Wednesday, May 30, 2018

Education Coordinator's Corner Tip #2

TIP #2

2. Resist doing for her what she can do herself. While it may be quicker and easier to do it yourself, it won't help to make your child more self-sufficient. Quick hint: Appeal to her sense of pride, suggests Donna Jones, a preschool teacher at Southern Oregon University's Schneider Children's Center in Ashland, Oregon. "Whenever I'm trying to get kids to dress, put jackets on, sit on chairs during meals and so on, I'll ask them: 'Do you want me to help you or can you do it yourself?' Those words are like magic," promises Jones. "The kids always want to do it for themselves."

Children are very proud of what they accomplish so praise them often when they do.  They will reward you by wanting to do more themselves. This gives you a little more time for other things that you want to do!  By giving a child choices, they will choose one or the other most of the time instead of “mommy - you do it”. Lay out two different sets of clothing in the morning and tell them they can choose one or the other to wear - you can even get creative and say to them “surprise me!”  Even if they mix things up and wear pink socks on one foot and green on the other - so what! They dressed themselves without your help!

Until Next Week - Maria

Thursday, May 3, 2018

Education Coordinator's Corner

Just for you:  
Hello - My name is Maria Duquette and I am the Education Coordinator at Joyful Noise, Inc.  I thought I would share some tips about parenting that you might find helpful. Please feel free to send me feedback through this blog so that a healthy discussion can take place.
My intention is to give some tips about once a week and I would love to hear from any of you if you have tried these tactics, if they have worked or didn’t work!
Note:  These were taken from a site called Parents.

TIP # 1

Promoting Independence

While 3- and 4-year-olds still need plenty of parental help, preschool experts agree that kids are typically able to do more than many of us think. Here's how you can encourage them:
1. Expect more. Most people have a way of living up (or down) to expectations -- preschoolers included. "At school we expect the kids to pour their own water at snack, to throw away their plates, to hang up their jackets -- and they do," says Jennifer Zebooker, a teacher at the 92nd Street Y Nursery School, in New York City. "But then they'll walk out of the classroom and the thumb goes in the mouth and they climb into strollers." Raise the bar and your child will probably stretch to meet it.

In my own experience in the classroom, the more I expected of my first grade students, the more they surprised me by asking deeper questions in science or explaining in depth how they arrived at the answer to a math problem.  Using terms like, “You can do this” or “Let’s begin together and then I want you to finish” or “Go ahead and try first and then ask for help if you need it.” are great ways to encourage a child to become independence.