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It Starts From Birth

Posted on May 21, 2014 by Lubica Misevski

It starts from birth

Childhood education starts from birth, and from the moment your little one is born they start learning. Think about this for a second, they learn very quickly that you love them, you will protect them, you will keep them warm, and you will feed them.

This all happens within the first 24 hours of their little life, and they continue to learn every single day. And hopefully we do too. This means that you are your child’s teacher, and their very first one, and no-one is better placed to educate your child then you. Because your starting place is pure love, and the desire to give your child a better start and life than you had.

And very early on there are many things you can do to start to begin the process of teaching your child.

This include’s joining playgroups so they may interact with other kids, and start to develop social skills.

Read to them, and whilst you may think that they are not absorbing this, they certainly are. We have been reading to our daughter since birth, and at 3 1/2 years of age, her ability to communicate to us and others is something we are very proud of.

Play music for them, as this will help develop creativity as well as providing enjoyment for you both. Especially when they start to move to the music, or hum their first tune.

Take them for walks and show them birds, dogs, a bus, trees, shops, homes, and the world. Explain those things to them, and try to determine what captures their interest the most.

Encourage them to express their emotions as they grow, so their ability to communicate develops.

Start to teach them the alphabet from an early age, and also the numbers, and you will be surprised at how quickly they pick this up. A great little book we used with our daughter was Coco.

Our children are sponges and they want to play, learn, and experience the world. From the moment, they are born they are learning, and this never stops. We have a wonderful opportunity to help them learn, and look at life through the eyes of a child again, with amazement, wonder, and possibilities.

We are truly blessed to have access to more materials, knowledge, and methods than you and I had when we were growing up. But the greatest asset of all is our love for our children.

We would love to hear stories about how you teach your little one? And please share any ideas you have that you think other parents would value.

Posted in baby, child education, Early child education, zero to five

My Baby, Their Future

Posted on May 20, 2014 by Lubica Misevski

my baby their future

My Baby, Their Future

From the very moment your little one is born, they start learning and developing. They realise that someone is there to care for them and love them. They recognise your face, how you smell, your touch, and that you will be there for them when they need you.

And there are many things you can do for them from the moment they are born, and as they develop. We will just cover the first three months in today’s post.

Initially just holding and singing to them and talking to them is a great start. They will feel safe, comforted, and protected from a very foreign place. You can look for early signals of their needs, by the tone of how they cry. Do they just need comforting? Or are they rubbing their eyes and tired, or is it a cry of need because they have to be changed, or are they are hungry?

This is certainly a challenging and very rewarding time. One where the bond and communication between you both develop. And they learn that when they communicate they can be heard and more importantly understood.

Soon they start to smile:), and there is nothing more heart-warming than watching this happen. For two reasons, you know they are happy, and you taught them how to express this, it is your smile you are seeing.

Very soon they can hold your finger, and grip things. This is when we should give them books, teddy bears, different textures and toys to hold onto. And wow what a day when they start to discover their feet and little hands, the look they get in their eyes is just magical.

Despite some misinformed opinions, you cannot spoil your baby with love. In fact I do not think you can spoil anyone with love, so helping them feel good, comforting them, helps them trust and manage their own feelings.

We also feel it is important that you read to them from the very beginning, as your little one is born with 100 million neurons (brain cells). And when you spark activity in the brain you are starting to develop their synapse’s (which is just the road or highway between the brain cells). You are obviously developing their minds.

So right from the beginning you can start to develop their mind through touching, reading, music, love, smiling, feeding and comforting.

They are your precious gift to the world, and you are their world. We would love to hear about your early experiences, and also what you have learned along the way?

Posted in baby, child education, Early child education, zero to five

Fact's About Our Baby's Brains

Posted on May 18, 2014 by Lubica Misevski

In today’s article, we look at your baby’s brain development and highlight some key facts that we feel are crucial to know.

Of all the energy your baby consumes, 60% percent of it is concentrated in the brain. This means that your baby is consuming 60% of all they eat directly to the brain. As we have expressed before, nutrition is critical at any age. But none more important than the early stages of your child’s brain development. So the more natural the food, the better. “There is a saying, if it was not food 100 years ago, it is not food today." Whilst there might be exceptions to this rule, it is a pretty good yardstick to use as a measure.

The birth to three-year-old period is the fastest period for brain development across your child’s entire life span.

Just by talking with your baby, by the age of two, those babies will know 300 more words than babies who’s parents rarely speak to them.

Allowing your little one to explore and engage with others will develop their learning at all ages, and their social skills.

Anyone who looks after your baby, is part of their development, and will have an impact on how their brain develops.

Having a good relationship with your child will help them feel more confident about themselves, and allow them to better handle the challenges we all face in life.

Your little one will take cues from your facial expression on how to feel, so go ahead and smile at them all day, it might just be good for you too :)

Giving your little one a cuddle, and holding them will help your baby to produce important hormones that allow them to grow.

Reading aloud to your baby, will help stimulate brain development. So even though you are not always getting feedback with this especially in the early stages it is important to read to them. As I have said earlier we had to chase our son around the house for the first year of his life, but now he is handing us the books.

And wow by the time your child is 3, your child has formed 1000 trillion connections between their neurons.

The best way to help develop your little one’s brain is to read, play, sing, play music, build with blocks, explore outside, talk to them, and fill their body with healthy nutrients.

Let us know if you have questions? We would be more than happy to answer them in future posts.

Posted in baby, child education, Early child education, zero to five

Involve Me And I Learn

Posted on May 17, 2014 by Lubica Misevski

We have all heard this quote “ Tell me and I forget, teach me and I may remember, involve me and I learn.”

I would like to emphasize the last point again “involve me and I learn.” If you take a moment and think about how you learn, and when you have retained information the best, was it not through involvement? To illustrate this point, let's look at learning to drive.

For those reader based elsewhere, I will be using the model by which we learn to drive in Australia. If you are 16 years old, you can then sit a written test, know as the Driver Knowledge Test. You can only sit the test once you have read the “road users handbook," and the guide on “getting your driver's license.”

Once you pass this test, you are then given a “Learner Driver Log Book," and you have to log a minimum of 120 hours driving with a parent or instructor. You also need to be over 17, and held your learner license for a minimum of 12 months. Only then can you attempt to move onto your provisional license.

So if we think about this for a second, and use the above proven model when applied to our children’s learning? We will note that the majority of the time should be spent in the doing, whilst combining the written knowledge of others experience with action.

I think it can be safely said that we all learn more rapidly and completely if we are doing something. This necessitates the need to learn.

In an experiment by the “One Laptop Per Child Organization." They dropped off tablet computers with programmed applications to Ethiopian Villages to see what would happen.

The goal was to see if illiterate kids with no previously exposure to written words could learn how to read by themselves. These children could experiment with the tablet and its preloaded alphabet training games, e-books, movies, cartoons, paintings, and other programs.

Within five days they were using 47 apps per child, per day. Within 2 two weeks they were singing ABC songs in the village, and within five months they had hacked the Android, to turn the camera on that had accidentally been disabled. Each kid customized the desktop to suit him or herself, even though this too had been disabled.

You see Negopronte who leads this organisation felt, “if they could learn to read, the could read to learn." He has stated “what can we do for these 100 million kids around the world who don’t go to school?" Can we change the paradigm so they may learn too?

Our children learn through doing, and as the above story illustrates, the combination of reading and action can produce unbelievable results. We can learn to drive, but more importantly our children can learn to learn.

Posted in child education, Early child education, zero to five

Children And Being Artistic

Posted on May 16, 2014 by Lubica Misevski

Child development, the arts, and your little ones brain.

Today's post is dedicated to the creative child in all of us. And how we might help our little ones find their creative spirit, and why this matters.

A report produced by the Dana Consortium coming out of Harvard looks specifically at Learning, Arts, and the Brain. What we found interesting about this report was the connection with the Arts and child development.

It is of course our view that your child has intelligence in all the multiple-intelligence areas. Merely knowing about them individually we are all best placed to nurture our children.

Music - Surprisingly it turns out that the practice of music helps in the study of symmetries, in mathematics, and reading. A child practicing music will also develop the pathway for literacy.

Role Play & Acting - This appears to improve memory, recollection and to be able to understand and look at general knowledge.

Dance - By practising and learning dance, children develop observational skills. This could transfer to other cognitive areas.

The study shows that the “appreciation of the Art’s will lead to pleasure in producing that Art." It also demonstrates how practicing an Art can impact and develop many areas of the brain and the associated pathways. And how visual, linguistic, movement, and music develop completely different areas within the brain.

So whether your child likes music, dance, role-playing, painting or any of the arts. All of them are benefiting brain functions, and each one has a different result.

So have fun, paint a picture, role-play, dance and listen to music, it all matters and it works.

Posted in child education, creative child, Early child education, learning style

The Gifts to Give Your Child

Posted on May 14, 2014 by Lubica Misevski

Gifts to give your children

The Gifts to Give Your Child

We came across an interesting paper written by Dr. Ben Bissell, “Building Self Esteem: The Ten Gifts To Give Your Children."

We are going to give you an overview what we believe these to be, and why they matter. We know that every parent wants to give their children with the best start in life possible. You, just like us are committed to knowing all you can to achieve this.

So what are the gifts?

In order, but not in importance.

1. A good name: This does not refer to their birth name, but rather a nickname, like bossy, or little terror, or a troublemaker, etc. Whilst these names can be humorous and certainly describe some behaviours. They can create permanent labels, and if we are to create labels, would it not be better to give one that builds their self esteem? Like “Smart Steve," because he is always finding ways to get up out of bed, “Thoughtful Annie," because sometimes she will play quietly in the corner, without fuss.

2. Listening to our children: This builds their self-esteem and lets them know they too are important to us, and their opinion matters. And by doing this it helps them create a sense of self worth, but lets them improve their ability to think and express themselves.

3. Letting Your Child Make Decisions: If you give your child the ability to be included in family decisions you let them know their opinion matters in the family. Your child will also begin to feel special about themselves. They will develop an ability to make decisions now and later in life, and be confident about them.

4. Allow Your Child To Feel: Simply put if they hurt themselves, or something makes them sad let them express this. Look to understand rather than make them hold the feeling back.

As an example your child falls down and grazes their knee, this happened with our daughter very recently. Instead of saying, “it is okay, and you're ok now," it would be better to say, I know that hurts and how about we fix that up. Our first instinct is to try and make them feel better immediately, but we need to allow them to express their feelings and show that we understand. This relationship with our child will help them develop the ability to express their feelings now and later in life.

5. Rules, Your Child Needs Them: This provides them with structure and the ability to understand that certain things are not ok. It also lets them know that there are consequences for their actions, which is something that will serve them well later in life. The rules need to be fair, and the consequences appropriate, and this will help them think through their actions.

6. Hugs: Now who does not need a hug, this is the physical act of letting your child know that you love them. And don’t we all need to know that those close to us love us? And can you give your child too much love, and spoil them this way, no. All studies indicate to date, that you cannot love your child too much. Your little one might say mum, that's enough hugs, and that might be your sign :)

7. Laughter & Play: Play is the work of children, and interacting with your child making a puzzle, building a tower, picking the toy your baby through on the floor, only so they can through it back again, builds trust and a sense of fun. They learn to communicate, interact, enjoy life and achieve, whilst enjoying the action along the way. Take a moment to chase your little one around the house, play peekaboo, or just tickle them. Life is meant to be fun, and they should believe this too.

8. Permission To Make Mistakes: Mistakes are good, that means we are learning and trying, both as adults and children. By allowing your child to make mistakes, you give them the permission to learn from them. If your child is to busy covering up their mistakes, they simply cannot learn from them. Because hiding becomes the priority and not what they learned out of the experience. Let them make mistakes, and learn, they will do this for the rest of their life, just like us.

9. The Truth: We need to tell our children the truth, they can handle it. It is important to consider the child’s age and maturity, but by telling your child the truth, you let them know that you trust them. They will in turn tell you the truth. Your child does not follow your words, they follow your example.

10. Freedom: The chance to learn and explore, and to grow into a little lady, or gentleman. This of course is also dependent upon age, and the boundaries available considering our own circumstances.

Ten wonderful gifts that you can give your child, that cost nothing but will be priceless.

Posted in child education, Early child education, gifts for children

How Do I Know My Child’s Learning Style?

Posted on May 12, 2014 by Lubica Misevski

Children are unique, and understanding your child’s learning style is critical to their success. Because when you understand how your child learns you can help them at any age.

There are some key things to look for when it comes to child development and learning styles. And all children are born ready to learn, and absorb information, experiences and the wonder of life.

The three most common learning styles are visual, auditory, and physical (Kinesthetic). To help determine your child’s learning style here are some signs to look for in each of the area’s.

Visual: They notice details, and are aware when their environment changes. You may have moved a chair, a picture, their toys and they notice. They like to read, remember things by seeing them. May often watch rather than talk.

Auditory: Talks out load to self, can be easily distracted, likes to read, enjoys music, outgoing by nature, happy to participate in activities, can remember steps to follow in a sequence.

Kinesthetic: They are often on the go the whole time, touching, grabbing and playing. They enjoy being active and you may have to chase them around the house to read to them. They like to solve their problems by physically working through them. And are generally very active in play.

In one of our earlier blogs, we take all of the above styles and break them down further into multiple intelligence categories. But for now we stick to the above general areas.

So once you have identified your child’s preferred learning style what are some of the techniques you can use to accelerate their development.

The Visual Learner

Making and or using flashcards
Allowing them to draw, paint, and create
They will like puzzles
Use posters and charts to explain things
They will enjoy any type of word game, as long as they can see the words

The Auditory Learner

Will obviously enjoy a good book (or ten :))
Listening to music, melodies, or rhyme’s
Use word games
Will absorb more information if they answer your questions orally
And they enjoy talking so this should be encouraged

Kinesthetic (or physical learner)

A physical learner is great at remembering what they do, so activities that include participation are very important.
Will like building things, such as models, towers, and playing with blocks
Playing games of any sort, as long as it includes touching
Will like puppet shows (so pull out some old socks)
Will enjoy putting scrapbooks together

So this outlines 3 general areas of learning and some ideas about catering for each of these styles. Do you see an area you fit into, or the one your child does, we would love to hear about it?

Posted in Early child education, learning style

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