As toddlers grow, they start to develop and refine their physical movements. These movements are usually divided into two categories: Gross Motor Skills Gross motor skills are movements involving the larger groups of muscles responsible for movements like independent sitting, crawling walking and running. Fine Motor Skills Fine motor skills are movements involving the smaller …
Learning shapes in preschool is important because it helps children to identify and organize visual information. Being able to sort and match items like shapes is a good foundation for learning in other curriculum areas later on, including reading, mathematics, and science. Being able to identify shapes is an early step in beginning to discriminate …
Have you ever wondered how children develop new skills or how they begin to make new connections and learn new concepts? How do they learn to talk, understand language, and communicate? Have you ever considered how they develop physical skills so that they can crawl, then walk, run, jump, climb, and manipulate objects, such as …
What is the most exciting topic in the early years? Why dinosaurs, of course! What could be more exciting than learning about enormous reptiles that lived two hundred and forty-five million years ago? Dinosaurs that came in all kinds of shapes and sizes that hatched out of eggs and could grow to the size of …
Cutting with scissors sounds so simple, doesn’t it? We take so much for granted as adults that sometimes we forget how much new learning happens when we grasp a new skill like learning to cut using a pair of scissors. How Do I Know My Child Is Ready to Use Scissors? Even though they may …
It’s here quicker than you ever imagined – your child’s first day of preschool. It’s a huge milestone in a child’s young life but it can also feel like a momentous occasion for parents. Children have to separate from their parents at some point. It’s a normal and healthy part of life but it can …
Do you love drawing? Do you love playing games? In that case, let’s mash the two together and have some fun! To play the games below, you will either need a large flip chart or a good-sized sketchpad. I’d suggest that you use paper of size A3, or larger, but if you don’t have any, …
It’s really important to give preschool children the language to describe their emotions. Otherwise, they can’t tell us how they are feeling. This can lead to frustration, and that frustration, in turn, can lead to unwanted or challenging behaviors. We adults need to remember that behind every unwanted behavior, there is a child with an …
If you are lucky enough to live in a part of the world that has the wonder of occasional snowy days, seize the moment (and the children) and get outdoors to make the most of the experience. There is something magical about waking up and opening the blinds to a world that has secretly and …
What are Gross Motor Skills? Gross motor skills are the large movements that young children develop as they learn to move—movements like crawling, standing, running, jumping balancing and climbing. Fine motor skills, on the other hand, refer to the smaller movements that children learn to do as they develop their physical skills, such as pinching, …
As the weather turns colder, we must work with it so that children don’t miss out on all the proven benefits of being outdoors, particularly in winter when crisp, frosty days can be full of sparkling winter magic. Just imagine…. There’s so much learning out there. Don’t let the weather dictate how the outdoors is …