Learning to Play Fair Begins at Home

Playing is very important, for it is the baby's initial step towards developing many skills needed for life.  Through playing, the baby learns to use the hands and feet.  Allowing for plenty of freedom to move, kick, and stretch helps the baby learn to control his muscles.  At bath time, also allow your baby to kick and move freely.

Toys keep the baby happy.  Just avoid handing the baby toys with sharp edges, buttons, fur, or loose objects on them. A baby does not need too many toys.  Invest in a few good quality non-toxic toys.  Too much toys will only excessively excite your baby unnecessarily.   As your child grows older, the companionship of other children, either family members or friends will be needed.  It is important for a child to play with other children, too.  Physically playing and interacting with human playmates teaches them social skills that they can use as they deal with other people as they get older.  We are not ruling out the virtual playmates, but, a parent should know how to set the balance.

Part of the parents' responsibilities include not only to provide the basic needs like food, clothing, and a place called home but also the playmates of just about similar age level if possible.  This is time to teach children about the principles of fair play and understanding the feelings of other.  The earlier a child learns how to play fair and how to respect other people, the easier it will be to apply these important traits later in life.  

Improve Your Child’s Reading Habits with The Help of Ebooks

In this age of video games, any opportunity for learning should not be left out and reading through ebooks is an excellent way for beginning readers to learn and fully develop their reading and comprehension skills.

A lot of people are aware that ebooks exist but are still wary of using them, especially in child learning activities. If you have not taken advantage of this technological tool, you may be missing out on a lot because ebooks can actually facilitate a young child’s involvement with the reading and the literary arts.


Some who have tried sitting down with a toddler to read to him or her a book such as Treasure Island have struggled and experienced some resistance from the child especially after a few minutes.


However, if you were to obtain the ebook version of Treasure Island, it may even have cool background music and images that help add an improved sensory experience to it.

Several ebooks have an audio option that reads the story page by page. Some have icons that can help kids learn about phonics and intonations.


A lot of children diagnosed with attention deficit disorder have improved their attention ability with the use of ebooks. Most children who have difficulty paying attention to a regular printed book becomes interested in reading when done at a computer or other multimedia device or an ebook reader such as a Kindle, iPad, Sony Reader, etc.


To many children, reading a standard printed book is a passive and mundane activity but clicking a mouse to flip to another page or clicking on pictures and icons is practically more dynamic.

It is an accepted fact that there are children who are just resistant to reading. They simply do not want anything to do with sitting down and reading a book and they won’t even let you read one to them.

If this is your dilemma as a parent, try an ebook! If you select ebooks that are of good quality, kid friendly, and not boring, you may just discover you have a zealous reader on your hands. Images and sound can really liven up almost any book. You can even find free ebooks you can download on your ebook reader from dozens of sites online. Kindle has versions for the handheld device and for the PC. I have the Kindle for PC version installed on my child’s computer which automatically stores the ebooks I download for them, ready for reading as needed.

Because of the availability of ebooks, the presently out-of-print classic books can now be read in digital formats.

In this age of video games, any opportunity for learning should not be left out and reading through ebooks is an excellent way for beginning readers to learn and fully develop their reading and comprehension skills.

Nurturing Your Child's Creativity

 Creativity is not measured by intelligence tests, and experts disagree concerning the relationship between intelligence and creativity.  Most of them agree, however, that an individual’s intelligence can determine the quality of the creativity.  But a study at Donald MacKinnon at the Institute of Personality Research found a high degree of self-acceptance and confidence, sheer energy, and a whole-hearted commitment to the chosen task as being more consistent than intelligence in highly creative individuals.

Creative children have certain traits in common at a young age.  Can you observe any of these traits in your child?

Is your child very curious?
“How do frogs hop?” “What makes a rainbow?” “Why is cotton soft?”  Some adults may find such questions bothersome, but curiosity is an essential ingredient of creativity as children constantly try to make sense of their world.
Does your child’s play reflect imagination?
Creative children invent new games with their playmates.  They act out fantasies and experiment a lot.  A playful, imaginative childhood is vital to the development of creativity.
 
Does your child use analogy in speech?
The use of analogy to express a thought clearly shows a direct expression of creativity in language.  It is similar to seeing dinosaur clouds or lollipop trees.

Does your child challenge authority?
It is typical for four-year-olds to ask, “Why do I have to go to bed now and you don’t?” These children sometimes rationalize their behavior with what they see others in their life doing.

Is your child intensely animated?
Sometimes a child’s eyes sparkle when describing a playground game.  He or she may wave his or her hands and the cheeks may appear flushed.

Creative children become very involved in their current project or game.  They are eager to tell of their discoveries, and during conversations they often rush on to complete sentences for others.
Does you child like to guess outcomes?
Creative children like to guess the ending to the story or the movie.  Before they complete an experiment, they are usually confident of the outcome.  The fun of doing an activity such as drawing dot-to-dot is in predicting what the completed picture will be.  But being wrong leaves them undaunted and eager for more.
 

How Learning Takes Place

Learning is central to activities the in the home, in school, and in everyday life. It is a complex process which takes place in the brain. The human brain is considered a frontier in the educational explorations today. However, every parent and every teacher searches for the best road – the most effective way to learning. The important question therefore is: How do people learn? What are the most effective and the fastest method of learning, especially for children?

There are certain methods by which people learn.

Trial and Error
Learning through trial and error comes as a result of hitting and missing. One learns how to sew by different ways of putting fabric together. Some people call this procedure learning by experience. If a child would learn how to swim by this method, it might be risky if not fatal!

Conditioning
This learning method, labeled by psychologists as conditioning is habit-forming way—learning to do something by getting used to it. This, too, has objections, as not all practice makes perfect. One may play a piece on the piano over and over again, but that’s no guarantee that it’s being done right. The point is, if you have to practice and repeat something, you have to do it the right way, or else the brain will be conditioned to do the wrong thing because of the repetitive mistake.

Insight
This happens when a sudden flash of intellect brings on an answer or a solution to a problem. Archimedes, the Greek mathematician and inventor, was believed to have discovered the buoyancy principle in this manner. The answer to the great riddle of the crown asked him by the king of Syracuse came while he was taking a bath. So excited was he that he ran into the street without dressing and yelled, “Eureka!” (I’ve found it!)

Operational though these methods may be, they’re not foolproof guarantees of learning. However, there’s only one sure way in which children can and will learn, whether we like it or not and whether they like it or not. Psychologists agree on this method.

Modeling
It is learning by example, observation, and imitation, or identification. In teaching music to very young children, this effective method is called “learning by rote” (or imitation). While scientific studies are continuously being done in this field, there is voluminous research evidence on the effectiveness of this approach.