Ready to Learn: Nursery Rhymes!

At the Aspire Parenting Class last week, Janae Moss led a discussion about temper tantrums. The parents came up with some great solutions for what to do when child is acting out. One I'd never heard before was "put the toy in time out instead of the child".  Check out Help me Grow's blog for more great ideas on how to deal with your kid's tantrums!

After the Aspire Parent Group, we had our Ready to Learn class.  In the month of July, Stephanie Anderson introduced an activity involving nursery rhymes. After the class, several moms came up to her and asked where to find rhymes to teach their children.  So this month for the Ready to Learn class, we reviewed some favorites...  

Here are a couple examples:  

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Five Little Monkeys

Five little monkeys jumping on the bed;

One fell off and bumped his head.

Momma called the doctor and the doctor said,

“No more monkeys jumping on the bed!”

Four little monkeys jumping on the bed

One fell off and bumped his head.

Momma called the doctor and the doctor said,

“No more monkeys jumping on the bed!”

Three little monkeys jumping on the bed

One fell off and bumped his head.

(you know what happens next...)

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Hickory, Dickory, Dock

Hickory Dickory Dock,

The mouse ran up the clock.

The clock struck one,

The mouse ran down.

Hickory Dickory Dock.

Hickory Dickory Dock,

The mouse ran up the clock.

The clock struck two,

And down he flew.

Hickory Dickory Dock.

For more great rhymes go to: www.mothergooseclub.com 

On this site you can: 

-Listen to rhymes

-Find new rhymes

-Watch movie clips of rhymes being acted out

-Find coloring pages to go with the rhymes 

-And more!  

Other nursery rhyme sites: http://www.nurseryrhymes4u.com/

Which one was your favorite when you were a kid?  Let's see how many rhymes we can come up with! 

Giving Back

Amber spent over 15 hours sewing sensory mats for infants in our community. These mats are included in the gift packages we give to parent's in our program.  Amber learned about the benefits these will provide for the infants who receive one of her mats. Some of the benefits include: cognitive development, motor development, language development, social- emotional development. We appreciate all of the support our community gives to our program! Thanks Amber! 

If you are interested in also giving back please contact us at 801- 691-5354 or baby1@unitedwayuc.org 

Book Review: Dotty written by Erica S. Perl and Illustrated by Julia Denos

click here to purchase this book on Amazon

Did you every have an imaginary friend as a child? I know several of my friends did. I never had one of my own but I did have quite the imagination. This book took me down memory lane. It's a story about a little girl and her imaginary friend Dotty. Dotty is a great story to illustrate imagination and loyalty. 


Ida, the little girl in the story, carries a blue string as a leash for Dotty just like the picture below. After reading this book have your child make their own imaginary friend. Use construction paper, crayons, glue sticks and yarn to make one like Dotty or get creative and make a completely different one. Imagination is the key with this cute book and activity. 

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Resource Spotlight: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

Have you heard of the CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention)? If not, now is the time to learn about it. This is our nations health protection agency. 

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"[The] CDC works 24/7 to protect America from health, safety and security threats, both foreign and in the U.S. Whether diseases start at home or abroad, are chronic or acute, curable or preventable, human error or deliberate attack, CDC fights disease and supports communities and citizens to do the same."

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This is my go to source for all health information. I'm personally interested in infectious disease prevention and control and this organization has so much information on this topic along with many other topics. I learned about the CDC when I was studying at BYU. This organization and its website is a trusted and reliable source used by health departments, universities, politicians, hospitals and many other health sources. While exploring their website more, I came to find an awesome section called "Parent Information". Here you can explore topics such as child specific diseases and conditions, safety in the home and community, raising healthy children, milestones and schedules and school health. This is a great resource for your entire family. Feel free to take some time and explore their website by clicking here. 

Friendship and Social Interaction Among Children

Many adults may not associate babies as being friendly but in fact, peer relationships in infancy are evident in the small interactions babies have with adults and one another. Below is a table of infant behavior, corresponding with an age rage, that shows peer relationships in infancy.  

As a child gets older they will develop attributes and behaviors that appear more "friendly" to us as adults. Things like playing together, missing one another, talking to each other and sharing or giving to another. Developing friendships and peer relationships are important to your child's long term development. There is a difference between peer relationships and friendship though. In peer relationships children come together for common activities but in friendships a child will choose to be with one specific friend outside of these group activities. Friendship offers countless benefits for and children and supports the development of prosocial skills such as cooperation and altruism (selflessness).  

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Children with at least one friend are:

Less likely to fall victim to aggression from peers. 
More likely to be self-confident.
More likely to be accepted by peers and experience less rejection.
More likely to perform better academically in school.

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Here are some ways to help facilitate friendship between children:

1. Provide informal peer opportunities. Planned opportunities include both structured activities and unstructured times. 
2.Pair children together for various activities.
3. Pair a shy child with a younger playmate who is less sophisticated socially. 
4. Help children learn each other's names. 
5. Point out the friendly intentions between peers as they occur. Child often overlook the friendly intentions of others because they are so focused on what they are doing. Point these good intentions out to children when you see them. 
6. Help children recognize how their behavior affects their ability to make friends. Often children are unaware of how their behavior is being interpreted by another child. Help them to understand why a child may react to them the way they do. 

Book Review: What's Up, Duck? by Tad Hills

This weeks book review is What's Up, Duck? by Tad Hills. Its a great book of opposites. Cognitive and reasoning skills are important in all areas of development. This helps children to think independently, increases vocabulary and builds self-confidence as they solve problems. Learning opposites helps in all of these areas. After reading this book, try listing a word and see if your child can name the opposite. "Up, ___" "Hot, ___" 

Legos and Playdough

Try these fun play dough and lego activities with your children. 

Have them make letter imprints in the play dough using legos! Super easy but super fun. 

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You could also lay out different colored balls of play dough with different colors of legos and have them practice coloring matching. 

It may also be a fun idea to mix different colored legos inside the ball of play dough, have your child search for the ones that don't belong (the ones that are a different color).

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What is the True Purpose of Time Out and When is it Appropriate to Use?

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Time Out. A phrase you hear in a sporting event, something shouted when the clock has elapsed its allotted amount of time and a consequence for bad behavior for a child. Regardless of the way its used, time out means to stop or take a break. People seem to have mixed feelings about putting children in time out. It is recommended that time-outs be used for two specific kinds of problem behaviors: temper tantrums and habitual antisocial behaviors. 

If you've ever watched super nanny you know that she enforces the use of a time out chair or space when children misbehave with temper tantrums or habitual antisocial behaviors. After implementing the time out, following through with it, being consistent and talking with the child once they are calm, super nanny always tells parents to follow with love. 

Kicking, screaming, crying, flailing arms; we've all seen and probably had a tantrum of our own. One thing to remember about temper tantrums is that these tantrums are such an intense emotional and physical roller coaster in which children no longer have their normal thought process available to them. They can not hear or respond to adult directions, cannot think out a logical appropriate sequence of actions and can no longer gauge the effect of their behavior. I'm sure you are all aware of these attributes during a temper tantrum and this is why a time out is beneficial at this time. If a toddler is having a temper tantrum the best thing to do is ignore the outrageous behavior and let them quite down in their own way because their tantrums are usually short lived. They CAN regain control on their own and this is a learning time for them. For older children, whose tantrums may be more drawn out, time out is an appropriate consequence to consider. This is a time to remove them from the situation, to take a break so they can regain their normal thought process again.

Habitual antisocial behaviors is another area to consider using time outs. Habitual behaviors are things like biting, kicking and hitting. All children will do one, if not all of these many many times while they are young. The problem occurs when these behaviors become a habit or a way of getting attention. When these habitual behaviors start the parent must work at stopping the problem as well as interrupting the pattern of positive reinforcement that has allowed it to continue. Time out is a way to help do this. Once again, it removes the child from the situation so that a normal thought process can be taught and gained again.

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Here are some things to remember about time outs:

• Time out should last about 1-2 minutes for preschoolers and 5 minutes or so for older children. 
• Time out means time away from the mainstream of group activity.
• It is not appropriate to use time out to humiliate a child or as a threat. Threats undermine trust between adults and children. Time out is effective when is is treated as a coping mechanism, not as a form of punishment. 
• Time out does not need to last longer than the time it takes for the child to calm down. Becoming calm is the goal. Once its reached, you can talk with and explain to the child why they were put in time out. 

Source: Guiding Children's Social Development & Learning by Kostelink, Whiren, Soderman and Gregory

Book Review: The Big Wide-Mouthed Frog by Ana Martin Larranaga

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A friendly little frog who eats flies meets many different animals and discovers what they eat. The last animal he meets is a crocodile and he's shocked by what he eats. Your child will love this funny sequencing book. One thing to watch for in this book is the little fly on each page. He doesn't say a thing but his expression changes as you turn each page. Point these out to your children as you read. 

After reading this book make these fun close pin frogs. All you'll need to do is print the page below, color them, cut along the solid line that starts at the mouth of the frog and then glue each half to the top and bottom of a close pin. 

Close pin frogs

Click here for a printable version

Read the story again and every time you say "Well, I'm a big wide-mouthed frog! And I eat flies!" Have your child open the frogs mouth. You can add a little fly on the back side of the close pin if you want to. Get creative!