Cinco de Mayo!

This is a Mexican festival marking the day that an important battle was won.  The celebrations are not about the battle, but about the patriotism, love and bravery shown by the soldiers for their township.  Now round here we love a good theme day and are looking forwards to all things Mexican tomorrow!! 

 

Some books to set the scene:

• Colours of Mexico
• Cuckoo/cucu: A Mexican Folktale
• Adelita: A Mexican Cinderella Story
• M Is for Mexico
• Mexico! 40 Activities to Experience Mexico Past and Present

Some crafty activities:

• Dolly peg Mexican dolls - the idea here is to make dancers but I'm planning on looking in our children of the world book and making some with traditional dress.
• Simple weaving to make a 'God's Eye'.
• Mexican maracas.
• Mini sombrero
• Paper plate pottery

If you want to make a display or book of your celebrations, have a look at these colouring pages with the flag, map and other cultural pictures.  Try some Spanish words for things the children are familiar with, like colours (two pages here and here) or numbers 1-10.

And last but not least some recipes to whet your appetite!

• Guacamole - serve with taco shells or tortillas and vegetable sticks with the salsa too!
• Easy Salsa - except I'm not using three jalapeno peppers in mine, and am taking a tip from 'Katy cooks' and will get the children to chop up fresh tomatoes in a bowl with clean scissors instead of blending tinned tomatoes!
• Charro beans.
• Polvorones (sugar biscuits with cinnamon)

Have fun!!!!

Montessori in a Minute: Independence

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From the moment a child is born s/he strives to become independent; to crawl, to feed her/himself, to walk. to talk and so on.  If nothing gets in the way, a child can be very independent but many things do get in the way....... tables and chairs too high to get up to and sit at, taps too far to reach, clothes too difficult to put on, utensils and equipment too big for her/his little hands.  It is not only the child's goal to become independent, but the adults task to enable independence.

So how can we support the child the become independent? Well, I see three main ways:

1. Attitude (including the way you see the child and your patience!)
2. Environment- does it allow the child to do things for her/himself?
3. Toolkit - you need to demonstrate and give the child 'tools' to be able to take a task on and become skilled at completing it.

As regards attitude, you really have to believe that the child is strong and capable.  You have to be prepared to slow things down and go at the child's pace and you have to be willing to put in the effort and thought required to make it happen!  Toddlers want to walk, but very often find themselves strapped into buggies or car seats.  It takes longer to walk, holding a hand, yes, but planning for them to have at least some time a day walking on the school run or the shopping trip is invaluable as they see such a different perspective on their own two feet!!  I hope that the days of plonking toddlers in a playpen with a handful of toys are long-gone, but if you still do that, consider how much you are restricting that child's movement, and development of walking, muscles, balance and co-ordination!

Some of the effort and thought goes into the environment. Think about how easy it is for the child to be able to do the things that s/he needs to do every day.  Consider:

• Child-sized coat pegs.
• Small tables and chairs rather than highchairs for toddlers.
• Small jugs and cups for them to pour their own drinks.
• Step for the toilet.
• Press on wall lights where the switch is too high to reach.
• A sink at child height or a hand-washing station.
• Child-sized gardening tools; watering can, hoe, spade, wheelbarrow.
• Child-sized cleaning equipment; broom, dustpan and brush, spray bottle filled with water and cloths/sponges.
• Toys stored in way that helps children to find what they want and return it after use.

Making as many changes to the environment as possible and finding ways around things that cannot be changed helps to make daily tasks achievable for young children - a vital ingredient for them to become self-motivated learners and contributors to the community (community can be the childminding setting, toddler group, home or the wider world eventually!).

Once these changes are in place, you model how to do things to the child and then allow her/him to try it her/himself, providing a 'toolkit'.  The child will make the actions their own and that is great, you are simply introducing them to a way of doing things!  S/he will need lots of practice to master each skill and will delight in repeating the actions over and over, refining and perfecting the skill; once achieved it is really important that the child has opportunity to use that skill in everyday life:

• Put out small jug and cups for the children to pour their own drink.
• Put bread, butter and filling son the table and allow the children to make their own sandwich.
• Encourage them to brush teeth and hair, wash faces and hands after meals.
• Keep cleaning equipment in the same place and children can clean up their own spills and messes (within reason!!).
• Chat with parents to make sure that children come in clothes that they can manage themselves, such as trousers that aren't too tight to pull up after using the toilet!!

Allowing children to take responsibility for themselves in this way builds their self-esteem and confidence which will spill over into building relationships with other children and trying new activities.

If you want to read more about Montessori, try Montessori From the Start by Paula Polk-Lillard and Lynn Lillard Jessen.  It isn't rated by all Montessorians but I personally have found it clear and understandable and very readable which is worth a lot if you have ever ploughed through Montessori's original writing translated from Italian!

Creative conversations in the Early Years

I have recently read a book entitled 'Supporting Children's Creativity Through Music, Dance, Drama and Art' edited by Fleur Griffiths and I want to tell you about it!

Before I start I should tell you about me and books; everyone has to have a treat or something they look forwards to and my treat is a book.  I love a crisp new book and the possibilities of the ideas inside!  I especially love the journeys they take me on from one book to another! I know within the first few pages, or just by flicking through whether I am going to like it or not, and pictures are important to me!  I often pick books that are on a topic I know a little of and want to learn more about, but sometimes I make a leap in the dark based on a reccommendation or a hunch and I am rarely disaapointed when I do!!  I thought it would be nice to review the books that I read to help you decide whether you are interested in reading them too!

I am sometimes wary of books that are by a number of contributors and edited to make one volume but this book really works becuase it reads in a very conversational way.  So much of what we do and learn is based upon discussion and it is a refreshing way to read about the contributors ideas.  the anecdotes and interviews convey the enthusiasm and passion of the practitioners involved.

I found it a book to dip in and out of, pencil at the ready to mark passages and topics that I wanted to come back to!  There is so much to gain from this book; just one interview offered inspiration whether you were\looking for ideas for including children in planning, pondering on the nature of wall displays to put up or considering how you use the space that you have.

The practitioners are clearly very knowledgeable and experienced but they openly state that it takes time to build that up; the whole tone of the book makes you feel like a colleague rather than an underling!!  For me, that boosted my confidence to follow the children more closely than I do now, rather than trying to tick all the EYFS boxes at once!

It challenged my current practice on a couple of areas in particular, such as making the room look 'pretty' at the expense of what the children actually WANT in there, and my reliance on books and resources for 'activity ideas' (ahem, guilty as charged!!) and I'm sure that next time I dip into it, it will spark off some more reflection in other areas too!

All in all, a thoroughly worthwhile read and one I will come back to regularly!

Baisakhi Planning 2010

I have struggled to find resources on the web that are ready planned to help explore Baisakhi.  There doesn't seem to be a lot around but what there is will be lots of fun! Here are my ideas:

• Look at this picture of the 5 K’s and talk about why they are important to Sikh people (scroll down, I think it's about page 17!!)
• Look at the traditional bhangra dress (for men) and giddha dress (for women), read about them here.
• I could only find a good colouring picture of a bhangra dancer.
• Play some bhangra music and dance to it: the dances tell stories of everyday life so make up some moves related to gardening (as baisakhi is the Sikh harvest festival), cooking and eating as a fun story line!
• See a picture of the Dholak hand drum used to drum the beats here.
• Make anklets and bangles to wear.
• Cook Halwa.

The Right Support For Every Child

I went to the West Midlands Regional NCMA forum yesterday and the seminar in the afternoon was on the needs of vulnerable and disadvantaged children and how they can be met.  We started by talking about what ALL children need, based on Maslow's Heirarchy of Needs.  How it works is that if the child's basic needs for nutrition and warmth and then security, which includes protection from harm, limits and boundaries and consistency, if these are not met, then the child will struggle to move further up the pyramid, and will be hampered in trying to form meaningful relationships with other children for example.

There are many reasons why a child may not have these most basic needs met, but as childminders it is part of our job to help every child reach their full potential so working toward identifying and eliminating negative factors is very important.  I asked whether despite the home environment, if during the child's time in my home, that they had good meals, security, love and affection, would they be able to reach the higher levels and it was considered that yes, that could happen.... this heartened me  amd made me realise that we can all make a difference!

We then went on to discuss impairment and disability.  Impairment describes a loss or limitation of function on a temporary or permanent basis.  Disability is the limitations experienced due to impairment.  Impairments need not disable the child if the environment and available equipment is adjusted to their needs.  Such children do not have 'special' needs, their needs are the same as every other child's such as to have opportunities to learn, to move about in the environment, to have choices, to be accepted and valued by other people, and to learn to make decisions.  Having an impairment might mean that you meet their needs in different ways,  and that you treat them differently in order to treat them equally.  We must also be aware that our own attitudes and assumptions are not limiting our expectations of the child regarding their development!

If you are working with children with impairments, there is a document called Early Support that can be used to ease information transfer between professionals and build up a record of the child as an individual. There is more information about Early Support Here and materials can be downloaded or ordered from this page.  The Developmental Journal is worth a look for every child you care for, as it may help you to document a child's progress.  You can order a hard copy if you telephone 0845 6022 260 and quote the code ES54.