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Child Care Tip of the Week
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Play Centres / Other Fun Centres / Outdoor Play Centre
/ The
Quiet Centre / The Art Centre / Construction Centres
/ Sand
& Water Centres / The Music Centre / The Book Centre /
The Housekeeping Centre
/ More
Child Care Tips / Even More Child Care Tips Child Care Tip 4
Child
Care Tip of the Week
A child's play is more than frolic. Through play children learn to imitate animal noises, recognize alphabets and numbers, understand about sharing and getting along with their peers. They develop their large muscle skills by running, walking, climbing or riding a bike; their small muscles skills by colouring, cutting, pasting and painting. And this just scratches the surface.
A quality child care program, whether at a daycare centre, dayhome or at the child's home, gives a child the opportunity to develop to his or her full potential. It provides equipment with which to learn, an environment that stiumlates curosity, and a nurturing caregiver who bonds it all together.
Old standbys - like blocks, stacking things, balls, dolls, crayons, puzzles, push toys, and the likes are the equipment children will return to again and again at various stages. The are the backbone to learning centres, a small area of activity devoted to specific type of play: art, math, reading, crafts, etc. Learning centres can be set up at home on trays, little tables, or on a shelf as is the case with the reading centre. Different centres allow caregivers to guide a child's learning by providing suggestions or guidance on what to do with the materials provided. Of course a child's imagination should be allowed free reign within a centre to encourage creativity. Regardless of what the child does with the materials, he/she is learning something about the materials, his/her ability to manipulate and work with the equipment at hand. What's more, two or more children working cooperatevily to build a block town or to cook dinner are learning social skills.
The learning centres available are endless. In the next few weeks we will look at some different centres, what materials they require, and what children learn at these centres. For more information on setting up play centres in your home or daycare centre, consult the wonderful book, Start and Run a Profitable Home Day Care in the Parenting Section on our Book Shelf.
July 4, 1997
There are so many other fun centres you can develop for children. Many of them can actually be kept in a shoe-box for easy storage. These might include:
The Science Centre
Plastic animals, magnifying glasses, measuring cups, rocks, bug catchers, small
toy greenhouses, shells, magnets, prisims, a compas, anything that involves
the senses; sight, taste, smell, hearing, and touch, along with adventurous
science items can be kept in a box and brought out on weekly basis to introduce
the children to simple science. The library is chockfull of great science books
to inspire budding scientists.
The Math Centre
An interesting math centre might contain:
The Camping Centre
Kids love to camp, whether it be outside in the back yard, or in the family
room on a rainy day. Backpacks, sleeping bage, tents or even larger balnkets
fashioned into tens make for some great outings. Include a few old pots and
pans, some tine cups, a canteen, binoculars, an old cooler and grill and presto,
you've created a campsite kids will love.
June 27, 1997
Outdoor play builds self-confidence in children who learn to peddle that tricycle, climb that slide, or swing that swing all by one's self. There is nothing quite like the experience, pride and pleasure of mastering a physical skill. By challenging themselves, children learn they can do things the've never done before.
The outdoor play area also provides a great large muscle building arena. As children develop these muscles and in turn their coordination skills, they also develop their inner self, the confidence to climb one more rung than the day before, to run just a bit faster to grab the tricycle before Micheal does, or to skip with that rope today even though they had a terrible time doing it yesterday.
For an outdoor play centre to challenge
a child, it must be generously equipped and spacious. If you don't have a large
backyard, it would be a good idea to scout out your neighbourhood to see how
many local parks are available for your children to use. These facilities, combined
with what space you can provide, should prove sufficient. Your choice of equipment
might include:
June 20, 1997
All children need time out during the day to play quietly by themselves. One such place for them to relax is the Quiet Centre.
Here a child care work on a puzzle, string some beads, use a flannel board with shapes and pictures, stack a few toys, simply grab a book and nuzzle up between a few cozy pillows. Such quiet activities excersize the fine motor skills and teach children concepts of sequences (a math readiness skill) by allowing children to string beads in a certain repeated order, recognize and use variations in shapes, letters, and numbers.
A great Quiet Centre would consist
of:
June 13, 1997
Aside from unleasing the hidden Rembrants, the art centre benefits children in many ways. It utilizes the muscles in the hands (small motor skills), which helps ready them for the tasks of writing and manipulating small objects like buttons and zippers. It also works on a child's creativity and imagination skills and teaches them to see the beauty in life, art, and in themselves.
Before you go out to set up an awesome art centre, there are two items you should avoid:
So what makes a great art centre? The following items.
It is important to keep in mind that art is in they eye of the beholder. You should always respect a child's art for what it is, for the valiant effort each child put forth in producing the piece. When a child presents you with a finished work, ask him/her to tell you about it. Comment on the colour, the use of different materials. Avoid asking the child what the picture is. The child's commentary will suffice. It is important not to compare one child's artwork to that of another child's, or to give suggestions on how to make the piece better. What matters is that the child is satisfied with the results.
June 6, 1997
The construction centre will require more floor space as children are involved in active play using blocks, farm sets, cars and trucks, construction materials, and roadway equipment.
Blocks are one of the best toys for the construction centre as children can build anything from skyscrapers to roadways, or from fences to corral the horses, to actual towns. What the children learn while playing in the construction centre is more than you might imagine. It takes coordination to build a skyscraper. It takes counting and visual cognition to line up a bunch of houses in a town. A roadway takes precision in lining up the blocks perfectly, as does building a fence. Through it all it builds a child's imagination, creativity and thought process.
Blocks, when intedrated with other types of construction materials like sandpaper, foam pieces, play cars, toy people, string, longer pieces of lumber, etc. add to the excitement and creative process. Larger boxes make great club houses, a post office, or a tunnel. The possibilities are endless.
A great construction centre comes complete with:
For the older children you migh want to include:
May 30, 1997
Measuring, pouring, building, checking out which objects float or sink, it's science at its best at the sand and water centre. Here children can spend hours on end using sponges, strainers, basters, shovels, and so on to play and have fun while learning a great many things like how objects can change their physical shapes. They can build their coordination skills by pouring without spilling, or build a sand castle with other children while learning the all-important social skills. What's more, water and sand are great things to touch.
Plastic water and sand tables can be purchased through toy and equipment suppliers. No money for that? A washtub on the table (surrounded by plastic covering of course), or a play session in the sink can work wonders just the same. A simple sand box with a covering will make for hours of great fun outside during the summer months. You can bring the sand in in a smaller box for winter enjoyment.
Items needed for a great water and sand centre include:
Optional items might include cars, tractors, trucks, farm animals, wire wisks, egg beaters, basters, dolle, etc.
May 23, 1997
All children enjoy music. This is the time when a child can bang on a drum, sing to his/her heart's delight, make noise using a variety of different instruments, or dance up a storm. Awe, the sheer delight of it all!
But music is more than just fun. It's an educational tool. The repetition of a song helps a child to build memory, listening and vocabulary skills. Group singing enhances social skills while dance improves coordination and helps develop the large muscles. Learning new and creative dance steps or letting the children perform their own dance encourages creative thinking and independence. Creating different sounds by putting more or fewer beans in a can, or small or larger elastics around an open cardboard box and listening to the different sounds teach children to explore cause and effect (science and logical thinking).
More than anything else, music is portable. You can sing along the walk to the park, in the car, while washing up for meals, or standing in line at the zoo.
The equipment needed for a music centre can be as simple as homemade items such as (let the children create their own):
Instruments such as
can be purchased second hand to help cut down the costs, but should be part of the music centre.
May 16, 1997
All children love books. Flipping through the pages, looking at the colourful pictures, picking out different objects, colours, shapes, animals, and words is just half the fun. The reading or book centre is also a place where a child can escape the hustle and bustle of the daycare centre or home and enjoy a few minutes of quiet and self-absorption.
A good book centre contains an assortment of picture books, nursery rhyme books, number and counting books, and so on. The more you have to offer, the more you can pique a child's interest in reading.
If you are not sure what books to buy, take the children on a trip to your local library and talk to the librarian. He/she can tell you what types of books children prefer at which age group. Your local or national library association can give you information on purchasing children's books as well. And don't forget to learn from the children themselves. Watch which books they choose from the shelves, which ones they linger over and which ones get tossed aside quickly. Pay attention to the expressions on their faces. You want books that will generate a lot of different feelings as well as those that offer pure fun and entertainment.
Many books come with an audiocassette of the story. Still others come to life on a computer screen and allow children to participate in the story or create their own story. I you have the finances, you might consider setting up a tape recorder or computer (used is fine) in your book centre to allow the children to listen to or interact with their favority story over and over again. This area should not be used as a substitute for a caregiver's reading of a story, or for the cudding on the caregiver's lap so many children enjoy during story time. There is no substitution for human interaction.
Children learn a great many things in the book centre. Turning pages of a book from beginning to end prepares for reading and writing readiness (reading from left to right.) Having a supply of blank paper, pencils, crayons or felts encourages communication (reading and writing). Listening to a story and talking about the story enhances listening skills and language development. It also instills in children a love of books, helps them remember details and express ideas.
A good book centre contains the following items:
Hardcover books will out-last softcover books, particularly in a daycare centre.
May 9, 1997
This centre will generate a lot of use from children. The housekeeping area is a stage for dramatic play, from acting out roles such as Mommy, Daddy or baby (understanding their experiences better through abstract thinking), to dressing up like Aunt Jeany (building small muscle skills such as buttoning that teach self-help and develop writing); or from cooking and cleaning to shopping and playing restaurant. Simple activities like washing dishes and sorting cups, plates and silverware teach object categories helpful with math.
The housekeeping centre can be put together from simple furniture created out of cardboard boxes, like refrigerators and stoves, or can be purchased as plastic, ready-made equipment readily available at most toy and department stores. A sturdy set of child-size table and chairs is a must. Dress-up clothing can be obtained from your own closet or by taking the children on a trip to the second-hand or thrift store to pick out an array of old shirts, dresses, scarves, jewelery, hats, shoes, etc. Kitchen supplies might include egg cartons, margarine containers, old measuring cups, utinsels, empty cereal boxes, and so on.
Basic materials for a kitchen centre include:
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