Okay, maybe it isn’t quite that great but around here, the kids love this time of year. Not because they are bored or they enjoy torturing me, although I wonder about that sometimes, but simply because this is the time of the year when the toads become very plentiful around my house.

On any given day, we can catch between 3 to 7 toads of various sizes. Today, we had the opportunity to not only catch a huge toad, about the size of my hand, but we also found a Northern Leopard Frog in our field. A very cool looking frog with leopard like spots on its bright green body.

Since we have so many warty visitors right now, I decided to start a mini project, remember those, and create a terrarium for the toads. We currently have 7 toads living with us for the next few days and we will swap them out every few days so no toad is hurt during this project.

I would like to mention that it is important to know what species you are dealing with when you bring anything into the house. Even if you know the species, handling should be kept to a minimum since they can carry parasites and most toads have a mild poison. Hands must be washed thoroughly after touching a toad.

Since some species are disappearing, it is important to not take too many species from their natural habitat. The Northern Leopard Frog came to visit for about an hour and then was released back into the field since this is a disappearing amphibian. The large toad also had a short visit before sauntering back into the field.

Another point that I would like to mention is feeding. Some animals will not eat while they are kept in captivity, although it is said that American Toads will adapt to eating.  Still, mini projects need to be kept short for this reason to ensure optimal health for your little amphibian visitor.

Now that I kind of preached about properly studying these animals, let’s look at building a toad terrarium for short visits. If you would like a cheat sheet on Toads, please visit this article.

What you need:

• A large container. I originally used an old baby bathtub for this when the toads we had were very small. Even though toads do jump, they do not jump as high as frogs. If the toads are small, a baby bathtub works well but any bigger in size and they will jump out.
• Coconut Fibre: You can get this at any pet store that has lizard supplies.
• A water dish: not too deep since toads can drown if they can’t get out of the water.
• Rocks: some rocks and stones for decorating and providing places for the toads to sit (this is more for your kids than for the toads)
• A container for the toads to hide under. Cut out a little door where they can get into it.
• Plants: one or two plants to provide more hiding places.
• Spray Bottle
• Mesh wiring (optional)

Directions:

1. Place the Coconut Fibre into a washed (without soap or chemicals) baby bathtub or other large container. I upgraded to a rubbermaid container.
2. Wet it down but don’t soak it completely.
3. Place the container for water in one area and the hiding container in another. Try to sink them into the fibre for stability.
4. Place in a few plants and the other decorations.
5. Add the toads.

It is pretty simple to set up a terrarium for a toad. You don’t need a mesh lid for the container if it is deep enough but if you have cats, protect the toads and your pet by attaching a mesh lid.

Check the water every day and spray the habitat with water to keep it moist. Usually you can tell if the habitat is too dry because the toads will sit in the water. Make sure you refill the water daily and if possible, let the water sit in a clean bottle to cut down on harsh chemicals in our tap water.

And that is all there is to it. Keep a toad, or toads, for a few days is a great opportunity for learning. Children can learn about animals, how to care for them, about the world around them and about the animals habitat. You can also teach about conservation and caring for our earth.

All the best and happy toad hunting.

Sirena Van Schaik

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Thanks again Tanja for joining us.

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“Yoghurt!” my son David shouted. He was not even one year old at the time.

We were on our way to the beach, and I assumed he wanted a frozen tub of the stuff to eat until we arrived. But as I turned around in my seat to give it to him, reminding him that he ought to have said ‘please’, I noticed that he was pointing a chubby finger at the vehicle right in front of us.

There, on the tail-gate of the pickup truck, was the word “Toyota”.

Before formal schooling begins, literacy skills are picked up in subtle means, before they are actually “taught” to a child. And that ought to be an indication that the “look and learn” method does not suit each and every child.

We know that learning styles differ:

• Aural (auditory-musical) indicates a preference for music and sounds;
• Logical (mathematical) utilizes logic, reasoning and systematic methods;
• Physical (kinesthetic) bring into play the body, hands and sense of touch;
• Social (interpersonal) opts for learning when in the company of others;
• Solitary (intrapersonal) is the decision to work alone;
• Verbal (linguistic) plumps for the use of words, both in writing and speech.
• Visual (spatial) chooses graphics, images, pictures, and spatial perception.

Despite this, most parents and teachers “expect” a child to follow the praxis obtaining with the peer group, be it recitation by rote or point-and-say. No allowances are made for children who could, and would, learn faster and better in their own preferred style and method of learning.

Having said this, it is worth pointing out that for most children, a combination of learning styles is by far the best technique to use. The idea is to make his grasp of the alphabet fun, albeit being didactic.

Games

“Learning Through Play” is a concept that is as old as the hills.

And one of the first methods that come to mind is giving new life to a pack of cards. All you have to do is cover the front of the cards with blank paper, stick a picture on the top two-thirds of each card (two for each letter), and write the initial at the bottom.

Unlike a look-but-don’t-touch wall frieze, this will give ‘tangible’ and ‘tactile’ results – and may also be used to play an interminable game of “Snap”… These cards could also be placed, face down, on a flat surface and used for a “Memory Game.”

If whole words are written on the cards, they may be utilized as flash cards, too.

You can also purchase or make, “first” books, called so because they are made of cloth or plastic. These are safer to use in the bath or in the cot, since unlike paper volumes, they do not disintegrate and pose a danger to a child who could swallow bits of the latter.

If you find fabric or plastic sheeting (of the type used for tablecloths) that incorporates an alphabet design, all you have to do is attach the “pages” at the side, by sewing them. This is the safest method, since glue, tape and staples may pose dangers if gnawed at. I found this out, myself, when my son Robert plugged his nostrils with gobs of chewed paper he had peeled off his Alphabet Jig-saw Puzzle.

High Class?

There is the question of whether children ought to be taught the upper- or lower-case letters first, or whether “the big one and the little one” must be presented together to facilitate assimilation.

Some educators even go as far as insisting that letters must be taught ion sequence, so that the child will not find difficulty in reciting the alphabet when this is required of him.

However, opinions differ on this one too.

When I worked as a Kindergarten Assistant, it was the norm to teach the children (3-4 years of age) the vowels first and foremost. We made a game of it; someone would pretend to pick up the phone and reply with exaggerated phonetic sounds of the vowels to whatever the person on the other end of the line was supposed to be saying.

Then followed 5 other letters – b, s, t, l and m, so that the children could get a cross-section of “shapes” (curves and straight lines and combinations), with the upper case letter being written after the lower case one.

All ten would have their own “scrapbook” – made up of collages, pre-writing exercises, potato prints, and pictures, colors, and shapes with a connection to the consonant or vowel for that month, so by the end of the scholastic year, they would hopefully have mastered them.

The ideal way to show children that a proper noun starts with a capital letter is to have their name and surname spelled out in separate letters – with practice they will be able to put it together correctly; even more so if you first write it down on a strip and then cut out each letter separately in a jigsaw-puzzle style, so that the parts fit together.

If you use sandpaper, or corrugated cardboard, you will literally add another dimension to this exercise. This game may also be done with letter fridge magnets.

A child would also love to write his name in the sand – on the beach, in a sandpit at the playground, or in a sand tray at home – according to the opportunities he has. He would also enjoy “painting” his name in water with a brush, on a slate or chalkboard.

Laminated paper and a water-based felt-tip pen provide another source of fun… if he wears an orphan sock on his “free” hand, he can erase and re-write without missing a beat.

Touch and Go!

Most children will absorb information when the way it is given involves some kind of mess; a pile of magazines, glue, glitter and stickers will encourage children to make their own Alphabet Book. If this is given a theme, rather than being a haphazard collection of pictures, the child will be learning how to organize information too; and this will be in good stead later. It does not matter of the child cannot pronounce the words properly, as yet.

• An Animal Book would have alligator, beaver, cow, donkey… this will also increase a child’s vocabulary, especially if you steer away from the common cat, dog, and fish creatures.
• The Food Book would have asparagus, broccoli, cucumber, damson… again; try to avoid oranges, apples and tomatoes.
• The Things Book would have anchor, bridge, climber… and in this case you avoid airplane, ball and chair.

This is another reason why you must haunt rummage sales and stock up on old magazines!

Children will encounter the printed word wherever they go: street signs, television, food cans, birthday cards, newspapers… each of these is an intrinsically unique learning opportunity.

Song and Dance

Children love rhythm. Most of them love repetition. A good number of them insist on consistency. This is where alphabet songs come in. You can use the tried-and-tested ones handed down in specialized books – or you can make up silly songs that will have the child giggling gleefully along in no time at all, even if he does not understand all the words. This is especially important, because if a child “knows” the Alphabet Song it does not necessarily mean that he understands what the alphabet is.

Alliteration and onomatopoeia sound especially funny to children.

Action songs and rhymes are other learning tools worth trying. Memory games such as The Clergyman’s Cat prepare the way for teaching abstract concepts as well as encouraging lateral thinking skills.

Always keep in mind that a laptop is not a lap; don’t delegate the teaching of letters to a machine. Not only because of the insidious fashion of misspelling “on purpose” in order to appear hip, or to “save time”, but because otherwise you will be missing out on “us” time, too.

by Tanja Cilia

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As with adults, or any age for that matter, each milestone is reached after the skills are built to reach it. This means that developmentally the child needs to be ready, both physically and intellectually, for the milestone to occur. Once the milestone has occurred, the child must continue to use it, to practice the skill and to build upon it. A child learns to sit up, then to pull him self up and then to stand without assistance.

The same building of skills can be said with fine motor skills. A child begins with a Palmer grasp which evolves into a pincer grasp and the more practice a child has with using a skill, the faster it develops.

I have found over the years, that cutting is one skill that is often ignored by parents. This is an excellent skill to build on and it helps the child build in many developmental areas. Obviously, one of the skills built upon with using scissors are fine motor skills and hand-eye coordination but did you also know that scissors also help with spatial awareness, since the child needs to judge the distance between the scissors and the paper. It also builds on coordination and allows opportunities for a child to learn how to use their thumb and pointer finger in a smooth motion.

As with the gain of any skill, if the child is successful, this builds more self-confidence and a higher sense of esteem…and all of this is from a silly pair of scissors. Amazing, right?

Now back to actually getting your child to use scissors. I often find that many parents are terrified of allowing their child to use scissors and some of their worries aren’t unfounded. Yes, children have been hurt using scissors but if you have strict rules concerning scissors and are present when the scissors are in use, the likelihood of injury goes down significantly.

When you are getting ready to set up an opportunity for cutting with scissors, there are a few things that you should have. Good child safe scissors are important. Make sure they are sharp enough so they cut well and the child won’t become frustrated with his inability to cut. Next, use cardstock with younger children. The cardstock is less likely to bend in the scissors and the child can cut much easier. As they become more competent with the scissors, you can begin to use regular paper.

After that, simply explain scissor safety with your child. They should never run with scissors, or climb around with them in their hand. Scissors should be pointed away from their body and they need to hold paper far away from the scissors. You will have to correct hand placement every once in a while but they eventually get the picture. As for carrying scissors, teach children to hold the metal of the closed scissors, point down. If your child is young, just place a rule that they are not allowed to carry scissors from their seat but illustrate how to properly carry scissors by doing so yourself.

And now a few exercises with cutting.

Exercise 1:

If you don’t want to start with regular scissors, start with playdough scissors. This will help build the coordination and will provide lots of opportunity for cutting. Although this is a great exercise, it is important for children to also learn how to cut paper since this is a different experience and requires some problem solving.

Exercise 2:

Allow your child to snip cardstock while sitting at a table. Position hands and show him how to use the scissors with a hand over hand technique. Praise, talk about shapes he is cutting out and enjoy the time. Also get ready to settle in for a long time. I find that when children are successful with scissors, they will sit there for a good hour snipping away.

Exercise 3:

Take a large sheet of paper and tape it to the wall on the top. The child sits in front of it and cuts the paper. The wall serves as a guide and helps in keeping the scissors straight. The child also learns about angling his wrist so he can get a smooth cut.

Exercise 4:

Print out some sheets of lines and shapes for your child to cut out. This helps build a lot of coordination and you can also incorporate learning about shapes. Enchanted Learning has several sheets that you can print out for this activity, or you can make them yourself.

Oh, if you are eco-conscious, which is always a good idea, take the little bits of paper and place it in a bits container. When your child wants to do some gluing, take out the bits and let him create murals from the already cut pieces.

Sirena Van Schaik

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And this love of books isn’t reserved to my bookshelves alone.  My kids enjoy my infatuation with books and have several bookshelves in their rooms.  Despite having all these books, there is one set that I really feel is a must for any toddler to preschoolers shelf and I wanted to mention it here.  This is rare for me because even though there are brands and products that I love, I try not to push any one product.

As I mentioned in the Cheat Sheet:Volcanoes, I have a illustrated dictionary for my kids.  This is one of our favorite books and I have used it so much that I have actually had to repair the binding.  Still, that is not the book that I feel is a must have and it is actually a series of books that I am referring to.

These are the My First Steps to Reading by Jane Belk Moncure and illustrated by Colin King.  This is a set of 25 books with a parenting guide on helping your child to read and also a package of flashcards that correspond to the books.

They are very colorful and the storyline, although simple, is one that holds a child’s attention.  What makes these books so great is that each letter of the alphabet, except x,y,z, each have their own books.  All of them follow the same plot where a character, who is called by the letter he or she represents, such as “Little A”, is trying to fill a box with things that begin with his or her sound.  So the story reads, “Little A had a box,” with pictures near the word to represent “Little A,” “the box” and other things that are in the story.

Children can follow along in the story and eventually begin to memorize the repetition.  Since they are following the words, they begin to remember what words look like (especially with the flash cards) and eventually they begin telling you the story.

This is a great set for building those pre-reading skills and one that I would strongly recommend.  When i purchased them for my first child, he was identifying words in the book by 18 months of age and was reading along with me by the time he was 2 and a half.

So there is my first little plug to an actual product but trust me, you will be very happy that you have these books on your child’s bookshelf.

Sirena Van Schaik

*Photo Note:  Yes, that is an interactive R2-D2, a great toy that I think I play with more than my son does.*

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For this reason, probably not the only reason, I am a firm believer that reading should be part of the daily routine, not only for the child but for parents as well. Studies have shown that children who see both of their parents reading, are more likely to read themselves. So the whole idea of children learn through example is evident when it comes to reading.

What many people don’t know, is that a love of reading is not something that you pick up when you are old enough to read. It actually starts in the early years and it can be fostered in children as young as a few days old. Sure you won’t see the effects of this reading until they are much older but you will know that the groundwork will be in place.

Many children learn to read around age 6 when it becomes a necessity in school. This can start sooner and I know that my son’s Kindergarten class brought books home on a weekly basis to begin reading. I was actually blown away by how well my son picked up reading and experienced a confusing mesh of disappointment and pride when he asked me if he could read not only his own bedtime story but his brother’s bedtime book as well when he was 6.

Reading is such an important skill for everyone to learn and starting off right can encourage not only the skill but a life long enjoyment of reading and learning.

So how does this apply to infants?

Although an infant is not going to understand exactly what you are doing, it will set a routine that will become as cherished as bath time. It will also encourage later skills and will help build attention spans. People were always amazed when my active toddler(s) would sit for a half hour just to listen to three or four picture books and I remember the only way I could get through long car drives was by reciting by memory Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak, Goodnight Moon by Margaret Wise Brown and illustrated by Clement Hurd, The Little Old Lady Who Was Not Afraid of Anything by Linda Williams and illustrated by Megan Lloyd and many other favorites that I had read hundreds of times (so many times that they are forever burned on my memory)

The reason for this love of story was started when my kids were only 3 days old and we began reading together and this is something that I recommend to all parents.

Encouraging Reading in your Infant:

• Start when they are young: Start reading to your child when they are only a few days old. The luxury of this is that you get to have some quiet time, read a nice story and spend those moments snuggling with your baby. This builds trust and a parent child bond, which have nothing to do with reading, exactly, but help your child’s development across the board.
• Start with the classics: When you are reading with your child, start with the old classics. Childhood favorites that you loved. There is no need to stick with picture books since your child isn’t really looking at the pictures but is instead looking at you and listening to your voice. I started with E.B. White’s The Trumpeter Swan and moved on to his other books Charlotte’s Web and Stuart Little but you can start with any children’s treasure.
• Move up to fun books: Just as simple as that, as your child becomes more aware of the world around her, start looking at picture books and pops up. My kid’s favorite was a Clifford book with a big Clifford head coming out the front of a dog shaped book.
• Be silly: At this stage, when your child is sitting up, books do not have to be serious. Sit on the floor in front of your child, read the book, make silly faces and play with the book. One of our favorite pastimes was to sit with my kids in the recliner, me on my knees in front of them, holding up a pop up book or the Clifford book. At the end of the story, Clifford, or in the case of one pop up, a big Moose, would lick their noses. They would squeal in delight and want me to read the book again in hopes of experiencing the squeal inducing ending again.

I know that it may not seem like much but there is a lot going on behind the scenes at this age. Over the next few weeks, I will look at ways parents can encourage reading for all the age groups.

Until then, pick up a good novel. I know I will.

Sirena Van Schaik

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