This first step is to lay a strong foundation on which to build your children's education.
These sections are organized by age level, but the information is not confined to that age group. Articles are updated frequently. Consider looking at other age ranges as well. Also, make sure to check out the Archives.
These sections are organized by age level, but the information is not confined to that age group. Articles are updated frequently. Consider looking at other age ranges as well. Also, make sure to check out the Archives.
Teach Children About Death
Death is an inevitable part of life, but sometimes it is even harder to deal with young children’s questions about death than about sex because death is a much less pleasant reality. Children may have many questions about their grandfather or grandmother leaving them without fully comprehending that they are losing a grandparent for all time. Share your own feelings of grief because children also cry or are sad. Assure them that it is ok to grieve. Watch for actions and feelings expressed by children because children cannot always talk about death in words. Human beings are unique and irreplaceable. There will never be another. Share that you, too, will miss their loved one.
Explain that the dead can no longer see, hear, walk, talk or touch. The body is no longer animated and it is the natural ending of a human body. Being dead means inability to move or respond, cessation of breath and heartbeat, absence and sadness.
At two or three, a child begins to develop a very basic concept of what death is without grasping its permanence. At four or five, a child begins to realize that everyone will die. They may need help dealing with deep-seated or irrational fears. An older child has acquired a sense of personal mortality that all of us struggle with throughout our lives, but still find it difficult to face the death of a friend, classmate or favorite relative their own age.
Children sometimes feel they are responsible for a loved one’s death. They feel they have made the dead one's life go because they were bad or mad at them. People die for the same reason that flowers and animals die. They just grow old, sick or too diseased to live any longer. The dead cannot feel pain. It is hard for any of us to comprehend when a young person dies, but maybe if we explain that heaven is a new way of being, of comfort, peace, and love, your children will feel better. People do not come back from heaven as they come back from places.
Death leaves a heartache no one can heal, love leaves a memory no one can steal. From an Irish headstone.
Rhymes and Rhythm for Your Children
Reading, reciting and enjoying rhymes is a fun way to help your young children learn the rhythm of language. Whether nursery rhymes, jump rope rhymes, or just funny poems, children love to hear and say rhymes.
Rhymes are active, engaging, they tell a story, and they’re just plain fun. Jan Spooner
Reciting rhymes reinforces many of the pre-reading skills young children need. Children learn to listen and understand sounds of language. When they hear rhyming words, they learn about word families and can predict what the next word will be that rhymes with a previous one, especially when an adult pauses to let the children think about what that word could be. I have experienced many giggles when children put in a word that really doesn’t fit, but rhymes.
Rhymes can lead to growth in vocabulary, especially if the rhyme uses words unfamiliar to children. Exploring such words as fleece (Mary Had A Little Lamb), nimble (Jack Be Nimble) or fetch (Jack and Jill Went Up the Hill) help children to understand words and find other words that may have similar meaning.
Rhymes help to build brain connections, imagination and creative thinking. Repetition of rhymes teaches children how language works and builds memory capacity. Maybe that is why our ancestors could use their brains so well; they memorized poems and rhymes as school assignments.
Help your young children ages 0-8 use this way to learn to love language and enjoy the fun of using it. You can find rhymes to use in such books as The Complete Book of Rhymes, Songs, Poems, Fingerplays and Chants by Jackie Silberg (at your library) and Anna Banana: 101 Jump Rope Rhymes and Best Nursery Rhymes (on Amazon). There are many more resources on the internet if you have time to explore. The strategy of using language in these ways with your young children is well worth your time and energy and will pay handsomely as your children learn to read.
Death is an inevitable part of life, but sometimes it is even harder to deal with young children’s questions about death than about sex because death is a much less pleasant reality. Children may have many questions about their grandfather or grandmother leaving them without fully comprehending that they are losing a grandparent for all time. Share your own feelings of grief because children also cry or are sad. Assure them that it is ok to grieve. Watch for actions and feelings expressed by children because children cannot always talk about death in words. Human beings are unique and irreplaceable. There will never be another. Share that you, too, will miss their loved one.
Explain that the dead can no longer see, hear, walk, talk or touch. The body is no longer animated and it is the natural ending of a human body. Being dead means inability to move or respond, cessation of breath and heartbeat, absence and sadness.
At two or three, a child begins to develop a very basic concept of what death is without grasping its permanence. At four or five, a child begins to realize that everyone will die. They may need help dealing with deep-seated or irrational fears. An older child has acquired a sense of personal mortality that all of us struggle with throughout our lives, but still find it difficult to face the death of a friend, classmate or favorite relative their own age.
Children sometimes feel they are responsible for a loved one’s death. They feel they have made the dead one's life go because they were bad or mad at them. People die for the same reason that flowers and animals die. They just grow old, sick or too diseased to live any longer. The dead cannot feel pain. It is hard for any of us to comprehend when a young person dies, but maybe if we explain that heaven is a new way of being, of comfort, peace, and love, your children will feel better. People do not come back from heaven as they come back from places.
Death leaves a heartache no one can heal, love leaves a memory no one can steal. From an Irish headstone.
Rhymes and Rhythm for Your Children
Reading, reciting and enjoying rhymes is a fun way to help your young children learn the rhythm of language. Whether nursery rhymes, jump rope rhymes, or just funny poems, children love to hear and say rhymes.
Rhymes are active, engaging, they tell a story, and they’re just plain fun. Jan Spooner
Reciting rhymes reinforces many of the pre-reading skills young children need. Children learn to listen and understand sounds of language. When they hear rhyming words, they learn about word families and can predict what the next word will be that rhymes with a previous one, especially when an adult pauses to let the children think about what that word could be. I have experienced many giggles when children put in a word that really doesn’t fit, but rhymes.
Rhymes can lead to growth in vocabulary, especially if the rhyme uses words unfamiliar to children. Exploring such words as fleece (Mary Had A Little Lamb), nimble (Jack Be Nimble) or fetch (Jack and Jill Went Up the Hill) help children to understand words and find other words that may have similar meaning.
Rhymes help to build brain connections, imagination and creative thinking. Repetition of rhymes teaches children how language works and builds memory capacity. Maybe that is why our ancestors could use their brains so well; they memorized poems and rhymes as school assignments.
Help your young children ages 0-8 use this way to learn to love language and enjoy the fun of using it. You can find rhymes to use in such books as The Complete Book of Rhymes, Songs, Poems, Fingerplays and Chants by Jackie Silberg (at your library) and Anna Banana: 101 Jump Rope Rhymes and Best Nursery Rhymes (on Amazon). There are many more resources on the internet if you have time to explore. The strategy of using language in these ways with your young children is well worth your time and energy and will pay handsomely as your children learn to read.