How to provide preschool when you can’t afford to send your child

In today’s economy many families are being forced to remove their children from daycares and preschools due to the heavy expense.  This is leaving many families with a feeling of worry that their children will not be successful upon entering school since they are being deprived of this important experience.  Understandably families are frustrated and concerned but there are many things you can do at home to keep your children busy and learning as if they were still in “school.”

Does this mean you are going to have to evolve into a “teacher” and have rigid order in the home – absolutely not!  In fact, quite the contrary.  The hard part for teachers is the sheer number of children they have in the classroom.  When you have that many little ones together in a room you have to create order first so that learning will occur second.  However, in your home environment this is not the case.

Wiggle Giggle Learn offers weekly activity plans that provide a daily activity/game/tip and educational goals  for your child’s developmental age.  For less than two dollars a week you can be your child’s first teacher and the worries of not being able to afford academic childcare/preschool will be gone forever.

Here is a list of things you may want to use to keep the learning going at home:

Social Development

1. Take your children on weekly trips to the park or a fast food play area to interact with other children – make sure to teach them rules in these areas, like wait your turn and slide down the slide instead of walking up it.

2. Have pretend tea parties or camp outs with your children’s favorite stuffed animals and encourage them to have imaginary dialogue with the stuffed friends – this will not take much encouragement because most three to five year olds naturally talk to and for inanimate things

Emotional Development

1. Take turns allowing your children to be leader of various rituals in the home – if you have a single child, take turns between you and the child – leadership builds self-esteem and confidence

2. Think of all the great character traits you want your child to display and model them daily.  Talk about what it means to be empathetic, responsible, gracious, a friend and so on

Mathematical Development

1. Point out numbers every where in the environment (clock, microwave, watch, television, grocery store labels, speed limit, etc…) and read the together

2. Count Cheerios at snack time to at least 20.  On some days divide snack equally by giving one to mommy and one to me until all the snack is gone.  Count backwards by eating a piece of the snack and taking a number away after each piece is gone – 10, 9, 8, 7…

3. Practice writing numbers in the air with your fingers.  Practice writing numbers on your child’s back so they feel the stroke movement with your finger.  Practice writing numbers in shaving cream on the bathtub wall.  Practice tracing numbers (largely written) that mom or dad wrote on a piece of paper.

4. Sort everything you can and in every way you can.  For example, sort the laundry by types of clothes (socks, underwear, shirts, etc…) and by colors and sizes.  Sort silverware, plastic bowls, toys, groceries and so on.  Categorizing, sorting and making patterns are critical for early math development.

Scientific Development

1. Spend a lot of time in nature investigating sights, smells, textures, tastes (when safe and appropriate).  Use science tools in nature like a magnifying glass and thermometer.

2. Ask lots of questions and try to implement experiments to see what happens.  Why is ice hard?  What do seeds grow into?

3. Allow your child to cook with you at least one day a week.  Use tools such as measuring cups and spoons and read the recipe together.

Language Development

1. Read to your child at different times during every day for at least 30 minutes total.  Reading only at bedtime teaches your child to fall asleep to stories – not exactly what you want them to do when the teacher is reading books at school.

2. Use varied vocabulary and match oral words to the actual object or a picture of the object in a book, on a flashcard or on a video/tv.  You need to speak at least 30,000 words a day to your child from birth.  Be elaborate and expect them to begin using larger vocabulary.  For example, instead of calling bugs, “bugs” – call them by their proper name – “insects.”  Use the word “vehicles” to define a group of cars, trucks, motorcycles, etc… and explain how they all fit into a group.  Also, define objects deeply and not just on the surface.  Your five year old child should know this much about apples:  it is a fruit, it grows on trees, it has seeds, it can be red, green or yellow, some are sweet and some are sour, it has skin.

3. Ask questions after events in a day or after reading a story that help your child begin to “order” events from beginning to middle to end.  This skill is critical to story comprehension and overall reading and writing success.  Talk about and create rituals (morning routine, bedtime routine) that have an order and say that order aloud as you complete the events.

4. Teach your child the letters of the alphabet by introducing their letter sound with the actual letter.  Work on learning the letters in his/her name and parents names first because they mean the most to the child.  Teach them that each letter makes a different sound and looks different.  Use ABC puzzles, books, alphabet cereal and french fries and magnetic letters to help him/her get a deeper understanding of the letters by using the senses to learn them.  Hang an alphabet chart on your wall.  Praise your child for trying to name the letter and say the sound.  Associate the letters with words that begin with that letter for long-term memory of the letters.

5. Teach your child to write his/her name and recognize (read) it.  You will begin writing the letters in the air to feel the direction of the strokes.  Then use shaving cream in the bathtub to continue the sensory use of the fingers.  You will know when your child is ready to write on paper – don’t push her too early or she will not want to write at all.

Physical Development

1. Teach your child to hop, skip, gallop, balance on one leg, button, snap, zip and use scissors

2. Use a lot of playdough and silly putty to develop the small muscles in the hands that are necessary for using scissors and writing utensils properly.

Wiggle Giggle Learn offers weekly activity plans that provide a daily activity/game/tip and educational goals  for your child’s developmental age.  For less than two dollars a week you can be your child’s first teacher and the worries of not being able to afford academic childcare/preschool will be gone forever.

Nature and kids… the play factor

Today, parents are scared to let their kids go outside on their own, so that means they keep them inside. They watch TV, they play on the computer, and they go to organized sports or other activities. The optimal word here is “organized.” In order for children to become creative thinkers and learners we must allow them time and space to play freely, especially in nature. Work for young children is play and not the kind of play where parents act as directors instead of bystanders. We shouldn’t dictate how a child should play and interact with others one-hundred percent of the time. Early learning is the key… and it begins in the home and yard, not within an over-scheduled calendar that places demands on baby which are developmentally inappropriate and exhausting. You can do everything those classes do – and spend far less money and time.

As a parent, let your child touch nature, smell the scents in nature, taste fruits and vegetables from nature (that you know are safe and clean) and exercise leadership in how he interacts with nature. Not too long ago, we roamed the neighborhood without our parents. We picked berries, caught crayfish, climbed trees, played in mud or dirt, built forts, caught frogs and generally had a great time while being part of nature. We didn’t need gym classes, music classes, cooking classes and art classes to teach us how to do all of these things. I guess you could have called us “explorers.” Let’s bring “exploration” back to our children through the great outdoors and let the learning begin from their perspective once again. Your child will rejoice in a “stress-free lifestyle,” while you enjoy stress-free parenting (well as close to stress-free as you will ever get).

What is the best way to stimulate newborns?

The important thing to note here is that newborns can actually be over stimulated, which is not healthy for brain development. Be very careful about how many lights, sounds and moving objects you put in baby’s path. It is difficult for an adult to focus with that much commotion much less an infant. If baby’s swing is in rocking motion, that is enough movement. He will watch anything around him that is not moving in an attempt to focus. Therefore, if you have the swing moving, the mobile on the swing moving, lights playing and music playing, he is probably not learning how to focus at all.

Many parents today say, “He just can’t focus!” or “He can’t sit still!” If the early years are filled with bouncing, rocking, lights flashing, and toys buzzing the majority of the time – yes, he will not be able to focus and sit still.

When babies are born, the art of focus and observation must be taught. The baby’s environment and parental choices play a key role in this development. Focus is necessary for cognitive learning and developing adequate social skills relative to community values. The results of our “busy world” is evidenced by a 1997 study that showed, there was a 700% increase in Ritalin use and about 80% of the 11 million prescriptions doctors are writing for that medication treat childhood ADHD. The truth of the matter most of these children are not ADHD at all. Their environments and experiences have often times over stimulated them, which leads to ADHD like behaviors.

Infants need active time and quiet times during their day. The very best way to stimulate a baby’s brain is to talk to them with different inflection in your voice and reduce the amount of clutter and noise in their environment. Get baby on a schedule and encourage her ability to observe and focus on a picture, toy or you for an extended amount of time.

She will not be able to see colors other than red, white and black until three months or so. Therefore, if you want her to see the object for everything it is worth during the first few months, show her objects that are red, white or black and place them at least 12 inches from her face.

Happy learning and growing!

Tracey Bryant Stuckey

Chief Creative Learning Officer

www.wigglegigglelearn.com

http://traceybryantstuckey.com