Toddlers

Activities, Education, Parenting, Preschool, Sensory Play, Toddlers

Candy Shop

March 9, 2019

This was a left over activity from Valentine’s Day. We used the candy boxes with the chocolate play-dough to make some pretend treats. Here are some of the things we made and the skills we are working on using play-dough.

What’s on the tray:

Chocolate play-dough,

Candy boxes,

Measuring cup and spoons,

Rolling pin,

Play-dough tools

Cookie cutters.

Fine Motor Skills

There is a lot of talk these days about children not getting enough practice developing their fine motor skills. For those who don’t know, fine motor skills is the early childhood education jargon for saying the things you do with your hands. Basically the smaller muscle groups. These are the skills children need for writing, cutting with scissors, tying shoes etc. Gross motor skills use the larger muscles for running, climbing etc. There are many ways for children to practice these skills like stringing beads, using stickers, popping bubblewrap or scooping water or sand. Play-dough is great though because you can role it out, squeeze it, mold it, use tools to cut it and so on. All of those actions strengthen the hands and fingers. Rosebud rolled out circles, hid beads in the play-dough to find and cut it into pieces using the play-dough cutter.

Pretend Play

Another wonderful thing about play-dough is you can turn it into whatever you want it to be. Since we had the candy boxes, we decided to make pretend candy. Some of our candies were circles and squares. We also made cakes and decorated them with the beads. As with other pretend play, it helps expand a child’s imagination and allows them to try out different roles. Pretend play can also help children work out issues they may be having difficulty with. It also helps enhance social skills. We pretended to make cups of hot chocolate. Rosebud grabbed out of my hand, so we worked on sharing and asking for turns. We worked as a team to decorate the cakes.

Math

I asked Rosebud which shape I should make and she suggested I make squares. I’ve used play-dough often to help her with shape recognition. She’s gotten really good at identifying most shapes. Sorting, classifying and identifying shapes are all necessary pre-math skills.

Literacy

On the literacy side, I made some letters and asked if she knew what they were. She has become interested in letters, but cannot name them yet. she has started asking me what they are and what they are for. If we are playing with letters, I’ll point out the letter, tell her its name and a word that it starts with. In this case, I first made her initials and then did a simple abc. This is a fun way to practice some of the pre-reading skills.

The best part is the kids are simply having fun without worrying about what they are learning or haven’t learned yet. What are some of your go to activities with play-dough? Tell me in the comments.

4 Comments

Education, Parenting, Toddlers, Winter

Melting Hearts

February 26, 2019

We did this simple science activity before Valentine’s Day and Rosebud loved it. It kept her occupied for over an hour. What I love about science for young kids is that is so simple and they are learning without even realizing it.

What you need:

Ice cube trays,

Water,

Food coloring,

Small bowls,

Eye droppers

Directions:

1. Make some ice cubes. I used heart shapes, but you can make whatever shape you wish.

I added red food coloring to some of my hearts before freezing them.

2. Next, I took out a few ice cubes once they were frozen and then put them in a small bowl.

3. To help melt the ice cubes, fill another small bowl with water and show your child how to use the eye dropper to transfer the water to the bowl with the ice cubes.

This activity is so simple, but it’s great for science. We talked about melting, warm vs cold, the size of the ice cubes and how the water was changing color. This activity is great for fine motor skills as well. Next time, I will make more colored ice cubes and we can experiment with mixing colors as the ice melts. If you are using larger ice cubes, you can add treasures inside.

What are your favorite simple science activities for kids? Tell me in the comments.

2 Comments

Activities, Education, Preschool, Sensory Play, Toddlers

Hot Coco Play-dough

February 13, 2019

I found this chocolate play-dough recipe several years ago and it smells good enough to eat. When you cook it, it smells so much like brownies. I’ve never tried eating it, but I’m guessing it doesn’t taste as good as it smells. Anyway, I love using this play-dough for a Valentine’s Day or hot coco theme.

Ingredients

1 1/4 cups flour,
1/2 cup cocoa powder
1/2 cup salt,
1/2 Tablespoon cream of Tartar,
1/2 Tablespoon oil,
1 1/2 cups water,
A couple drops of glycerin for shine.

Directions

1. Mix dry ingredients in a medium size saucepan.
2. Add wet ingredients and stir together over low heat until a ball of dough forms.
3. Remove play dough from the saucepan and knead by hand until dough is smooth and evenly colored. You’ll want to add the drops of glycerin at this stage. If you are kneading and find the play-dough is still too wet, add a little flour.

Store in an airtight container.

Rosebud loved this play-dough. She kept saying how yummy it smelled and she said it was very squishy. We made cups of coco with marshmallows. I used white beads.

We made cakes and brownies.

I made chocolate covered strawberries and chocolate roses that were quickly squished. I made objects for Rosebud to guess, even this silly shoe.

What are your favorite play-dough recipes? Tell me in the comments.

6 Comments

Memories, Parenting, Preschool, Toddlers, Winter

Are Our Children Missing Something?

February 8, 2019

It has been a long winter and these past couple of days have been especially horrible at work. One bright spot has been the weather. It’s finally warmed up a bit and not feeling so much like the arctic. Normally, the last thing I want to do when I get home is to go outside and freeze. I get my fill of that in the mornings as my classes almost always go outside no matter how cold it is. All I want to do is sit in my favorite chair and zone out, but I don’t do that. Most days, I play with Rosebud as soon as I get home. She waits for me all day and she usually gets things set up so that we can play as soon as we walk through the door. Some days, she’ll have a picnic set up or she’ll create a pretend bakery.

Now that the sun is out later and we had a taste of spring, she asked to go play in the back yard. When we got out there, we started testing the snow to see what we could make. We have one of those plastic molds that makes bricks out of snow. We only managed to make one brick that stayed together. The others fell apart. It could’ve been good snowman making snow, but it was too warm for it to stay together. We couldn’t make a decent snowman, but we could make some fantastic snowballs. Even though most of them melted quickly, they were perfect for throwing. Rosebud picked one up and threw it at me. Then it was on! We threw snowballs back and forth and just kept laughing. We had so much fun.

It reminded me of my childhood. Back then, we used to get a lot more snow than we do now and we’d spend hours out there. I remember helping my mom shovel snow and thinking how fun it was. Of course, now it’s not so fun. I remember making huge snowballs with my classmates. We’d just make gigantic snowballs to push around, just seeing how big we could make them. We made tall snowmen, experimented with spraying the snow with colored water, taking sleds down a huge hill on the school’s playground. I remember making a snow fort at the baby sitter’s house. We wanted to make it really strong because the kids who lived next door decided that they’d throw snowballs at our fort. I think we were going to throw some at their’s too, but we thought we were so clever when we got some water and started making ice as the top coat of our fort.

We didn’t care if they came with snowballs because we were busy seeing how strong we could make our fort.

I’d often go down to the pond with those same kids and pretend to ice skate. There were holes all over the pond and it definitely wasn’t the safest thing to be doing, but back then, kids were allowed to take risks. Maybe more than we should have, but we learned to be careful. We knew what our limits were. We learned through trial and error. We learned how to share, make our own rules and most of all, we learned to look out for each other.

Every day, I’m constantly telling kids about how this isn’t safe and that isn’t safe. We tell them not to climb the slide, stay out of puddles, don’t play on the ice, don’t throw snowballs and on and on. It gets old. I start to wonder what came first. Do we tell them not to do these things because they show us they don’t know how to be safe or are we just assuming it before giving them the opportunity to learn? We tell them not to throw snowballs, but why exactly? It seems as though that it’s just one of those childhood memories we all have. At least those of us who grow up in winter climates.

With some of the kids, I’ll tell them to stop because they always take it too far. If they throw snowballs, they go for the other kid’s face. If they play on the ice, they pick up a piece and throw it. Is it because we’ve hovered too much that they have to push the envelope even farther or does it come down to the fact that they don’t know how to play and interact with other kids? Is all this hovering crushing their spirits? Can we step back a little or is all of this necessary? My guess is the answer lies somewhere in the middle.

When Rosebud and I played outside, I thought of my own childhood and I wanted her to have some of those same memories. I want her to remember happy times even if they were just playing with mommy instead of the neighborhood kids. I let her throw snowballs and threw some back. I let her see if she could climb her slide with her boots on. She discovered that it was slippery, but if she held on tight and paid close attention, she could still get to the top safely. She discovered that she shouldn’t run on the ice or she might fall. I pulled her around the yard in her sled and her laughter was contagious. The hint of spring with the warm sun on my back and seeing Rosebud’s pure joy was the perfect ending to my day.

Recently, this brilliant article called,The Most Overlooked Reason Why Your Kids Won’t Listen, Focus or Sit Still came across my newsfeed. It discusses the consequences of children not having the opportunity to take risks and not getting enough time outdoors. It’s worth reading. What are your thoughts? Are our children missing out?

8 Comments

Childcare, Parenting, Toddlers

Five Sleep Essentials for Toddlers

February 5, 2019

For the first 15 months of Rosebud’s life, we co-slept. While it’s not a good option for everyone, it’s what worked best for us. I will write about my experience with co-sleeping in a future post, but this post is about our transition into her own toddler bed. I have to say I was pretty lucky. Our transition wasn’t as hard as it could’ve been. I had a few essential items that definitely helped with this process.

1. The Mattress

I have to say that buying a decent mattress for Rosebud made all the difference. When I first bought her crib, I bought a relatively cheep mattress to go with it. It was one of those mattresses that made a lot of noise when you put the baby in the crib. I’d rock Rosebud to sleep, but then when I’d lay her down, the noise from the mattress would wake her up. Then she knew what I was doing, so there was no chance of putting her back in her bed. We went through this routine for about a weak until I started wondering about the mattress. I figured that since my mattress is memory foam, maybe if she had one like mine, she’d be more comfortable. I wondered if they even made a mattress like that for toddlers. After a few clicks, I purchased one from Amazon. Two days later, it arrived and that very night, Rosebud slept comfortably in her bed through the night for the first time.

This mattress is a little more expensive than the average, but it has been worth every penny. It comes with a water proof cover to protect it and more importantly, it seems comfortable. Not too squishy, but not too firm. I just want to mention that I wouldn’t have felt comfortable buying this if Rosebud were still an infant, but since she was well passed her first birthday, it was a safe option.

2. Pillow and Blanket

Rosebud was excited to finally get her own pillow.
 
This was another great find on Amazon. It’s the perfect size for a toddler. I got it for her for her first birthday and she carried it around everywhere.
She’s had a couple different blankets over the past year, but the most recent one I bought is her favorite. She says it’s cozy and soft.
 
This is her first larger blanket and she loves it. It’s warm, washes well and is extremely soft. The unicorns are also a plus.

3. Special Stuffed Animal

Since I wouldn’t be right there next to Rosebud anymore, I had to help her find a special stuffed animal. She has several on the end of her bed now, but the one she always chooses to sleep with is Miffy the Bunny.

In fact, I just got her another one for her third birthday since the first Miffy she had no longer talks. It doesn’t matter though because now she takes both of them to bed. Throughout her infancy and when she was a young toddler, she didn’t seem interested in getting attached to any of her stuffed animals, but as she’s gotten older, they have provided her comfort.

4. Rocking Chair

This has been a big one for me. Rosebud has always liked being rocked to sleep. During her first year, I had a standard rocking chair made for a nursery. The chair was good for a while, but I’d get sore after sitting in it for long periods of time. Not to mention, it was small and cramped. After it broke from being used so much, I took the plunge and bought a more expensive rocking chair. I bought the beige version as it fits better with the colors in Rosebud’s room.
 
Now that Rosebud is three, she usually falls asleep in her bed, but occasionally she still likes to be rocked. We also use the chair for snuggling up to read books every night. If you have an infant or toddler, you’ll definitely want to invest in a decent chair. You might be using it for years to come.

5. Sound Machine

Rosebud is a light sleeper and in our neighborhood, we might hear barking dogs, lawn mowers or snow plows depending on the season. Everything wakes her up. When Rosebud was an infant, I found this owl soother and baby night light. It plays sounds, lights up and has a projector. there is only one image of the moon and stars, but it is perfect. It’s not too bright and the machine doesn’t make loud noises like they do when they are switching images. The light can be bright or dim. There are several sounds to choose from. Our favorite is the ocean, but there is white noise, a heartbeat and lullabies. There are so many sound machines to choose from. It all depends on what you want. Whether you want a night light, just sounds or an image projector. This one has the best of all worlds and you don’t have to use the features all at once. The important thing is Rosebud sleeps undisturbed because it helps block out noise.

Extras

I also have a couple extra things I inc. into our night time routine. The first was books. We read several stories and then end with, Time for Bed by Mem Fox. In this book, all the animals are going to sleep. She asks for this book almost every night so it has become our ritual.

Another thing was music. When I’d rock Rosebud to sleep, I’d play piano music for her. She has now decided she didn’t want music anymore, but for a long time, it helped her relax before bed. I have a Spotify subscription. You can either build your own playlist or choose from ones they already have created.

We all know a well rested toddler means more sleep at night and a better day for us parents. If you have an infant and are in the process of Transitioning your baby to the crib, you should check out these tips from Cendu from Sincerely Yours. What has made your child’s bed time a little smoother? What are your must haves to help your toddler sleep? Tell me in the comments.

15 Comments

Gift Giving, Infants, Parenting, Shopping, Toddlers

Valentines Day Gift Guide for Infants and Toddlers

January 18, 2019

Valentines day will be here before you know it. The holiday is so commercialized, but for me it’s about spending quality time with those I love. I try to do that anyway during the rest of the year. When I was a kid, my mom would always buy me a little Valentines gift and I have been doing the same thing with Rosebud. If you are wondering what to get your little Valentine, here are some ideas.

Valentines Day Themed Books

Books make great gifts. There are so many options, they are educational and they are relatively inexpensive.

If you are looking for more Valentines books for kids, check out this post.

Heart Shaped Stacking Cups

Stacking cups are simple, inexpensive and babies love them! They can scoop, they can pour and they can stack. These cups have little holes on the bottom. Rosebud would use these in the pool and pretend it was raining. These even have numbers inside if you wanted to do a counting activity. We’ve had these for a couple years and she still uses them in the water.

Rubber Duckies

How about these Valentine themed rubber duckies. There used to be this cool online shop called Rubber Duck Land that no longer exists. That’s where I found these cute little duckies, but I have found something similar to link to. It’s just a cute little novelty.

Stuffed animal

I’ve gotten a lot of Valentines stuffed animals over the years, but you don’t even have to stick to a Valentine theme for this one. Anything soft, cute and cuddly will do.

First Valentines Day Play Set

These are cute during the first year. I bought Rosebud the birthday play set and she loved it. They have these for most of the holidays. They are little soft toys with different textures to touch, colors to see and sounds to hear. They make great keepsakes as well.

Flowers

This flower toy from Green toys is a neat idea. It’s flowers. It’s spring. It’s educational and Green Toys is a company that makes all their toys from recycled milk cartons. Rosebud has a dump truck made by Green Toys and she likes it. Their toys are sturdy and well made. I’d recommend this toy for older toddlers.

Homemade Gifts

More often than not, the best gifts are free. If you are the creative type, take out the craft supplies and create a beautiful card or a meaningful keepsake that will be saved and treasured later. You can work together with your kids to make Valentines for loved ones. If you are looking for something that your kids can give to others, try these salt dough keepsakes.

Quality Time

The number one gift is quality time. Just be in the moment with your kids. Whether it be playing outside, reading a book or curled up on the couch watching a movie, take the time. They will treasure it more than any physical gift just as we would. The memories together is what they will remember.

If you are looking for some fun Valentines Day Activities, head over to Fab Working Mom Life.

If you are searching for a gift idea for oder children, check out these Love Buckets for Valentines Day

13 Comments

Activities, Parenting, Preschool, Sensory Play, Toddlers

Water Beads Sensory Tub

January 11, 2019

One of Rosebud’s stocking stuffers this year was a bottle of water beads. I’ve been seeing these things on early childhood blogs for several years, but have never seen them in person. They always looked so cool and I’ve always wanted to try them, but never had the opportunity with any of my classes. Well, I finally got the chance to play with them with Rosebud and she loved them.

I’m a big fan of sensory play. We do a lot with play-dough, sand or just plain water. There are so many benefits to sensory play and it really captures childrens attention. These water beads are definitely a different sensory experience. The ones we have are a little smaller than the standard sized marbles. They start out about the size of a sprinkle. At first, I thought of a grain of rice, but I think they are even smaller than that. I love dessert and sprinkles was the first thing I thought of. Anyway, they are tiny, but they start expanding soon after you put them in water. I think they were at full size after soaking for about an hour.

I poured a bunch in the tub, added water and when it was ready, I brought it to Rosebud. She loved the different texture. They are squishy and slippery. They can fall easily and role all over the place which makes them more attractive to kids, but makes a bigger mess for us to clean up. I included little scoops and cups, so we did lots of scooping and pouring. We counted how many scoops would fill each cup. We looked through the water beads and discovered that we could see light through them. We saw them bounce off things in the tub. I added a large funnel. The opening was big enough so that one bead would fall through at a time. Rosebud had fun filling the funnel and watching them fall down.

I’m looking forward to playing more with the water beads and tying them into different themes. I also want to look for larger ones. Have you used water beads? What cool things have you done with them? Let me know in the comments.

Here are more links to explore.

10 Ways to Play With Water Beads from Teaching Mama

Exploring Water Bead Science and Sensory Play from Little Bins for Little Hands

Edible Water Bead Sensory Play from A Little Pinch of Perfect

8 Comments

Childcare, Gift Giving, Toddlers, Work

Holiday Goody Bags for Toddlers

December 18, 2018

At work, we usually do a secret Santa gift exchange the week before Christmas. Sometimes we give to a family in need and fill a box with gifts. Some of our teachers make up bags for the children and some of them don’t. This year, I wanted to do something a little different. Right now, I don’t have a class of my own. I float, so I spend time in all the rooms, but I spend a lot of time with my toddler classes now and that’s who I decided to shop for.

I knew I wanted to put goody bags together, but most of the bulk items I found were for preschoolers or older. It took a little extra time and effort to find the right things, but here’s what’s inside the bags.

These sweet treat rubber duckies for the girls and these doggy rubber duckies for the boys.

I figured most kids love their baths and the novelty duckies would be a unique spin on a classic toy.

I found these bubbles at the dollar store in packs of three. There’s chocolate, strawberry and vanilla. 
Bubbles are always a hit with toddlers.

I included 1oz containers of play-dough. You can’t do much with only one or two ounces, but I was on a budget. These small sizes are great for travel.

I found packs of cars at the dollar store and included a car in each bag.

Here is a similar set of Matchbox cars.

What kid doesn’t love stickers? I found this sticker pack on Amazon that has a variety of stickers. There are letters, numbers, smily faces, hearts, animals and more. It’s a good buy if you are in the market for small puffy stickers.
 
Finally, I wanted to include a ball, but wasn’t sure what to do since most of the bouncy balls are too small for toddlers. I didn’t want to include anything that was a choking hazard. On the other hand, I didn’t want to find something too big for the bag. I was lucky to find these awesome jumbo bouncy balls that are the perfect size.

I found these paper snowman gift bags. They were the perfect size. For the final touch, I used gift tags with 3d stickers.
 
Is there anything I missed? What fun items have you included in goody bags? Tell me in the comments.

I’m sure the kids will be surprised. I hope they love them. I wish my classes a merry Christmas!

11 Comments

Activities, Education, Parenting, Preschool, Toddlers, Winter

Gift Giving Sensory Tub

December 7, 2018

This week, I decided to make up a festive sensory tub for Rosebud. I’m calling it the gift giving sensory tub.

What’s in the tub?

Wrapping paper,
Small boxes,
Ribbon,
Bows,
Tissue paper,
Bells,
Snowman rings,
Sparkly pompoms,
A bulb shaped ornament that opens,
A gift bag
A small stocking.

Today was the first time Rosebud got to play with this tub and she played for almost an hour. I had to tare her away for bath time. She loved filling the gift bag, putting the items in the different sized boxes and trying to wrap them. We pretended to give each other gifts. She’d open a box of snowman rings and say, “thank you Mommy. This was the best gift ever.” Then I’d open a gift bag full of pompoms and tell her what a nice gift she gave. If you are working on sharing and kindness, this would be a great sensory tub for the theme.

We worked on math skills by counting the number of pompoms in a box. We used our listening skills to guess what was inside the boxes. We discovered that we can always tell when one of the bells were in the boxes, but we could only hear the pompoms depending on the size and style of the box. Rosebud folded wrapping paper and tried to tie ribbon to practice those fine motor skills.

If your child is a little older, you could include tape so they could practice actually wrapping presents. I did not include tape because I knew it’d be everywhere. I’d love to add more ribbon of different sizes, other Christmas and winter themed trinkets for a wider variety of gifts and child scissors to cut wrapping paper. If you’ve tried something similar or have a festive sensory tub of your own, tell me in the comments.

10 Comments

Awareness, Childcare, Education, Preschool, Toddlers, Work

Do’s and Don’ts of Working with Children Who May be Different from You

December 4, 2018

I've been thinking about this post for a while. This topic is close to my heart as I can not only relate to it from my own childhood, but it comes up on some level in my work every day. I know that working with children is stressful. Add to that, behaviors, issues or cultural differences that you may be uncomfortable or unfamiliar with, it can bring the stress to a whole new level. No one is perfect. Everyone makes mistakes. We are all human after all and that is the most important thing to keep in mind. For this post, I'll focus on children with disabilities and children who are learning English as a second language, but a lot of this can even be applied with other groups of children or even adults. I'm writing this from the education perspective, but these suggestions can be applied in many situations. Being around people who are different from us not only teaches us about others, but we also learn plenty about ourselves in the process. If you are working with a diverse group of children, here are some do's and don'ts that will make the experience better for all involved.

Respect a person’s body and space

This should be obvious, but so many situations come up where a child is just picked up and moved without a word. I can understand if it is a safety issue or an extreme emergency. There are times when we can’t always stop and explain fully. No one is perfect and these things happen, but I’m talking about the situations where it is possible to ask the child’s permission or to explain what you are doing. For example, if I am picking up a child to change her diaper, I’ll tell her that. If I need to move a child who is having a tantrum and is endangering the other children, I will say something like, I’m going to move you to a place where you can be safe until you calm down.”

I witnessed a situation where two toddlers were arguing over being in the same space playing with a dollhouse. The area was getting very crowded and I was starting to talk to the children about it. All of the sudden, the person I was working with grabs the dollhouse and brings it to a bigger table without a word. This put one child in complete melt down mode. He had no idea why the toy was taken away and what just happened. He proceeded to push a bucket of toys off the table. Meanwhile, I’m trying to gather the toys and am explaining to him that if we move to the table, he can play with the toy. In his mind, that toy was just taken away for no reason. After a couple minutes, he calmed down and I was able to help him understand the situation. That totally could’ve been avoided with just a few simple words. I try to think of it this way. Would I like to be suddenly picked up and plopped down somewhere else without a word? Would I like it if someone grabbed something I was using and brought it to another part of the room? Of course not. It’s something we really need to stay mindful of.

Assume capability

Do think children are capable until proven otherwise. Don’t assume that if a child can’t hear that they won’t understand anything. Use a gesture or two and it might make all the difference. Don’t assume that an autistic child never feels empathy. I worked with an autistic boy who would be the first to show concern if one of his classmates was sad. Don’t assume that a child can never learn. We all have different learning styles. Some of us learn best visually where others learn best through listening. Picture schedules labeling items and having a wide variety of activities that teach the same skill are all great ways to accommodate for different learning styles.

I worked with a co-teacher who told me that this particular child never used words so I started with the basics. I’d wait for quiet moments to practice words with him. We’d look at books when he woke up from his nap. I remember him saying, baby when I’d point out pictures of babies in books. During diaper changes, I’d mention how his wipes were cold and he’d repeat the word cold. We weren’t having conversations yet, but it was a start. There were in fact words there, but my co-teacher was so focused on his inability to speak, that she never took the time to see what he was capable of.

Make a connection

Do find enjoyment and common interests. Continuing the story about the child I previously mentioned, my co-teacher said that he never enjoyed a single activity. I made it my personal mission to prove her wrong every day. I started writing observations about him each day as we were trying to get services for him. Some of the areas I focused on, included social interactions, speech, the day’s challenges and the things he enjoyed. Each day I would list at least one activity that he did that he enjoyed. It could be something as simple as sitting and relaxing in the rocking chair or the more typical childhood activities like play-dough or reading a book. It made me happy to find the things he loved which allowed me to build a connection with him.

Remember Confidentiality

Do treat their sensitive information with care. I’ve heard teachers on the playground say things like, he can’t hear a word you’re saying.” First, if a child has a hearing impairment, no one needs to yell it across the playground. If someone needs to know, tell them in a more discrete way. You never know who is listening or if the information is even completely accurate. In this particular case, one of the older children that was hearing these exchanges started bullying the younger child, telling him he couldn’t come in the play house because he’s deaf. In reality, this child is not deaf. He was having issues with his hearing which seem to have been corrected, but even if he was deaf, he deserves to be treated with respect. Talking to him and trying to understand him would still not be a waste of time.

Be open minded

Do observe and ask questions. Do not make harmful assumptions. I worked with a girl who was learning English as a second language. A coworker would get so frustrated when she wouldn’t respond to her or appeared not to understand what she was saying. She’d often complain and ask, “why aren’t they teaching English at home?” Well, they aren’t speaking English at home because she knows more English than her parents. Also, they may want to keep their culture and traditions which of course includes their native language. What’s wrong with a child knowing two or more languages? Why should her parents have to parent in a language that is not their own? Just to accommodate a childcare provider, I don’t think so. Her parents were trying to teach her English using games and apps which appeared to be working. when she started with our program, she could even read some words in English. It quickly became obvious that she is very smart. I wasn’t put off because I’ve worked with English language learners before. Some things that helped me were using visuals to go along with the words, learning a few key phrases in the child’s home language and having parents share things from their family’s culture.

Hold off on the labels

Do look at the person in front of you. Everything does not need a label. I understand labels are useful. Especially in a world where you need a diagnosis for services like occupational or speech therapy, but there is no need to start labeling someone on the first day. Get to know them a bit before raising the red flags. Be open to the fact that an issue might have more than one explanation. I recently observed a boy walk back and forth over and over again through a pile of leaves. Some suspect that this boy may be autistic, but it may be something totally different. He might just like the sound of the leaves or wanted a more soothing activity. Obviously you wouldn’t diagnose on this one observation, but you’d need to look at the whole picture. Another explanation is that one disability could look similar to another in how it manifests itself. For example, the child who has regained his hearing may be repeatedly walking through the leaves because he’s never heard that sound clearly before. If he’s hearing a sound for the first time, the experience would be suddenly different. It takes time to process these things. If he is having difficulty interacting with his peers, maybe he’s trying to process language that he’s never heard clearly before.

This is why taking the time to get to know the person behind whatever the difference may be is so important. They are not little boxes to check off. They are people. People who think, feel, love and dream. If you are looking for some great ideas on how to easily teach children about diversity check out this post written by Mommy Gone Tropical. Is there anything I missed? Let me know in the comments.

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