"Momma, Whole Face Listen!" - a post by Jody Rutherford, our Director of Education & Programming

Several years ago, a cartoon was circulating about a little girl who had grabbed her mother's chin and demanded "Momma, whole face listen!" in order to get her mother to stop what she was doing, look at her, and really listen. Unfortunately, this tendency towards multi-tasking, and not really listening to young children, and even adults, is becoming far too common, and is increasing as a result of the prevalence of technology, via hand held devices.

Recently, while out for dinner one evening, I had the 'opportunity' to observe a young Dad out for dinner with his daughter, who was probably five or six years old. When they were seated a few tables away, Dad was facing my table, and immediately began checking messages, answering texts or emails, and answered several phone calls, all while the waitress took their order (which he did by pointing to items on the menu), and their dinner was served, and eaten.  Meanwhile, the little girl colored her coloring sheet, ate her dinner, while attempting several times to have a conversation with her father, who held his hand up to silence her, and motioned her to eat or color.  Left to her own devices, the little girl began to rip open sugar packets and spread them around, climb off and on her chair, leave the table to go to the washroom, and finally knocked her drink over and broke the glass. At that point, Dad, motioned for the check and they left the restaurant.  As they passed our table, Dad was heard to say, 'Well,  I'm never taking you out for dinner again, if that's the way you are going to behave!'   I wanted to follow them out to the parking lot and tell Dad that perhaps he was the one who shouldn't get to go out to dinner again, if that's the way he behaves.

Recently, Global News, shared a story "Are Smart-phones to blame for distracted Parenting?" describing a study conducted by Boston Medical Centre researchers, in 15 Boston restaurants, studying the interaction between 55 families during their meals. Of these families, 40 of them had mobile devices on the table, and 16 of the parents used their phones the entire meal, with children from infants to age ten.  During the video, several parents were seen to motion their child away, and one parent even kicked her child under the table, while engaged with a hand held device   Dr. Radesky says she isn't telling parents to stop using their phones by any means, but emphasizes we need to create boundaries for the devices when we are with children. The study authors stress that face-to-face interaction is how bonds are formed between children and their parents,  through speaking, touching and interacting.

Research on the effects of technology, or the newly coined phrase 'absent presence'  and the development of young children is scarce, as it is a  relatively new phenomena.  However, Dr. Deborah Fallows, and others, have asked the question-' Does the time adults spend with their mobile devices affect the way young children learn language?' She states, a 2009 pediatrics publication showed, ' children's language abilities and eventual academic success are linked to the sheer volume of words they are exposed to early on...the quality of the linguistic exposure, not just it's quantity, matters.'  Further she adds, ' parents talking to their babies, playing with trucks and dolls, and making toy sounds is the critical ingredient for their child's language learning. There is no replacement for social-interaction.'  Dr. Fallows quotes Dimitri Christakis, 'You can only do one thing at a time:talk to the baby or talk on the phone.'

Deborah Joyce, Executive Director of the Family Resource Association,  Kristin Zolten, and Nicholas Long from the Center for Effective Parenting, share a similar message regarding how essential: making eye contact; stopping what you are doing; actively listening; and acknowledging that you have heard; are, to giving young children (and adults) the message that you are there for them, are interested in what they have to say, and you value them as a person. This interaction increases not only communication skills, but develops self confidence in our children  In essence, when we 'whole face talk', we are telling our children we love them and care about them!

- JR

http://global news.ca/?s=distracted+parentingvideo

Papa, Don't Text: the Perils of Distracted Parenting, June 19, 2013, D. Fallows

http://www.education.com/print/Ref_Parent_Communication_50/

Photo Blog-Healthy Active Learners

As a part of this theme- Healthy Active Learners our students have been spending time learning about ways to stay healthy! Making nutritious food choices, taking good care of our teeth and much more. Here are a few photos of some of our students learning through play and acting out the roles of Dentist, patient, Chef & more! 

Questions, Categories, Sorting & More!!

I don't know about you but lately I have been getting a lot of interesting questions from my 3 year old! At dinner...." Mom, do carrots go in fruits or vegetables?" At breakfast...."Mom, what are eggs? Why? Are they junk food or do they give us energy??" And the list goes on.....

I wasn't entirely sure what Paxton meant when he asked if carrots go "in" fruits or vegetables so I was asking Jody about these questions and she shared with me that the students at BELA are learning to sort and categorize things. Ahhhhh! He has also been sorting  everything under the sun at home  and making different piles and containers full of stuff ! He likes to tell us all sorts of things about these piles and it keeps him busy and entertained so its a big win- win! ;) 

I asked Jody to explain a little more to me about how theses new skills  for the children at BELA are built into the themes and now I am able to,  more and more pick out the skills Paxton is working on amongst all his chatter about fruits, vegetables and junk food!
Here's some information for all you BELA parents about the current theme and some of the skills that are built in:

Healthy, Active Learners

The Healthy, Active Learners theme is designed to shine the 'learning light' for our BELA children on two of our foundational program building blocks - physical and emotional well-being, and character development.  At BELA we believe in teaching the whole child, giving the children the strongest foundation we can for future learning success. This theme continues the learning we have included all year from the At My Best program and focuses on:

* the importance of being physically healthy - physical activities, exercise, and getting

  enough sleep

* teaching children about how to eat nutritionally, including the four food groups and the

  Canada Food Guide

* caring for our teeth and eyes

* emotional well-being, developing our friendship skills, and character education

Throughout this theme, the children are engaged in early science and numeracy/math learning opportunities, as they participate in activities, in relation to: food or physical activities; things that attract magnets, or don't; things that sink or float. These activities are designed to increase their skills by supporting them to:

* ask a question / respond to questions

* make predictions

* gather information/data

* sort and classify

* count or measure

* graph

* evaluate / draw conclusions

This information shed a lot of light on the in-depth planning that goes into each theme and as always the experience that our staff has in integrating these new skills into every day life at BELA. Our little scientists and mathematicians have been hard at work and play!!

Photo Blog: Spring Has Sprung!

After an abnormally long and very cold winter we are enjoying taking the students outside! The past week or so they have spent lots of time looking for signs of spring, enjoying the sunshine and finding out what has happened to all that snow!! Let's hope spring is here to stay!

After a long winter the kids are so excited to be outside! 

The Fire Chief let us cut through the fire department on our walk! 

Looking for signs of spring!

They found the snow, or what's left of it!!

How Much Is Enough? - A Post by our Health & Wellness Consultant, Ashley Williams, R.N, B.N

One more show? One more snack? One more story? One more song? One more drink? One more hug? One more potty break? One more kiss? One more, one more, one more! Anyone that has had the joy…privilege…task…chore?? of putting a preschooler to bed has no doubt heard a similar list of demands put forth by these little master negotiators! Not to mention if this part of your nightly routine as a parent. So what’s the big deal? Why not just give in? So what if it pushes bedtime back a few minutes, or an hour even…it makes them happy, it avoids a meltdown, and they’re still getting lots of sleep! Right?

It may surprise many, that the recommended amount of sleep for a 3 year old is 12 hours per night and that by the age of 4, that requirement is still 11.5 hours! (Healthy Parents, Healthy Children: The Early Years, 2012) Different people need different amounts of sleep, and while many adults seem to thrive on 6-7 hours/night, this is not true of children. As referenced in an earlier post by Mrs. P, we cannot simply treat children as ‘miniature adults’, and when we do we can end up with big problems. According to Dr. Jill Ravanello, sleep deprived children can be difficult to parent.

The link between lack of sleep and a child’s behavior isn’t always obvious, and may manifest as hyperactivity and extremes in behaviour (Kidshealth.org)  For example children that are sleep deprived may have difficulty controlling their emotions making them disagreeable, bossy, demanding and resistant to guidance. Lack of sleep has also been linked to attention problems and poor academic performance (Dr. Jill Ravanello).

In order to combat the negative effects of insufficient sleep, experts recommend establishing a bedtime routine. One of the most important tips for a successful bedtime routine? Experts in the field encourage parents to limit screen time, and most importantly, to avoid screen time including TV for 90 minutes before your child should be sleeping.  Incorporating this one concept into your child’s routine could put you on your way to putting an end to all of the ‘one mores’ and gaining one more precious hour of sleep for your little one!

If you feel that you may have a sleep deprived child, or are struggling to establish a successful bedtime routine please take a few minutes to read the links provided in this post,  see the parent information board at BELA for resources or ask our staff about available support through Alberta Health Services!

Sensory Play: Tips & Tricks....a post by our Mrs. M, Early Childhood Educator

In my previous blog post we established that sensory play is essential to a child’s learning and brain development, but what if you don’t have a water or sand table? Playful sensory activities need not be difficult or involve a lot of fancy toys or resources. Shallow inexpensive plastic storage totes make perfect sensory bins. You can put the bin on the kitchen floor or outside when the weather is nice. So now that you have the bins, what do you fill the bins up with? Uncooked Rice, dried macaroni, dried beans, sand, water, water with bubbles, water colored with food coloring, play sand. Add scoops, shovels and small containers to pour and fill with.  You can add a variety of toys such as small plastic animals and dinosaurs, small cars and blocks to the bins. The possibilities and options really are endless.

A & E playing in the sensory bin, filled with rice and construction vehicles.

What about the mess?  I understand as parents we don’t always have the time to clean up messes and sometimes it’s just easier to avoid the mess in the first place.  I don’t enjoy cleaning up messes EVER, but over the years I’ve learned a few tricks and strategies to ensure that messy play does not get out of control.  The most important rule is to restrict messy play to those occasions that you know you will have time to clean up afterwards.

 K finger painting with chocolate pudding.

The next time you are at the dollar store stock up on disposable vinyl table cloths, spread them out and put them under your table or sensory bins. Large black garbage bags also work well for this purpose. Most of the mess will be contained to the tablecloth or garbage bags, roll them up afterwards and toss in the garbage, easy peasy lemon squeezey! Set clear rules before the activity about what the child can and cannot do, for example, ‘the play dough stays on the table’. Supervise closely, as children often become lost in their sensory play and forget about the rules, making it easy for messy play to get out of control.

When the weather is nice go outside to play and put the bins on the deck or lawn outside. When you are not up to dealing with a mess, let your child have a bath just for fun. Take them to the beach to play in the sand. Let them jump in the rain puddles after it’s rained. Let your child cook with you offering them tastes and smells of the different ingredients you are using.  Sensory play is a chance for you as a parent to get creative and use your imagination too!

coloured liquid paint frozen in a variety of shaped ice cube trays to use for finger painting.

J painting with his frozen paints

Try and relax and smile while getting messy with your child. You might not like getting covered in sand, but most kids love it. Remember to have fun interacting with your child while they are engaged in their sensory activity. Get in there and get messy with your child. If there is one thing I’ve learned over the years is that not only is sensory play calming for children, but it is calming for me as well.  Continue to have fun getting messy and discovering with your child.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                

T & H experimenting in the in the water table with green food colouring.

I hope you enjoy the included pictures of children at BELA discovering, learning and enjoying a variety of sensory play experiences!

-KM

Photo Blog!