Children Learning Activities & Guidelines for Your Child Development in Leaps and Bounds!

Paper crafts are not limited to kids.

Adults may also find a rewarding hobby in the paper crafts.

A popular paper craft hobby among adults is making paper gift bags.

Starting with a pattern made from a cheap purchased gift bag, elaborate and original takes on the basic gift bag may include glitter, bows, beads and ribbons that may outshine the contents of the gift bag!

Paper-make is another favorite paper craft. Suited to both adults and children (with supervision), you can achieve stunning results with just newspaper, school glue and acrylic paints.

Using only diluted school glue, strips of newspaper and a frame (such as an oiled bowl or wire frame), you can make artistic storage containers for attractive displays of hair clips, tiny bath soaps and other such odds and ends. Designs and color themes are limited only by your imagination.

Paper crafts are a wider subject than you might have thought. Check out your local bookstore - there are entire books devoted to paper crafts.

Visit your local art supply store to find the wide range of papers available. All you need do then is put on your thinking cap and a little imagination.

Outlines is a great way to start your toddler learning early.

Older Brothers, Sisters, mom and dad will also enjoy being part of this toddler learning activity.

Helping your younger children learn to compare size and to order according to size.

Do this fun toddler learning activity outlining your toddlers feet and hands, keep their hand and feet outline print so they can compare them to new ones in a year or so.

Involving the whole family adds to the great rewards of this together effort.

What You Need
* Paper
* Pencils
* Scissors
* Glue

What To Do
Help your children put their hand onto a piece of paper and open up their fingers, trace around the outline of their hand. Get your children to cut around the outline of their hand print. Older members of the family may like to help with this.

Do the same with your children's foot print. Get the rest of the family involved, this is where the toddler learning gets interesting, different sizes and comparing the size. Ask your children to put them in size order (smallest to largest.)

Once this is done, get your children to glue their print size on a piece of paper adding some colour if they wish, then use it as a wall hanging in their bedroom.

Your children will also like to compare their size later on. It's surprising when you compare just how much they have grown!

Have Fun!

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The Internet is something that is very powerful.

It provides a whole lot of information without much of the hassle associated with looking for them in an encyclopedia. Search engines have made looking for particular data an ease - it is literally typing a few words and clicking.

The Internet provides news in real time, even if the events going on are a few thousand miles away from where you are.

That being said, the Internet can also be dangerous. It is used to mass produce viruses and spread them around the whole world, able to affect any nation, especially those lacking in computer security.

It can be used to hack into bank accounts and robbing money away from an unsuspecting owner. It can be used for terrorist functions. It is filled with dirty material - pornography, lewd acts, cursing, and crime.

The Internet is a place that you don't want your kids to go snooping around in, due to the dangers associated with it. This is why it is very important for parents to teach their kids about the wonders and dangers of the Internet, and not just one side only.

Show them the whole thing; the big picture. A child who views something not suitable for him may have his life changed forever, something that even parents can't do anything about.

By teaching your kids properly, you are ensuring not only their safety, but the whole family's safety as well. Any information a child shares over the Internet to someone who is a total stranger can endanger the whole family.

Teach your kids never to share information, even if it is just a location (e.g. Los Angeles), a phone number, or even a name. Tell them that it is for the protection of the family.

Tell your kids never to give out passwords, even if they are shared with close friends. Passwords make it much easier for perpetrators to get what they want without the risk of getting caught and you never know, a close friend might have a slip of the tongue and give out the child's password to a total stranger. By then, if you are unsuspecting, the perpetrator may have gotten away with what he wanted already.

Teach your kids never to tolerate nor entertain cursing and other foul, rude language over the Internet. It is very easy to respond in a negative way to a person over the Internet since you can't be seen and you can be anywhere in the world.

However, you might not know if the person the child curses is a computer expert or not, which could endanger your computer and data.

Allow your kids to have fun while at the same time restricting them. Giving them total freedom on the Internet will only lead to danger, as they are mostly innocent and unsuspecting of those who want to prey on children. Place security measures on the Internet browser.

Place the computer in the family room instead of the child's room so that you can check in on the child from time to time, which will be to his protection.

Tell your kids never to accept any file that is sent over the Internet without consulting you first. This file can be anything - a virus, a nude photo, a gross photo, a prank program, etc.

It is better to exercise caution and prevent a negative occurrence rather than try to control any damage done after the file is executed.

Tell your kids to exercise caution in chat rooms and social networking sites. Tell them that there are perpetrators out there that lurk and wait for the unsuspecting child to come and befriend them. These people ought to be treated as strangers.

It would also be better if the child would tell the parents every time he meets a new "friend".

The Internet is very dangerous. A child can't hope to combat viruses, spyware, and lewd material on his own. It is far better to prevent that from ever occurring, and often times, teaching a child is the best way to go.

Tell them of the rules, decorum, and other necessities in using the Internet. More importantly, tell them to have fun without the risk of exposing themselves.

There is often a trap in the words 'after school activities'.

One may easily believe that since these activities are after school, they are not of much importance. But, one couldn't be more wrong. Research suggests that children pick up some of their most important skills from after school programs.

That is why children who do not participate in any extra curricular activities are generally slow and less vibrant.

The learning environment that one fosters in after school activities must be as disciplined and as functional as that found in the school. This is especially true of educational after school programs.

This is the best place to teach the child important skills like time-management and goal setting. Time-management is a vital skill, but it is not achieved easily.

Children need to feel the discipline that is needed to finish a task and the happiness of finishing the allotted work in a specific time frame.

Children look for different things in an after class program. The learning environment should be attractive, colorful and informative. Use charts, pictures, posters and drawings to liven up a class. Additional resources (resources that are not easily available in the school) will make the classes interesting.

For instance, when teaching a biology lesson, allow the child to see through a microscope or see slides of bacteria. This will add to his knowledge and also make him more enthusiastic about his after school program.

Discipline is a must in after school activities. In fun or sport-based activities, it is easy for children to step out of line and wreck havoc. While children should be allowed to have fun, they should be curtailed from unacceptable behavior. The best way to enforce discipline is to lay down the rules at the very beginning. Let the children know what is unacceptable, right at the beginning.

Rewards are an important part of any learning process. The reward can be a simple pat on the back or a token of appreciation.

Motivate your children to aspire for higher things by rewarding their achievements. Holding competitions or sport activities where the children can show their proficiency is a reward in itself.

Children can get bored easily, especially in the case of an educational program. The main thrust of an academic program is to repeat what has been
taught in class and to allow the child to learn it quickly.

It is difficult to pique the child's interest a second time, especially when the child is already tired of one dose of the same lesson. It is best to thwart boredom by using creative techniques like an impromptu extempore on any topic, a quiz program or a slideshow.

After school activities are becoming more popular by the day. Parents want their kids to learn more. Children too have an insatiable quest for knowledge.

In an after school program, it is possible to pay individual attention and quench this thirst using various effective techniques.

We never fail to celebrate incomprehensible babblings uttered by our babies, giving meaning to them as if they were real words.

On the other hand, we beat ourselves in frustration when every other baby except our own has already begun talking.

Indeed, one of the milestones that cause great excitement - and anxiety - in parents is their child's speech development.

Expressing Yourself

We use speech to articulate our feelings, thoughts, and experiences - from something as primal as hunger, to something as complex as anxiety or mixed emotions.

For young children, speech is the key in expressing preference, dislikes, and intentions. For older kids, it is an indispensable ingredient of reading, spelling, mathematics, and writing.

Since speech is used in virtually all aspects of our lives, any breakdown, however small, has an impact on the quality of our output at home, in school, and in the community.

Adults can have a hard time dealing with the nuances of speech as it is. Imagine how challenging learning speech can be for children, much more for those who exhibit difficulties in speech and comprehension.

Learning to Speak

Babies are not born with the ability to speak. They coo and cry in an attempt to communicate with parents and caregivers. Paying attention to everything their parents say, babies pick up random words and sounds.

They soon realize that they can echo these sounds and vocalize with jaws, mouths, and faces then experiment with their own vocal and facial movements.

The first ba-ba-ba and da-da-da become their first shots at babbling at around 4 months old. By around 9 months, they continue to play with varying tones and phonics of every utterance they make. They will learn to put these together and form jargon, such as ga-ga-da-doo.

After that, the one word stage begins. Soon, they make meaningful sounds, like words for "important" objects, like bottle, Mama, Dada, milk. Then the action words follow and so on.

Teaching Speech

Teaching kids to speak does not require the paper and pencil kind of rigor.

The development of speech is, at its most basic, a deft combination of learning opportunities, the right kinds of words, and natural instinct.

Here are some helpful hints:

- Think functional. Choose words that children will most likely encounter and use in the environment they are in.

- Prioritize the right kind of language learning. Young children do not need to know all the colors in wheel, count from one to a hundred, or identify countries by their flags. Teach them to indicate their likes and dislikes, express feelings, and talks about things around them.

- Expose your kids to books early on.

- Take every opportunity to speak to your kids. Establish eye contact when doing so and give your children time to respond.

- Beginning in infancy, read books and sing songs to your children at least once a day.

- Name object around the house or food during mealtimes.

- Let your kids finish their sentences. Never cut them off when they are trying to say something.

Speech delays may bode a life of frustration.

Knowing what to say and how to say it give children the power of expression, abating potential negativity and isolation brought about by difficulty in communicating.

Developing children's speech skills early is the key to helping them excel in their chosen field in the future.

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Linus Van Pelt is the sagacious friend who stuns Charlie Brown and the gang with his battery of philosophical and intellectual quips.

Despite being the "adult" in the gang, however, Linus is always clutching his precious blanket while sucking his thumb on the other.

So, why does Linus, who embodies wisdom beyond his years, need the blanket anyway?

A child's attachment to a particular object - a stuffed animal, pillow, or blanket - finds its roots in the child's early socialization and exploration stages, which begins at around six months old.

At this stage, babies are already forming emotional attachments with their parents or primary caregivers.

With improved motor skills, babies will try all sorts of tricks to get their parents' or caregivers' undivided attention and response. Experts say that this coveted response is crucial in building your baby's trust.

As babies grow into toddlers, they become increasingly interested in people and their surroundings. They are ready to communicate, learn, play, and go out into the world with their newly acquired skills.

However, despite their increasing emotional and physical independence, toddlers continue to seek comfort to recreate the feeling of security they had with their parents. Through security items, toddlers can revisit the same sense of care and nurturing they felt during infancy.

Therefore, your child's handpicked stuffed animal, baby blanket, or pacifier help with the "transition" from the safety of mommy's embrace to standing on their own two feet.

There is no need to worry about a child's attachment toward an object as long as it does not interfere with the daily functioning of the child. It is still developmentally appropriate or acceptable for children from ages 0 to six to have security items.

The longing for a security item only proves that a child is a smart little one and has created a substitute to help him or her feel the parental comfort when mom or dad are not available. Moreover, kids will gradually let go of their security items once they gain adequate trust in their caregivers and confidence in themselves and their environment.

In some extreme cases, a child becomes overly dependent on the security item, suffering from severe emotional anxiety and/or physical dysfunction in its absence. If this happens, seeking the assistance of a child expert might already be necessary.

Here are some ideas you can try to help your children part gradually and amicably with their beloved blankie or stuffed toy:

- Tell your child that she can have her security object anywhere around the house, but not in school or at parties.

- Do not allow your child to watch violent or scary movies and TV programs. The tension will push your kid to seek the calming effect of the security item.

- Never take a security item from your child during times of distress.

- Constantly hug and hold your child. Kids will have prolonged need for their security items when adoration and love are not available.

Let your child decide for himself when he wants to let go of his comfort objects.

Pay attention to the telltale signs that your child is ready to give up the comfort object on his own (for instance, when he leaves the object behind more often, or when he begins to take interest in other objects like books) and act on them right away.

Tossing the habit on his own will be his first step to assertion and independence. Be there to support him.

Get our free toddler readers here:

New Toddlers Alphabet Picture Books to add to your budding library for new readers!
Just right mouse button click on the links below and select 'save target/link as' to download these books to your computer to print out later:

The Animals Alphabet A - Z picture reader for babies & toddlers to enjoy while learning to read
A - Z Animals picture reader

This is a classic book re-presented here with pictures for every bird of the Alphabet, use as a picture reader with your toddlers.
Alphabet of Birds

We hope you enjoy these free ebook downloads with our compliments!

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