Literacy is often thought of as reading and writing and therefore not considered important in the early years.  However, literacy is more than just reading and writing ability, it is the ability to read, speak, write and listen. It is never too early to think about literacy with your child!Literacy development begins at birth (emergent literacy) and continues through the preschool years.  It is possible to provide literacy opportunities at home using some of the below suggestions .   During infant and toddler years  It is important to: ·       Talk to children with simple language and frequent eye contact.  We should always respond to their attempts at communicating. ·         Singing, playing and finger-plays (songs like “incy wincy spider”) with infants and toddlers is important to develop their language skills ·         Providing crayons, paint and papers for infants and toddlers to e...

Bed Time Stories As long as I can remember, I have loved to read. As an adult, I still read every single day. I will read everything and anything, and I really enjoy sitting down with a book and a cup of tea, and just relax. It even helps me sleep at night. This love of reading stemmed from my mother. When I was a child every night she would read my brother and I bedtime stories. I looked forward to going to bed and listening to her read the stories each night to me. Her story telling was (and still is) so captivating and exciting, many people have said that she should write stories herself. She made each book seem like it was the most exciting, magical, thrilling story ever. I had a shelf in my room full of teddy bears and dolls and different toys. My mother used these toys as the characters in each story. I particularly loved The Tale of Peter Rabbit and my mother used the rabbits to narrate the story. It was so much fun. I loved my bedtime stories. Why are b...

THE USE OF POSITIVE LANGUAGE WITH YOUNG CHILDREN For every one of us that has a child in our care whether it is us teachers, parents, nannies or caregivers is important to use positive language with each child rather than negative:  (e.g. “Don’t pick your nose” use “Would you wipe your nose with this tissue”  “Stop running!” use “Can we use our walking feet please”  “That is very bold/naughty” use “That’s not very nice, is it? (explain why the behaviour is not nice) The use of positive language: Will give the children a sense of achieving and doing right rather than feelings of guilt or not being able to do something correctly.  Hence why I think it is important to have a positive touch on everything even when we are speaking to and correcting children. We all know it can get a little frustrating at times but the important thing to remember is to stay as calm and positive. We are all teachers anyone of us who is caring for a ...

It is normal for every parent to have periods of hyper activity of their children and some moments when you have to tell your kid to slow down, this happen when they are excited or have high energy, but if they are always hyper active, always moving and cannot focus on certain activity this should raise your suspicion that they may have something abnormal. Hyper activity is a cardinal sign of what is called (attention deficient hyperactivity disorder) or ADHD.  What is ADHD? The signs of ADHD are hard to miss and they are present all the time, and they always bring negative comments and annoyed feeling against the child and if you do not know what is really going on you may think that your child is acting and misbehaves and this may let you think that you have to punish him in any way and this will make it worse. Here are some behaviors that are common with hyperactivity: • Talks almost constantly and frequently interrupts others.  • Moves from place...