What to Give Your Child This Holiday Season-now with links

 “Do you have any recommendations for holiday gifts for my child?”

I have been asked this question many times during the past few weeks, so I have been giving it a lot of thought.

I strongly believe that the best gift for children is a terrific set of Wooden Blocks.  It is also a toy that can be added to each year.  There are so many different sizes and shapes of blocks that the play with this toy is limitless.  And children rarely grow out of blocks.  As they get older, their structures get more elaborate.  A great deal of critical thinking, problem solving, and mathematical and spatial language is learned through block play, and that just scratches the surface of the learning opportunities. 

I am a big fan of Building Sets in general; Legos, Duplo, K’nex, Ello, and Zoobs are all really fun and have incredible potential for creativity while strengthening fine motor abilities. 

Real art materials should also be on the top of any child’s list; paint, glue, scissors, clay (not just play dough), markers, crayons, big paper, construction paper, pipe cleaners, pom poms, beads, etc. Discount School Supply is my preferred place to buy art materials; excellent prices, selection and service  What needs to accompany this gift is a space to use it, and the acceptance that it is okay get messy!!

Marble runs are another one of my favorites.  There are some beautiful wooden ones out there, but if cost is an issue, the plastic sets are just as inviting.  For a fun make-it-yourself toy, cut cove molding into various size pieces and get some larger marbles or ping pong balls.  Combine this with a cardboard box with holes cut out, and you have hours of entertainment as your child explores the cause and effect of various ramps. 

Puzzles make fantastic gifts and great learning opportunities.  If your child has been doing simple puzzles with the knobs on the pieces, buy some wooden puzzles with 12 pieces, then move onto 24. Large floor puzzles are extremely inviting.


Board games are wonderful additions to any playroom or toy closet.  Encouraging turn taking and rule following in fun settings teaches children important social skill in a fun way.  Playing  games with your children when they are young has been proven to lead to increased communication with them when they become teenagers.  I have just entered this world, and trust me, this is important!

Musical instruments and CDs of various kinds of music will be treasured.  Try to find some made with natural materials rather than plastic for a more luxurious experience.  Egg shakers, drums, and bells are just a few to include. How about trying some reggae, some big band and some classical music as well as beloved rhyming sing a longs.   And perhaps a bottle of Tylenol for you.

Dress Up Clothes are most loved by young children, but to save a little money, a collection of beautiful fabric is even more creative and open ended. 


Books, Books and more Books  You really can never have too many books.  Look for repetitive parts and rhyming that will encourage your child to chime in while you read.  But nothing beats simply curling up with a parent or even on one's own and enjoying a beautifully illustrated story.  I will be posting some favorites in my next post. 

I really could go on and on here, but this is more than enough for eight nights or to cover beneath a tree. 

I just want to point out that I didn’t mention technology.  There are so many battery powered toys that play for the child.  The above mentioned toys are “child powered”  by their imaginations. 

And the most important gift…time , your time¸ play with your child. 

That gift is priceless and  every child should have it. 

Have a playful and peaceful holiday season.  

Traditions

So what makes me want to crawl around in my attic at 6am?

  

My love of tradition(and the fact that I have been too busy this week to get prepared any earlier).

Today is the first of December.  In my family, we have the tradition of hanging a row of 25 mittens.  Each morning my children come downstairs and find a little treat inside the mitten corresponding to the day counting down to Christmas.

The other tradition I seem to have is not putting that string of mittens in a spot where I can easily find it before the rest of the Christmas decorations are out-hence my attic crawl this morning.  But I digress....

My children are older, but they look for this treat each day with the same exuburance as a 4 year old.  Young children love tradition.

In my school, we do not make a big deal of the holidays. What we do focus on is tradition.  If a family has a tradition that is special to them and the child would like to share it, we welcome it.  Today, I have a mom coming in to make latkes as it is the first day of Hanukkah.  Next week another parent is coming in to decorate special cookies that her child loves.  Following that, we have a family coming in to decorate pine cones to welcome in the Winter Solstice.  I collect Gingerbread stories and share this with my class.  Honoring the family connection and the traditions that make this time special is our focus.

Share your traditions with me and have wonderful beginning to this special season.

The Kindergarten Journey

Tonight I am presenting a workshop for the parents of children at my school called The Kindergarten Journey.

I was asked to talk about Kindergarten readiness and how to decide if your child is "ready" for Kindergarten. Philosophically, I have trouble with those terms, as I feel strongly that Kindergarten needs to be "ready" for the child.

I taught Kindergarten for many years, and in any given year I would have such a range of children; those who didn't know the difference between a number and a letter all the way to those who could read at a second grade level and above.  It was my job as a Kindergarten teacher to differentiate the curriculum to meet the needs of these students.  This is the most difficult part of teaching, but it was doable, especially in a setting where play was still valued and so much of the learning was done in exploring learning centers.

Kindergarten has become a very different place today.  In my workshop I show the parents a blank report card from our local school when my daughter went to kindergarten and then 5 years later when my son went.  The differences in the expectations are staggering and that was 5 years ago now.  The demands have continued to increase every year.  Friends of mine, still teaching Kindergarten, have been told they cannot buy materials for the dramatic play centers and sensory tables and block areas are becoming a thing of the past in Kindergarten classrooms.  The children are expected to do much more seat work. It is now expected that the children can do some reading by the end of Kindergarten.

This pressure is causing so much anxiety for preschool parents.  Should they send their age eligible children to Kindergarten or give them what is now deemed as "the gift of time" in so much literature, and hold them back a year.

Five years ago, I was adamant in my belief that parents should send their child when the age cut off deems him ready.  It is the Kindergarten teacher's job to provide the proper education and meet him at his level.

Today, I am truly perplexed.  I feel that if the trend of holding children back continues and most children are older when they go,  the people administering programs will be more apt to continue this pushing down of the curriculum.  This really puts the children who cannot afford another year in preschool in a bind-they have to go to Kindergarten as soon as they are age eligible.

However, hearing the frustration of current Kindergarten teachers and knowing the statistics of the children held back in Kindergarten due to lack of performance on these rigorous academic standards, makes me pause.  I especially worry about the energetic boys that are being labeled with disorders, as they are simply not ready for such extended seat work.

I could go on and on concerning this issue, but I would  love to hear your thoughts.
I have such angst over this topic.

In an ideal world all of my students would continue in a Kindergarten setting much like our Little Red School House; days filled with opportunities to explore, discover, wonder and learn through their play.