Friendships are such a wonderful and special part of life. From memory making to going through the highs and lows with your peers makes life so much richer. As a child, learning social skills and how friendships fit is a huge learning curve as they go through their childhood and find their ‘people’. As a parent, how do you connect and how do you teach your kids basic social skills and about what a great friendship can be?
Today Janine is joined by Caroline Maguire and in this episode they discuss:
How do we teach our children social and emotional awareness in a fun and play filled way? Eventually our children will become adults so when they walk out into the world, we want them to step into their lives as aware and in control of their emotions as possible.
In this episode we discuss:
The transition to preschool to elementary school can be such an anxious time for both parents and for the children. There’s a lot of unknowns to get them ready for and sometimes we think there’s lots we have to do to prepare them for starting. Today we discuss what you can do to help reduce anxiety for your little one with nursery practitioner, Caroline Allen.
In this episode they discuss:
This book has a lot of great advice for parents who want to help their children make friends. It's broken down into 12 sections, with each section focusing on a particular personality trait or behavioral characteristic (e.g. “the shy child”, “the little adult”, “the sensitive soul”). You don't have to read the book cover to cover, just pick the sections that pertain to your child and dive in.
Just in time for the holiday rush, here are 5 games that are good for small playdates with 2 or more kids. For children that struggle on play dates it’s helpful to have games that are easy to explain and don’t take too long to complete. The following games all match that description. They’re quick for kids to pick up and play, the first time or the 100th time.
This time of year is full of festivities, usually with several gatherings to attend. For kids who struggle in social situations, this can be a challenge. So what can you do to make it a little bit easier? Here are a few tips you can use to help prepare your child for parties and hopefully make the experience a little easier for everyone.
This is the second part of a two part post regarding social and emotional developmental expectations in elementary school. The first post focused on early elementary school (K - 2) and this post focuses on late elementary school (3 - 5).
Social and emotional development is critical for children. Children who are on the right track for social and emotional development can make connections with peers and adults, can manage conflict effectively and are more easily able to focus in school on their education.
I thought it would be helpful to lay out some expected social and emotional development for elementary school aged children.
Here are five strategies you can use to help set the stage for an enjoyable play experience:
1. Incorporate different types of play.
A child who plays well is comfortable with many forms of play. Some categories of play include gross motor, fine motor, pretend play, construction, sensory, etc. Gross motor activities include tag, obstacles courses and races. Activities like rainbow loom or stringing beads are more fine motor play. Some popular themes of pretend play include restaurant, school and space. Construction can be out of all kinds of different materials like blocks, play doh, or even recycling. Sensory can be using sand, rice or beans. Exposure to different types of play leads to valuable experiences.
