News, Help
& Fun
[February 27th 2005]
1.
Site Of the Month
2. Tips for Keeping Preschoolers Organized
3. Rewards for Kids
4. Let Me Hear From You and You Could
WIN $25!
5. Sneaky Fun; Play With Your Kids and
Still Get the Job Done
6. St Patrick's Day Activities and Crafts
7. 2 Weeks Until Announcement for Software
Giveaway!
8. Important Links at A Might Fun Time
9. Pass it On!
10. Tell Us What you Think
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1.
Our Site of the Month
Discover Awesome
Home Schooling Resources and Learn How to "Properly"
Homeschool Your Preschool Age Child?
Online Courses that will teach You how to Homeschool
Your Preschool Age Child, Great Cirriculum and Home
of the Original "Wipe On" and "Wipe
Off" Books!
http://www.funpreschooleractivities.com/preschool-lessons.php
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2.
Tips for Keeping Preschoolers Organized
Organizing this active group can be a challenge,
but there are several organizing
exercises in which you can involve your child, including
putting away...
The clear plastic containers that you can find all
over these days are great kid-friendly storage solutions.
Try labeling each one with a picture of its contents
to make for easy cleanup for those little non-readers
(store advertisements and catalogs are a great picture
source, as well as printing pictures from internet
sites).
Baskets are also great for storing their favorite
books and videotapes, though you might want to store
them out of reach to prevent them from constantly
being dumped out on the floor! Little hands can manipulate
a basket with much more confidence than a tightly
stuffed bookshelf.
Lastly, designate an area in your home for the toys.
It is important for your child to understand that
their toys have a place and need to make their way
back there before bedtime.
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3.
Rewards For Kids
For many years there has been a debate about rewarding
our children. Does it
work? Should I do it and if so what kind of rewards
should I use? If rewards did work they would help
us to raise responsible and well-adjusted children.
Let’s look at how rewards really do work.
To use rewards with our kids we first see them in
the act of doing something we approve of or we must
set a standard that they must meet. We use punishment
in the same way. We are aware of them doing something
we disapprove of and we then shell out the punishment.
The problem here is not that rewards and punishments
don’t have immediate results. They often do have quick
results. Kids often will become more obedient when
threatened with punishment and work hard when promised
a valuable reward.
The problem is what happens when authority figures
aren’t around. To develop responsible, self-disciplined
kids, fathers can promote certain ideas. One of these
ideas might be that your family does certain things
because everyone pitches in and helps in your family.
Another might be that there can be enjoyment in doing
any task if we choose to make it so. Even if it’s
a task we don’t like doing we understand that it’s
for a good cause (our family can enjoy the house more
because I helped clean it).
This is how we help them develop an intrinsic sense
of value. When our children
have this intrinsic sense of value they will be more
responsible, more disciplined,
and they will control their emotions better.
They learn that we often do things because there
is some inherent value in doing
these things and that they are necessary and sometimes
even enjoyable!
When we give rewards to our kids for the things they
do we effectively reduce
any intrinsic sense of value that they have. We also
create children who may
temporarily perform to a certain standard but who
aren’t likely to continue the
performance without the carrot dangling in front of
them. These kinds of values
must come from inside of our children.
In his book, Punished by Rewards (1993), author Alfie
Kohn writes...
“But if we are ultimately concerned with the
kind of people our children will become, there are
no shortcuts. Good values have to be grown from
the inside out.”
“Rewards and punishment can change behavior
(for a while), but they cannot
change the person who engages in the behavior, at
least in the way we want. No behavioral manipulation
ever helped a child develop a commitment to become
a caring and responsible person. No reward for doing
something we approve of ever gave a child a reason
for continuing to act that way when there was no
longer any reward to be gained for doing so.”
Fathers can also remember how important it is to
allow your young children to
help out with tasks around the house (without being
rewarded!) Children naturally
want to help out their parents and to be a part of
the family chores. Some
researchers have suggested that one of the main factors
responsible for success
and happiness in adults is how involved they were
in doing household chores
when they were as young as age three or four!
Fathers can tap into this natural inclination of
children to be involved in family
chores and allow them opportunities to be active participants.
While it’s easy to
do things yourself because of how messy or slow your
children may be, it’s far
messier and slower in the future when they refuse
to help out unless they are
rewarded for it. In other words, treat your kids like
they’re capable; give them
tasks and you will be rewarded! Not only that, you
won’t have to give out any
rewards!
Here are some action steps for fathers concerning
rewards:
- Look at how you are doing or not doing rewards
now. Are you promising candy
for behaving well at grandma’s house? Even the smallest
rewards now can set
the table for bigger expectations by your kids in
the future.
- Start giving your kids tasks that they can be
responsible for at a very early age.
See them as capable of it and treat them that way.
Talk often about how you are a family that works
together and cooperates with each other in order
to complete the tasks that need to be done.
- Use subtle rewards with your kids. As soon as
you clean up you can go to grandma’s, can work very
well. If you clean up I’ll give you some candy,
will usually turn around and bite you in the rear
later on.
Fathers can help give their children a sense of helping
and shared responsibility
for the family which can last a lifetime. The idea
of cooperation for kids needs to
be developed. They learn it from the inside out. Help
your kids to learn it and you’ll both benefit.
Source - Mark Brandenburg MA,
CPCC, is the author of “25 Secrets of Emotionally
Intelligent Fathers”. For more great tips and action
steps for fathers, sign up for his FREE bi-weekly
newsletter, Dads, Don’t Fix Your Kids, at http://www.markbrandenburg.com.
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4.
Want to WIN $25!
Doing
something different this month...will continue it
depending upon the response I get from You, my subscribers.
To
enter to win all you have to do is visit our sponsors
site by "Clicking
Here" and then finish the following two comments
from the site and send them to me at ... jkatzenback@funpreschooleractivities.com
by March 15th!
1.
Studies have shown that carcinogens released by paraffin
wax candles are as dangerous as _______________________________________
and can cause life threatening harm to __________________________________________.
2. An American Made Candle with _________________________________
______________________.
OR
Send
us 3 of your favorite preschool age activities and
/or crafts.
Send
them to jkatzenback@funpreschooleractivities.com
by March 3rd!
***Congratulations
Again to last months Winner!***
Stephanie
Holt
Here’s
the Awesome Activities that Stephanie sent us...
| I
have a 3 yr old daughter that I absolutely adore
and these are 3 things that we do together.
1.) Collages
I have a box of construction paper, macaroni,
beans, confetti shapes,and pictures( Some
of them I have precut as she hasn't mastered
scissors yet) We take a full sheet of construction
paper go through the "fun box" as
we call it and glue them to the paper and
when we're done we have an instant picture
to hang on the wall or give as a greeting
card. She gave one to our mailman to show
appreciation for the mail we get everyday.
2.) Watercolors or Paints
She loves to draw and color. She has watercolors
but prefers mom's acrylic paints. Since, acrylics
aren't expensive and they are good way to
make keepsakes as the color lasts for a very
long time, I buy her basic colors and refill
her little jars as needed. It's also a good
way to teach them how different colors are
made. So, when she wants to paint on goes
the "Artists" clothes, down goes
the newspaper and up go the pictures.
Tip: To make the paint last longer you can
use Extender which will thin out the paint
and prevents the paint from "claying"
if it's not used very often.
3.) Dinosaur Digs
She got a dinosaur book for Christmas and
we go outside and dig in the dirt for "fossils"
of old dinosaurs. Most usually it's pretty
rocks or insects that we find but, she likes
it all the same.
|
Thanks
again Stephanie for those great activities!
Send
you answers or activities in today and you could be
our next winner!
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5. Sneaky Fun; Play With Your Kids
and Still Get the Job Done - by Colleen Langenfeld
Does "Mom, I'm bored!" or "Dad, play
with me!" sound familiar?
If you're a parent, these plaintive cries from your
children can become daily shouts. As busy moms and
dads, we're continuously torn by the demands on our
time. Here are some simple ways to spend time with
your kids while getting the jobs done that need to
be done (including the toughest job of all, parenting).
These Sneaky Fun ideas are also great ways to teach
our children exactly how to successfully accomplish
many routine tasks.
- Make a silly dinner together.
Think 'Green Eggs and Ham' or try a picnic on the
living room floor. Bring your child along for the
meal planning, shopping, prep time and clean-up.
Involve them each step of the way.
- Turn on the music and clean, clean, clean.
Forget TELLING your kids to go clean; side-by-side,
with some of their favorite music playing, move
through the house dancing and cleaning. They'll
love it (and so will you).
- Exercise together. You know you
need to do it. Your child is your perfect exercise
partner. Make it a 'talk and play' time and you'll
both get fit together.
- Share a hobby. Love to fish,
garden, sew, paint, sing? Share that love with your
youngster. Try an interest that fascinates them.
Learn a shared passion - together.
- Start a girls or boys night out.
You will make an incredible impression with this
one. Take your daughter out for regular manicures
and lunch. Stay close to your son with a favorite
concert or sporting event. Teach your children about
wholesome entertainment and the joy of healthy relationships.
You can even team up with another parent and child
for regular fun; just make sure that honest conversation
is the true priority.
- Improve their skills. Do you
have a student struggling with homework? Quit nagging
and ask them to teach YOU what they've learned.
Be a patient listener. The fastest way to learn
is often to teach.
- Wash the cars. Need I say more?
Water, the chance to soak mom or dad, and a sense
of accomplishment when it's all done. Follow up
with an ice cream cone for a job well done.
- Growing things. Countless gardeners
have discovered deep satisfaction in sharing their
love of growing things with children and grandchildren.
Gardening is a useful de-stressing tool and the
most frustrated child tends to loosen up and share
their heart while getting their hands dirty alongside
a trusted adult.
- Plan, plan, plan. If your household
is anything like mine, it benefits greatly when
I take the time to map out regular activities. Menu-planning,
budgeting and vacationing come to mind, for starters.
Show your child (of the appropriate age) how to
use their time and money wisely by including them
in the planning of everyday family activities. As
they mature, they can easily be put in charge of
some of these planning sessions, teaching them to
younger siblings. Your trust and belief in your
kids can ease the stress on them as they grow, too.
- Organize. Almost all families
struggle with organization in some area. Truth be
told, we're simply busy people and have often outgrown
the simplistic organizing methods that once worked
just fine. Give your kids the opportunity to be
the creative organizer in your family. Whether its
making sense of the family
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6.
St Patrick's Day Activities and Crafts
St
Patrick Shamrock Buddies
Age:
4 and Up
Mess: Medium
Material: Green construction paper,
scrap materials (yarn, buttons, glitter etc.), scissors,
glue or tape and crayons/markers
Instructions: Trace a pattern of
a shamrock onto construction paper. Let your children
cut it out. Have the child create a face for the shamrock
buddy (add hair too!). Help your little one with arms
and legs by cutting green construction paper into
strips (1 1/2" x 11 1/2") and then fan-fold
the strips to create silly arms. Glue or tape the
arms and legs to the shamrock and let them dry. Once
dry your children can hang up their shamrock buddy
to help celebrate the occasion.
Green
Foods
Age: 3 and Up
Mess: Medium
Material: Green Food Coloring
Instructions: Mix in a small amount
of green food coloring with a bunch of different foods.
Some examples are milk, vanilla ice cream, pancakes
or the classic – Scrambled Eggs! Let your child
help in the mixing of the food coloring into the foods.
Handprint
Shamrocks
Age:
3 and Up
Mess: High
Materials: Green washable paint, Paintbrush,
Construction Paper, Green Marker
Instructions:
First - Top of the shamrock, paint your child's
hand green with the fingers pointing down and press
onto the paper. Second - left clover of the shamrock,
paint the child's hand green with fingers pointing
in to the right press onto the paper. Third - right
clover of the shamrock, paint the child's hand green
with fingers pointing in to the left press onto the
paper. If you want to make a four leaf clover then
add the last clover. Last - bottom clover, paint the
child's hand green with the fingers pointing up press
onto the paper.
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7.
And the Winner of Over $250 in Name Brand Children's
Software is....
"Annoucing
On March 15th"
Congratulations
to last months winner Amy Greene.
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8.
Important Links at A Might Fun Time
We
have expanded to better serve your needs. Take a look
at what we offer…
*
Discover a FUN Way to Teach Your Child How to "Safely
Handle Dangerous Situations" They May Encounter
– http://www.funpreschooleractivities.com/preschool-safety.php
*
Discover Simple & Fun Ways to Teach Your Preschool
Age Child Important Phonics and Math Skills - http://www.funpreschooleractivities.com/preschool-lessons.php
*
Discover how to have an Awesome Children’s Party -
http://www.funpreschooleractivities.com/preschool-party.htm
*
Learn How You Can Quickly and Easily Get Simple High
Quality Little Kid Crafts Guaranteed To Ignite Your
Child's Imagination and Thirst for Learning Without
Pulling Your Hair Out! - http://www.funpreschooleractivities.com/preschool-crafts.htm
*
Learn how to Have Fun With Children Anywhere and Anytime!
- http://www.funpreschooleractivities.com/preschooler-dads.htm
*
Discover The Greatest Parenting Secret in History
Revealed by a Mother of Five - http://www.funpreschooleractivities.com/preschool-parenting.htm
*
Award Winning “Anatex” Toys that will Help Your Child
Develop Important Cognitive and Fine Motor Skills
--- While Challenging Their Imagination! - http://www.funpreschooleractivities.com/preschool-educational-toys.php
*
Access over 240 Activities and Crafts for Your Preschooler
- http://www.funpreschooleractivities.com/preschooler-activities.htm
*
Earn money by simply providing people a link to our
site. Join Our Sizzling Hot Affiliate Program Today!
- http://www.funpreschooleractivities.com/affiliate.php
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9.
Pass it On!
Do
you know someone who would find this newsletter useful,
please pass it on to them. Let them know they can
join our mailing list for FREE by going to http://www.funpreschooleractivities.com
or by sending an email with their first and last name
to newsletter@funpreschooleractivities.com
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10.
Tell Us What You Think
We
would love to hear what you think of this issue of
A Might Fun Time News. And of course, if you have
any suggestions, funny stories and or activities and
crafts that we could include in upcoming issues that
you'd like to share with us, please send those, too!
Just
e-mail me at: jkatzenback@funpreschooleractivities.com
Discover
Multi Award Winning Products & Parenting Resources
that will HELP Your Preschool Age Child Develop Important
Cognitive, Social & Emotional Skills! --- Helping
You Be the Best Parent You Can Be!
Visit
us at http://www.funpreschooleractivities.com
Copyright 2005 by A Might Fun Time. All rights reserved.|
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