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Q. My 11 month old is starting the little fake whine thing when I know nothing is wrong with her. Should I just say "no" or what?
Answer
As soon as a baby is old enough to do something wrong is when you need to correct them.
A baby as young as 4-5mts can pull hair & glasses off someones face. This isn't something you want them to do.
All you have to do is tap the baby's hand and say "No!" tapping makes them look at the their hand that is doing wrong.
If they laugh and do it again tap just a little firmer and say "NO!"
All it too was a light tap on my first child's hand and she would cry like you had hurt her. It was a tap like you'd give someone to get their attention. lol It wasn't hard to all.
With my other two kids I had to tap a little firmer so it cause just a tad discomfort. Not slapping or popping their hand just enough to make them stop.
Once a baby can crawl to a shelf of books and pull them off the shelf you can teach them no & help them clean it up too.
I use to think this was impossible or mean but I baby sat some kids whose parents taught them from a very young age to obey & I knew I wanted that for my kids.
Doing as suggested above have given me the freedom of not having put up magazines that in baskets on the floor, I can keep my drink sitting on the table and they won't knock it over & most of all when vising friends I don't have to quickly clean up breakables in their home. Because I know my baby & toddler would know not to touch them.
So when she whines take a moment & see if it is a whine because you told her whine or a whine as disobeying.
My middle daughter is stubborn. You'd tell her know & she's whine then want to go right back to what you told her no about. You can stop that are being as strong as she is. Tell her no again & move her away. Repeat it 20 times if you have to.
People may say "A baby can't disobey" or "A baby can't learn to obey."
That is wrong. If you look at the Amish community where they teach their kids to obey as babies you will see babies as young as 3-4mts sitting quietly on mom's lap for a 3hr church service. They learn not whine & fuss to be put down. They play quietly with quiet toys their mom provides. Yet looking at our culture some toddlers can be expected to even sit in a shopping cart for 10mins.
You have to remember you are the parent and you are in charge.
Is the baby in control or you?
The best parenting advice I ever heard was - Not only should you enjoy the company of your child but so should others.
I never ever wanted people to look at my kids & think "Oh, no! Not them again." ; )
Any ideas for fun math and science activities/games for preschoolers?
Meg
I teach preschool and have two classes. One of all 3 year olds (never been in a school setting before) and another of 4 and 5 year olds. Any suggestions or ideas would be great. Math and Science aren't my strong point. The older kids love folder games.
Answer
So many times math and science can overlap.
Math is:
sorting
counting
placing things in order (smallest to biggest) (first to last)
comparing
and so much more
Science is exploration of the world around us.
So fun activities:
Any song with number in it like:
Five Little Monkeys Swinging in the Tree
Five Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed
Five Little Hot Dogs Frying in the Pan
The Ants go Marching
Five Little Ducks
Five Bears in the Bed
Here is one that is science and math
Seed Sound Jars
Obtain many film or prescription bottles. (Both are great items to get from parents.) Place matching seeds in two containers. I.e. 2 apple seeds, 5 watermelon seeds etc. If using film containers, seal the lids with hot glue or super glue. If using prescription containers, cover the bottles with colored contact paper. This Montessori based activity would normally be introduced to the children in the following manner: without speaking, the teacher picks up one of the containers and shakes it. Then the teacher will pick another bottle and shakes it. Then the teacher shakes the first again. The teacher will shake the bottles and compare them until it is determined if they are a match, if they are not a match, the teacher would shake his/her head "no" and set the second bottle aside, and continue by picking up another bottle and shaking it, comparing it again to the first bottle. When a match is found, the teacher shakes his/her head "yes" and places the two bottles aside, next to each other. Then continues by picking another bottle and try to find its match until all of the matches are found. The child is invited to help when prompted by the teacher, with a shoulder shrug, or by the teacher initiating the child to pick a bottle, etc.
Items to Sort (over the age of 3 for small items)
boxes of scrap materials - cloth, velvet, silk satin, cut into uniform size and shape. Children can sort the material by color or texture.
Many different Bells- cow bells, Christmas bells, children can sort based on color, size, sound.
Buttons- Students can sort them based on the number holes they have, color, shape, size, shiny vs. dull.
Textured Paper cut to uniform size - can be sorted based on texture or color
Other Items: Shells, beads, beans, noodles, seeds, rocks, nature items, nuts, nails, screws, bolts, toys from the room, coins, blocks, stickers, pictures from magazines, books, socks, ribbons, pencils, dolls, stuffed animals, plastic animals, play cars
Any cooking activity is both math and science
Make Ice Cream! I love to do this one, and so do my kids. I have done this with toddlers and school agers...
You will need:
- 2 bags of party ice
- 1 gallon whole milk (or chocolate milk for chocolate ice cream)
- Ice chest
- 1 box of kosher salt
- Paper cups (a least one for each student, and 1 for each teacher in the building who wants to try it)
- 1 lb. Sugar
- 1 gal. Ziplock bags (2 for each pair of students)
- vanilla extract
- Plastic spoons
- 1 quart ziplock bags (1 for each pair of students)
- paper towels
- Measuring cups, teaspoons and tablespoons
Directions:
- Combine 2 tablespoons sugar with a few drops of extract and 1 cup (8 oz) of milk in a small ziplock bag (quart size) and zip it up. This is the small bag!!!
- Add 2 cups of ice and 1/2 cup of rock salt in a gallon ziplock bag. Place this bag into another ziplock bag to reduce leakage. This is the large bag!!!!
- Place the sealed small bag into the large bag and seal the large bag.
- Have the children pair off, and have each partner hold one end of the large bag and shake it until the ice cream is firm.
- After the ice cream is firm, supply the children with cups and spoons so they may pour the ice cream into the cups and try it.
Jet balloons. Fill a balloon with air and let it go. What makes the balloon go?
Singing balloons. Fill a balloon with air and pull the neck of the balloon tight so that the balloon sings. What is making the noise?
Painting with water: You just need a paint brush, and water in a bucket, oh yeah, and a nice warm summer day. Let your child "paint" with the water, and watch how the water evaporates in the warm sun. Paint rocks, trees, the sidewalk anything!!!
Make Goop: Mix 2 cups water with a little food coloring, add 6 cups of cornflour/cornstarch to make goop. A great outdoor summer activity.
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