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6 Tips For Helping Young Children With Homework

Dealing with your child’s homework can be very stressful and they have never being easy especially for your young master starting their pre-school around the age of 4, 5 or 6. In many pre-schools and kindergartens, children are assigned with homework after school hours. These assignments are given to the young children as a mean for them to revise what have been taught of in school, and get themselves to familiar with the learning through hands-on assignments to develop their skills and knowledge.

Assigning homework to children at these pre-schools came with an important objective which is to enhance the skill of learning, develop the habit of getting their hands around homework and revisions since young age. Children who tend to complete their homework on time without fail despite the increasing amount of homework given is tend to earn better grades, as compared to those who do less homework.

Now that we all agree that homework is important even for young kids in their pre-schools,  so what can parents do to make sure your children understand the true objectives of homework and the relationship between homework and academic success.

1. Setting up a time table

Finding a regular time where your children should work and complete on their assignments. The best schedule is one that can accommodate the child and the parents.  It is often being taken that the favorite homework time to be after a thirty minute play and an hour of nap in the afternoon.  Or alternatively it has been set after dinner time where most of the day time activities are over by then. Whichever the time set, it is most important to make sure it works for the children as well as the parents to get the most out of this time table.

2. Decide a proper place for homework

A study room would be the best place for homework. A study room needs to be brightly lighted, with good air ventilation, clean and quiet.  It should be a place which is dedicated for studying and learning and homework.

3. Set good examples

Adults should set good examples for their children in building good habits of reading, writing with an effort of analyzing articles of their interest. Parents should always share what they have read with their children, and to seek for their opinions on the related articles and subjects at the same time.  Encourage activities which support good learning and reading habits such as, participate in e-educational programs, visit the national library together, a visit to the medium or zoo together are some of the good activities to learn and share good habits on.

4. Provide adequate support and resources for homework

Parents should support by supplying necessary stationeries and writing supplies and tools to get your children to accomplish their homework. Dictionaries and reference books are some of the key resources for your young ones to develop good academic knowledge which will be able to take them a long way.

5. Remove possible distractions

Turn off the television and music during homework time is a disciplinary act to ensure your child understands the importance of homework time where focus and concentration is the key when education and studies are concerned.

6. Get organized

Help your children to table out a calendar which will be able to accommodate for studying, resting, playing and working on homework.   This time-table is even more crucial during school holidays, where your children have ample time during holidays where they do not need to attend their pre-schools.

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Helping Young Children Deal With School Bullying

No one should have to put up with bullying in schools. It is an annoying fact to know that school bullying and taunting had become an horrifying norm today, with bullying happening once every seven minutes in the school playgrounds and once every 25 minutes in the class, based on the latest survey carried out by the professional institution of children bullying in the society today across world-wide.

It is terrifying for parents to accept this fact for things were never being that bad during their old school days, although they were well aware that there were bullying in schools, nevertheless they had hardly came across many of them in their lives. It is true that the society today had changed its perceptive in identifying the strong and the weak as well as their outcome. Some children start to show their ‘bullying’ skills as early as age three, while some starts to reflect their rebellious character while in pre-school at age six or so.

Thank goodness there are still ‘ways’ where parents are able to ‘tell’ if their children are victimized by school bullies from some tell-tale signs on their kids:

1. Come back from school with unexplained bruises and cuts.

2. Frequent complaint of sicknesses such as diarrhea, headache, or stomach ache to avoid attending school.

3. Lack of appetite and difficulty in sleeping at night.

4. Deteriorating in their school grades and lack of concentration in classes.

5. Showing sign of impatient and getting depressed easily.

6. Frequent replenishment on their stationeries such as pen, eraser and ruler as these items went missing like every week or fort-nightly.

7. Sudden switch of attitude and behavior and don’t  show much interest in relating their school life to any of their family members, and tend to become very quiet and anti-social.

8. Demand for extra pocket money frequently from the parents

Parents should pay close attention to these warning signs of bullying as they should be helping their children on how to tackle and manage these bullying, in preventing any further negative impact from being bullied which might impact your young ones, physically and mentally.

As parents, there are many areas which we can help our children if school bullying happens in their early growing and learning years:

1. If your kids are suspected of being bullied in his school, you need to get his cooperation to share with you on what had happened by explaining that you are here to help. Find out the necessary from him and it is highly advisable to prepare a written report citing the date, time, and how the incidents had happened and state out precisely where did the incident happen. Then, arrange an appointment with the school disciplinary officer or person in charge. Be prepared for a series of meetings with the school officials and counselors to jointly work through this with the best effort and plan to prevent any future reoccurrences.

2. Avoid sending your kids to schools with huge numbers of students especially if they are still young. The most suitable school size would be around 400 students with no more than 35 students assigned to one class.

3. Parents should prevent their children from bringing anything expensive or too much money to school. Normally rich kids like these are the target victim for school bullies.

4. Encourage your kids to be accompanied by his or her best friends as much as possible in the school, especially during recess, going to the toilet, to the car park, to the school play-ground or to the library. It is always good to find someone of the same interest to partner each other.

5. Teach your kids on ways to manage and resolve arguments with these bullies without the use of violent, in words or in action.

6. Enroll them in self-protection class such as karate, taekwondo, martial arts, where they learn to stay alert in all kinds of environment and increase their confident to stand up for themselves.

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Develop Children Through Creative Learning

Every children is creative in their own way, every one of them are unique and special. As parents, we often wonder if our kids are gifted with great creativity or otherwise when they are born. Although I have to admit that people who are found to be creative are born inherited; little do we being made aware that one can actually learn to be innovative and creative through a lot of curriculum learning today.

Academic excellence alone is not enough to fulfill the challenging needs of the society and it does not guarantee the success of any individual in the long run. Instead, it is the ability of those who have achieved the high standards of creativity which will ultimately survive in the long run.

Today world renowned creative learning schools fostering creative learning for the young by introducing a lot of creative curriculum based on the concepts on the multiple forms of intelligence shared by Howard Gardner, world famous editor’s classic works in 1993.

1. Linguistic and logical mathematical

Excellent logical mathematical intelligence which can be enhanced through the process of measuring, estimating and counting in these schools.

2. Musical and Visual-Spatial intelligence

one with great musical creativity which is fostered through the listening of songs or musical instruments with rhythms; while Visual-Spatial intelligence is the ability to utilize a variety of artistic techniques and materials to produce the finishing art products, such as drawing, painting, mosaic, sculpture and fabric arts.

3. Bodily-Kinesthetic Intelligence

The ability to build children creativity and imagination through the physical movement such as dancing to a variety of music or role playing performance portraying animals or other artists.

4. Interpersonal intelligence

The capacity to understand and appreciate the feelings of others well. This intelligence helps to ease and facilitate the working relationship with multiple levels of people in one’s community and the business world. People with good interpersonal intelligence normally are well adored by his group of friends and peers.

5. Intrapersonal Intelligence

The ability of an individual to comprehend the feelings of one thoroughly and completely. This helps the individual to seek for what he is best with he most suitable career, pastimes, life-style for him or herself.

Teachers have been taught to teach and encourage creativity since young. It is a process where to some degree, the tutors need to forego their autonomy and let the children take control, so that the young generation can freely expose their skills, and potential talents and their desire in many different areas. It has been suggested that teachers or tutors should;

a. Create and provide a learning environment where these young learners can play while exploring the unknown with their curious mind unlimitedly.

b. Adapt and accept to the children’s idea instead of confining them to listen to what their elderly have in mind always

c. Introduce the concept of creative problem solving in their curriculum for solving any issues right from those can be found in everyday’s life.

d. Emphasize on the process of learning and not on the product itself, for the experiences of exploration and brainstorming and experimentation that have been put in for creating these products are way more valuable.

e. Always approach the children with open-ended questions. This allows the children to have their imagination run wild and you will be amazed by how diversified these answers will be from the children.

f. Teachers should respect children ideas and try to let go of issues and let them have the freedom to settle these problems themselves through their own creative way.

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4 Potty Training Tips For Young Children

Potty training is a big milestone for young children. With them on their diapers for at least some 18 months or even more, young children are really acquainted with their diapers anywhere they go and whatever they do. Getting them into potty training is a tough change which needs the team effort between the parent and child, with lots of on-going support and encouragement, patience and great persistent to make potty training a success.

Some kindergarten has included potty training as one of the key criteria for their school admission especially those as young as two years old. They shall not accept any admission if the young students have not being trained on potty training because they are scared that these young children do not yet have their bladder and muscle control fully developed to control toileting, while some of them may not be able to trigger the teachers when they have the urge to go to the toilets. And in these situations, wetting accidents sound to be unavoidable on daily basis.

Some parents start to get the pressure when they found out that their neighbor child or niece of the same age as their child had started potty training and are doing well while on the other hand, their child may still be on their nappies. The fact is that chronological age might not be the right indicator to tell if a child is ready or otherwise. Instead parents should look for simple signs to tell that their children are ready, such as: they are able to follow simple instructions, understand the use of potty and the benefits of it, can stay dry for at least 2 hours, able to tell when they need to go to the washroom and dislike the idea of getting themselves wet!

For some, it takes time for different individual to be ready with this change and parents should not hard force them to be on their potties because this will only put pressure and anxiety on your young ones which might unnecessarily delay their success in potty training later. They need to understand the reason for the change and the benefits which they can achieved from this learning. Learning through appreciation and acceptance will achieve the best and most enduring results.

potty training for young children
Here are 4 free potty training tips you can follow to help your child to achieve some good results:

1. First of all, dress your child in an easy to be removed clothing, avoid zips, snaps, buttons, which are difficult to be undone with, and pretty much time consuming to get over with especially when there is an urgent urge to do the peeing.

2. Allow your child to be on diapers some of the time especially during the early phases of potty training, then gradually reduce his diapers wearing duration as he slowly gets used to the potty.

3. Train the child to hop on the potty after his nap, his meal, or after sometime. Encourage him to be on his potty as and when needed. Get him to make it a habit to be consistently on his potty by establishing a routine for him.

4. Praise and continue to encourage your child to get familiar with the potty training and reward him he shows improvements in his toileting skills. With the continuous encouragement and motivations given to your little child, he is picking up new changes and learning of new things as he continues to grow and progress.

Are you ready to facilitate your child in his/her potty training now?

If you want Potty Training to be Fast, Fun and without Stress, you may want to check out this Complete Step by Step Guide To Potty Training that covering All Potty Training Issues.

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Tips to Make Reading Fun And Interesting For Young Children

Kids learn best when they are having fun. One of the best ways to get young children to start adore reading is by incorporating some kind of fun elements which interest the kids most into reading. While knowing that every child is different and unique, each of them gets to learn at their different pace and momentum.

Here are some of the key tips of how to get young children to start their reading habits:

Tips for babies from 0 to 12 months:

  • Board book full with color pictures and drawings of all sort will attract babies of this age more than anything else.
  • They especially adore pictures of babies and animals. Through these board books, babies at this age recognize pictures and colors and where they might not be able to read out those words in the board books, but definitely they will learn what are these pictures meant.
  • Pictures with bright colors attract their attention more, colors such as Red, purple, and Orange are their favorites.

Tips for toddlers from 12 months to 36 months:

  • Board books with simple wordings and sentences beside each picture trying to describe the situation and the meaning of the pictures are best used by toddlers of this age.
  • As most toddlers gets to walk steadily around the age of 15 months old, a good board book which is light and easy to carry around is preferred.
  • At this age, the most preferred reading books for them are books with all types of animals and fruits, human actions and things which they can easily find and see in their homes and nurseries. Simple rhythms would be something of their liking as well such as ‘Humpty Dumpty’, ‘Jack and Jill’ and many more simple but yet famous rhythms of all time.

Tips for preschoolers from 3 to 5 years old:

  • At this age, a book that tells a story can be appreciated by these young readers as they are mature enough at this age to understand the meaning behind each of the story.
  • They usually adore books about great heroes, little angels, Harry Porter, books of great adventures, books about making friends, books on going places such as to the zoo and circus, visit an old town or a new school with the family, attended a good friend’s birthday party. Books of happening such as lost in a busy shopping complex, a road accident or on examples of kind deeds such as an honest boy who earned his rewards for honesty, helping an old lady crossing a busy street and love small animals are also some of the hot favorite of young children ranging from 3 to 5 years old.
  • Books which encourage story telling are also high in demand. Young children at this age adores animation and acting the role while trying to relate the story telling to the crowd is something which children at this age can be trained on.
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