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Monday, February 22, 2010

Spider Bites





“Little Miss Muffet sat on a tuffet

Eating her curds and whey,

Along came a spider who sat down beside her,

And frightened Miss Muffet away!”



Luckily, Little Miss Muffet saw the spider coming and was able to get away before the spider bit her. Especially as a parent, it can be worrisome knowing that our kids might run into spiders and have a chance of getting a bite. Check out the link below to see a sheet from kidshealth.org including signs and symptoms of spider bites, instructions on what to do if your child gets a bite, and tips on how to prevent spider bites.


http://kidshealth.org/PageManager.jsp?lic=1&article_set=36500&cat_id=20221



Friday, February 19, 2010

Lectura,Ritmo y Rima


Los expertos en la alfabetización y el desarrollo de los niños han descubierto que si ellos memorizan al menos 8 rimas al llegar a la edad de 4 años,generalmente serán los mejores lectores a la edad de 8.

Es difícil corregir los problemas de lectura,pero es muy fácil prevenirlos.Los cerebros de los niños están desarrollados un 25%cuando nacen.El otro 75% empieza a desarrollarse mientras se alimenta al niño ,se acaricia , juega, se lee o canta con ellos.Para ayudar a el desarrollo sano de los niños , los padres pueden:

-Animar a los pequeños a nombrar objetos mientras los apunta en los libros.

-Usar diferentes tonos de voz mientras habla y lee con ellos.

-Leer rimas de cuna para estimular el ritmo.

-Utilizar libros que tengan dibujos de objetos de la vida cotidiana.

-Varié la ubicación en donde lee.Lea mientras el niño esta en la bañera,en su silla alta, sentado en sus piernas o en su cama.


Read to me,Raising Kids Who Love to Read by Bernice E. Cullinan

Thursday, February 18, 2010

Taking My Child to the Eye Doctor


During my experience with Welcome Baby, I've learned a lot, especially through their monthly in-service meetings. At in-service, professionals come and speak to us about different areas of child development and parenting. One of the things that really grabbed my attention was the in-service about infant eye care and the InfantSEE program. Did you know that infants between 6-12 months should be receiving their first eye exam? The reason they should have this vision assessment so early is because it is at this age that they are most at risk for eye or vision disorders. Babies have what are called "windows of opportunity". A window of opportunity is a period of time in development in the brain when specific types of learning take place. Once the window of opportunity for an ability has passed, it is more difficult to accommodate new learning. The window of opportunity for proper visual development opens and closes earlier in a baby's life, or within the first year. If a vision problem is detected early on, then it is more likely that more can be done to correct it so that it doesn't negatively affect other areas of learning. InfantSEE is a public health program that provides a one-time, no cost eye and vision assessment for babies 6-12 months old.


My son is almost a year old, so I decided it was time to get his first vision check-up. I went to InfantSEE.org, clicked on "Find an InfantSEE doctor", typed in my zip code, and found 11 eye doctors within a 10 mile radius of my house. I chose a doctor, called his office and verified that he was listed with the InfantSEE program and that he would do this free assessment of my son, then made my appointment. It was so easy. And the doctor was so good with my son. It's difficult for a baby to sit still, have different lenses put over his eyes and have lights directed at them, but the doctor was an expert. He had different techniques that kept my son from getting agitated, such as squeaky toys for my son to play with and toys that he attached to the little lights he was supposed to look at. I found out that my son was a tad farsighted, but that it was normal for his age. It was a great experience and I left knowing that I had done what I could to help make sure my son's eyes were developing normally. I hope my story inspires other parents to take advantage of this window of opportunity that they have to promote healthy development in their baby.


Some interesting facts about vision development and eye care:

•According to the National PTA, one in three kids have a vision problem that interferes with learning. Children do not know that their vision is bad or different because they do not have anything to compare it to and thus cannot inform their parents that they have a vision problem.

•Amblyopia, or lazy eye, is a leading cause of vision loss in 1 out of 30 children, but can be corrected if treated early.

•Vision development is most dramatic between 6-12 months of age. The American Public Health Association suggests a professional eye exam for every child at 6 months, 2 years, 4 years, and every year after they start school. A typical exam itself takes about 15-20 minutes. They test for nearsightedness, farsightedness, astigmatism, and eye movement ability.

•InfantSEE is a nationwide program in which doctors participate voluntarily to provide a free comprehensive eye exam for a child in his or her first year of life. You can learn more about this program and locate a doctor at http://infantsee.org/

Friday, February 12, 2010

Brush your Teeth!


This might sound simple but when should my child start brushing their teeth? For a simple question there is a simple answer. Brushing your child’s teeth should start even before your infant even has a tooth. The best thing to do is to get a damp cloth and run it over their gums after they have eaten. This will prevent buildup of harmful bacteria.


Then when your infant begins to show a few teeth you can start brushing them with a soft child’s toothbrush or rub them with gauze at the end of the day before they go nighty night.Starting the habit early will prevent many problems in the future from happening, such as tooth decay.

Click here for more information.

Monday, February 8, 2010

Toddler Crayons

If your toddler is anything like mine, you may have noticed that he/she loves to color!  Coloring helps toddlers develop their motor skills and also allows them to be creative.  However, one problem with coloring is that crayons are thin so toddlers have a hard time holding them.  Since they are thin they are easy to break.  A lot of toddlers spend more time breaking the crayons than actually coloring.  You might notice that some crayon companies are now making crayons for toddlers that are round and easy to hold such as the Washable TaDoodles Crayon Buddiesâ, which work really well for toddlers, however these are pretty expensive.  Here is a great way to use your old broken crayons and make your own toddler crayons. 

You will need:
Crayons
Muffin Tin
Oven
Exacto Knife
Pre-heat your oven to 265 degrees F.  You can use crayons of any color or size.  If you don’t have a lot of old broken crayons you might be able to find some new crayons on a good sale at the store.  You first need to take the paper off of the crayons.  This is where the exacto knife comes in handy because you can just slice the paper and it should come off easily.  Make sure to be careful!  If you don’t have an exacto knife you can just peel the paper off.  Once the paper is peeled off all the crayons then you break them up into 1 to 1.5 inch pieces.  
Once you have removed the paper and broken up the crayons they are ready to go into the muffin tin.  A mini muffin tin works the best because it makes the crayons the perfect size for a toddler, however a regular sized muffin tin works as well.  Fill the muffin tin with the broken crayons.  You can either mix it up and put different color crayons in one slot (this makes crayons that are swirled with different colors) or you can put the same color in each slot.  If you are worried about your muffin tin you can use paper cupcake cups, however this will make your crayons have sharper ridges that you will want to smooth out.  I did this in my muffin tin and I didn't have any problems with the wax sticking to my pan.  

Once you have done this bake the crayons for 6-8 minutes.  You don’t want to over bake the crayons you just want them to melt enough so the crayon shape is gone.  The baking time might be different depending on your oven.  Let them sit on the counter until they congeal a little, then you can put them in the freezer to speed up the hardening process.  Once they have hardened they should pop right out of the muffin tin.



*Information and pictures came from http://craftydaisies.com/2007/07/26/crayon-nibbles/