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Crushing the Playroom Chaos

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An organized kid is a happy kid

As our kiddos get older it seems that more toys magically keep appearing. From birthdays, holidays, and random trips to the store-there seems to be an endless stream of toys and tiny pieces entering my home. As my youngest child reached a point where the baby toys I had been saving from the first no longer were in play, I started the process of decluttering. It can be such a struggle to make the time to do this, its truly the last thing you want to spend time on. But it MUST be done, or else… the Playroom/toy situation can become a horrendous hurricane of a mess with no end in sight!

The best thing that you can do to regain the order of the play room is to sort all the toys. Here are a few steps to help you get organized.

Step 1

Sort the toys into these categories: keep, store, donate, or trash. After my youngest turned about two, I started to go though all the toys and got rid of all the cute baby age play items. If you plan to have other children, store them away in Rubbermaid containers and LABEL them! Label, Label, Label! Don’t think you will do it later, because you won’t! As soon as the lid goes on, label them-Keep/Toys/Age: Birth-2(or whatever title is appropriate). After the first sorting process you then move onto step 2.

Step 2

Sort the sorted toys! Deal with the donate and trash first, I put all of these in trash bags and use a sharpie to label them. The donate bags immediately go into my car that day. Trust me, I have let donate bags sit by the door for a week or more… so just put them in the car right away. Because, when you know you must go to the grocery store later that day or in the week it forces you to make the drop off, ha! With the toys you are going to store-sort, label, and then put away. Now you have plenty of working room in your playroom/toy area for all the toys you are keeping.

When sorting the toys your kiddos will be currently playing with you have to do it how it will best work for your family. I suggest looking online for inspiration for different ideas depending on the space and number of toys you have. For us, we have a small room that is for the kids and all their toys. Investing in some storage shelving has really made organizing the toys a lot easier. Looking online on used furniture sale sites and going to thrift stores is a great place to look to save some money. We then sorted our toys by toy type: all the dinosaurs, Legos, action figures, costumes, Disney characters, and cars each have their own clear box. We use clear plastic boxes, storage containers and baskets to hold the toys. You could even print labels and attach to the bins to take the organization a step further. Check out your kiddos classroom to see how YSA organizes their toys, labels and pictures in every room. This is so doable at home as well!

Step 3

kid putting toys away
Teach them to organize shelves

The most important! Train your kiddos to put stuff away! Once you have your playroom/toy storage system in place, teach your children how to clean up after themselves. My kids usually only take one or two buckets out and then will clean up and move on. Any more than that, it takes them eons to actually clean up. It should not be your job to clean up their mess every time. It can be a frustrating task a first, but it really pays off once they get the hang of it. My 3-year-old can put everything away on his own now and it is amazing! I don’t have to get on my hands and knees crawling all over the place. It is teaching them so much responsibility! But, be consistent. Every time, they are the ones that put the stuff away, even if a buddy comes over. Make sure you are upfront and explain to friends that they will be responsible for helping too.

About every 2 months, I try to get in there and make sure everything is put away correctly and reorganize where it is needed. The kids are responsible for helping during this also. Taking the time to organize and teach your children how to clean up properly really helps take the stress off the playroom chaos. It teaches responsibility and care of their things. They do this at school, so they should totally be able to do it at home! Here’s to not stepping on tiny Legos in the dark ever again!

Ms. Whitney
Lead Prekindergarten Teacher
Curriculum Coordinator

Key Communication Skills a Child Needs

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As a parent, it is important to focus on your child’s communication skills as they grow up. How they respond to criticisms or compliments, how they interact with other kids and/or adults, and how they behave socially are some ways to know if your child is displaying good communication skills.

Most children follow by example, from peers, adults, or what they see online. With all the technological advancements nowadays, it is normal that your child will adopt communication skills from this platform. Social skills need to be developed with some parental help.

3 Major Communication Skills to Teach your Child

When your child is growing up, making friends is important. And what better way to develop friendship than being a good communicator.

Questioning

It is no surprise that people like to talk about themselves. Start at home by asking questions. Touch base with your child every now and then. Gather information about what they like to do during their free time, who their friends in school are, or what they want to be when they grow up. You may also consult with them if there will be changes at home.

Practicing questioning at home will make your child become more engaged. Not only does talking about themselves help them express themselves freely; it also makes them feel better. Once this habit is formed at home, it will be easier for your child to use this outside. They will be able to openly ask questions of their peers.

Sharing

Sharing knowledge is another way to enhance the communication skills of your child.

When your child learns to share and observe how others share their ideas, their communication skills will become better. Let them share with you what they did in school today, how was baseball practice, or what they think of the new sofa bed.

Observe how they respond and their tone of words. Listen to their word choices. Inform them how they communicate will attract friends or drive them away. How your child shares information will pave the way to make friends.

Reaching Out

Reaching out does not only refer to helping. It also means to extend an invitation to someone, and is not limited to birthday parties. When your child is able to invite and talk to someone without being pressured to, their communication skills are enhanced.

Your child will get invited to many events, thus it is also important to return the favor. Make sure that your child is also aware of how to respond when they get declined.

Importance of Good Communication Skills

There are many skills that a child needs in order for them to become more socially capable. A child’s capacity to communicate effectively in any given situation is an important skill. And as we all know, the better we are at communicating and interacting, our quality of life gets better too.

We begin to communicate the moment we were born – by letting out that cry. As a child grows up, their first contact is through their parents. Being a parent, your role in nourishing your child’s communication skills is essential. Expressing themselves freely and with confidence will help them in all aspects of life. The more you interact with your child, the more you can help them enhance their skills.

Tips for Parents to Help Improve their Child’s Communication Skills

Parents play a crucial role in every child’s development. Here are a couple of communication tips for parents:

Be there for your child

Have a casual conversation with your child. This can be done during dinner or on your way home from picking them up. Let them know you care about what is happening with them. Find time to be with them – have a one-on-one activity.

Let your child know you are listening

When your child shares something – be it a bad thing that happened in school or a concern they have – give them your full attention. Listen to what they have to say without asking too many questions. Acknowledge and respect their opinions. Let your child speak their mind. Make sure to let them know that you understand everything they said before giving out your opinion.

Parenting is tough. Talking and listening to your child creates a healthy connection between you and them. Remember to always ask your child what they need from you. Focus on your child’s needs. Encourage them to speak. Motivate and respond to what they have to say without appearing defensive or angry.

Communication skills can be developed with practice and everything always starts at home. By being there for your child and helping them develop these skills at an early stage, you are ensuring them a better future ahead.

Sending your child to the right preschool will also help develop the necessary skills to achieve success in the future. If you’re looking for the best school for them, please don’t hesitate to contact Young Scholars Academy.

March Reading Madness

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March is full of exciting reading fun! It’s the month to celebrate Dr. Seuss for one! Another newer reading trend is from a non-profit website called Read Aloud. They promote reading to children at least 15 minutes per day from birth through childhood. They even promote reading to your unborn children as well. This month they are hosting a 21-day reading challenge.

  • You sign up on the website and post pictures of you reading for 15 minutes with your children. It’s a great way to connect each day, and it is not so much time that it is unreasonable. If you already have a reading routine, then just continue what you do every day already.
  • http://www.readaloud.org/21daychallenge.html here is a link to the reading challenge. Using social media post what you are doing, then challenge others with children to join in as well. This challenge is to promote daily universal reading habits.

There are so many ways to celebrate the Great Dr. Seuss. Pinterest is full of ideas from painting to cooking to go along with all of Dr. Seuss’s books.

  • It’s a great time to get involved at your child’s school. Ask how you can contribute. Last year at our school we had a teacher potluck of Dr. Seuss goodies. Each person made something and named it after a book. I made “Hop on Pop” candied popcorn that was read and blue.
  • Every year we do spirit weeks for the two-week unit of Dr. Seuss. Each day is themed around one of the books like “Wacky Wednesday” and silly sock day for “Fox in Socks”. Celebrating such an influential author creates so much fun around reading.
  • Make a Dr. Seuss reading challenge. Read each one of his books and plan one activity to go along with it. You can easily spend more than a month doing this. Or extend it into Summer if you need activities to fill the days. Make all the fun messes in the backyard!
  • Rewind to when you were in elementary school and think about what your school did for Dr. Seuss week. I remember always making green eggs and ham in class. We also set up a cozy reading area in the front office full of each Dr. Seuss book our library had. It was a huge deal to get chosen to go read for a little while in it.

March will be kept busy with all these fun plans! Enjoy reading on readers!

Ms. Brooke
Lead Prekindergarten Teacher
Literacy Coordinator

March is for Mini Meteorologists!

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March is such a crazy month for weather in Colorado Springs! I hear that all the time! It is supposed to feel like Spring, yet we see all different shades of the weather. From hail, fog, SNOW, rain, sun, and of course those super windy days. March really can throw you through a whirlwind of different weather patterns. This can be such a great time to engage your preschooler and really dig into learning all about the weather.

Learning about the weather at home is something super easy for parents to do. The topic of the weather is something we are all talking about daily. It comes up in many conversations throughout our day and sharing this conversation and making it fun with your preschooler is a great way to engage in some fun at home science activities.

Start by creating a weather calendar.

I start by printing a blank calendar and then I have my child fill in the month and numbers on his own by tracing what I have written (that is where he is at currently in his stage of writing). You could easily make this easier by writing it yourself as your child follows along or harder by letting your child write the Month and numbers all on their own. So, once you have your calendar all set up you can begin tracking the weather for each day.

Go outside!

Talk about what your child sees, feels, and hears. So many great conversations can be taking place while you are doing this. Decide on what the weather is for the day and then mark it on your weather calendar. Encourage your child to draw and write/trace the weather for each day in March. As you are getting through the month you can discuss patterns that they see and make predictions for what they think the next day’s weather will be.

Create Fun Experiments

Creating fun science experiments for each type of weather is another way to explore the weather elements. This will keep your family busy on the weekends for sure! Here are a few ideas to get you going, although there are tons more if you do a quick search online.

Sunny-Sunblock experiment

Use black construction paper and sunscreen. Have your child put sunscreen on their finger and draw a sun. Then hang the piece of paper up in a sunlit window for the day. At the end of the day, check to see what has happened to the piece of paper! This is a great time to talk about the importance of sunscreen as well.

Rainy

Create your own indoor rain cloud in a jar. All you need is a large jar, shaving cream, and food coloring. Fill the jar with water until it’s about ¾ full, then squirt shaving cream(cloud) on top of the water. Squirt the coloring on top of the shaving cream cloud a few times, get ready for your kiddo to be amazed!

Snowy

Examine the snow! The put a black piece of paper in the freezer, when it snows have your child catch the snow on the paper and examine the snowflakes with a magnifying glass. Measure the snow with your child. Fill a bucket super full to the top, then allow your child to watch it as it slowly melts away. Your child will be amazed at the magic disappearing act and be impressed with how little water remains compared to how much snow you collected.

These are just a few simple and easy ideas to get you started with your mini meteorologist! Kids love examining the weather, talking about it, and doing hands on activities! Make it a fun time for the family and dig deep this month to explore the various elements of weather!

Ms. Whitney
Lead Prekindergarten Teacher
Curriculum Coordinator

6 Tips for Parents with a Clingy Toddler

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It isn’t uncommon to see young kids screaming, clinging on to their parents and begging them not to leave. This scenario usually happens when a child doesn’t feel comfortable in their new surroundings. They exhibit clingy behavior when they are anxious. They only want to feel secure with their parents and caregiver. While parents would agree that dealing with this behavior is quite a challenge, it’s important to understand that it is part of your child’s healthy development. Learn how to ease your clingy toddler’s separation anxiety and make them feel safer with these helpful tips.

Be mindful of your responses

Dealing with a clingy toddler, especially when they start throwing tantrums, is enough to make any parent lose their patience. However, it is extremely important to stay calm and in control. Instead of acting distressed, show your toddler that you are in charge of the situation by staying firm. Assure them that there is nothing they should fear and that you’ll always come back for them. Also, never sneak away behind their back. Leaving them without saying goodbye is one of the worst things to do as it will only increase their clingy behavior the next time you’ll have to leave.

Give them a fun activity to practice independence

Another excellent way to deal with a clingy toddler is to give them a fun game or activity that will keep them busy. This activity should be something that will let them practice their independence, such as solving a puzzle. Not only will it help them develop their sense of independence, but it will also help practice their problem solving skills and foster their cognitive development.

Encourage self-sufficiency

toddlers sitting on stairs
Make sure your toddlers play with their age mates

Teach your little one to be less dependent on you by allowing them to make their own decisions. Allow them to perform simple tasks without your help. Some examples are getting their own snacks, putting away their toys, making their bed, and so on. It is also a great idea to get them involved in household chores, like dusting the furniture, cooking and so on.

Encourage them to play with their siblings

If you have other children, it is a lot easier to handle the behavior of your clingy toddler. Encourage your kids to have fun and play together. Talk to the older siblings and have them play your toddler’s favorite game. Let them understand the importance of them spending time with their little sibling. This is one effective way for them to learn how to be comfortable with members of the family other than their parents.

Spend time with other people, too

One of the reasons why young children tend to be clingier is that they have grown used to being with only you. What you can do is have them spend time with other people on a regular basis. For example, schedule visits to a family friend with kids. This will help them increase their level of comfort with other adults and at the same time, enjoy play dates with other children. Also consider establishing a weekend routine where you bring them to visit their grandparents. Doing this is an effective way to get them used to being with other people besides you.

Acknowledge how they feel

Being clingy isn’t something that any child has purposely chosen to be. It is a natural part of their development. Instead of making them feel bad during every meltdown, acknowledge how they feel. Let them know that other children feel the same way at times. Never punish them for their separation anxiety, but reassure them that there’s no reason they should be afraid. Make them feel understood. It will help them a lot. Their only source of comfort is their parents, so empathize and validate their feelings.

Most parents would agree that dealing with a clingy toddler is tough. But with the help of these tips, you can ease your child’s separation anxiety and increase their confidence even when you’re apart.

Sending your little one to preschool is also an excellent way to develop their sense of independence. If you’re looking for the best preschool for your little one, please consider Young Scholars Academy.