Child Development

42 Children can describe how big or small their rooms are. How many rooms do they have? What kind of a roof do they have? What is the shape of the windows? Is their neighbourhood safe? Do they enjoy living in their neighbourhood? Is their home comfortable or spacious enough? Do they have a fireplace in their home? Is water and electricity available in their home? Do people have close access to water? Some people that live on farms have to go a long way to fetch water. People that live on farms have difficulty with the water, electricity and toilets. These problems are seldom experienced with those living in residential areas or cities. 42

43 About your family and friends Children should be taught of the pronunciation of names of their families and friends and see photographs of friends and families. Teachers can ask children to bring photographs to school. It can be of friends, family and of themselves. A discussion can take place about the people in the photograph. Questions can be asked, like the following: Do they know the name of the person in the photo? Were they happy or sad when the photo was taken? Does it look pretty? Talk about brothers and sisters in photos. Ask how old they were at the time when the photo was taken. 43

44 Mention grandparents and how they are related to them. Discuss being friendly with neighbours, go to the shops together, try to invite each other over to your homes, it will be quite interesting to know about each other in different ways. Revise these themes weekly at school so the children can remember and learn a lot from this aspect. They learn to communicate better in class, when discussions are carried out more often. Our community Have discussions about what a community consists of. Our community consists of houses, streets, pavements, churches, temples, mosques, health clinics, pre- schools, crèches, play schools, day-care centres, shopping complexes, doctor's surgeries and libraries, optometrists, parks, all the buildings you see have its own purpose. These we have for the people of our community. 44

45 Some people go to the community centres to have lessons on certain interests that they would like to share with others of their own age group. With the supervision of an adult, a child can take walks or organise an excursion to explore the community centres. They can be told about their community centres. For instance, about the churches, the kind of people that goes to church, talk about the mosques, about the kind of people that go to mosques, and about the temples, the kind of people that go to temples. Children can observe their surroundings. Many people of different cultures and ages like to go to their community centres. Some people would prefer to be alone, or would like to meet people of their own age group. Picnics can be one of a family get together in parks and it could be fun. Some people attend the community centres in order to join specific classes to learn or do activities of their own choice. 45

46 Activities like painting, drawing, singing, dancing, even exercising can be tried. Worksheets can be made to show children in class explaining to them the different activities we have in our community centre. Children love dancing and this can be done at our community centre. Tuition can be given to children if they are interested. Dances like ballet, waltz, and jazz, break dancing if needed and even learning to do different kinds of art. Children can learn to dress in different costumes for each dance. The languages that one speaks differ from the next person. Children can learn these too. Cultures of other people should be taught to the children of today, quite often a child wants to know or learn the language or culture, and of others because it is different to their present culture, and the colour of their skin too. At pre-school - inside the classroom Discuss the area in which the children are going to play in and what it contains. There should be a play corner, book corner, and toys for children at the children's corner, crayons, clay, and paint for children to do art activities. This is to get children to be playful and to explore their surroundings. 46

47 Children can play fantasy games like pretending to be mummy and daddy, bake, and clean the house in the house area and have in doing so. In the book corner they can play quietly, at the children's corner they can play with blocks, toys, and be communicative. Children can paint and draw to be imaginative. Using clay, or cooking dough to strengthen their muscles. When outside the classroom When children are outside the classroom they want to be active and play games of all kinds. In the playground or garden, children can run, hop, skip, jump, roll on the grass, play on a swing, play on a skate board. If they know how to do this or they can play hide and seek, one the most played games or just have children discussions. They can smell different flowers in the garden, play with water, pour water into bottles, tins, jars, buckets, blow bubbles, splash in the water and be safe while playing. Allow children to draw when outside. They can draw what they find or see even something that they are playing with, or talk about the object they found in the playground. 47

48 Talk to children about the different kinds of schools we have. Schools like the pre-schools, primary schools, day-care centres, universities and secondary schools. Ask them about their school and the number of rooms it consists of. What activity is performed in each room? Who are the teachers that help perform these activities? Do you have families that go to universities or secondary schools? Do you know how they are taught at these schools? Sketches can be made of other activities and then pasted onto the board. If children cannot think of other activities then the teacher could go over the sketches with them, they should not have to feel bored, always have some activity at hand for them. 48

49 Discussions on streets Children have to be aware when playing in the streets, especially if the streets are busy. A quiet street is most appropriate. It is dangerous to play in streets where there is daily traffic passing by, as children can be hit by a passing vehicle. Always cross streets with an adult. Children should never run across a street. Look left, look right and then look left again before crossing. Depending on what side of the road vehicles drive on. Listen and look for any traffic before crossing a street. Children should walk on pavements and not close to the street, as accidents can occur suddenly. In our community we have community workers, for example, the garbage removal man who collects the garbage from our homes, schools and parks or in other areas. We have the street cleaners who keep our streets clean. 49

50 The milkman who delivers the milk daily in most areas, and then there is the postman who delivers the mail daily at home or into one's private post box. There are lots of people who do these different tasks daily, they have to be careful on the streets as they pass traffic all the time. The postman wears a cap and a special uniform to perform his duties; it's to specify that he is a postman. All the others mentioned wear specific uniforms to be identified as a certain kind of worker. These sorts of topics should be emphasized to children at pre-schools allowing them to know more about their surroundings. The builders you see on the street, or in your neighbourhood, are the people who build homes, office blocks, buildings that play a major part in most people's lives because lots of people work in these buildings, schools, libraries and cinemas. The council workers who clean the parks daily wear uniforms; this is to protect their clothing and is used as identification in public. It is important for our environment to be clean all the time. Council workers place bins in specific positions so one can put litter into these bins. 50

51 The traffic officers are there to see that the motorists abide by the rules and regulations of the road. They deal with road safety, robots and controlling of traffic. Fire-fighters are called out when there are fires that cannot be controlled that easily. These men wear uniforms that are brightly coloured. Fire-engines are what firemen drive in case of an emergency. The siren on the vehicle is switched on in order to allow other vehicles to give the right of way to pass. All these people have special training before they become used to working by themselves. In most cases people train for a certain amount of years before they become really experienced. Health and safety of our children Health and safety of our children are very important. Parents and teachers need to make sure that children always have their health checked and that they are always safe. Having your child's health checked can be done at clinics locally or at your family doctor. 51

52 Children should be warned when playing because they often get hurt and may need the help of a doctor. They should be allowed to talk of their personal experiences when going to a doctor or clinic. Questions can be asked about their visits at the clinic or surgery. What did their medication taste like? Did they have an injection? If they did, was it sore? Ask them to describe the clinic or surgery to you. They can be familiar with doctors’ instruments and know the uniforms that nurses and doctors are required to wear, and doctors are males or females. Ask children to act like doctors and nurses at preschool; this can be performed at home too. Children can learn about doctors when pretending to be one and develop new ideas about them. What children should do to look after themselves? Discuss the ways children should bear in mind to prevent themselves from getting hurt. 52

53 Children should not play with any detergents, they can be poisonous. They should not be in contact with medicines that are \"for adults only\". Broken pieces of glass should not be lying around, or any sharp objects, knives, scissors or needles, they can hurt themselves. All these mentioned should be kept away from children. Children should not be near boiling water or oil. They should not be near a stove, a gas stove or a cooker. It can be dangerous. This if not attended can burn them. Children should not play with matches. They should always ask adults to help them to do a certain chore that they are not capable of. Safety in the area you live Organise discussions amongst children about experiences of violence in the area they live in. Each child should have a turn to talk of their experience of violence and other children should pay attention to that child telling of his experience. 53

54 What if the child reports violence at home? Other programmes that can be done are the emergency of a fire-drill. It can be planned for children to respond to it. In this way they get familiar with procedures planned, and in an emergency and they would know how to react, with doctors, nurses, patients and equipment. Doctors see to patients that are sick, they give medication to patients and perform operations if needed. They have to study for many years and practice as well before becoming qualified doctors. The needles they use are often sterilised after being used on a patient. This is to prevent diseases. Discuss topics of nurses and doctors to children. Houses Children need to know about the shelter that they live in. They should know what their houses are made of. Why is it important? Draw pictures of your house and of other houses to show the differences in houses. Show the different way houses are built and shaped. Make houses out of a shoebox to show children how to play in a toy house. Little toy tea-sets, furniture can be made to show what a house looks like inside. Find out about the area you live in. 54

55 The kind of house your neighbours have and the way their houses are built compared to yours or others around your neighbourhood. There are various kinds of houses that one can live in like the caravans that are used when going on an outdoor trip and the structure of our newly built homes. Houses are of great meaning to people because it gives us shelter and warmth. Without a house one is unable to live properly. Teachers can show children pictures of other houses. Different people live in different homes, in other places of the world. Icy treats Ice sticks, are a delicious treat. All you need are plastic ice-lolly containers (available from supermarkets) and a little imagination to dream up delicious ice- lolly recipes. For a taste-bud tingling snack, chop some fruit (apple, pineapple or peach) into little pieces and add to a jug of fruit juices or cool drink. Pour into ice-lolly containers and freeze. Alternately, freeze yoghurt. Children can help their parents when performing these recipes and can learn a lot from participating in these themes. 55

56 Chapter Two Discovery activities The reason for the design and development of discovery activities will depend of the needs of the learner and on the program needs. These are activities that the parent, child or teacher and child discuss together. In many cases it's the teacher and child because parents are working and their children are left at pre-schools, day-care centres or playgroups. Children find out about creating indoor activities, activities that they can cope with. Most children learn to express themselves freely and develop their imagination through fantasy play. Hand and finger puppets and dolls with dressing up clothes are an excellent way to encourage this sort of play. Discovery activities like creative play are one activity your child can enjoy the most. Cutting, pasting, painting and drawing are favourite children's activities. Give your child theme colouring books on wild-life for example, so that they can learn about the world while colouring in pictures. Blunt-nosed scissors are ideal for cutting pictures out of old magazines. 56

57 Most children enjoy painting and water-based paints are easily removed from clothing. A ball is an idea for developing your child's co-ordination. Show different sized balls to your child while outside and encourage throwing them back to you. Learning and copying things differs from one child to the next. Some children may learn best when activities are concrete, another when activities are more open-ended and abstract. One can learn by seeing, another by hearing, another by touching it differs from one child to the next. The differences in learning can be done within created learning materials. For a child to learn, he needs to explore, investigate, learning goes beyond experiencing. Learning should include activities that a child can touch, mould, create and shape as part of their learning process. By design, learning materials can be put together like puzzles, sorting colours to create a book or collage. To advance learning skills children should have new skills and development. Methods of learning that would motivate a learner to complete the task or activity. A learner should be challenged to learn or try to excite a learner to perform. Methods and approaches should be done to provide unique experiences. Focus of the learner is increased and interest of tasks is increased too. 57

58 Tasks using pens and pencils can be replaced by learning games, projects and activities. To increase self-study skills learners should be provided with motivational and interesting tasks like, imagination and creativity expression of a child's self-identity, self-confidence, warmth and esteem is strengthened. Tasks can be provided to allow the child to pretend, to create, to suggest and to imagine. A child should be allowed freely to respond to activities. At the age of three years old your child may have started drawing pictures which represent people, animals or items, even if to mom's untrained eye they look like mere squiggles on paper. Once a child reaches four or five, he/she is able to draw more realistically representations of what is noticed, although abilities vary enormously. Try using art to stimulate your child's creativity in the following ways: Once your child has drawn a picture, ask the individual to make up a story about it. You could even write the words down and stick them to the picture, like a cartoon. You might find that your toddler tends to copy favourite TV characters instead of drawing their own. You can encourage your child to elaborate on the theme by adding own characters to the picture. 58

59 If your child keeps drawing monsters, ask him to tell you what the monsters mean. If he is frightened of them, suggest that he comes up with a way to get rid of them. Pre-schoolers are seldom influenced by outside opinion of what \"right\" colours are and may have a favourite colour which dominates their pictures, simply because the colour delights them. As your child gets older, encourage him to let his imagination run freely and to adapt what he sees to create original drawings instead of simply reproducing what's in front of him. Hopefully, his lack of conventional thought will carry over into other areas of his life as well. Discovery materials and activities By allowing or telling your child to use designed tasks activities, their learning can be pleasurable and successful. They will have confidence when approaching activities and will be willing to complete activities with little or no assistance. This will allow your child to have a positive attitude towards learning. 59

60 Use creative learning materials for daily assignments, like phonic tasks. A special corner in your classroom can be used for creativity and free time. You can get your child to perform a project at this special corner. Organise special corners that are educational, where children can perform various activities. Ways to create tasks at home In your child's playroom set a special corner with crayons, felt-tipped pens, pens, pencils, rulers, clay, a blunt-nose scissors and paper. A child can use this area to perform various activities of his own imagination. Set aside activity time at home daily, your child will enjoy these times and experience excitement in doing these activities. You will know your child's weakness in various activities. Allow your child a day in a week to play a night game with other family members. Spend some time at the library, get tasks from a library book for your child to approach and complete. 60

61 Use of cards Using cards of various colours and shapes are learning tasks. Patterns on cards are also used. Usually try to focus on one specific activity. Through unique experiences the learner is motivated and challenged to perform various tasks. Sorting of pictures, colours, shapes and activities that require matching are highly motivating to learn. Hobbies are some activities that children can have, like horse-riding, collecting of stamps of different countries, coins, learning to bake or cook, collecting of little charms or making crafts, when using wood to make little animals, collect cars, fast cars and vintage cars or have an interest of something new so boredom doesn’t set in. Making of folders Cut and paste two plain pieces of paper on one side only. You can make it look like a folder by having holes punched in it or you could have file clips to hold it together. Pictures can be stuck on the front to make it look attractive. 61

62 In this folder you can keep lots of your personal belongings like little newspaper articles, topics that have an interest like cartoon pictures, from comic books, fairytales, favourite stories too. Using specific words from stories, poems and rhymes you can ask children to form sentences and see how many they can do. Additional activities Keep a chart of a well-balanced diet for children and keep note of daily eating habits. Take children out to supermarkets so they are able to know and identify the different fruit and vegetables on their own. A well balanced diet is very important for their bodies. Encourage children to have fruit and vegetables and bran foods daily. Plenty of fresh juices, milk and water are healthy too. Rhyming of words The learner will have to match words that end in the short sounds. For example: bat, cat, rat, and mat, sat, fat, that Pot, cot, lot, dot, not, hot, rot Fin, grin, din, tin, bin, sin Live, dive, jive, five Met, net, get, set, let, pet, 62

63 Vowel sounds Words with long vowel sounds: light, ruler, teach, break. Short vowel sounds Lend, bend, send, mend, bind, duck, chick, gent, cot. Art Thicker and less sticky than mud, and more applicable than clay What -clay or plasticine? Ideal for modelling objects of art. It’s cheap and can be used over and over again. Show your child how water makes clay pliable and encourage him to mould shapes, using a finger dipped in water to smooth over any cracks which appear. Clay should be modelled on a non-porous surface, like plastic wrapped in a damp cloth when you've finished using it, to prevent it from drying out. It can be purchased from art shops. 63

64 Art Activities Marvellous construction toys and play dough Any building activity presents plenty of hand-eye co-ordination challengers to pre-schoolers. Even before your child is a year old he/she can benefit from nesting and stacking toys and large but simple building blocks; and play dough, graduating to more complicated models through the pre-schooler's years. By using construction toys and play dough, your child will learn: Shapes, colours and sizes Fine finger movements Balance To sort and group items From two years old, as your child becomes more imaginative in play, they'll start to make simple cars and houses out of uncomplicated blocks, develop fine-finger control and a greater understanding of how things fit together. 64

65 Building block-kits with vehicles, people and animals will encourage him to use his imagination and to add on ideas of his own. Young children enjoy playing with crayons, that's what most children want to do when they are just pre- schoolers or even younger. They like to draw or scribble on walls or paper, the enjoyment coming from seeing the different shapes and colours they can make. This activity is most enjoyed on bad weather days when one has to stay indoors. These scribbles that a child makes mean something to him as it is how he actually learns to write and draw and eventually it will lead to circles or even showing pictures. By praising your child for the scribbles makes him feel that his work is important and appreciated. They also feel proud and very much encouraged. Nursery rhymes, at the age of two a child starts to enjoy rhymes and sing-along tapes that are super for encouraging them to sing and dance and to perform the appropriate actions. This is a good idea for an indoor activity. Children can play sing-along games with other members of the family. It can encourage your child to enjoy nursery rhymes even more at his age. 65

66 Providing indoor activities for children Painting and drawing are a wide range of activities for your child. It is important for him to use crayons that are thick enough to hold. Drawing for children is a universal process. They don't need to be shown what to do when working with paint or crayons because it happens automatically. As their powers of observation and muscles develop, they learn better. All parents or teachers need to do is to provide lots of plain paper, crayons and time for the child to draw and be occupied. Painting is more appealing than drawing. The child is able to mix paint colours together and making strokes with the paint brush has a very interesting effect. Using bright colours for blotches are the first paintings of a child. At first a child will not use colours of paint as needed but as time goes on it will be shown in their choices. It's important for children to paint whenever they want to without fuss or trouble. When a child wants to paint, make sure that the table he is going to work on is fully covered with old newspaper. 66

67 A child working with paint must have an apron on to protect clothing. Use thick brushes; they are most popular, thin brushes are available too. An early interest in painting for children is much more interesting because it will give them that creative thinking. So, it's good to encourage children to paint as it is one of the most glorious parts of creativity in a child's life. It’s a good idea that they have the ability to paint whenever they want, and it should be done freely. Materials used for painting One can do painting with lots of other tools other than just paint brushes. Children can use old toothbrushes, sponges, straws or any unwanted tools that have patterns on it. Painting can be done outside if it is a sunshine day as this will allow the paint to dry quicker. Cutting of shapes to use when painting (Collage) Cut shapes of thick cardboard, shapes could be of a butterfly, of squares, of circles, triangles, oval, rectangle, or not- so -rounded shapes. This can be done very easily with different colours of paint to make it look attractive. Children can then paint the shapes and have them cut and pasted into a book. This is called a collage. 67

68 Colours mixed Children love using bright colours irrespective of what they use, be it paint or crayons. By allowing your child to mix the bright colours like red, yellow and orange it makes all sorts of colours. It's something for children to enjoy by themselves and have new experiences with. Art at home This is an excellent idea or way to stimulate your child's mind and to encourage creative thoughts that will keep him happily entertained for hours. While colouring-in books can be lots of fun, your child can also creatively benefit from having to come up with own pictures with just a large blank piece of paper and some crayons. Paint painting Making a mark with an object on a piece of paper is most satisfying for children. All you need to do is to provide them with paper and brightly coloured objects like cotton reels, corks, old toys, leaves, and twigs. 68

69 Alphabets can be made from thick cardboard which can be used. Prints can be made by hand and foot as well. Dip your child's palm, or foot, into the paint, and place on a plain piece of paper, making designs of all different sizes of hands or feet. Potatoes can be cut into different sizes and shapes and can be printed with paint and different patterns could be made. Riot of colour and imagination Your child's artistic talent is more likely to blossom if he has no fear of breaking painting 'rules'. Being given the freedom to experiment with colour, shape and technique is what opens the doors to the enchanting world of art. Forget the traditional easel, paint on the floor instead (cover it with newspaper for protection). You'' find that your child's art will reflect his interests, whether it is trips to the park or to the beach, his pets or favourite video character. He'll learn to observe the world more closely and have fun interpreting his adventures and feelings. Anything goes when you paint. 69

70 Houses don't have to look real and elephants can be pink. The more freedom they have to express themselves, the more enthusiastic your young painter will be his pictures will reflect his personality. Avoid analysing your child's art for him. What you see and what he may be trying to paint could be worlds apart. Ask your child what is the drawing and comment favourably on his use of colour or the interesting pattern of lines on the page. Different strokes Don't restrict your child to paintbrushes; try these ideas for interesting results: Let him use his fingers and toes (water-based paints only). Give him a feather to paint with or a straw to blow the paint through. Leaves make excellent stencils, as do plastic party cutters in assorted shapes. Fat and thin brushes or wide and narrow will inspire your child to experiment with paint. 70

71 Cotton wool and sticks make interesting patterns in water colour paint Cut a potato in half and carve an interesting shape into it. Your child can dip it into the paint and stamp patterns with it. Joint project The most rewarding way to help your child to learn about the joy of painting is to experience it yourself. Tap into this sense of wonder and join him. If you don't have much faith in your artistic abilities, see it as doodling and enjoy it. Painting with your left hand (if you are right handed), or vice versa, will add to the ‘No-rules’ fun. Work with your child on a painting - you paint a line then suggest he adds a line and create a moment of fun in painting. In this way you will develop a new way of communication with each other. Most importantly, remember the point of painting is to connect with your feelings and creativity, and not about achieving perfect results. Painting tips Give your child large sheets of paper to paint on so that he can splash out. Keep painting sessions short, as pre-schoolers have a limited attention span. Half an hour to an hour is enough. 71

72 Show him how to wash his brushes between colours. Let your budding artist develop his new skill at his own pace. Always use water-based paints as it washes off easily. Don't distract them from their efforts by complaining about the mess. Once finished, display the works of art where everyone can see them. Pleasure of painting During the early years your child is like a little sponge, continually absorbing new information and ideas. The pre-school years are an ideal time to encourage your children’s creative thought and painting is an imaginative way for them to express their feelings and interpret life as they experience it. Even a child who prefers action to art will enjoy painting if it's specially geared to his personality and interests. It's how to encourage your budding Picasso. 72

73 Playing games (fantasy) not real Children enjoy playing games such as house games and a bit of story acting and dressing up games. To make a house they would need a large box. Children could have toys inside the box like toy tea-sets, dolls, toy pots and pans, whatever is needed to make it look like a home. They can pretend to be cooking and entertaining a family or friend. Ask children to dress up as clowns or some elegant lady, play parts of a play from one of their story books. It could be fascinating playing the characters in the story book. It can improve your child's vocabulary. When applying make-up check for allergic reactions. Do not leave make-up too long on the child's face. Let’s pretend. Make believe lets your child shape his world as he finds his place in it. There might be a place for you too. Pretend play is a crucial element in your child's development (ages 2-3 years). By the time a child is two, parents begin to focus on school readiness. It's certainly helpful to sing number rhymes or paint out letters in a book. Exploration makes the child better able to absorb the facts of the world, numbers, colours, shapes or the alphabet. Opportunity allows them to start developing their own way of controlling themselves. 73

74 Get into shapes Spotting shapes may seem pure fun. What child can resist posting circles, squares or stars through a shape-sorter or trying to cram his shoes through the flip-lid bin in the kitchen and then wondering why different shapes cannot fit together? Identifying shapes is, however, an important learning skill. It aids your child's visual discrimination and ability to recognise both numbers and letters when it's time for him to read. As your pre-schooler matches, sorts and puts names to shapes, he's developing basic language and mathematical concepts through active play and discussion. Here are some simple yet, effective ideas for activities you can share at home. Games with shapes Start by assembling your props. Make an assortment of squares, rectangles, circles, semi-circles, triangles, diamonds, ovals and stars out of coloured cardboard or foam. 74

75 Make a shape post-box Take a large piece of cardboard and cut out a square hole, a triangular hole, a rectangular hole and a circle, making sure that they are slightly bigger than your cardboard or foam shapes. Fold the cardboard and staple or tape it together to form a cylindrical post-box. Spot odd one out Place four squares and a rectangle together on a tray and ask your child which is the odd one out. You can repeat this activity using a variety of combinations. Test your child’s memory Put five different shapes on a tray and let your child have a good look at them. Now ask him to close his eyes while you take one away. Can he tell which shape is missing? Make a sequence Prepare a double-set of various shapes, and then make a simple sequence of three to four shapes, for example, a square, circle, triangle and a star. Ask your child to copy the sequence by placing the identical shapes on top of one another. 75

76 Creative shape There are various other games you can play with shapes designed to stimulate your child's creativity. Build towers with blocks and bricks of different shapes. This helps your child to learn which shapes are the most stable and which fit together well. Dot-dot-drawing shapes Draw four dots, indicating the points of a square and pencil in a tiny arrow to show in which direction your child's crayon should travel. Let him join the dots. Do the same with circles, rectangles or a triangle. Trace-it Draw a shape, then tape a piece of tracing paper on top and ask your child to draw the outline carefully on the tracing paper following the picture. This can be done in most pictures. 76

77 Stencil shapes Make cardboard stencils of various shapes and get your child to draw around them. He can colour them in and cut them out afterwards. Use their sense of touch Draw shapes on a page after you have spread some glue on it and then sprinkle sand, sugar or glitter on top. Once it's dry your child can feel the textures of each and it can be done with shapes. He can become familiar with the textures of each shape that's been spread with the different kinds of substances. A world of shapes Whether your child's splashing about in the bath or travelling with you in the car, you can play 'spot the shape' games, as we're surrounded by shapes all the time. 77

78 At home Look for big shapes like windows, doors, TV, washing machine (including the window of the washing machine), bed, bookcase and rugs. Then move onto smaller items like plates, saucers, table-mats, place mats and bathroom tiles (point out how they fit together exactly). Out and about During a car journey, look out for different shaped road signs and name boards, for example triangular, circular and rectangular or diamond-shaped, even an oval shape. Road signs are in different shapes too. Shapes on plates You could arrange food on your child's plate in different shapes, for example a pile of peas and a square of mashed potatoes. Food itself comes in various shapes, for instance a round hamburger patty as well as fruit and vegetables. Oranges, peas and meatballs are rounding. Fish fingers are rectangular and you get square sandwiches. 78

79 Toys that shape up These are great toys for teaching shape awareness. Shape sorters, starting with the most basic and progressing to more elaborate containers with complex shapes. A set of building bricks in a range of shapes and sizes. Information about Shapes Jigsaw puzzles will encourage your child to look carefully at shapes and to try to fit them together. Start with simple peg jigsaws or inset boards, where a small number of pieces fit into a surround. It's best to teach your child the names of shapes right from the start, as they become part of his everyday vocabulary. For example refer to circles and squares and not to 'rounds' or 'boxes'. Making of flash cards Make some flash cards with action words on and ask your child to do the action of each word. Words like run, jump, skip, turn around, bend, kneel, frog jumps, duck walks, hop and lots more that you can think about. 79

80 Collecting of various small treasures for children Children sometimes enjoy collecting beads, shells, cans, stickers, badges, old pencils, old ribbons, strings, little charms, key rings and cars or other toys. All of which will be piled up in corners of the playroom. In this way they learn a lot about their collectables, and by the time they start school they are familiar with the way the little collectables feel and they know how to count. Get your child interested in comparing the collectables. Which are round, short and dark in colour? What are the names of each collectable? Go on to describing the family of the child. How tall or short is mum or dad? What is the colour of the child's hair and eyes? They can make pictures of their parents and stick them on the walls. This will get your child to talk descriptively and will be aware of how their parents look. All collectables of children can be used to decorate when sending gifts, for instance beads can be stuck on to the gift wrap. Some coloured dust can be put on to the gift wrap to make it look shiny or glittery. 80

81 Learning to understand and observe numbers As seen on the previous page the activities of allowing your child to learn is the activity of collectables. These differ from child to child as others may be just ready to start school by knowing enough to start off as a first time at school and others will want to go on further (To learn more). These children learn every day with each other, and with other activities. Children must never be forced to learn or take part in games they don't feel like. Choose a time when you and your child are relaxed to participate in activities. Does the child know the actual meaning of numbers? Many children learn to count at an early age but do they know the actual meaning of numbers? If you ask your child to bring you 4 oranges you just may be given 2 or 3 oranges, all that the child knows is that it is more than 1. Below are some ideas on how to help your child to understand clearly. 81

82 Help your child to match numbers Place two or three balls in the table. The balls should be differently designed. Now ask your child to match each one. They could be of different colours, or sizes. Say \"There are six bunches of grapes on the plate that's placed on the table\". You take away four of them and then you can help your child with the answer. Do not go onto bigger numbers until the child has coped with smaller ones, as he will not be able to take too much of learning all at once. Get the child to add and subtract, he will enjoy it. By using smaller numbers, and small or big objects, to teach your child is a good experience and Lots of fun. Using picture cards Draw eight spoons on a card, or using the numbers from 1-10 draw any object you please on all the cards of a postcard size. Now, help your child to arrange them in order highest to lowest or vice versa. 82

83 How do things around the house work? All gadgets that we have at home for our use to make it easier for us can be of some entertainment for our children too. Things like typewriters, telephones, radios, TV, clocks, door knobs, alarms, kettles, fridges or the toaster. So, when your child is bored, help him to get to know all the functions and maybe you can learn something new. Toys that have wheels Explain to your child about the purpose of wheels on vehicles or trolleys. Your child's push chair and little toys like trucks and cars. The reason for these having wheels is that trolleys are used to serve tea or food to people; trucks have wheels to move on the road, the same with cars or those tyres are used for vehicles to move on the road. Talk to your child about your telephone at home. Why do you have a telephone? Why does it have numbers on it? 83

84 There is a lot that one can teach a child at home and about the surroundings. The fact that art is something introduced to children to form a picture or model, when a child is encouraged to look, touch and talk about the things he is going to draw, the more detailed his work will be. Children should analyse colours of art to be used. This can then be transformed to their own creative efforts. The textures of things around us, as young they are always told not to touch things when outside but without touching a child cannot know the difference between soft, hard, rough or smooth. Pattern of art can be found on face bricks, houses that are built of glass, tiled roofs, leaves, nature, and these man-made patterns which can be made when using paint. Children can use leaves, corks, stems, flowers, pebbles and shells to be decorative on fabric and paper, as examples. Creativities Clay and cooking dough can provide children with lots of opportunities in creative activities. Young children are highly open and creative. Creativity is when a person makes something for him/herself and it is valued by the individual. 84

85 An idea you can think about doing. When someone is creating something they have a plan in doing it. This involves ideas, exploring and using their imagination. Children can enjoy activities in which they can participate freely and openly. They want to express themselves openly and want to bring out new ideas and experiences. Creativity is enjoyed in many ways. All children are creative to some extent in life. They are not creative in the same way. Observe children when they are working with materials. They should be encouraged to share experiences. Always praise a child when being creative. In this way they feel proud and know their work is appreciated. Children find out things for themselves and it is fun when they do it on their own. They feel that they are encouraged. When, attempting, art activities this should be approached creatively. 85

86 Organising discovery activities These are activities that are organised by parent, teacher or others concerned. It's done for a specific purpose concerning pre-schoolers or adults. Parents should take their children to theatres, concerts or shows; this can be done during school holidays. This should be done regularly it allows your child to know of what to expect if they are ever interested in taking part in the dances presented to them. These are tried at an age that your child is able to perform such an activity. Your child may not be interested in these activities but the idea of being familiar is a good approach. Puppet shows and concerts are good outings too. Dancing is a good start for pre-schoolers as they learn it quite easily. As they get older they can become professional and learn to master their steps more easily. Ballroom dancing is a good starter. 86

87 Practice with your child at home to mime, miming is a good practice as it does not involve verbal ability. Parent and child could organise to have some debate or play at home, a few friends and family can be included. Children learn from these outings and the more often they are taken to puppet shows and concerts, the active and outgoing they will be. They will get used to different people and there will be a reduced chance of their becoming withdrawn at all. Organising birthday parties Most children love eating cakes and all sweet goodies, but before they start on all of that, you will persuade them to have at least one healthy sandwich. When your child turns a year old, you would want to give him a big party. It is very interesting as it's a first experience and you are very anxious about it. Keep the excitement level down on your child as it can lead to tears. How big or small it should be? Depending on how experienced you are don't invite too many children as then you may not be able to handle it all at once. The children tend to misbehave and the party will not be enjoyed because there are too many children to cope with. 87

88 Rather have about 6-8 children for the beginning, until you are able to manage the crowd and until you more experienced. Inviting the parent and child, the parents can stay with their children at the party for a while, or if wanted, parents can stay till the party is finished. In this way nobody gets out of hand because the parent of each child is present. Children behave better in the presence of their parents. Games can be played after the party. For a year-old party it shouldn’t be over whelming. Presentation of food Food can be presented by making sandwiches, little cakes, sausage rolls, or cooked food. There could be some sweets, chocolates, fruitcakes, ice-cream with cones and maybe some custard and jelly, if possible. Special day for mums and dads Children can treat their mums and dads to a good breakfast in bed. They can buy a card or present too, that's if they can. No matter what they do or how they try to show their love and affection is not so important, it is the thoughtfulness that counts. 88

89 In this way mums and dads feel special. It's time for children to show their parents how much they mean to them. At school teachers can help children to make Father's Day card or Mother's Day card. Making of special cards At pre-school children can make these cards and be proud of it. They could make a card using crayons to draw on some paper and folding it into a card. With the help of a teacher some sweet words can be written on the inside to surprise mum or dad. Cultural festivals These are festivals that our community look forward to every year. It’s a traditional festival. Festivals like Easter, Diwali and Eid. Easter, it's the resurrection of Christ. It's a spring festival where people buy lots of Easter eggs, hot cross buns and lots of sweets. 89

90 At pre-school children get to make Easter cards with an Easter bunny drawn on the cards to feature the kind of festivity. Diwali, during this festival Hindus, light lamps and lights in their homes because this is what it is all about. It's a festival, when people make sweets for the aim to give out to other people. They exchange parcels from one home to another, and food, music and people are the sign of happiness in this celebration. The dressing for this festival is with Indian clothing, and saris or any fancy clothing. This comes around October-November every year. It's called the festivity of lights. A festival celebrated by Muslims, called, Eid, throughout the world. They have to fast for a month in order to feast at this festival. When it's time for them to feast they cook food for the poor people and for the charity homes. Muslims are always dressed fully-covered. This can be spoken about to children at pre-school or at home by the parent that religions are different and that people celebrate their culture uniquely. 90

91 Drawing with chalk Children should be allowed to draw freely with chalk. They can draw lines, horizontal, vertical, diagonal, circles and scribbles. This makes them feel that they are capable of lots of creative work. If you don't have a chalkboard, allow your child to draw with a stick on sand or by using their fingers on muddy ground to write on. Make puppets This involves creative art work because you need accessories like beads for the eyes, and a piece of board to cut the shape of the mouth. It can be done attractively involving art to a certain extent. 91