Discover the benefits of music for young children in the Is your baby getting enough music? Mini Parenting Master Class. Find musical activities for children in our Tuning Into Music: Listen! Make! Move! resources. Family literacy programs can borrow the Family Literacy Kit: Music with picture books, activity books and musical instruments from the Decoda… Read more
Today is International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination. Babies as young as 6 months notice racial differences. Young children can display racial bias. Talking about race with young children is important, but many adults feel uncomfortable. The following links offer some guidance: Becoming Upended: Teaching and Learning about Race and Racism with Young… Read more
The American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA) collaborated with Read Aloud to create seven handouts detailing expected communication milestones and read aloud tips from birth to age 5. Communicating with Baby: Tips and Milestones – Birth-3 Months Communicating with Baby: Tips and Milestones – Months 4-6 Communicating with Baby: Tips and Milestones – Months 7-12 Communicating with… Read more
It’s Tech Tuesday! The Common Sense Census: Media Use by Kids Age Zero to Eight was released earlier this month. This ongoing series tracks the use of media and technology among American children. Here are some key findings: Mobile is nearly universal. The amount of time using screen media hasn’t changed much since 2011, but… Read more
The PLANE Program Planning Toolkit: Ideas for Physical Literacy and Nature Exploration with Children is a guide from Little Mountain Neighbourhood House that describes not only how to organize nature experiences for young children, but also outlines a framework for getting the most out of those experiences. While it’s mainly designed for early childhood practitioners,… Read more
Introducing math concepts early is important and is easily done in a play-based way. For ideas on everyday activities that spark young children’s math interest, look at Too Small to Fail’s “Talk Math” Activities Sheet. You can find more ideas for home and classroom early math activities in the following: Exploring mathematics through play in… Read more
Science experiences are part of what young children do every day. The science skills that are built through play include: Questioning Predicting Organizing and categorizing Exploring and investigating Manipulating materials Measuring Observing Solving problems Explaining. Children build these skills through structured and unstructured play activities. For ideas for activities that build science skills in young… Read more
Research on how technology affects young children has produced a variety of results. Every finding seems to lead to more questions. Here are some recent commentaries: Do kids really learn from playing educational games on tablets? Is e-reading to your toddler story time, or simply screen time? Tablets and smartphones may affect social and emotional… Read more