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February Issue 2012
Welcome to this issue of my free
parenting E-zine in which I bring you small snapshots of the joys and
problems of raising children.
SPECIALS
FEATURES
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SPECIALS
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The National Year of
Reading
It is
alarming to learn that the level of literacy of almost half of the
population of Australia is so low that people cannot understand and fill in
forms, follow recipes, read instructions on medicine, or other instructions
and safety warnings. This year many individuals and groups including the
government, libraries, schools, writers and health workers will concentrate
on helping people and children in particular, to become both more literate
and to find pleasure in reading.
Books
have been constant companions and sources of pleasure to me all my life. My
home contains hundreds of books ranging from picture books that have no
words, to simple books for children just learning to read, to great novels
of the world, to professional reference books, to dictionaries and
encyclopaedias. With all the books I own, I still regularly bring books from
the library and a day never goes by without me reading something. Books
allow me to have adventures and meet people, animals and places that I could
never go to physically. They allow me to learn interesting skills, facts and
opinions. Life without being able to read would be unimaginable.
Children
need to read and it should be fun, not an ordeal. Can you help a child to
love reading? Can you help a child to value books? I’m sure you can. Here
are some tips:
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Bring
books into your home to keep
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Read
to your children every day. Make reading to your child a time he/she
will love by making it relaxed, special, a time for him/her alone.
-
Look
at books with your child and make up a story about the pictures.
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Recall and talk about books you have shared.
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Take your child to the library to borrow books.
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Tell stories to your child and encourage them to tell you a story about
what they have done today.
-
Help your pre-schooler to write a story to put below their drawing. The
story might only be one line.
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Point out special signs in the environment such as traffic signs, the
labels of food, names of people in the family and encourage your
children to point out these words to you. Point out special
words in books.
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Play
word games such as I spy, or looking for certain letters on number
plates as you drive.
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Buy
books as rewards.
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Make
a book or books with your children at pre-school.
There
will be many online book and reading activities this year. Here is the
link to one blogspot I came across where a story will be posted every
week.
http://rydeyearofreading.blogspot.com/
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FEATURES
Ages and Stages-Two
Year Olds
My two year old granddaughter was
here over Christmas and interacted happily with her 7 year old cousin and
other children all older than she is. I was surprised at how much the two
year old had developed in the last three months. Her behaviour was typical
of the development of twos.
- Imaginative play:
Twos play well with older children and copy their games. My
two year old joined in the games enthusiastically even when the
activities were new to her.
- Language:
Two is a great time to introduce children to new words through both
talking and reading to them. My two year old listened intently to
conversations going on around her. Her understanding was not always
correct but her ability to pick up and repeat new words and phrases, was
excellent.
- Physical activities:
Twos have big energy reserves, can move very quickly and will play until
they are exhausted. Water games, climbing and jumping are favourite
pastimes. Two year olds like to find their own level instead of having
an adult imposing restrictions but supervision is always necessary. My
two year old normally has an afternoon sleep but was determined to keep
playing with older children. Because she'd missed her sleep she often
fell asleep over her evening meal.
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Kids 'n Gardening -Safety
in the garden
The garden is a wonderful place for
kids to play as long as they follow some safety tips.
- Teach children not to eat
anything from a plant before showing it to an adult.
- Children should look at instead
of touching any creatures they find.
- Provide garden tools that are
meant for children – adults tools are dangerous for kids.
- Make it family procedure to use
hats and sun protection while gardening.
- There must be adult supervision
–a crawling baby or a toddler can drown in water left in a bucket.
- Many garden plants are
poisonous or have poisonous parts but instead of removing them all from
the garden, learn about them and teach the children the facts. There is
an excellent illustrated guide to common plants that cause problems in
Australian gardens on the Westmead children’s Hospital site at
http://kidshealth.chw.edu.au/ 13 11 26 is the poisons number to dial
for emergencies.
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Kids in
the news -Bandaged
Bears
Have you heard of the Bandaged Bear
Appeal? It is run every March by the Children’s Hospital in Westmead to
raise money to aid sick children. It can be traumatic for children and
families when a child is injured or becomes sick and needs to stay in
hospital or make regular visits there for treatment. Children with diabetes,
cerebral palsy, cystic fibrosis, leukemia and many life threatening
conditions such as meningococcal disease, must spend time there. Westmead
hospital saves many lives. Unfortunately through the media, it is often
those who are not saved that the public remembers.
By supporting the bandaged bear
appeal, you will help with
- research,
- helping to give families
accommodation in times of trauma
- providing drugs
- providing support people who
will help patients and families.
Schools are an integral part of the
appeal. It is great that well children can help sick ones. Here is a link to
the site
http://www.bandagedbearday.com.au See if your family or your pre-school
or child care centre can do something special in March this year.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Healthy Living –Learning
to Swim
Water is an important part of
Australian life and we know that everyone should learn to swim. My
granddaughters aged 7 years and 2 years, both love the water and are
confident playing in it under supervision. The older one started learn to
swim classes this week. Summer is the time when most families take their
children to places where water is the fun thing, but sadly every year there
are tragic drownings in Australia. These accidents are preventable. For
families who are not in places where learn to swim classes are available,
there is excellent help on the internet at
www.uswim.com
The lessons at this site are at
three levels.
Level one
for babies 4months to three years.
Level 2
for children over 3 years to learn breath control.
Level 3
for children over 3years to learn swimming strokes.
The first level, for babies 4 months to 3 years is for teaching baby to
respond to the command ‘name ( e.g.Sarah) ready, go’. Baby will
learn to be relaxed in the water, take a breath, close his/her eyes.
Playing with toys in the water is also included in this first
level. The lesson plan should be printed out before
teaching the child. In the plan six steps are clearly shown complete with
suggestions for songs to be used during the lesson. Failure to print out the
lesson plan may result in forgetting one of the steps or doing the steps in
the wrong order.
As well as watching the video for
babies in level 1, I clicked on the SwimSAFER button at the
www.swimaustralia.org.au site. I read one story there. It is a very
confronting and tragic story of one family losing their 12month old during
bath time. We all think we are careful but just being distracted for one
minute can lead to tragedy.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Indigenous news
-Aboriginal
Swimming stars
Thomson
Fleming, 9, and Jorjhara Koraba, 8, are members of the Silver City swim club
in Broken Hill and have just won a number of medals at a competition in
Mildura. Thomson is a descendant of the Barkindji tribe, and Jorjhara, a
descendant of Saibai Island and the Bidjara and Birri-Gubba tribes. Jorjhara
won four gold, two silver and one bronze medal while Thomson won six gold,
one silver and two bronze. They both qualified to go to Adelaide to the
championships.
In the
Adelaide championships in which 600 swimmers competed in age races, Thomson
was the fastest nine year old and he was in the final of the 11years and
under 100 metres backstroke.
It is wonderful to see young Aboriginal swimmers doing so
well. Congratulations kids.
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Book Review :
Stick Man
by Julia Donaldson
Illustrated by Axel Scheffler
ISBN 978-1407108827
Alison Green Books 2009
This amusing story in rhyming verse
is about the day a Stick Man loses his way. Will he ever get home to his
family tree, his Lady Love and his children three? The stick is in great
demand by both animals and birds but everyone fails to see that he is a man.
He is fetched by a dog, used as a Poo stick by children, put in a nest,
becomes an arm for a snowman and finally ends up in a fireplace. But all is
not lost. There is a wonderful end to the story. This book quickly became a
favourite of my two year old granddaughter and she enjoyed looking for Stick
Man in the garden and out in the bush. The illustrations have just the right
amount of detail and the board pages in the version I saw, make it ideal for
the very young to handle. Children of two to 7 will love it.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Play ideas
– Playing with sticks
Having heard the story of Stick
Man children will have ideas for using sticks. Some people may think
that sticks are not good play things but safety measures can be taught. They
are certainly a wonderful natural material and come in different sizes,
shapes and textures – some are bendy, some brittle, others stiff and strong
with bark of different types also.
Small sticks, (natural ones or
paddle-pop sticks and match sticks), are great in the sandpit as fences,
flag poles, bridges and trees. Larger sticks tied together for can be
tee-pees or tent frames, They are useful for drawing with, measuring and
counting, Kids will use sticks to stir pots of pretend food, or as drum
sticks, or in games of jumping, fishing and camping. Painted, chunky ones
make good clicking sticks for music time. A family of sticks can be used to
tell your own Stick Family story.
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Click
here to contact Helen
if you would like to make suggestions or have comments to make.
Copyright 2009/2011
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Helen's books, Everyday learning about
storytelling and Simply Storytelling, will help you to
tell stories to your children. For Everyday learning, go to
www.earlychildhoodaustralia.org.au and look at the catalogue
For Simply Storytelling (ISBN
9780864588104 published by Tertiary Press) go to
www.pearsoned.com.au/VetDirect
put the title in the keyword search and click.
Three of Helen's picture books are available as downloads or CD's from
Writer's Exchange . Children from 3 to 10 will love them.
Here is the link: http://www.writers-exchange.com/Helen-Evans.html This will take you
to my author's page.
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