Children Living in Poverty in the United States

The Annie E. Casey Foundation has recently released the new Kids Count Report. As I looked through the report, I was saddened to see the high percentage of kids living below the national poverty level.

United States
0 to 5	26%
6 to 17	21%
less than 18	23%

This is the rate of children living in poverty throughout the United States. The smallest children are the  highest percentage living below the national poverty level.

Early childhood experiences and education have been shown to affect a person's entire life. If a child is growing up below the poverty level from birth - 5 years of age, they are frequently at a large disadvantage by the time they start school.

A child's brain grows to 80% of it's adult size (source: Better Brains for Babies @ University of Georgia) during the early childhood years. The brain is stimulated by experiences, play, attachment and consistency. This is why quality care for children is so important. Children from homes below the national poverty level deserve to have opportunities that will stimulate that growth. They need not only new experiences, but they need repeated experiences to ingrain that event/knowledge into their brain.

As you look through the Kids Count Report, you will see a breakdown for the nation and for each state in several areas, including Demographics, Education, Economic Well-Being, Family and Community, Health, Safety and Risky Behaviors and Other Indicators.

One of the goals of the Kids Matter campaign is to raise awareness of quality child care for all children. What are your suggestions for equalizing children? Many states are going towards public preschool for all children, whether funded privately or publicly. This is a great start, but we need to discuss how we reach the full spectrum of children and how we offer a future full of education for all children.

Weigh in with your thoughts.

Death of Preschool?

Isn't that a catchy title? I recently read an article that was entitled that on Waldorf Today. The article was written by a man named Paul Tullis and appeared on Scientific American's website.

I, like many of you are very interested in early education, so this caught my eye. I immediately thought to myself that I assumed preschool rates were at an all time high, was I wrong?

I started reading the article and quickly realized that this had nothing to do with enrollment and everything to do with the form of instruction in preschool classrooms. The article began by replaying a conversation between some wealthy parents that are sending their children to a high priced preschool, that contains desks and chairs for each child and the children sit and learn versus a typical preschool where there are shared tables and more free learning and instruction.

One of these parents actually says "You go in there (his child's preschool), and they are sitting down, learning something. At other preschools, they are just playing." The author goes on to talk about how many preschools are turning to direct instruction instead of letting the child's natural curiosity and eagerness lead them in learning.

I have to say that I lean more towards the play is vital to learning camp, but I can see some perspectives of direct instruction. As a matter of fact, the National Institute for Direct Instruction defines direct instruction as "a model of teaching that emphasizes well-developed and carefully planned lessons designed around small learning increments and clearly defined and prescribed teaching tasks".

I agree that all teachers, even preschool teachers, should have well-developed and carefully planned lessons. A teacher should be prepared to teach for the day. The teacher should have the lesson plan completed and all necessary supplies at his disposal. Do not come into class and just "wing it" and hope all goes well. The other side of that coin for me, is that a teacher should not be so focused on her lesson plan that she misses an opportunity to teach a child. If you are teaching a farm theme in your preschool class and  one or two of your preschoolers are not ready to move on to horses instead of cows, what is the harm of teaching them more? Always be prepared! Typical preschoolers do not have a long attention span, if you have their attention and they are focused on your activities, continue that theme. Do not change gears just because your lesson plan says that it is time to move on.

The article also talks about how the children at the "direct instruction preschool" are studying great artists. They specifically talk about how the children are learning about Pablo Picasso and Pointillism. I think that the study of great artists should be included in any learning environment. It encourages creativity and problem solving in a child and those are skills that need to be nurtured. There are a great line of books geared towards young children. They are called Touch the Art and they are a great resource for a teacher or a parent to show great works of arts to children.

A problem that I see with this course of full-time direct instruction is that you are setting up many of these children for failure. If you say that a child has to read by 5 and know all of the states and capitols by 6; what do you do with the kids that can not do that? Do you start holding children back in kindergarten or in preschool? How does a child recover from that? Will there be psychological damage when a child realizes he has failed and all of his friends have moved on without him? I think 5 years of age is a little young for a child to give up on school. She has barely started her education and you are already pigeonholing her as a failure.

Allow kids to be kids. Let them play, with a bit of instruction thrown in. If you hand a child a toy, let them play with it before you show them "the correct way to play with it". Do not stifle a preschoolers natural curiosity, instead try to look through their eyes at the world.

Chores Equal Responsibility

All members of a household should have some chores. One person in the family should not be responsible for all of the chores. Chores can teach a person vital life skills including: respect and consideration. When completing chores you are working on your fine and gross motor skills, which is great for kids and adults. The chores should be based on the person's abilities. In our house we have a list of chores that are acceptable for our four year old. He does not always get his chores perfect, but he does try. The more he does the chores, the better he gets at them. I never go behind him and "do it correctly", instead I have just learned to live with streaky windows because he will soon get it just right.

Chores acceptable for preschoolers:
Dusting
Cleaning windows
Put away laundry
Set the table for meals
Put items in the dishwasher
Put away silverware
Sweep floors
Pick up toys
Put books on a bookshelf
Wipe table with wet cloth
Make bed
Feed pets

This is just a small list of chores that are acceptable for a preschooler, in your home there will likely be different ones that your kids do.

In my household, my son does not get paid for chores. As he gets older this may change, but right now I just want him to realize that everyone in the family needs to help out.

Standard chores that he is supposed to do include: Wash hands, brush teeth, put away toys, set dinner table, put away books, sweep kitchen floor and clean off the table after meals. As he gets better at doing chores there may be additional duties added to his list.

In my house, we do not "correct" a chore that he completed. We show him how to do something and then he does it to the best of his ability. Is every speck of dust off of my floor? No, after all they are being swept by a 4 year old. Some times you have to learn to live with something that is acceptable but not perfect.

His chores teach him responsibility by showing him he can not do one activity without completing another. If he wants to run races in the hallway, all of his toys must be picked up first. If he wants a snack, he can not have one until his hands are washed. The list goes on an on. They also teach him that as a family, we must all help out. He sees Mommy and Daddy doing chores and understands that he must also do chores. No member of our family must do all of the chores, we are a family which means that we always help one another.

Making Friends

With school starting back many children will be under a lot of stress. As adults, we forget how hard it is to go up and introduce yourself to a total stranger. If we have no one to talk to or play with we have to spend the entire day alone, which is even less fun.

Can parents help their children to make friends? Do you have to bribe other children to play with your child? Of course not! Here are some ideas to help your child build up confidence and learn to make friends.

1) Give your child plenty of opportunities to play with other children. You child needs to spend time with children her own age, older than her and younger than her. If your child is not currently enrolled in child care or preschool you can still help her meet other kids. Arrange play dates with friend's kids, get involved in a playgroup, take a class together or just go to the park. This will give your child a chance to interact with other kids while still under your supervision.

2) Be patient! This can not be stressed enough. All children do not interact the same. You child may prefer to sit back and watch the other children before joining in, or he may just go right over and play with other kids. Either way is acceptable. Do not force your child to play with other children, it will only cause undue stress on all of the children involved.

3) Talk to your child about friends. Tell her about your friends and how happy you are when you are together. Let her see you having fun with friends. Ask her about her friends. Whom did she enjoy playing with at the park today? How did you feel when the boy took your book today? How could you have prevented that from happening? What kind of activities do you like to do with your friends?

4) Try not to interfere. If your child and another child are have a disagreement, do not jump right up and "take care of it". Allowing children to solve their own social problems is very important. Kids learn about rules by playing with others. At home we may "bend the rules" a bit for our kids but friends are not always so willing. They know the rules and what they expect. If your child and another child are in danger of hurting one another or the situation has escalated to a point that they can not resolve it, you need to assist them. A child can not be at their best socially until they are allowed to interact pleasantly and learn to compromise with other kids.

5) Play with your child like a child. Get down on the floor and have a tea party or play cars with your children. This will give you an opportunity to see how your child interacts with other children during play time. Does she boss you around? Does he always knock over your block tower? If the children are interacting this way with you, it is fair to assume that they will also interact this way with kids. Help your child to understand taking turns, being fair and being a good friend.

Life Cycle of a Snake

We recently read another of our books in the Life Cycle Series that I purchased. This time we read

Green Snake (Life Cycles) by David M. Schwartz. I still highly recommend this Life Cycle series. We love that there are actual photographs in the books instead of just illustrations.

After reading the book we decided to do a few activities.

First we talked about how most snake species lay eggs instead of giving live birth. We also discussed how snake eggs are not hard like a bird egg. They are more leathery feeling and have some give to them.

We then did an experiment to see how they feel. Since I do not care for snakes and have no desire to go on a snake hunt, we used a chicken egg. I hard boiled two regular chicken eggs. Once they were ready, I put one in the refrigerator and the other I put in a bowl and covered it with white vinegar. We let the eggs sit in their respective spots for 24 hours then we pulled them out to look at them again.

The egg that had been in the refrigerator looked and felt exactly the same as it had when we put it in there. The egg in the vinegar though, had taken on a new consistency. Instead of the shell being hard, it was more flexible. We could squeeze the shell without it cracking and it actually bent in under the pressure of our fingers. My son was fascinated by this.

Why this works: The eggshells are made of calcium carbonate and when the acid of the vinegar touches the calcium it causes a chemical reaction, which you witness with the bubbles coming from the egg in vinegar. The reaction will continue with the calcium turning into carbon dioxide (the bubbles) until the calcium is used up (about 24 hours). Now that you have this soft shelled egg, what do you do with it? Well, you can extend the experiment by leaving the same egg out on a table over night. The next day the eggshell will be hard again. The reason is that it stole the carbon dioxide that we breath out of the air.

The next thing we did was an exercise for fine motor skill development. I cut up numerous pipe cleaners/chenille stems into a variety of sizes and put them in a container. My son had to use tweezers to pick up the "snakes". Once he picked them up, he used the tweezers to sort them a few different ways: by color and by size. He loved doing this and was quite adept at using the tweezers.

Once we had sorted the "snakes" we graphed them a few ways: Longest to shortest, color wise and then how many of each color we had.

Have a great time studying snakes at your house!

Copy What You See

Sometimes my son's mind wanders just like everyone else. Some days he pays great attention to detail, other days it could be a Mack Truck and he would not notice it. To try and bring his awareness factor up, we worked on replicating things he sees in photos.

We painted the back of a paper plate orange to make a Jack O Lantern. I then used black constriction paper to cut out a variety of Jack O Lantern facial features. As I made a face, I took a picture of the face. I then printed out the faces.

Now, I lay the pumpkin on the table and give him all of the facial features along with one photo to replicate. Sometimes he gets it right, sometimes he gets aggravated with the variety of facial features. On those days, I take away some of the facial features and we try again.

He enjoys the activity and it is helping him to understand the concept of a Jack O Lantern as we had trouble with the concept of a pumpkin becoming a Jack O Lantern.

Colored Rice - Part Two

Well, the colored rice from September 9th was pretty and fun to play with but I quickly grew tired of walking on little pieces of rice. I then decided to take matters into my own hands.

I had been in Hobby Lobby and they had several charms on clearance so I had purchased them not knowing what I would do with them. I decided the rice would make a perfect I Spy bottle.

I tore the label off of an empty water bottle, poured in the rice and then added the charms, after I had taken a picture of them. My son can not read yet so this is his picture code of what needs to be found in the bottle.

He plays with this quite often and I am happy to report I have not stepped on the first piece of rice since sealing the bottle. It is win-win for both of us!

Coloring Rice

I have seen lots of blogs that talk about coloring rice for your kids and I really wanted to give it a try with my son. I pulled out a bag of rice, the Ziploc bags, the food coloring and then I realized I did not have enough alcohol in the house to do this activity.

I did already have my heart set on it though and since the rice is inexpensive, I decided to go ahead and wing it. I did not have alcohol in the house however I had lots of hand sanitizer in the house and it is mostly alcohol so I decided to use it in place of the alcohol.

I divided my rice evenly among 5 Ziploc bags for red, blue, green, yellow and purple rice. In each bag I used about 7-8 squirts of food coloring and about 2 squirts of hand sanitizer. I then squished the bags around until all of the rice was colored. Next I set the rice on the counter, in the bags to dry some. I came back about 1 hour later and things were colorful and dry. I poured it into our container with each color in a pretty row and it looked so beautiful! I was immediately glad that I did this project.

When my son came home, I showed him how pretty it was and then I dropped a few of the decorative erasers that you see everywhere in there and asked him to get them out with the measuring spoon or the ice tongs. He did pretty well but in about 35 seconds, it was no longer the pretty box I had made, it was his new creation and fortunately I thought it was pretty too!

Setting the Table for Kids

As your kids are getting older it will be a good idea to teach them how to set the table for a meal. Not only will this assist you at a busy time of your day but the kids will get a sense of responsibility too. It is always a good idea to work on proper table manners.

Supplies:

Construction paper (darker color)
Fork
Knife
Spoon
Cup

Set the paper in a sunny spot outside. Put the fork on the left hand side, leave an open spot for the plate, and then place the knife and the spoon. The cup belongs up above the spoon and knife. Leave the setting in the sun for about 3-4 hours. The sun will fade the paper in the areas that are not covered leaving a perfect outline for a place setting. We only left ours outside for one hour, but it is good enough to be a sample now.

Once you bring the "placemat" inside, it will give your kids a model to work with while setting the table for a meal. Everyone likes to feel as if they are contributing in some way and setting the table is the perfect way to let the kids contribute.

A Healthy Family

Kid's Activity Pyramid

There are many things we can do to keep our family healthy. One of the easiest things to do is to just go outside and play. You can play games of tag, hide and seek, kickball, throw a ball, red light/green light or Simon Says. Regardless of the age of your children, you can play a game out side with them.

The youngest kids will understand Simon Says and red light/green light, the older kids will enjoy badminton volleyball, basketball or just tossing a ball around. It does not take a lot of forethought to do these activities and not only will it improve your health and the health of your child but it will also improve the relationship you have with your kids. If you do not already have some of the games that requires equipment, now is the time to purchase it. Stores are marking everything down to super clearance in preparation for fall and winter so summer items have to go. There is still plenty of time for you to use these activities outside though.

Another great thing you can do is a 5K walk or run with the whole family. Pick a local charity and participate in their event. Not only do you get to exercise but you can teach your child about philanthropy by collecting donations. Here in Lexington we can refer to a local shoe store's race calendar, John's Race Calendar. If you look at this calendar you will see that there is at least one race every weekend that is within a short distance of our town. I bet your town is the same way.

If you do not want to do a 5K, you could always put together a race for your family and a group of friends. It would be easy to go to a local track and perform your race. Before arriving, pick a few events or distances. You could have the Dads compete, the Moms compete and the kids compete. The winners of each event would receive a small award like a trophy or a medal. Be sure you have plenty of water and sports drinks on hand along with some oranges, apples and bananas to keep everyone healthy. If you do not have access to a local track, do an obstacle course at the local playground.

If you want it to be a longer lasting activity, buy pedometers for the whole family then pick a destination. From Lexington, maybe I would pick Kings Island in Ohio. When I go to Mapquest I see that it is about 115 miles. When I looked around online I discovered that 2,000 steps is about equal to 1 mile so we would have to walk 230,000 steps to get to King's Island. You could do a graph for each family member that you log the steps to every night. You can compete to see who gets to Kings Island first. It does not have to end with you actually going to the amusement park but it would be fun to then go to the place you are "walking" to.

There are lots of great ways to keep healthy and to teach your children how important it is to use their body every day. Maybe just playing in the backyard with Mom and Dad will teach the kids to love their bodies and to take great care of their bodies.

Learning our Colors - A felt board game (2)

Here is another felt board game that I made for my son. Once again, I just purchase the cheap craft felt that is 5 sheets for $1. I trace all of my patterns and then I cut them all out.

We put them up one fish at a time and do a different recital of Brown Bear, Brown Bear. My son puts up the first fish and I say "Purple fish, purple fish, what do you see? I see a WHITE fish looking at me." Then my son takes the white fish and puts it on the board. We continue through all of our fish colors and when we have the last fish up (in this case he will be yellow) I say "Yellow fish, yellow fish what do you see?" and my son is supposed to recite all of the colors back to me. He is not quite there yet so I assist him when needed, but he does try hard! As you can see, I have 11 fish cut out currently but we never use more than 4 right now. I do not want him to get frustrated. As he gets better at the game, we will pull out more fish to play with.

He loves this even more than he loves the original Brown Bear book, which is no small feat since I have read that book enough to recite it word for word.

I have also included a pattern for cutting out the fish shapes. Hope you enjoy this game as much as we do.

Fish Pattern

Learning Our Colors - A Felt Board Game

 

A year or so ago I purchased a felt board to use at home with my son. We have gotten sporadic use out of it but I am hoping to use it more frequently. In anticipation of this I have cut out some felt pieces from cheap craft felt (I got 5 sheets for $1).

Our first new activity is the ice cream shop. We line up all of the cones that were cut out of tan felt along the middle of the board and then I sing "I scream, you scream, we all scream for _____ ice cream." The blank is filled in with a color that I have a corresponding "ice cream" cutout for.

The few times that we have played this my son has had fun searching for the color ice cream that I want. Sometimes he will make the ice cream one scoop but sometimes I am extra hungry and want a double scoop!

I have included the shapes that I used for your personal use. Please feel free to download and print them out.

Ice Cream Pattern

Teaching Compassion

My son's daycare center used to do this little project where they would "feature" a child a month in each class. When you were chosen to be featured, then the child and/or the parents would make a poster to hang beside the classroom door.

I really enjoyed this project. My son spends most of the day with these kids and I know most of their names but that is about all I knew about them. When they were featured and a poster was done it would always have pictures of their life outside of school and pictures of them with their families. It would include their likes and dislikes, their pets and favorite toys or any other thing the parent wanted to include. This was always lots of fun to see what the other kids did and the classes could discuss the posters during the days and maybe even try out some of the favorite foods or activities that were featured on the poster.

We are very fortunate that our daycare center has a diverse background of families. Everyone does not look the same, everyone does not speak the same and everyone certainly has not developed and met milestones the same. This adds a degree of humanity to my child's life that I may not be able to add on my own. I am appreciative of the families that have embraced my child and are bringing knowledge of other cultures to his life.

We use daycare as both my spouse and I work full time but you do not have to use a daycare to find diversity in your child's life. If you are a stay at home parent there are still ways to meet other parents that may not be just like you. Go to story time at the library or local bookstores, go to the children's museum, go to the local playground or even to an indoor playground in the mall or fast food restaurant. Try not to be shy about introducing yourself to other parents but if that is not something you can do then think about joining a local parenting group. In this area there are several groups that get together during the day for play dates and they are almost always looking to add new members. You can go to Google and do a search for playgroups in your city.

It is important for kids to know that not everyone will look like them or have the same amount of money as them. Kids need to learn that being different is not a bad thing. The sooner a child learns humanity and compassion for people that are different than he is, the more likely we can battle playground bullying together. Compassion begins at home and it is one of the most important lessons you can teach your children. They learn by watching you so before you are rude to a cashier or scream at a driver that cut you off, remember that your child is learning how to interact with people by watching you. We all want our kid's lives to be better than our own but in order to achieve this we must first improve our outlook on our own lives.

I have a baby. Now what?

When you come home from the hospital with your little bundle of joy, you see nothing but promise when you look into the eyes of your child. Soon you realize that there is a lot of competition between parents. As you are thrilled that your child starts holding her head up on her own, someone else talks about how their child is already rolling over unassisted.

These conversations can get you down quickly and make you wonder if you are doing all that you can for your child. Rest assured that every child does develop on a different time frame. The American Academy of Pediatrics has a list of guidelines and target ages to meet the guidelines but even they know that just because you are not on "target" does not necessarily mean that there is something wrong.

The most important thing you can do for your child is to encourage them and to see everything as an easy opportunity to teach. Some people have a hard time talking to a small baby that is basically unresponsive but that is when a child is absorbing everything you say. They can not speak yet but they can remember words you say and figure out the meaning of the words. They can pick up on small nuances in your voice and demeanor. If you are stressed or angry, they can pick up on that and re-create the same emotions.

Speak to your baby, sing to her and read books to her. This will assist her in time to learn to speak. It is okay to sing the same songs to her over and over. When my child was small, I completely narrated everything I did to him. As I got him dressed I pointed out his arms, legs, head, fingers and toes. He was one of the first children in his class to recognize these body parts. We never really "worked" on learning these things, we just sang a little tune as we got him dressed each morning and then again when we put his pajamas on at night.

Under no circumstances am I telling you that you must go out and buy every toy you can find that says it is an educational toy in order to further your child. I am also not telling you that you should always point out how great your little Timmy is doing and ask your friend why little Abby is so far behind. I am encouraging you to use your imagination to teach the basics to your child in the first years of his life.

As you put on their shoes, ask for the left foot and then the right foot. They will not always get it right but they will learn that there is a difference. As you tie those same shoes, recite the shoe tying song (sang to the tune of Here We Go 'Round the Mulberry Bush):

This is the way I tie my shoes

Tie my shoes
Tie my shoes
This is the way I tie my shoes
So early in the morning!

By making little bunny ears
Bunny ears
Bunny ears
By making little bunny ears
So early in the morning!

I tie them in a little knot
Little knot
Little knot
I tie them in a little knot
So early in the morning!

As you do things throughout your day, sing about it to your child. You will not immediately see your child carrying on conversations but you will be rewarded later when they begin to develop language skills.

Do not just speak to your child though, they need your touch also. Snuggle, cuddle and rock your baby. Every touch stimulates the baby's brain. Do not just do these things when your baby is upset, nurture him when he is happy, alert and quiet also. This will be just as rewarding for you as it is for the baby. This will release some tension for you and will help you to bond with the baby. Your child looks at you with eyes of love and trust when they are happy and rested, relish this time.