all through their lives, increase their problem-solving ability, and improve their ability to play independently.

If you’re not in the regular habit of taking your kids outside, why not start? Their brains will love it!

Enroll in Darlene’s Wee Care 4 Kids

Here at Darlene’s Wee Care 4 Kids, we believe in stimulating children in all the areas of their educational and physical development. Learn more about our day care and enroll your child today.
Preschool + Play-Doh = A Nightmare?
If you’ve ever worked with children and play-doh, you know what a disaster it can be. You think you’re doing something fun and amazing for your kids by getting out the play-doh, but before you know it, all the colors are mixed together into a sick color of brown, there are play-doh crumbs scattered in a radius at least 10 feet around the table, and a week later, you’re still finding play-doh chunks ground into your carpet. However, play-doh time does NOT have to be a nightmare, and you might even have fun yourself by following these tips. Check out these ideas from our preschool-age daycare teachers in Upper Darby.

1. It starts with a mindset

Approach play-doh time as an opportunity to spend quality time with your preschooler, NOT as a method to give them a way to entertain themselves while you do other things. Once your children are older, they’ll be able to play with play-doh unsupervised, but for smaller children, it’s just an invitation for disaster.

2. Limit the time

Play-doh time should last 15-20 minutes max for children of preschool age, and ideally, you should stop the activity BEFORE they are bored of it. If you sense that they are starting to lose interest at the 10-minute mark, don’t keep stretching their interest. Instead, announce that it’s clean up time and show them how to put everything away with you. Even if your child’s attention is still super-absorbed at the 20-minute mark, you’ll be teaching them a valuable life skill about how to transition from one activity to another, which will serve them later in life.

3. Provide guidance and structure

Here are some ground rules we’d suggest for your play-doh time:
1. Don’t mix colors. (If necessary, only take out one color of play-doh so there’s no temptation or opportunity to mix the colors. A lesson on mixing colors can come when they’re older, but at preschool age, they will just mush all the colors together without really understanding the impact. No one wants to have only ugly brown play-doh to play with.)
2. Don’t let the play-doh touch the floor. Explain, “We’re trying to keep all the play-doh on the table. If it touches the floor, it’ll probably get full of crumbs and hair. Gross.” Children will often try their best to comply with this if you explain the importance of it up front.
4. Unleash their creativity

Playing with play-doh is valuable to preschoolers’ development because it enhances their fine motor control and it improves their artistic ability (being able to visualize a 3-D shape and then model it out of clay is a very advanced skill). However, little kids have no clue how to approach play doh without your help. Start by teaching them two basic skills: How to roll a rope and how to form a ball. Practice these skills and make them fun by doing things with your rope, like winding it into a rug or making a play-doh “bowl” and filling it with play doh “peas.” Then move to more complicated pursuits, like showing them how to make a teddy bear (a large ball for the head, small balls for the ears, eyes, and nose, a ball for the belly, and logs for the arms and legs).

Your kids will love the fact that you took the time to play with them, and you’ll set them—and yourself—up for great play-doh success. No more nightmares!

Darlene’s Wee Care for Kids is a full-service infant and child care center offering day care, early childhood education, and a safe, nurturing environment to children from 6 weeks to 13 years old. Enroll your child today!