Daily reading to children boosts social and emotional development

New research finds daily reading to children could reduce number of 3 to 5 year olds with socio-emotional problems by 20% . Whilst making clear that these findings are only part of a complex picture and should not be seen as a panacea for problems caused by inequality, Professor Yvonne Kelly, who helped produce the research for the Institute for Social and Economic Research, says that “There is something intrinsically positive about that level of intimacy between parents or carers and young children which helps foster emotional security and develop verbal skill.”

No-one could argue with this. What’s often overlooked, too, are the enormous benefits of continuing to read bedtime stories (and not only stories) to older children, including those who are accomplished readers, for just as long as they want you to continue. All children love this special one-to-one time. For a child of any age, being read to, especially at bedtime, presents the perfect opportunity for a cosy chat, perhaps about a character in a story – ‘Do you think he should’ve done that?’ A story can be way for a child to start talking about something troubling them, as well as a peaceful moment to leave behind the preoccupations of a daily life that is becoming increasingly busy for both children and adults alike, and step into the world of the imagination – a treat for the grown -up, too, after the daily grind! Parents can be forgiven, in today’s hectic world, for feeling too tired or busy for reading to children at bedtime, but if they can do this, the spin-offs are enormous.

Please see also my blogs about bedtime stories, What’s the story, Evening Glory?; In your night time garden and Encouraging parents to read bedtime stories. This last blog mentioned the recent TalkTalk Tales competition to find the country’s best bedtme storyteller. The competition was judged by Bernard Cribbens, and you can hear some of the entrants at http://www.talktalktales.co.uk/ .  You don’t have to be a Bernard Cribbens – your child will love your reading!

Create a Thinking House and Bodhi Tree for Wesak

Celebrate the Birthday of the  Buddha at Wesak time by encouraging children to create their own Thinking House , like the children  in the  film ‘Sian’s Wesak Day’ on the award-winning   ‘A Child’s Eye View of Festivals 2′  DVD Plus.

 Wesak

 On Wesak  Day, Theravada  Buddhists celebrate the birth, Enlightenment and the death of the Buddha. Mahayana Buddhists celebrate only his birth on this day. They celebrate his Enlightenment and commemorate his death on two further, separate occasions.  Before his Enlightenment, the Buddha was called Prince Siddhartha. He was born 2,500 years ago at Lumbini Gardens, Northern India (now Nepal). The festival story tells of the Prince’s kindness to an injured swan. In the film ‘Sian’s Wesak Day’, Sian and her friends find out about the Buddhists’ respect for all living things and the natural world.

 Create a Thinking House

 Encourage children to create and decorate a quiet nurture area where one child at a time can go and sit and ‘think about being happy’. Children can use, for   example, blocks, crates on their side threaded with leaves, cardboard cartons, rugs and cushions. Alternatively, use a ready-made willow shelter, tent, or gazebo. Decorate with streamers, leaves, real or artificial flowers, tissue paper flower garlands and wind chimes. Let children decorate old CDs using collage materials and glue, then hang the discs up inside and outside the House. Children  can make  miniature ‘water gardens’ by   putting a little water in disposable clear plastic bowls, and adding pebbles,  petals, blossom, dandelions and leaves. Arrange the bowls on a builders’ tray in a space of its own to avoid knocks.

 Talk together about how the children feel in the ‘Thinking House’, for example, calm, quiet, peaceful, still, cool,  tranquil, serene. Encourage them to think of their own name for this special place, and to make a sign, for example, ‘Our Peaceful Place’, ‘Our Calm Corner’ or ‘The Quiet Space’.

 Our Bodhi Tree

 The tree under which Prince Siddhartha meditated until he reached the state of Enlightenment is known as the Bodhi tree, or Tree of Knowledge or the Tree of the Awakening. The Bodhi tree is sacred to Buddhists.  Bodhi trees (pipal or peepul trees) grow widely inIndia, and the tradition of writing or painting on Bodhi leaves is an ancient art form.

Have a supply of green paper ‘Bodhi leaves’ (roughly heart-shaped), inside the House. Beforehand, punch a hole through each ‘leaf’, towards one end. Put a clipboard with pencil attached on a string, next to the ‘leaves’. Say that children may, if they  wish, write down their ‘happy feeling’ on a leaf, then tie it  , with colored parcel ribbon, on your ‘Bodhi tree’  - small branches stuck in a large plastic pot of soil, outside the ‘House’. Ask children to tie their leaves on the ‘tree’ loosely so that they flutter in the breeze.

Encouraging parents to read bedtime stories

Research by  Tiscali’s current Talk Talk Campaign has revealed that half of  children nowadays do not have a bedtime story. See my blogs  -  What’s the story and In your night time garden .

Tactful and imaginative strategies , not just  by nursery and Reception teachers, can go a long way to  get across the vital message to parents about the enormous value of the bedtime story.  For example, you can make a huge wall list in your entrance hall of the favourite bedtime  stories of your setting’s/ school’s travelling  mascot.

Also, before March 13th, visit  http://www.talktalktales.co.uk/ to find out about how children, teachers and parents can enter a competition, judged by Bernard Cribbens, to find the country’s  best amateur storyteller.  The competition is simple to enter and there are valuable prizes, including book tokens .

Recipe for Chinese New Year

Recipe for Jiaozi – dumplings – for Chinese New Year
(February 3rd) 
 See Ian help make some special Chinese New Year dumplings in ’Ian’s Chinese New Year’ (on the multi award-winning DVD Plus, A  Child’s Eye View of Festivals )  and watch his excitement as he finds  the lucky money hidden inside! Then make your own delicious  dumplings with your class, using this vegetarian recipe provided by Ian’s Mum (and tried and tested with a class of young children by Child’s Eye Media). The activity is quite straightforward and well worth doing as a really special treat for your Yuan Tan celebrations.  
Enjoy!

 

Let’s make dumplings! (30 dumplings)

NB. Check for allergies and dietary requirements

 
Ingredients
Dough: 200gr. Plain flour; up to 150ml. cold water
 
Filling: 5 Chinese leaves; 2 eggs; half a spring onion; 2 slices (each 4 cm long) of fresh root ginger; one teaspoon light soy sauce; one teaspoon sesame oil.
 
What to do
Ensure everyone washes their hands thoroughly and wears an apron.
 
Involve the children in weighing and pouring the flour into a large bowl. Add the water, a tablespoon at a time, letting everyone take turns to mix, until a smooth dough is formed. Make into a ball, cover with a tea towel and leave to rest for 20 minutes.
 
Let everyone take turns to use a salad spinner to wash the leaves.
 
Give everyone a leaf and ask them to tear it in small pieces.
 
Collect the pieces together and use a ‘rocking’ chopper yourself, to chop them finely. Wash and chop the spring onion. Peel the ginger root and let everyone smell it before you slice and chop two pieces. Mix the lettuce, onion and ginger together.
 
Let everyone help beat the eggs. Lightly scramble the egg in the sesame oil. Add the mixture and the soy sauce, stirring in one direction. Remove from heat. Divide the dough into three sections. Shape each section into a cylinder, approx. 2.5 cm. wide. Slice each cylinder into ten equal pieces, scoring the dough if necessary. Give each child a piece to roll out into a circle approx. 7 cm. wide. At this point an adult or groups of other children may roll out the remaining dough into 25 circles.
 
Let everyone put a teaspoonful of mixture in the middle of the dough and fold up the dough into a half-moon shape, pinching to seal. Put the dumplings into a large pan of boiling water, giving a gentle stir. Cover and bring to the boil. Add half a cup of boiling water and repeat. When the dumplings come to the boil for a third time, they are ready.
Make a dipping sauce by mixing equal parts of soy sauce, vinegar and sugar. Dip and enjoy!

Writing’s not just for the writing area

A bright, inviting and well resourced writing area is, of course, essential; however, it is just as important to encourage children to write in any provision area.  Here are a few ideas, some general, and some specific to an area, to help children to readily think of ‘jotting things down’ as a way of sharing their world with others.

In general, shoe boxes containing clipboards and paper, with pencils on a string, are great to have anywhere and everywhere alongside any kind of learning experience, inside or outside. Slip some sheets inside plastic wallets as children do enjoy the smooth sensation of writing or drawing on the plastic, with washable felt-tipped pens, and the ‘wipeability’.  Instead of shoeboxes, you can use plastic twin–compartment tool trays with a handle.

Small world area

Provide open-ended ‘themed’ plain A4 sheets on clipboards alongside small world play.  Add a very simple picture or design to a corner or along an edge of the paper, ‘matched’ to a current small world theme e.g. pirates, airport, firefighters, animals etc, for maps, signs, ‘notices’ and ‘reports’ etc.

Malleable area

Perhaps Wallace has decided to make Gromit a birthday party!  Children could make playdough/clay ‘bones’ and ‘dog biscuits’, then write out invitations to Gromit’s ‘doggy friends’, and draw plans for ‘party fun activities’ for dogs, then make them from junk materials and construction sets e.g. an ‘obstacle course’ etc.

Book area

Have a stock of blank, simply bordered (e.g. with book characters) ‘I love this book!’ sheets, and a place where children can display their sheets for other children to read.

Have stationery available, too, for children who may want to write to a book character.  Make sure of course, that a reply always arrives!  Sometimes have a letter to a child  from a character already written, ‘during the night’!.

Creative workshop

Provide simply decorated sheets for children to draw what they have made, and perhaps write about how they did it, and attach to a display board.  Some could be headed ‘How to…’

Role play area

Have a wipeable marker board on the wall.  If the area is a ‘home’, children can jot down shopping and ‘to do’ lists, phone numbers of ‘repair people’, names of the bears and dolls and what to buy them for Christmas etc.  If a ‘hospital’ or a ‘vets surgery’, children could write the names of patients and their illnesses and treatments.  If the area is a ‘car workshop’, they could write the makes of cars and their repairs.

Floor construction area

Have plain sheets on clipboards available in boxes on the floor, for children to draw ‘plans’ of the buildings etc, and notices , street signs etc.

Keep a box of plain paper on clipboards alongside traffic road mat play, too.  One child, in uniform as a ‘police office’ or ‘traffic warden’ could ‘jot down’ the ‘registration numbers’ ( small white stickers on vehicles) of vehicles that are ‘speeding’, or ‘jumping lights’, or ‘park illegally’.

Maths area

Have sheets with a simple decorative border on a number theme, for children to write their names and their friends’ names and their ‘scores’ in child-devised and manufactured games.

Investigation area

Make available a supply of ‘Look what I found out!’ sheets, with a simple motif.

Outside

Have boxes and containers of clipboard sheets, and pencils on strings, in strategic positions outside for role play ‘messages’, and ‘important notes’, and outdoor ‘discoveries’ etc.

Providing plentiful ‘jotting stations’ in all provision areas will help children turn easily to ‘jotting things down’, and becoming ‘ready writers’!

Open a sports injuries clinic and get boys writing

A ‘sports injuries clinic’ offers lots of opportunities to get young children, especially boys, writing, for example, as they ‘jot down’ details about how the injury happened, during which ‘match’ or ‘Olympic training event’, and, of course, notes about the treatment, together with the name of the ‘patient’ – perhaps a famous sportsperson!

An ‘X-ray plate’, showing a ‘broken bone’ injury is an inspiring prop!  This is included, along with simple instructions about how children can make an ‘X-ray light box’, in the award-winning ‘Young Writers’ Role Play Pack’.  Video interviews with teachers using the Pack talking about its impact on children’s language development, role play and willingness to write is at www.childseyemedia.com . The Pack has DVD films of adults (including doctors) writing as part of their work, and children emulating them in role play (see the photo above of six year old Maeve, as ‘orthopaedic surgeon’), writing frames, innovative ideas, and distinctive outfits (including unique ‘write-on-the-pocket’ ‘helicopter police’ trousers). (All items available separately).

Read to your Dog

Following on from my blog Teach your Bear to Sing, you must read about the wonderful initiative, to increase children’s reading confidence, involving how they read to dogs in school.  The initiative is now about to be rolled out nationally Dogs lend a (furry) ear to reading .

Don’t become your child’s waiter or waitress !

I’ve just read a great article in this week’s Nursery World about BLW – baby-led weaning.  This is the method of gradually moving a child from a milk diet to eating solid food without having a purée stage.  It allows a baby to control their solid food intake from the start of the weaning process by feeding themselves rather than being spoon-fed.

BLW aims to be a more natural way of weaning a child because they can follow their instincts, mimic others, and learn about food through exploration and set the pace of a meal, instead of having it dictated by the person feeding them.  By missing out the pureed food stage, BLW babies can learn to recognise individual foods, discover separate tastes, rather than have them blended together, and explore a variety of textures.

I’m sure that this approach would enormously help children grow into independent, non-picky eaters.  Gill Rapley, a former health visitor, has written a book with Tracey Markett, called Baby-led Weaning: helping your baby to love good food (Vermilion). Gill’s website is www.rapleyweaning.com .

If, however, your child is fussy about their food,  take a break together and enjoy the award-winning film, India’s Sunday Funday, in which five year old India  enjoys her ‘5 a day’ and shares lots of fun ideas for making meal times enjoyable and nutritious.  The film is one of three on the ‘Keeping Myself Healthy’ DVD by Child’s Eye Media.  The other two films are ‘Looking after my teeth’ and ‘Looking after my body’.

See also my blog Six top  tips for picky eaters .

 

 

Teach your Bear to Sing

‘Teach your Bear to Sing’ is a great way to involve families in the fun of sharing nursery rhymes with young children.

In addition to daily nursery rhyme singing, have a special Bear Club once a week, when children bring (that morning or afternoon) their favourite bear – make sure everyone knows, though, that all soft toy animals, dolls and action figures are very welcome, too!

At the ‘Club’, each child, if they wish, can sing or say a rhyme that their bear etc has ‘learned’ that week.  Children can design stickers for their bears, to wear each time they have learned a new rhyme or song, and also certificates (e.g. Bronze for three rhymes learned, Silver for six, and Gold for ten rhymes).  Display all your nursery rhyme books at Bear Club time, so children can choose one that includes a particular rhyme they may be ‘teaching’ their bear that week, and want to practise.   For rhymes and songs that families may not know, children can take home a ‘My bear (etc) is learning…’ sheet, with the words to a rhyme or song that they can practise with their toy, with the help of family members. Encourage children to bring along their own nursery rhymes books to share at the club, too.  Some children really enter into the spirit, and enjoy recording themselves saying a rhyme on tape, and playing it behind their bear!

Have a permanent display area where families can see photos of individual bears etc, with their names, and also examples of children’s writing about their bears’ rhyme learning, displays of rhyme books, and children’s nursery rhyme-inspired picture and models.

The Big Book of Nursery Rhymes is a new and vibrant Big Book of twelve well-loved nursery rhymes that is durable enough to be used every day.  The price is £11.99. Please click on the link for more information -  The Big Book of Nursery Rhymes .

 

Build a 3D poem

This is a ‘hands-on’ idea to ‘put a poem together’ – literally!  Wonderful for seasons and festival times too.

Creating a 3D poem is a fun, and simple experience  to enjoy with young children. They love looking for signs of any season, and gathering items together to make this special poem. It will also make them aware of how they use their senses to explore the world around them.

Talk with your children about how we see with our eyes, hear with our ears, smell with our nose, taste with our tongue and touch with our hands and fingers.

Talk about what we can see, hear, smell, taste and touch in the particular season e.g. for autumn:

‘see’ – leaves, pumpkins, lanterns, fireworks, berries, nuts, squirrels, hedgehogs, Blue Tits

‘hear’ – whooshing fireworks, crackly leaves

‘smell’ – wet leaves, Harvest bread

‘taste’ – apples, blackberry jam, pomegranates, chestnuts

‘touch’ – prickly conker cases, smooth conkers, crinkly leaves, gourds

Gather together at least six seasonal items that can be handled. As far as possible, use real items, or models or pictures drawn by your children, or cut from magazines, calendars and cards.   Spread the items (e.g. on a builder’s tray) on the floor. Lay a piece of wallpaper about 2 metres long, reverse side upwards, on the floor.  Write at the top of the paper: ‘At autumn time we…’  Write at the top of the paper: ‘At (autumn)time’. Encourage your children to draw, down the left-hand side of the wallpaper, a pair of eyes, a pair of ears, a nose, a mouth and a pair of hands.

Ask your children to put one or more items from the builder’s tray next to each symbol, to show what we can see, hear, smell, taste and touch in the autumn.

When each symbol has an item (or two) next to it, talk through the poem together, e.g:

At autumn time
We see pumpkins and orange leaves
We hear whooshing fireworks

We smell Harvest bread

We taste pomegranates
We touch prickly conker cases and smooth conkers.

If you wish, the poem can be written out.

To see children ‘assembling’ a  spring and Easter poem like this, please see Part 2, Chapter 4 of ‘Jamie’s and Megan’s Easter’, on the award-winning DVD ‘A child’s eye view of Festivals 2’.