Lucinda's Library Notes

Interaction is Important for living species.  We are created with a need to interact for our survival. One person is never truly self sufficient and even if they come close, it is rarely if ever the optimal path. We thrive when we connect with others.   One of the major impacts of Covid19 is the effect it has on the early learning of babies and small children whose primary way of learning about the world is through their interactions with it which are reduced by the requirements for isolation. Children interact first and foremost with people from day one and learn. A baby learns how to communicate with cries to express their needs. They learn about human touch.  They then quickly begin to learn by watching others. They learn to eat, to wave, to put things together or take them apart, to make faces and sounds. People sing them songs and read stories and introduce little ones to ideas of what is right and wrong.   Children secondarily learn from things in th...

This uplifting and positive book is by Amelia Hepworth and illustrated by Tim Warnes.  The colours lend themselves to pencil crayon drawings although I think using chalk on a blue or black background would be effective too. Drawing snow drifts or mountain peaks, the moon and the bears would make for a beautiful activity to go along with this book. As another option, water paints or oil pastels would make incredible patterns just like the aurora borealis (northern lights) As a side note, Noah carved a bear for Christmas from soapstone. It is beautiful but also very soothing to hold onto. I would recommend soapstone carving as an activity with carving soap being a backup activity that would be fun to try.  I will add a picture soon! As we learn how a bear shares her love with her cub in this board book, we can also find free things to do with our child(ren) to spend time and enjoyable moments with them. Splashing in the water, watching the patterns in the sky, going for walks in...

  I HOPE YOU HAVE HAPPY HOLIDAYS! no "How-tos" today. You've got this!

HOPE     I planned on home learning but it is Christmas week as I write this post so HOPE seems like a much more fitting topic!  As a Christian, Jesus is born to bring us hope.  Knowing God gives us hope regardless of the circumstances we find ourselves in and it is a tremendous gift.  Yet, the best gift of Christmas is that the baby in the manger is part of our salvation plan. For any interested in the true meaning of Christmas or looking for someone to talk to because you have questions about God, you are welcome to message me and I will do my best to help you find meaningful answers. Aside from spiritual hope, hope in the general sense of the word is also powerful and valuable in the lives of all people, including the children that are in your circles of the world. One of the circumstances of life that pulls deeply on my heart is a teenager or individual who has lost hope.  Life is so very precious and no person should find themselves in a place whe...

I was surprised to see this book and realize I had never once read this book even though it has been available since 1949!   Before I even opened the book, I wrote down five ideas for activities that could be done in connection with this text.  The setting is on a snowy day with a cast of animals gathering from their winter homes. 1.  Animal tracks in the snow:  Look in the forest or backyard for tracks in the snow and see if you can determine who or what created them?  Are daddy's boot prints there?  The dog's paw prints? A bird's tiny foot prints?  What else do you see?  In our yard you may find evidence of squirrels, raccoons, foxes, cats, chipmunks and rabbits.  Quite a diverse mix considering we are in the city. 2.  Animal homes matching activity: I created a file folder game that was a freebie online. The home images were coloured, glued onto a file folder and the folder was laminated with clear sticky shelf liner. The animals...

What a perfect time of year to talk about Gifts! Of course, the mind quickly goes to the festive boxes all wrapped up under the tree and the fun (or stress) of finding the perfect something for the friends and family that you hold so dear! So with that topic in mind what kinds of gifts are good for your children? Giving them items that foster their creativity, imagination and STEAM skills is much preferable to electronic gadgets and single purpose toys.  For example, craft kits, toy food, doctor kits and gifts like rocks and gems, building kits and blocks are great.  If you want to practice sensory skills, gifts like playdough, slime, scented markers, magic sand and bubbles are great. For gross motor skills you can gift a ball, a swing set, a rocking horse or classes at a trampoline park, bowling alley, golf dome or ice rink as examples that will help to keep your child(ren) active. If fine motor skills are on the list, you can provide gifts such as puzzles, shape sorters, leg...

Ladybird First Favourite Tales, The Gingerbread Man is the choice for today because gingerbread men are a classic part of Christmas. After talking about E is for Eating, I am sure you are hungry! In this book there is a hungry baker and his wife, a boy, a cow, a horse and a clever fox  As in other stories, there is a problem that needs a solution. The fox offers the solution that the gingerbread thinks will help him but actually he is being deceived. This is a classic fairytale that has a tale to tell!   🏃Art :  To accompany this book you can have a cookie decorating party.  You can also find foam gingerbread men and use markers, paint, stickers, sparkles and more to decorate them. 🏃 Drama : You can use the plain gingerbread men to act out the story. Maybe even come to a 'river' which can be a puddle or the bathroom sink and question "How he can cross it without getting wet?"  🏃 Gross Motor : Maybe you can include a game of chase where you "run, run as ...

16 Gestures by 16 months is an online booklet by Baby Navigator that made me see gestures in a whole new light.  I understood that they were an important part of early development and precursors to vocabulary in a vague manner but not to the extent that I do now.  So that is what I want to share with you today.   To put it simply, a wave comes before the word 'Bye' but saying bye to someone is encouraged by the gesture of the wave.  It is like a prompt to the word.  When someone wants to know what a child wants, the child uses the point gesture to point at an item, often along with a word as words develop.  They may say 'that' or 'more' or they may use a naming word like car, juice or outside to label what they want.  The gesture typically comes first but then the words follow.   If a child is delayed in words but the gestures are in place, then it is frequently just a matter of time before the words come.  It isn't a guarantee that...

I had planned to cover FISH as my theme but it didn't seem meaningful compared to FAMILY and FRIENDS who are key to our well-being and deserve to be honoured every day of the year.  Their presence (or absence) is particularly noticed during holiday seasons as we plan get-togethers and celebrations with the people we love.  I would like to highlight ways to honour family and friends with some ideas in today's blog. 1. First and foremost, my recommendation is to show love any way you can.  Give your mom a hug. Wave to a friend. Smile at a neighbour. Visit a grandparent. Call a sibling. Perform an act of kindness.  Do whatever will remind your family members and/or friends that they are special and loved.  2. Send cards with notes specific to the recipient.  For example, you could send a thank you card to your uncle for taking you to your swim class, a Christmas card to an elderly neighbour who invited you to make cookies one day or a greeting card to a close ...

Throughout our lifespan, building up our skills in the area of following directions is key.  It isn't necessarily that we want a life of being told what to do and we blindly follow along so that we can practice this, but directions are important and ignoring them tends to be detrimental. Therefore, developing these skills is only wise and beneficial. For a little one, this skill helps us to determine their ability to comprehend language. By the age of one a child can typically follow a simple direction but they may still need the support of gestures to aid their comprehension.  For example, they may wave goodbye when told to or they may need the visual of someone else waving or a lifting of their hand to cue them. However, only six-twelve months later most children can follow two directions in a row and by the age of three that increases to three directions in a row.  For example, a two year old should be able to "Put on your boots and go to the door."  and a three y...

The Rainbow Fish by Marcus Pfister talks about more than the story of a fish.  It is also a good book to talk about another word beginning with F... Friendship! I love the opening. Just like 'Once upon a time', the book starts with a description to set the imagination on fire. "A long way out in the deep blue sea..." If I were reading this with a child, I would stop there and have them imagine the scene, maybe even draw a picture of what they envision. What shade of blue is the water?  Does the water go all the way to the horizon or do they imagine 'a long way out' more like halfway across a pond?  What else do they think is out there?  Maybe the sun is shining and there are boats on the water or maybe it is dull on the surface but alive with teems of fish just below the surface.  It is such a good opening phrase to help us realize that we all picture things differently and interpret the same words according to our own perceptions and ideas about the world....

I laughed when I came to do today's blog.  I forgot that I had chosen eating as the theme!  What do I do with that?  It is the most common thing in our lives, the centre of much of our socializing and a universal necessity for life itself!  Apart from the act of eating, what other activities can we do relating to the topic "E is for Eating"?  Well, here are a few ideas to get you started! Eating games...such as pie in the face games, watermelon seed spitting contests, and chopstick challenges are fun. Have a cooking competition, a cookie baking day or a multicultural food night (eg. Mexican or Italian) Have a teddy bear picnic or a tea party with daddy and the dolls. Try a science activity about structures by using marshmallows and spaghetti or sugar cubes and icing to compete to make the strongest or tallest buildings in a set amount of time. A variation for 'buildings' is to create a gingerbread house for the holidays! Sing songs about food like, 'If all the...

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 ...