We just did a great interview with the two guys from Boy In The Shade - a new preschool focused brand of music entertainment. Hear the 15 minute interview when you Visit the ParentingZoo.com blog.

As children, we all learned to count in different ways. How did you learn to count? Didn't you feel proud when you were able to count all the way to twenty! Counting is one of the most important learning components children need to become proficient. Here are 7 tips to get your child counting to 20.
**Utilize a deck of cards.
**Purchase the Leap Frog product which offers singing as a way for your child to count from 1 to 20.
**Use construction paper with crayon, and write the numbers on separate sheets.
**Use a variety of books which teach children to count.
**Utilize a box of elbow macaroni in teaching your child how to count.
**Use pennies to help your child to count.
**If you have stairs in your home, count them with your child as you go up and down.

Statistics today show more and more public school children are lacking in mathematical skills. This is why it is so important to teach children to count from the time they are infants. They do retain information, and with so many teaching tools available today, it is becoming clear that the earlier a child is taught to count, the better prepared he or she will be when it comes time to enroll them in school.

While learning is important, making the process an enjoyable one creates the atmosphere conducive to learning. It is a fact that babies learn more at an early age because they have the ability to soak up so much information. Therefore, beginning the counting process as early as possible, using creative means, can not only help your child but is an inducement for them to want to learn more as they grow.

Engage your entire family in teaching your child to count. Make it a fun and enjoyable experience. These 7 tips to get your child counting to 20 can be used or added to your existing methods. Utilize all of the tips outlined and add your own creative ideas as well.

Times have certainly changed since we were kids. Many of the methods and tools available today were not even part of our daily curriculum. Now, more than ever, we have more opportunities to teach our children the vital lessons they need to learn in order to achieve. It all begins with the number 1, and akin to when we were kids, you can still utilize the old with the new in ensuring your child can count, either by reading the numbers or by using his or her fingers and toes.

Nicole Dean co-created http://www.parentingzoo.com to help her child and others prepare for Kindergarten in a fun way. Get free reports and more when you visit http://www.parentingzoo.com

Most children these days attend some kind of preschool program before entering mainstream education in kindergarten. Preschools have changed since I was in school. Now, they are geared towards preparing the children academically. When children stay home, they miss this and the process of getting to know other children.

If money is an issue, keeping a child at home instead of sending them to preschool seems like a good idea. You don't have to pay for child care and you can make sure of your child's surrounding environment. Unfortunately, your child will also miss out on playing with other kids their own age.

Most states offer federally funded preschool programs. If you enroll in one, there is no cost passed on to the parent. Your child receives preparation for kindergarten for free. Some even provide transportation within their own districts. The waiting lists for these programs can be long so you should get your child on one as early as a year before they are ready.

Federally or state funded programs are regulated. These preschools teach counting, color and shape recognition, drawing, physical skills like clapping and waving, and social skills like sharing. These are things that all children need to learn.

A stay at home parent can teach these skills, too. The problem is that the way a parent demonstrates the skill is not a realistic interpretation of how things will be with another child. At the age of two through four, children are self-centered. The universe revolves around them. If Suzy has a toy and Johnny puts out his hand to take it, Suzy may draw back and hold on tighter to her toy. What will Johnny do? He may cry or he may try to pull the toy from Suzy's arms. An adult will not demonstrate this when teaching their child how to share.

Parents should consider sending their children to preschool at least two or three days a week. What do you have to lose? A free program costs you nothing, but your child has everything to gain. Learning how to interact with children their own age will prepare them for kindergarten. Preschool can give them the social etiquette necessary in relationships throughout their life. Children who interact with others are less selfish and more prone to situational problem solving. They learn the option of playing together as opposed to hogging a toy and not sharing it.

If you are a parent that is dead set against preschool or there are no preschool options in your area, you can introduce socialization into your child's life if you are resourceful. Play groups offer children the chance to interact with other children. Local churches offer children's groups. Neighborhoods that have stay-at-home mothers with small children can organize park days for playtime. While the mom's get a much needed break, the children can learn to play together in the sandbox.

Get your child involved in sports. Tumbling or gymnastics groups not only teach physical skills but also camaraderie and team work. Kids can get involved with pee-wee soccer or T-ball. When situations arise between your child and another, you will have to be the one to explain to your child the right way to handle it.

All of these options are good alternatives. But, unless they are done on a regular basis, your child will not get the constant interaction that is needed with learning new behaviors. If you have younger children at home, it could become a burden for you to take on your preschool age child's socialization all by yourself.

If you are concerned about the quality of your preschool, look into getting your child placed in another program. When it comes to giving your child a well-rounded education, check all your options. Socialization may seem like a small thing now, but not doing it could affect your child for the rest of their life.

Susanne Myers is co-creator of ParentingZoo.com. Get your free reports at www.parentingzoo.com

Children explore the world around them and learn through pretend play. With so many passive activities like watching TV and playing video games, we sometimes need to encourage our children to pretend play. Here are a few suggestions on how to get those creative juices flowing for both you and your child.

Dress Up Box
Put a dress up box together with some of your old dresses, jackets, blouses, old Halloween costumes, etc. Don't forget to throw in some fun accessories as well, such as purses, hats, wigs, scarves, gloves. etc.
If you can't find much around the house, look around at some yard sales and the Goodwill and Salvation Army stores. You'll be able to find some great dress up clothes for your kids for next to nothing.
You may also get requests for some unusual accessories like space helmets, crowns, etc. Be creative and look around the house. A colander makes a cool helmet and you can form a sparkling crown out of aluminum foil.

Veterinarian
All you'll need is any of the stuffed animals your kids already have plus some bandages. You can substitute an empty pen to serve as a thermometer or syringe. A pair of headphones can quickly be turned into a stethoscope by taping a plastic bottle cap to the jack.

Grocery Store
You can quickly put a grocery store together on a low shelf or side table. All you'll need is a basket and several empty cereal and rice boxes. Add a few canned goods and some dry beans, and you're all set. You can also draw up your own money on pieces of paper and cut some coins out of cardboard. Ask your child to help you color them. Take turns with your child being the shopper or the storekeeper.

Library
When your child gets bored of playing store, turn the grocery store into a library. Make up a library card for every family member and add a small piece of paper into each of your child's books. If your child cannot read or write yet, draw a symbol for each family member, or use a different color. When someone checks out a book from the family library, ask the child to record who took it and when it is due back in. You can also ask your child to sort the books either by topic or alphabetically.

Firefighter
Have your kids turn an empty cardboard box into a fire truck. They can color it and draw tires on with markers or cut out shapes from construction paper. Paint an empty clean can (like a coffee can) blue to use as an emergency light. You can have them make a police car, ambulance or garbage truck. You'll soon have your children pretend play to be a fire fighter, police officer, etc.

Let's Cook
All you'll need are a few pots and pans, some wooden spoons, and if you'd like, some dry rice or beans. Your kids can also draw shapes of favorite foods on construction paper and color them with crayons or markers. After that, let the pretending begin. Encourage your child to pretend cook in the kitchen with you while you are fixing dinner. It will keep him or her occupied, while you can still keep an eye on him or her.

Puppets
One of the most versatile pretend play toys are puppets. You can easily make them yourself. Take a look at these finger puppets (http://www.kinderinfo.com/crafts/fingerpuppets.htm) and handkerchief puppets (http://www.kinderinfo.com/crafts/handkerchief-puppet.htm). There is also a huge array of puppets from people to animals commercially available. Puppets will allow your child to recreate situations of everyday life and to explore different points of view. Watching them when they play with their puppets will give also give you a glimpse at how they see the world. Do you really say, "Please don't do that" that often?

Give your child the means and a little bit of encouragement to pretend play and they'll run with it. Our children are so observatory of their surroundings and also have tons of imagination. You'll enjoy watching them and interacting with them as they explore their world through pretend play.

Susanne Myers is the owner of www.kinderinfo.com and co-creator of www.parentingzoo.com. For more great tips and ideas for you and your kids, sign up for our bimonthly newsletter at www.kinderinfo.com/newsletter.

What does a baby listening to a bilingual music CD, a school age child learning two words in two languages for the same object and an elderly person sitting in a retirement community have in common? They all will experience a wide array of benefits derived from being bilingual.

It's mind-boggling to keep up with the most recent research in the field of bilingualism. Experts speak about the many areas of the brain sparked by introducing two languages early in life. They refer to the neural pathways created and connected during second language learning in the first five years of life. They provide study after study that proves overall advanced cognitive development takes place within groups of bilingual students when compared to their monolingual peers.

Now the latest evidence, as recent as early January 2007, points to lifelong use of two languages assisting with the delay of the onset of dementia symptoms by four years when compared to monolingual daily existence! As the daughter of an eighty year old mother who recently moved into a retirement community, I find this latest study out of the Rotman Research Institute at the Baycrest Research Center for Aging and the Brain fascinating!

We have know for years, as parents and as educators, that our children are like sponges. They soak up new information with ease and retain much of what they learn after much repetition. The likes of PBS, NickJr., Disney and children's programming decision makers realize the importance of and interest in helping our youth of today get a jump start on becoming bilingual. Just ask any young girl and boy in your local preschool who Dora & Diego are!

Dr. Ellen Bialystok, Ph.D., and her colleagues have conducted previous studies showing that bilingualism enhances attention and cognitive control in both children and older adults. One of Dr. Bialystok's studies conducted on language acquisition in children showed that bilingual children read sooner than their monolingual peers and score twice as high on language tests as well as demonstrate advanced problem solving capabilities. Reading her findings is like getting free coaching on how to raise a child to succeed in our global society!

Following the stages of our lives with language learning is becoming increasingly easy to do. Learn one language, speak it daily, and you will find yourself missing the boat. Learn two languages or more, speak them often, and you will proudly exhibit early reading skills as a four year old, score higher on standardized tests as a school age student, and wave off the early onset of dementia. The findings are in, the experts agree; being bilingual makes life's journey a pleasant one.

Beth Butler is the creator/owner of the BOCA BETH Language Learning Series. Featured in Parenting Magazine and heard live on Mom Talk Radio, this fun and easy-to-use program is gaining international acclaim. Visit their web site to learn more about second language learning with young children. Call toll free to 1.877.825.2622 or Ms. Butler's cell phone for an interview to 1.813.244.1432.

Article Source: http://www.ladypens.com

Reading Games Teach Fun Phonics by Robyn

I am back with more information regarding early reading.

My second article dealt with the alphabet and how to teach its sounds. In this one I shall show you the importance of games to stimulate interest and empower the learning process.

Never stereotype children, babies included. They are as different as snowflakes. They can have an awareness belying their tender years, a great boldness, build an instant rapport with strangers, fit instantly into their new world, and hug for the Olympics. They can understand the power of their demands and consign the notion of gradual development to the bin. Or, they can be the antithesis of all these remaining squarely within varying shades of each and every one.

But whilst each child is his or her own little person, there are at least two issues where all children become stereotypical. They all love games and they all hate being force fed anything. Sit a child down and teach him and he will resist learning possibly forever. Play learning games with him and he will embrace learning, possibly forever.

The continuous development of his learning skills will depend on your influence, your approach.

You have printed the letters of the alphabet one letter at a time, on postcards in red felt pen. When your child has mastered say the 'a' 'b' 'c' on his bedroom walls and the 'd' 'e' 'f' on the door of the fridge, swap them around. You can place them in surprising places, one on a gumboot then ask "What on earth is this cheeky 'a' doing on your gumboot Simeon?" The tray of the high-chair, a place-mat, pinned to a curtain, in the sock drawer, the back of a chair, on a door, are all admirable spots. In fact any strategic and unexpected place where a young reader can see, identify and have a good, indignant laugh at these cheeky sounds that move around so much. Particularly important is that you move them around and introduce new sounds for a continuous development and complete familiarisation. All the new readers I have ever taught, from tinies to older people who were learning to read for the first time in their lives, have all loved identifying sounds in shops, especially those banner headlines advertising specials and sales.

Bear in mind there are only twenty-six letters in the alphabet and children are sponges in the learning game.

In a role reversal, let your child test you. Stumble, get a few wrong, allow yourself to be corrected, children love it. One parent actually resisted this saying she would not lie to her child. Remember it is a game, many games require bluffing, the difference with this game is that it has future issues of overwhelming importance to your child.

A game children enjoy is to place the cards they know on the floor in a spaced line. They become stepping stones in a river. Go carefully along, stepping on each stone and not falling into the water.

Or your line of cards can become a Formula One track, if you miss a letter you hit a hay bale, if you complete the circuit, the laurel crown (a winter hat) awaits.

The cards can be stuck to a door which then becomes a beautiful apple tree. Holding a small basket or bag, your child picks every 'apple' she reads correctly.

Fairies and elves, a game where the child hides under a table (mushroom) and answers each card in a fairy or elf voice. Giants hide behind a rock (chair) , robots stride along the carpet and all answer in the appropriate voice. You and your child can probably think of many more characters to assume. These games are fun, fast and enable your child to learn brilliantly. Later they can be adapted to the synthetic phonic sounds, they cost nothing and all children love them.

Just keep your child laughing and you will keep him learning.

My next article will deal with the importance of reading every single day.

Robyn Dalby-Stockwell is a teacher, writer, broadcaster, reading consultant and Director of Alonah Reading Cambridge http://www.alonahreadingcambridge.com the only source of her four book reading course, giving reading support to parents and their children.