Children’s books are such a great way to help children deal with change – and military life certainly has plenty of that! Here are some books that can help young children deal with different changes that may occur in their families. The books in bold have a specific military theme and include characters in military families. Others are recommended because of how well they deal with emotions from a child’s perspective. Even though the situation doesn’t involve a military element, …
Welcome to the eXtension Alliance for Better Child Care database of fingerplays and songs for child care. Is there anything more enjoyable than watching young children light up as they sing a favorite song? In this collection, you will find lots of fingerplays, songs, and rhymes — some familiar and some new.
There are three ways to see the fingerplays, songs, and rhymes:
Welcome to the eXtension Alliance for Better Child Care database of story-stretching ideas for child care. Here you will find lots of hands-on, ready-to-try ways to extend some of your favorite children’s stories into additional learning experiences. Search or browse these story-stretching ideas to find great ways to expand children’s books with related language and literacy, math, science, art, social skills, music, movement, and more. The ideas are especially designed to help young children of different ages expand their learning …
As young children grow, they learn different ways to process information from the world around them, and their thinking skills are very different at different ages. Infants are focused on exploring the world around them. Preschool-age children like to ask questions and test out ideas. School-age children think logically, but still have a hard time understanding abstract concepts such as “freedom.”
Child care providers can help young children develop thinking skills by observing carefully, providing interesting materials and problems, asking …
As children begin elementary school, they also show important advances in both thinking and language skills. They become better at logical thinking and problem-solving. They are motivated, active learners. School-age children begin to learn bigger words, to produce longer and more complex sentences, to manipulate language in new ways, to learn subtle exceptions to grammar rules and to understand their native tongue much better.
Child care providers in out-of-school child care programs can support the development of thinking and language …
During the preschool years, children develop new thinking skills and become competent at using language to communicate. These newly developed thinking and language skills enable preschoolers to begin solving complex problems, asking and answering questions, and using their imagination to create and act out stories. Child care providers can support thinking and language development in preschoolers through conversations, reading, math and science activities, creative questions, and opportunities to pretend. The following are common milestones of thinking and language development in …
Children of different ages need different types of care and nurturing. Quality child care programs help children grow in all areas of development: physical, intellectual, social, emotional, language, moral, and spiritual domains.
Child care providers need to understand how children of different ages grow and learn in order to provide warm, sensitive care and positive learning experiences. Positive learning experiences help young children’s developing brains make and strengthen the connections they need to succeed.
There are many different ways to …
Understanding the basic sounds of individual letters is an important basic skill in learning to read. Child care providers sometimes call this “learning the alphabet.” It also is called phonological awareness, which is the ability to pay attention to, identify, and use sounds of speech. Phonological awareness helps children break words into sounds and to blend sounds into words.
For example, children need to tell the difference between “d” and “t,” or “b” and “p.” Some letters can have a …
Part of learning to read is learning to recognize and pronounce words. Older preschoolers and kindergartners start recognizing simple, familiar words, such as their name. They soon learn to recognize other common words, such as “dog,” “bird” and “cat.” This is often called “sight reading,” whereby children come to recognize words by remembering the pattern of the letters.
Children can also learn to pronounce new words by trying to sound them out. They can figure out how to pronounce words …
There’s magic in children’s books. Well-selected and well-read children’s books add to the child care curriculum by opening children to a world of fun and wonder. Books can help children learn about the world and themselves, expand their imaginations, connect with their child care provider, and build important skills that will help children read alone later on.
Reading with others is a learned skill. Child care providers can help children enjoy books by reading in ways that capture and build …
