LIVING LOVE AND LOGIC TIP #31

Four Tips for Soothing Sibling RivalryWeekly Tip from the Love and Logic^® Experts

Why is sibling rivalry such a perplexing issue for so many parents? Simply because we can't make our kids love each other. That's completely out of our control.

Listed below are just a few of the many things we can control:

• Whether we do extra things for kids who are battling with each other.
It's perfectly reasonable for a parent to say, "This is such a bummer. I'm tired-out from listening to you arguing with each other. I don't have the energy to drive you to your friends' houses."
• Whether we allow certain items to remain in our homes.
A friend of ours said to her kids, "This is so sad. Every time you guys play with that game you get in a fight. I gave it away so it wouldn't be a problem anymore."

To see 2 more things that we can control with sibling rivalry go HERE!

Celebrating Valentines day

Look what we made!!! For Valentines Day we made many wonderful things, including cards for our parents, a 3-d heart, paintings and mailboxes for our special messages to one another. The children used different art mediums and materials to create throughout the week. We talked about how art is an expression and can communicate feelings. Because this week was about love, we tried to show love in our creations.

 

As parents we recognize the different stages on learning and growth. Each of the students above show complete joy and pride in their accomplished work! Some of us can use our words, while others use illustrations and art. Even our little ones seem to understand the love they have for their parents and enjoyed creating a masterpiece to demonstrate this emotion!

 It is an important concept for children to think about others and to take time to ponder their relationships. Students focused this week on their friendships with one another and worked on showing kindness to others throughout each day. Students paid special attention to make sure our friends all received Valentines. Of course delivering Valentines into the special mailboxes was fun, but so was reading the sweet messages from others.

Of course a celebration has to have a special treat! One of our FANTASTIC moms at HO4K made Delicious chocolate covered strawberries for our snack time. The children loved them and we appreciate the time that was put into making our Valentines treat so special and yummy!

 This week was a great week at HO4K. It was a reminder of all the love we have for others including family, friends and teachers. It was a great reflection of the friendships that have been formed among our little learners with one another and with faculty. We hope you found a special way to celebrate this Valentines with those who you love!

We love the warm weather!

My what fun we have when we play outside together! We have been so lucky lately to be able to go out and enjoy the beautiful Nevada weather! When we play outside it is a totally different learning environement. We have many opprtunities to practice our social skills and further develop our motor skills.

It is proven that children’s learning occurs best when the whole self is involved and we all know that "play" is an active form of leanring. Children expand their ability to express and work out emotional aspects of everyday experiences through unstructured play. This is crucial to the complete development of social skills. When children are permitted to play freely with peers, they develop skills for seeing things through another person’s point of view. There working on cooperating, helping, sharing, and solving problems with others.

MANY state preschool standards are addressed through active play. Below are some examples of the Social Emotional standards addressed.

1.PK.1a Make independent choices from diverse interest centers or activities.

1.PK.2a Express ideas for activities; initiate and participate in discussions with teachers or peers.

1.PK.2b Acknowledge actions and accomplishments verbally and nonverbally.

1.PK.3 Re-engage in a task or activity after experiencing disappointment, frustration, or failure.

3.PK.1 Identify a range of feelings (e.g., sadness, anger, fear, and happiness).

3.PK.2a Express feelings, needs or wants in appropriate ways.

3.PK.2b Demonstrate awareness of feelings of others (e.g., gets blanket for friend and comforts him/her when he/she feels sad).

4.PK.1c Respect rights and belongings of others (e.g., "It is my turn to use the bike, but you can have the bike when I am finished").

4.PK.1d Demonstrate problem-solving skills (e.g. ask for help from an adult, talk about problems, talk about feelings relating to problems, and negotiate solutions).

5.PK.1a Play independently.

5.PK.1b Play in pairs and small groups.

6.PK.1c Use verbal and non-verbal conversation skills (e.g., listening, letting a person finish speaking before taking a turn, staying with one topic, maintaining eye contact, etc.).

LIVING LOVE AND LOGIC TIP #30

Taking Away Privileges VS. Energy Drain Technique
Weekly Tip from the Love and Logic^® Experts

 

Today I am responding to a question that was posted on the Love and Logic Facebook page.

"Ok, I need some help here. I cannot get my kids to stay in bed after I put them to bed. They come out 5 times a night to go to the bathroom, open my bedroom door to ask questions, and are loud and wake people up. No matter how many privileges I take away, they are still coming out."

After reading this question, I have some guesses, and several suggested strategies to try. Go HERE to read about these suggestions.

 

Valentines Day!

Valentines day is right around the corner! We enjoy celebrating our friendships and love for family on this special day. Students have been busy creating their personal Valentines box and other special projects. Please make sure your child has Valentines to pass out on MONDAY! We are doing it Monday so that your student can open them up Tuesday and not have to wait! This is the perfect time to have your little ones practice writing their names, as well as a time to reinforce how important friendships are.

 Our little ones are getting in on all the Valentines action! They also are creating Valentines box and have fun experimenting with the glue, paper and other materials. While working, they are comprehending the commands of on and off, recognizing colors and shapes and working to develop greater small motor skills as they brush on the glue. We are sharing materials and taking turns! Plus, we are no longer putting the glue in our mouth. Its so much fun to do art projects.

BOARD GAMES

When you are looking to spend some quality time with your little one, pick up a board game!

Beyond the joy of spending time together, your child can gain higher self-esteem and can safely satisfy their competitive nature. As an added bonus there are many learning opportunities in a friendly game! Students can master concepts such as:

• number and shape recognition, grouping, and counting
• letter recognition and reading
• visual perception and color recognition
• eye-hand coordination and manual dexterity
• social skills
• how to "gracefully" lose
• greater attention span and focus

Games don't need to be overtly academic to be educational. Just by playing them, board games provide many exciting opportunities for educational review and growth, as well as further development of life skills!

Students at HO4K love playing board games together! We learn how to have friendly competitions and love to practice the skills we already have.

LIVING LOVE AND LOGIC TIP #29

You Can Do It!
Weekly Tip from the Love and Logic^® Experts

Do you ever feel discouraged because you’re having a tough time remembering to use a Love and Logic skill? Does it make you feel any better to know that I experience the very same challenge?

Experiencing setbacks doesn't mean failure. It simply means that the road to personal change is always under construction. You can be successful…To review the very basics to help you with Love and Logic at home, click HERE!

The benefits to building

Blocks are an early learning tool that helps young children develop their muscles and their minds. Through play, preschool children can learn concepts and skills as block activities are taken across the early childhood curriculum. AS children are actively engaged in experimenting with blocks, they are challenging their creativity and problem solving skills.

 Students use blocks as a measuring tool. How tall can they stack their blocks? Are they taller or shorter than their tower?  Comparing towers, who has the tallest/shortest? etc. All these questions are building math concepts as well as problem solving skills.

Students learn to respect each other when they are involved in cooperative construction projects. We really have to trust each other when working with blocks, because sometimes the temptation to knock it over is too much! 

Of course,  block play is also about eye-hand coordination and visual perception.  Students are working with patterns, shapes/sizes, spatial awareness, balancing and counting. Students above replicated a pattern to create a fence around their playing area.

Make sure to check out more about block play HERE!

LIVING LOVE AND LOGIC TIP #28

The Basics of the Love and Logic Approach
Weekly Tip from the Love and Logic^® Experts

 

When you tell people you use Love and Logic techniques in your home or classroom, do they really know what "Love and Logic" means?

Do some think it is a cult you joined?

Do some say that "Love AND Logic" is an oxymoron?

Do you sometimes find it difficult to explain?

With a flexible menu of skills in our approach, and common sense at work, adults using Love and Logic skills may come across quite differently at times. Nevertheless, the "Love and Logic" approach should always look the same and consistency is the key. To review these four steps click HERE!

Reviewing with our bodies

Preschoolers need little motivation to get moving. They have lots of energy, and they learn about their world through movement. At HO4K students are actively learning and engaged in activities that utilize their bodies. There are many benefits to this! Read below to learn about the recent activities and how they help our little ones learn!

"I can count to 31!"

"Finger Hanging" is fun but best of all it strengthens fingers (to improve writing skills), rote counting (trying to hang while we count to 50), develops self control (hold legs up landing on our feet), patience (while waiting turns) and self confidence (I can do it!) We maximize the health benefits by using both small and large muscle groups with this activity.
 

"I can count to 10!"

"I can count to 17!"

"I can count to 3!"

"I can count to 20!"

 Reviewing shapes, numbers and letters can be fun when we use our bodies! Working together, students discovered different ways to represent and review these concepts.

Above, students are making a human circle! What other shapes can we make with our bodies?

First we read an article in Highlight magazine about worms that made letters with their bodies to help a friend learn to read and write his name and then we experimented with it. They LOVED it! Making an X is so easy when we have friends to do it with! Students tried making an X with their own bodies, a partner and then in groups. What a great way to practice communication and listening skills as we work together!

It is always so wonderful when our older students take time with the little ones, teaching them new things and nurturing them! Children learn by observing and then doing. Here students teach one of our toddlers how to throw and roll a ball. She is having so much fun and actually has pretty good aim and hand eye coordination as she throws them back!

Salvation Army and Service

Recently we have learned about the SALVATION ARMY FOOD DRIVE. We learned that they collect canned food for people that do not have enough food to feed their family.

For the last 3 months the children have been helping to do extra jobs at school  like pulling weeds and keeping our play ground clean. At first our goal was to earn enough money to buy a new Razor Scooter. After talking about our scooters that we have, we decided they still work well for us. Instead of buying a new scooter we would like to spend our hard earned money to buy canned food to donate to others with a greater need than we have. 

We are sending home $2 with each child. If possible, please take your child to the store (or allow them to purchase canned food from your pantry) so that they can experience purchasing canned food to help others in need. We will have a SALVATION ARMY FOOD DRIVE box at school. Thank you for helping your child learn how it feels to work hard, earn money, spend money and most importantly feel empathy for others.

Please return canned food by Friday, Feb. 3rd.

Do not hesitate to contact me with any questions.

Conscious Discipline

"Conscious Discipline is a comprehensive self-regulation program that integrates social-emotional learning and discipline.

It is the only program that integrates classroom management with social-emotional learning, utilizes everyday events as the curriculum and addresses the adult’s emotional intelligence as well as the child’s. Conscious Discipline empowers adults to consciously respond to daily conflict, transforming it into an opportunity to teach critical life skills to children."

We are so lucky at HO4K to have many wonderful resources and programs. The students have been involved in some of the activities tied to the amazing program Conscious Discipline. This program can be used both within the home and school environment. Mrs. JoAnn has worked hard to learn more about utilizing it within our school.  

One of the major aspects is providing children the opportunity to meaningfully contribute to the classroom environment. The pictures above are of a student who is performing his "job" as the classroom horticulturist. He teaches the other students about any changes in the ongoing projects that we have and allows time for observation.  Daily the students are responsible and held accountable for their jobs. They take pride in their work and the routine of contributing to our school. What a great way of promoting life learners!

There will be opportunities for parents to learn more about Conscious Discipline within the home through classes facilitated by JoAnn coming soon.

The Magical World of Imagination

 Often parents don't realize the value of imaginative play. Preschool-aged children absorb experiences and make sense of their world most effectively when engaged in imaginative play. Research show that preschoolers who spend more time in dramatic play are more advanced not only in general intellectual development but also in their ability to concentrate for long periods of time.

(Welcome to another new Student at HO4K. He has joined "forces" with the other exceptional "SUPER" students! )

Children learn differently than adults. It is often through their curiosity that they experiment with dramatic play and then further comprehend new ideas. Creating "real-life" experiences is a major part of their learning process.

As children continue to engage in pretend play, this not only enhances intellectual development but exercises all facets of the developing child. Some of the important skills that children gain and further develop are social ability, emotional strength, creativity, discipline, comprehension and language fluency.

Although imaginative play is often a self or group initiated activity, as a parent you can offer support for creativity by offering space, uninterrupted time, props and encouragement to enhance their play! Also, children always love when a parent joins in to their magical world of imagination!