September 3rd, 2010 by El Ed Mom
It’s back to school time! In honor of Heidi and Megan going back to school we are giving away a set of our books! Feel free to share this great news!
Leave a comment (including your email address) to be entered to win! We will ship globally to a winner! This contest ends September 30th!
August 19th, 2010 by El Ed Mom
Now that summer is ending, many of us are thinking about the upcoming school year and how to create an atmosphere of success for our children. Regardless of age, a blank notebook, a fresh backpack, new pencils, pens, markers, and/or crayons should be joyful and yet, for many children, it elicits feelings of insecurity and fear of failure. It is up to us, as parents and educators, to make certain that our kids are emotionally, socially, cognitively, and physically ready to meet new challenges. Children need guidance, time, and reminders in order to successfully transition from the more carefree days of summer to the more rigorous routines of the school year. Proper manners should be reinforced, kindness acknowledged, reading, listening, and practicing skills encouraged and healthy eating and sleeping patterns enforced. Since children mimic our attitudes and behaviors, it is critical to speak in positive ways about the school year, teachers, school, and curriculum. It is also important to set realistic expectations so that your child/children can tackle their new experiences and challenges with self confidence and with the knowledge that you will be both their cheerleader and confidant. Please note that I am not encouraging parents to make excuses for or to complete assignments for children, but rather, am advocating an environment of open dialogue, where discussions focus on both positive and negative emotions, behaviors, and experiences.
Creating a solid foundation is critical to buildings constructed from brick and mortar as well as those more gentle structures made up of feelings, ideas, and knowledge. Let’s work together towards building a foundation that supports a love for learning, a respect for self and others, and a dedication to excellence, diligence, and empathy.
I wish everyone a successful and lovely school year!!
Magical Educating!
Donna Mavrides
Magical Moments
www.magicalms.com
December 17th, 2009 by El Ed Mom
Name of Activity: Animal Actions
Purpose of Activity: To help students practice and master various locomotor or traveling patterns.
Prerequisites: How to take turns and if necessary momentarily wait a turn. How to belly crawl, dog crawl and jump, either two-foot to two-foot pattern or a leap, one foot to opposite foot pattern.
Suggested Grade Level: PRE-K
Materials Needed: 8 Mini 6″ cones 8 Medium cones 10-12″ 8 larger cones 12-18″ 12 pool noodles 24 noodle connectors 4 XL 24″ cones
December 14th, 2009 by El Ed Mom
Happy Holidays! We’ve put together a holiday curriculum for young children and their families. We hope these ideas will encourage you to take time to read and play together this holiday season and to celebrate old traditions while making new ones. Enjoy these fun filled holiday activities!
December 1st, 2009 by El Ed Mom
My Picture Story
Allow your child to draw and color anything he or she wants. When finished, as your child to tell you about his or her picture. Write your child’s story and then read it hack to him or her. Lots of suggested picture books that parents can use with their preshool childen to encourage literacy are in Preschool Books Listed by Themes.
Newspaper Fun
Parents read a newspaper comic strip to your preschool child. Point to each frame as you read the words. Talk about the message or funny story with your child. Next, ask your youngster to choose a colorful comic strip and tell you about the pictures. Let him or her make up a story to match the actions in the frames or ask if he or she can guess what the comic strip is about by looking at the pictures.
November 16th, 2009 by El Ed Mom
From sharing to symbolism, get the scoop on what your preschooler will be learning this year — and find out how to be sure she’s making strides at preschool.
Learn about the educational milestones your preschooler should hit this year:
October 7th, 2009 by El Ed Mom
Falling for Leaves
When one thinks of autumn, the first thing that often comes to mind is leaves. “We like to go on a fall walk and find really big, colorful leaves,” says Melissa Durante, a mother of three from Bartlett, Ill. “My daughter likes to keep one of each color she finds.”
Rachel Del Rio, an early-childhood educator in Elgin, Ill., says that toddlers and preschoolers may like to take the treasures from their nature walk and glue them to construction paper, perhaps making a person by using an acorn for a head and leaves for the body. Here’s another fun idea: Collect some freshly fallen leaves. Place them on a board. Place a thin cloth (like a piece of sheet) over the leaves and have the child hammer the leaves. The leaf color and shape will imprint on the cloth.
Of course all those beautiful leaves need to end up somewhere – and many will undoubtedly be in your yard. While you toil to pick them up, let your child “work” alongside with a plastic rake or scamper around the yard with a dump truck (the bigger the better) to collect leaves to be deposited onto a main pile. Don’t be surprised, though, if a pile or two ends up a mess. Jumping and rolling in leaves is tempting fun for many toddlers (and some parents, too)!
September 24th, 2009 by El Ed Mom
The physical education games that are described in this article can be played at the beginning of gym class as part of a warm exercise, during the period wholly or partially devoted to games or physical education activities or at the end of class as part of cool down exercises.
In addition to the obvious benefits of providing good exercise, combating obesity and developing motor skills, the other skills that I wanted my students to demonstrate when they play these games are co-operation, sportsmanship and enjoyment.
Here are 6 examples of physical education games that my students and I enjoyed.
September 11th, 2009 by El Ed Mom
What is School Readiness?
You should allow your child to have the kinds of experiences that will help them do well in school at an early age. “School readiness” means making sure your child has the academic, social, independence, and communication skills require to successful start school. Reading, talking, and playing with others will help your child prepare for their school career.
Academic Readiness
Before starting kindergarten, children need to know about themselves, their families, and the world. Children can come to school with many skills that teachers can build upon, if they have already had good learning experiences at home and with their Parents.
September 8th, 2009 by El Ed Mom
The next several blogs are dedicated to answering the question, “How do I attain goals in an early childhood classroom?” To begin, let’s all agree what goals we are referring to. I will include socio-emotional, cognitive, physical and language as the highlighted objectives for the children. As for the parent’s goals, I will include maintaining open communication and making certain that parents are cognizant of what is age appropriate for their particular children.
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Click Here for Classroom Assistance 5
