Blog Layout

Each upcoming blog will include an overview of the typical characteristics of a child during each developmental stage. It will also offer commentary about what, how, and when to teach your child. You will also finds some blogs called “Parent Play.”  These blogs offers simple activity ideas to try with your child. Some of them may seem so simple and so rooted in common sense that you may be tempted to overlook them as unimportant. Quite often a parent thinks, “Oh yeah, of course. I should take a walk with my kid and talk about what we see. Everyone knows that.” But they too infrequently set aside time to actually do it with their child.
The Parent Play activities will serve as a reminder to do the things you likely already know you ought to do. And likely, some of the activities will be new to you. Each activity is designed with specific outcomes in mind. They are challenging because they do more than entertain—they require your child to use two or more of his senses, and they most often involve physical as well as mental activity. Use these suggestions to your advantage and adjust them to meet your circumstances and your child’s needs. Many of the activities are given as if for one child, but it is not difficult to enlarge the activities to include more than one child. Be creative and think up your own games and activities as well. Your child will love having a playful parent who invents games for the two of you to play together. All of the Parent Play suggestions should be implemented at play activities, which means they should be fun! They should not be approached as “lessons” or as a tedious checklist that you must plow through with your child. Play as you teach and teach as you play.

Nurturing your child’s innate intelligence and bringing it to fruition is a goal within the reach of even the most humble home with the most limited financial resources. The essential element in achieving this goal is not money; it is committed parents who take the time to provide truly creative play, mind-nurturing conversation, and experience-broadening activity in the home, neighborhood, and community. Parents who teach with loving concern, who adjust their teaching to fit their child’s needs, and who realize that their child’s feelings are of foremost importance will see their children blossom.