Helping Parents Deal with Separation Anxiety

I sometimes have children who experience separation anxiety when their parents are dropping them off for the day. It's a natural part of development, sure, but there are also things that you can do to alleviate a lot of those tears and fears.

I'm especially fond of tip #3 in this video: Commit to your Exit. Let parents know that it's not a bad idea at all to hang out for a few minutes while their child gets comfortable. I always welcomed that and it's so much easier on a child than drop-and-run. What I didn't enjoy, however, was when a child would get involved in an activity and was perfectly happy and then Mom or Dad would made a big show of leaving. A content, acclimated child would suddenly become stricken with sorrow after hearing, "OK honey, I'm leaving. Mommy's going. Bye. Sweetie? Sweetie? Look over here at me. Mommy has to go. I'm really leaving this time. Here I go. I'm going." Please know that if that's how parents are behaving at drop-off time, it's a trigger for their child's anxiety rather than a help and you should let the parent know about it and give them ideas about how to handle the situation better. (Send them a link to the video!)

At the same time, I wouldn't ever advise parents to sneak out the door just because they see their child is happy at play. Something as simple as a kiss on the forehead and, "Looks like you're having fun. I'll see you later," is all that's needed before they walk out the door. I've seen children have some pretty hard-to-calm breakdowns after realizing that a parent left without them knowing. It's a delicate balance between too much goodbye and not enough, but it's one worth finding.

_{Photo Credit: "Bye Bye Window" by ThreeErin under CC by ND 2.0 license.}

Making Colored Sand or Salt

Here's a movie of my kid and I making some colored salt...



As you can see, these are pretty easy to make. I know the big name guys like Discount School Supply sell this stuff inexpensively, but really, you can make it yourself and use the money you'd save on some colored butcher rolls. (Always seems like there's never enough of that...)

Learning about Rainbows

There are so many teachable moments with kids, but sometimes we forget when we get caught up in routine or mundane tasks.

For instance, when you fill up the wading pool or you're hooking up the sprinkler for the kids this summer, remember to take the time to show them how you can make a rainbow and give them turns holding the hose and creating this wonderful effect. (Just remember to put your back to the sun and tell the kids to spray over their shadows for the best results.

When I was a kid, I never got tired of making rainbows in the hose. And every rainbow seemed like magic to me. But don't leave it at that for the kids in your care... be sure to teach them some of the science behind rainbows.

Other ways to have fun with rainbows:

• Put prisms in the science area or on the science table



• Blow bubbles on sunny days and point out the rainbow effects in the bubbles



• set out all the colors of the rainbow at the easel and teach the children about "Roy G. Biv" (Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo, Violet)



• Make rainbows on large paper with colored sand or colored salt



• Hold up a compact disc in the light and let the children see the rainbow pattern

^{Rainbow Spray Photo is Copyright abbydonkrafts (Taken by Samantha)}

Georgia launches early learning standards

Georgia is pretty serious about education.

I know this because my S.O. went to college completely funded by this great state, while I invested over $50,000 in my education in my home state and I will be paying off my student loans till I'm in the grave, folks.

At any rate, I've known how they feel about "a free college education for all" but I never knew how serious they were about educating their youngest...

When I saw in a press release that some early learning standards were released, I thought I'd go have a look-see.

These standards are excellent and I wish I had something like this when I was caring for infants and toddlers. They focus on the birth to three age range and can do a lot to educate caregivers and parents about what to expect and how to shape a child's learning.

My thoughts...

• Directors can use them to shape your programs and as a basis for staff inservices


• Parents can use them to see what their child should be learning and to help evaluate the child care program their child is attending


• 
  Family child care providers can keep on file for every child in their care as a sort of Individualized Education Program (IEP)
  


• Parents who plan to homeschool can use this as a guideline for the early building blocks for future education
  


• Teachers, caregivers and nannies can use the standards to evaluate the children in their care and to make sure that there are no gaps in their teaching/caregiving.
  

And of course, while all children grow and develop at their own rate, I think that parents and caregivers who use something like this are going to be more apt to notice developmental delays and problems when a child is consistently behind in areas... these types of referrals are so important -- better safe than sorry and the earlier the better!

So download the full version or just those parts you're interested in... it's free and it's one of the best I've seen.

Sample Preschool Lesson Plan Form Based on Learning Centers

This form is a one-page lesson planner that is based on activities in learning centers, with areas for teacher directed activities like what will be discussed in circle time and what art project will be done. There is also an area for art center where you can put in whatever new materials you will have available there.

There is room on the plan for the date, theme and other areas of focus like letters, numbers, shapes and colors.

.pdf version of the sample preschool lesson plan form based on learning centers

Microsoft Word version of the sample preschool lesson plan form based on learning centers

Make a Turkey Book that Teaches Colors

This idea is based on the Brown Bear, Brown Bear book.

First you will need a turkey template to cut out and color. Here are a few nice ones:

Large Turkey

Turkey Coloring Page

Realistic Turkey (for those of you that dislike the cartoony looking line art, but keep in mind you'll be coloring them with bright colors)

I used a pattern that came out of a book, but you can freehand one if you're a good artist. I'm not. :)

You should think about what size your book will be before printing. You can make it two pages per sheet of paper and fold it or make a big book with one page per sheet. You may need to shrink your template on the copy machine or on your computer before printing.

What I did was use 2 sheets per page. I printed and colored my turkeys and hand lettered the book with, "BLUE turkey, BLUE turkey, what do you see?" (You have to start the book with the question, then the page following can have the answer, "I see a RED turkey looking at me." And then you have a "turkey" page saying, "RED turkey, RED turkey, what do you see?" And then on the next page, "I see a GREEN turkey looking at me." and then on the next page, "GREEN turkey, GREEN turkey, what do you see?" Continue until you've exhausted all your "color" options.

I mounted the pages on construction paper that was slightly larger and then covered with contact paper. Then I punched three holes along the side and held it all together with yarn.

If you are doing this book for toddlers, then you can stick to basic colors like blue, red, green, yellow... and keep the book short.

If you are doing it for older children, they will probably still enjoy the story, since it's a familiar favorite... but you can use more "advanced" colors such as lavender, fuschia, turquoise, etc.

I put the color names in all caps matching the color to help aid with sight recognition as well, which is good even for toddlers. You may not think they're getting it, but I've seen many children in my care recognize the word by sight somewhere else, long after we were done reading the book.

Here are some images:





Click to enlarge image of pages being glued to construction paper



Click to enlarge image of RED turkey pages



Click to enlarge image of GREEN turkey pages