Engagement is a key component of our interactions if we want to build the skills of little ones. Our goal is to do everything in our power to engage others, particularly our children, in life experiences. Our play and our actions and our words should all be in an effort to encourage others to join in. We want the baby to look at our face. We want toddlers to come when we call them. We want preschoolers to ask us to play with them. We want our school-agers to turn to us when they need help. So how do we create this engaging environment? Starting when they are infants, we work on this with games like peekaboo where we are expecting a baby to look at us when we say peekaboo and respond. A baby typically responds with joy, making it an enjoyable exchange for both parties. This sets up a precedent that when playing a game with mommy or daddy is fun. It is something they then want to do again so the baby joins in (engages) to do their part to keep it ...
My son had an interesting conversation with me about how to teach people to think. It included a discussion on creating a line of questions that leads to an answer or course of action. He's quite smart. However, he said this is a very challenging skill and that knowing how to develop a line of thought for a story or research article is a critical skill. Therefore, I am including a conversation on building skills that includes how to use questions to develop a story as well as other strategies. A story has to have a clear beginning, middle and end. When I have a child write a story, I also ask them to answer as many questions as they can as they write. To start with, there is a who, what, where, why, when and how to be told. Sometimes it is not told directly but clues are given as in a mystery where the reader is left to discover the answers, but most of the time we expect the answers to those questions to be upfront. It makes a difference to the interest of the reader whether the s...
There is a game where you put a plastic nose on the card of the matching animal called Who Knows Whose Nose?. It is a game for 2-4 year old children that is a great beginner game. Another game called WhoNose? is similar to Headbanz. It is for 6+y and each player is to hang a facial card from their nose and ask questions to guess who it is from a selection card. A player has to get three correct to win. Pin the nose on the clown is also a nose game. Operation has a light up nose if you accidentally touch the sides while 'operating'. Pencil Nose requires you to wear special glasses with a pen attached to the nose and the other person has to guess what you are drawing 'with your nose'! These are samples of some of the games available to people with an interest in noses. Pinocchio has a video game, a board game, a movie and a book. Pinocchio helps children learn about his special nose that grows when he lies. Who else has a special nose? I think now i...
Comments
Post a Comment