Next week we will be exploring writing foundations and the importance of focusing on the body first! … but whilst Winter is in full swing here are some wonderful Winter themed motor activities from Teacher Julia….
“Our job as parents to get our kids moving can be a challenge! Especially on rainy rainy days. I notice that my child struggles to fall asleep when she has had a day with little physical activity. Doing some physical activities each day will go a long way in keeping them warm, fit, healthy and tired out for bed time 😉 “
This week we are enjoying some more winter themed fun and will also be exploring writing foundations and the importance of focusing on the body first!
We are so excited to share with you some wonderful guidance from Physiotherapist Julia Lee-Sylvester this week who is devoted to paediatrics as a special interest and passion.
“All learning begins with the body. It has to. It’s our point of reference – our own personal, portable true north, so to speak. And for children, it’s even more so because the body is the brain’s first teacher. And the lesson plan is movement.” – A Moving Child is a Learning Child (Gill Connell and Cheryl McCarthy)
Watering Whole understands the importance of free play and exploration as well as gross motor and fine motor work for each child’s physical development.
Did you know that before a child can learn to successfully write first they must acquire a number of pre-writing skills?
These pre-writng-skills have been so beautifully outlined in these wonderful graphics below created by Julia:
Little ones often find it easier and more fun to write, draw or paint on a vertical surface. Before they decide to draw on your precious walls, you can encourage activities like the one below or even drawing with washable markers on the sliding door.
I love this activity for toddlers but it even has benefits for school going children! ✔️ Writing on a vertical surface is great for wrist, elbow and shoulder strength, midline crossing, visual attention, hand-eye coordination and postural control. ✔️ Spray bottle: hand and finger strengthening and visual attention. ✔️ Cleaning vertical surface with scrunched up newspaper, sponge or cloth: hand, forearm and shoulder strengthening, proprioceptive input into the shoulder joint, midline crossing and hand-eye coordination.
These abilities are all needed later for fine motor skills like pencil grip, scissor cutting, sitting upright at a desk and even ball skills ⚽️ . .
For those of you looking for some “extra comfort” Winter baking fun this week, here is one our very special family recipes to try out @home!
(We usually double the recipie) Cream together: 1 Egg 250g Butter 1Tsp Vanilla ¾ cup brown sugar ¾ cup white sugar and then add: 1Tsp salt 1 Tsp baking powder 2 ½ cups flour Mix and then add Chocolate chips and nuts We like the chop up bars of whole nut chocolate and add this instead!
“Popcorn, popcorn Sizzle in a pan. Shake it up shake it up Bam bam bam! Popcorn Popcorn now it’s getting hot. Shake it up, shake it up Pop pop pop!”
Ingredients •¼ cup oil •2 tablespoons honey •1 tablespoons cane sugar •½ cup popcorn kernels •A pinch of salt •Cinnamon to taste
Directions: 1.Heat oil over medium-low heat with 3-4 kernels. When the oil and kernels begin to sizzle, add the remaining kernels and toss to coat. Once coated, sprinkle sugar on top and cover with a lid. 2.Every few seconds shake the pot back and forth so that no kernels burn (give it a good shake!) Continue to do this through the popping. 3.Once popping has slowed to hardly no sounds, remove from heat, sprinkle with sea salt, 1 tablespoon cinnamon, honey and extra sugar as desired. Give it a good shake to coat with cinnamon (but make sure you’re doing this while it’s still hot!)
Taking time to focus, breathe and connect with nature has a wonderful calming effect on the whole nervous system even for little ones. Benefits also include: stretching of the muscles, developing body strength and working on balance.
Let’s spend some time in nature this week, breathing deeply and trying out some of these insect yoga poses.
Pretend to be a butterfly flapping your wings and smelling all the colourful flowers as you close your eyes and breathe deeply
Pretend to be a frog catching a fly…I, 2, 3 jump
Pretend to be a spider with all your spider legs sitting quietly on your web
Pretend to be a worm with your belly in the grass lifting up our head to stretch
Pretend to be a bee resting on a flower collecting nectar in the garden
We have written a song and created a wonderful little video here for your little one to follow along with at home!
Here we have collected some age appropriate information, stories and resources from external websites that we have found really helpful for our own family. If you have any resources that you have used that have been helpful please to share with us here.
Here is some wonderful advice from Becky Bailey, the creator of our beloved FEELING BUDDIES and SAFE SPACE that we have utilised here at the Watering Whole:
“Kids don’t say, “Beloved parent, I’m having difficulty in my daily life. I don’t fully understand what’s happening, I miss my friends, I’m afraid someone I know is going to die and it feels like life will never be normal again.” Instead, they throw tantrums, become clingy, sulk, backtalk, refuse to do anything you ask, wet the bed, pick fights with siblings and suddenly forget how to do basic tasks they mastered years ago.
Whew! Let’s step back, take a few deep breaths and learn a little about your child’s brain: Safety is the brain’s most basic need, followed closely by connection. When we feel unsafe or disconnected, our brains downshift from the higher centers responsible for learning and problem solving, to the lower reactionary centers. That’s why all those challenging behaviors are popping up, and why a minor frustration is now Titanic in size.
We can help children (and ourselves) by creating a sense of safety, connecting, and cultivating a new sense of normal with these five tips:
Our calm increases children’s calm.
You are the most important Safe Place for your child.
The brain requires safety and connection.
Be intentional about cultivating both.
Create a “new normal” together using routines and play.
Provide helpful ways for children to contribute every day.
Consciously choose to see the best in others and circumstances.” – Becky Bailey
You may also notice your child’s play changing….we certainly have!
I love this post from @parentingworks which says :
You’ve heard me say many times that play is children’s work. That means you may see some good psychological work as they play during these unprecedented times of quarantine. This means they are processing and integrating their experiences–trying to understand the new normal. In other words, don’t be afraid if you see these themes in their play. This is a sign that they are doing something healthy and important! So, lean in and let them play through the uncertainty, confusion, and change.
These resources can be read to your child to start up a conversation around COVID-19 and their feelings. Remember to be honest and factual, honour the feelings that your child may have such as fear, sadness, anger saying, “Yes I understand you are feeling that way. It’s okay to feel that way”, but then also always reassure your child that they are safe and that home and family are their safe place!
As part of the Warldorf curriculum children as young as 4 start to learn finger knitting. We have just started trying out some finger knitting with Kamali and it has been rather a lot of fun.
Finger knitting is wonderful fine motor work …it builds dexterity and strength in those finger muscles, important for writing skills, and also encourages perseverance and concentration.
After reading the story about the very busy spider Kamali really wanted to make a spiderweb! What a wonderful idea for a fine motor activity for children 4 and older.
First create/stick up a kind of star shape in wool as the base of the web and then invite your child to spin the web by rolling the ball of wool over and under each line as shown in the video. Once Kamali got the hang of it she was on a roll!
Afterwards we created a spider by twirling some pipe cleaners around a piece of fluff!
For younger children singing “Incy wincy spider” and working on the finger actions is a wonderful way to build up those finger muscles this week.
“It is time for parents to teach young people early on that in diversity there is beauty and there is strength.” ~ Maya Angelou
As we approach the end of the term this week, we will be taking a break from our African alphabet focus and instead explore all the colours of the rainbow, the colours of the earth and the colours of me and you!
Celebrating diversity is a central theme here at the Watering Whole, both as a pivotal part of our preschool’s philosophy and our curriculum, as it weaves its way through all we do, teach and are….
We believe that it’s very important that children from a very early age are exposed to the idea of embracing difference – different cultures, different ideas, different traditions, different kinds of people, different abilities, different beliefs…. Teaching children to understand and respect difference, is such a crucial part of early childhood development and developing emotional intelligence.
Please join us in our final week of this term’s @ home curriculum with WWHP, as we explore, create, sing, dance, read about and experiment with all the wonderful colours we have been learning about this term.
