Greetings

Hello everyone, welcome to our February newsletter! As always, we provide an overview of what is happening within our childcare community. This month, we will focus on bridging bonds between parents and early childhood educators.

Success in early childhood education does not only rest on early childhood educators’ shoulders. What is learned in early childhood centres and daycares must be supplemented, sustained and supported by parents in their homes. By creating a vital bond between early childhood educators and parents, both can create a nurturing environment for little learners. Gain strategies for building strong partnerships, creating effective communication channels, and enhancing a positive learning environment for your children.

The Importance of Parental Involvement

While childcare helps parents achieve a better work-life balance, parents also need to become active participants in their children’s early learning. Building strong relationships with their children’s educators, and promoting a seamless transition between home and centre or daycare helps a child thrive. 

Building Strong Foundations

When parents are actively involved in their child’s education, research shows that it can be a big factor towards a positive outcome in their academic and social development. A child becomes well-equipped for success when they are in a consistent and supportive learning environment.

Promoting Seamless Transition Between Childcare and Home

A child feels much more secure when there is a seamless transition between their home and childcare. Being placed in a learning environment where it is not that different from their home, except for more peers to interact with and educators eager for them to develop, learn and thrive, helps a child build self-confidence and security. 

Effective Communication Strategies

Trust is built when communication lines remain open and transparent for both parents and educators. Here are some effective ways to build strong communication lines between the two.

Various Communication Channels

Maintaining open lines of communication through regular updates, newsletters, and responsive communication channels helps quiet down any parent’s fear and worries. Whether it is through emails, phone calls, or face-to-face communication, value sharing information about the child’s progress, challenges, and achievements using these communication channels.

Parent-Educator Conferences

Holding a scheduled conference where parents and educators can get to know each other, and their children while in childcare, helps build a stronger foundation for parent-teacher bonds. It can also be a structured way for parents to discuss children’s development in detail. These meetings are a way to celebrate children’s achievements, address concerns, and collaboratively set goals for the future. Parents can also get a new perspective on their children, know their children in a different setting and support their child’s holistic development.

Linking Childcare and Home

Involving parents in early childhood education of their children does not end with centre-based initiatives. Parents can partake in early childhood education through these various activities.

Classroom Volunteers

Parents can get a sneak peek at what happens in their child’s centre or daycare by being classroom volunteers. They can also get a newfound appreciation and insight into what it takes to be an early childhood educator, in charge of a group of young children. Whether it’s a specific day, sharing a skill or story, bringing your parent-day or joining field trips, parents’ presence in the classroom helps early childhood educators share their experiences and create lasting memories for their children.

Home-Linked Activities

Not to be confused with homework, there is no pressure to finish or submit an output. Simply put, home-linked activities help reinforce learning concepts first introduced in the childcare or daycare setting back at home. Whether it’s washing hands, watering the plants, minding their table manners or taking their daily naps, doing a follow-up of the concepts at home helps both the parent form a bond with their child and the educator in gaining lesson retention.

The Takeaway

Every parent is essential in their child’s early education. With both parents and early childhood educators on board, they become partners in learning and create a great learning environment where every child feels supported, encouraged, and inspired to reach their full potential. 

0-12 month development

The one ‘red flag’ parents should look for with baby milestones

Author: Victoria Owens

Babies develop at different rates and achieve milestones on their own time. As parents continually monitor and stress over their baby’s progress, paediatrician Dr. Daniel Golshevsky only has one glaring ‘red flag’ parents should watch out for–regression. 

Read on to find out why regression is the top thing to look out for in this article.

1-2 year development

Toddlers Who Eat Fish Have Lower Developmental Delay Risks

Author: Terrah Keck-Kester

A study involving 142 children ranging in age from birth to 18 months has found that including fish in a child’s diet at least once a week can help protect them from neurodevelopmental delays. These neurodevelopmental skills include running, speaking, and social interaction. Analysing the child’s microbiome while controlling for other factors that may contribute to cognitive skills developments, the researchers were able to link fish consumption to a child’s healthy microbiome diversity and less likelihood in suffering from neurodevelopmental delays.

Read more about the research findings and how the researchers achieved their results here.

2-3 year development

3 ways to help your child transition off screens and avoid the dreaded ‘tech tantrums’

Authors: Juliana Zabatiero, Kate Highfield, Leon Straker, and Susan Edwards 

It’s almost bedtime and parents are dreading taking away the precious tech gadget out of their little ones’ hands for fear of tantrums. As gadgets become tech nannies, parents are finding it harder to wean young ones off their tech nannies. With their still developing emotion regulation skills, researchers have found ways to ease the difficulty of taking screen devices away and shifting kids’ attention. 

Read on to find out their recommendations when you transition children away from screens and avoid tech tantrums in this article.

3-4 year development

How To Teach A Child To Tie Their Shoes: Step By Step Guide

Author: Trisha Chakraborty

Tying their shoes is one of the first complex tasks that helps a young child feel independent and capable.. Learning how to tie their shoelaces helps a child develop not only their fine motor skills but also their cognitive skills in terms of following a procedure and repeating it. It also helps a child better their hand-eye coordination.

Find steps on how and why you should  teach your child how to tie their own shoelaces here.

4-5 year development

This Research-Backed Way To Get Your Kid To Eat More Veggies Is Actually… Fun

Author: Kristi Pahr

Has the dinner table become a warzone with parents asking with children who refuse to budge to eat a pea or two? Now research has found a way for children to eat their veggies–with a smiling potato.  

Find out more about how you can get your kid to eat more veggies this holiday season here.

Love Potions for Kids: A Baking Soda and Vinegar Experiment

What’s Valentine’s without a little love potion experiment? Have children mix and concoct potions in this fun and fizzy chemistry experiment. This Chemistry STEM activity will have kids practise their fine motor skills as they measure and mix the love potion.

Find how to make a fizzy love potion here. 

Icy Heart Painting

Making icy hearts colourful by painting it without letting it melt sound like it’s magic. But it’s a great way to let kids see how salt helps ice maintain its form. This cool STEAM activity lets children learn about matter, its different states and how colour absorption happens after ice has been frozen using salt.

Find instructions for this colourful icy heart painting activity here.

How to Make Butter

In this delicious activity, children learn how to convert one ingredient into another with some elbow grease. Children will be able to have some rigorous arm exercise while watching heavy cream turn into glorious butter. 

See the steps on processing heavy cream into butter here.

Colour-changing Flowers

Just in time for Valentine’s day, use white flowers to let  kids watch how osmosis works in a colourful STEM experiment. Children can choose colours to use in their experiment. A change in colour on the white flowers can take anywhere from 2 to 24 hours so you can make this STEM activity last the whole day or two. 

Get the steps and concepts taught in this coloured celery experiment here.