Author: luke

Reading to your children is very beneficial, even from an early age. From concentration to imagination, reading aloud from a variety of books can help spark an interest in the written word, as well as helping your child develop transferable skills they will use throughout their life. Adding reading into your schedule, perhaps as a bedtime story, can help give your child the best start in their academic life, as well as stimulating an interest in their ever-widening worlds. Having some one-on-one time with your child and reading them a range of poetry and prose will benefit them in numerous ways.

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Cognitive Development

Frequent reading to your children will help to kick start their cognitive development – their ability to think and understand. Reading can help develop areas such as information processing, intelligence and memory, just to name a few. It is never too soon to start reading to your children, just start with books with lots of pictures and ensure to point at the words you’re saying, making sure your child understands what is being said. By beginning to expand their vocabulary, bedtime stories can help to gradually develop your child’s knowledge of the world, growing it little by little every day.

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Language Skills

Reading aloud to your children can help their language acquisition and literary skills. By speaking slowly and clearly, you can help your child begin to establish the meanings of language and differentiate between the words you are saying. Many children soon find a favourite story, but it is important to switch between the stories you are telling to continue to widen your child’s understanding of language.

By helping to increase your child’s language skills, you are giving them the best preparation for starting school. You can help jumpstart their reading success and put them in the best position at the start, and throughout, their academic career.

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Concentration

Young children and toddlers often struggle sitting still and concentrating. By introducing stories into your routine, it will become a time for your child to relax and focus throughout the whole duration of a book. Toddlers may squirm and get distracted at first, but you will soon notice a change in behaviour as they settle and begin to actively listen. The ability to concentrate will fare your children well when they start school as it is a skill that is best to be developed early on.

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Imagination

Another important skill reading will develop is imagination and your child’s creativity. Widening your child’s world through language allows them to explore place, people, time and events, letting imaginations run wild. As much as concentration is an important skill, creativity will benefit them greatly in later life, as well as increasing their enjoyment of fiction.

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Love of Reading

From an early age, a lifelong love of reading can be established. Your children will look forward to hearing you tell stories, taking them to lands near and far away, off on adventures and saving the day. Starting this interest young will encourage your children to read independently when they can, developing their own language skills that will benefit them throughout their academic, work and general lives.

For more information on the importance of reading to your children, or if you have any queries, don’t hesitate to contact us on 0114 258 2283 or visit our Facebook page.

Messy play can be something that we avoid doing at home with our children for fear of the mess, however Messy Play is extremely beneficial for your child. Today, we are going to be looking at the benefits of this activity and how good it is for your child’s development.

Curiosity/Imagination
Messy play consists of a variety of objects, such as paint, glue, glitter and sand amongst many others.
Letting a child play around with messy objects has the advantage of letting your child run wild with their imagination. Unlike physical toys, which are mainly restricted to a single function, there are no limits to messy play. Your child can experiment with raw materials and go crazy with whatever ideas they can come up with.
Don’t be afraid about the clean up afterwards, let your child have their fun.

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Physical Development
Another benefit of messy play how it can improve your child’s motor skills, especially hand eye coordination.
Activities that promote physical development include stacking or pouring raw materials, as well as feeling the texture of certain objects. These activities help your child to not only understand how things feel and work, but to also learn how to control their movements and develop their motor skills.

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Communication and Social Development
Messy play is helpful in encouraging interaction and sharing with other children and helps them learn how to build up new relationships. Socialising with other children during messy play can help your child understand how to take turns and share, as well as learning about personal boundaries and respecting other children’s ideas.
You can take part as well. When your child is engaging in messy play, you could ask them questions about what they are doing; What colour is this object? How does this feel? With these types of questions, you can encourage your child’s thinking skills and help them learn more about the world.

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Future Intellectual Skills
In addition to the previous advantages, messy play helps a child to develop new skills that they may use in the distant future.
This is where a child can increase their problem-solving skills, such as classifying how certain objects work, writing out letters in clay/plasticine, and the cause and effect of something (dropping a ball and watching as it bounces back up).
Not only is this interesting to your child, it helps them to improve on their cognitive skills, from thinking about how an object works to communicating about what they are doing.

Whilst the activity can be, literally, messy, it can benefit your child greatly. So next time you see your child playing with a messy material, let them explore and maybe join in.

When it comes to introducing healthy food to your children, there’s always a worry that they might not gravitate to trying healthy meals.

As a nation, we are not always eating well balanced diets and, as a result, are becoming more overweight. A well-balanced diet, consisting of the food below, can help us to become healthier eaters and recognise what we should consider feeding our children.

Below, we’re looking into the types of healthy food that you can offer your child, as well as what specific products you should consider during meal times.

Starchy Food

Starchy food consists of bread, rice, pasta, and potatoes amongst many others. These are crucial for children to eat at a young age, as they contain minerals and vitamins that are essential for your child’s growth.

If you want to introduce your child to eating bread, try to offer them a range of wholegrain breads like Tortilla and Pitta. You can also introduce pasta, noodles and rice too and see how they react.

Snack noodles are high in fat, so be careful not to feed them to your child.

Nuts are an excellent source of fibre but avoid feeding them to your child until they are five years old and above as they could be a choking hazard.

Fruit and Vegetables

Fruit and Veg are excellent sources of nourishment and we encourage you to introduce them to your child at any age.

A good starting point for making sure that your child eats fruit and vegetables is to give them a variety of five portions every day. These can range between fresh, canned, tinned, dried or frozen.

A child portion is half of an adult portion, but this can vary depending on the age and size of your child. Once your child is between the ages of 3-5, you can gradually increase their fruit and veg portions to an adult sized one.

Protein Food

Much like starchy food, protein is full of vitamins and minerals that are crucial to areas of the human body, such as brain development and stronger bones. These foods include beans, fish, eggs and lentils, as well as various others.

We recommend that your child should eat two portions of fish a week, with one being an oily fish meal e.g. salmon or trout. Meat products, such as chicken and beef are excellent sources of protein, with chicken being the least fatty of the two. You can also add pork and lamb to your child’s diet as these are rich in protein.

Don’t feel limited to just meat when it comes to incorporating protein. Eggs are a great alternative as they are made up of protein and iron, along with beans and lentils which are low in fat and high in protein.

Milk and Dairy Food

Milk and Dairy products provide children with a good source of calcium and protein which is important for bone development, as well as the nerves and muscles.

Wholemilk can be given to children once they are a year old but can be introduced into foods at around 9 months. If by then, they are growing well and are eating a variety of other foods, you can then introduce them to semi-skimmed milk.

Other dairy snacks you could offer your child include natural yoghurt (Processed yoghurt is full of sugar and colourings), and cheese and fruit sticks. Make sure that your child is fed three servings of calcium food every day, as children under five require more calcium-based food to help them grow.

Other Strategies You Can Try

Eating your meals together as a family: Not only does this encourage more time between you and your children, but it gives you a chance to introduce new foods and not always eat unhealthy snacks.

More Involvement for the children: Feel free to give your children the chance to choose a balanced meal. Let them join you on a shopping trip and pick out what ingredients are needed for the meal. With more involvement, your child will be able to make decisions about what food they want to eat and have healthier options in the future. You could also try getting them involved in the cooking and preparation of meals.

Stock up on Healthy Meals: If you want your children to keep eating healthy foods, you should continue to weave fruits and vegetables into the meal routine. You can also limit fattening foods and drinks, giving your child a choice of healthy snacks, but don’t ban fast food permanently. An occasional treat won’t hurt.

Socialising with other children is a key stage in your toddler’s life. It’s an exciting way of building up new friendships, helps to develop your child’s communication skills, and understand more about how the world works.

We’ve put together a guide on when and how socialising your child can be beneficial, and how they can make new friends in the process.

When?

From birth we require contact with others, initially it is the love and nurture that we need from our parents and family. As a baby we receive physical contact from our mothers, such as being fed milk, skin-to-skin contact and cuddling with their parents. Scientists believe that babies can understand social cues before being born i.e. recognising their mother’s voice whilst being in the womb and being able to understand infant-directed speech later after birth, as it is this speech that they usually prefer. Our environment and upbringing does impact on how sociable we grow up to be, and how we relate to others.

1 Year Old

The first year of a child’s life is full of milestones and developments. During their first year, a baby will start developing their physical skills. They show this by grabbing nearby objects and learning how to walk. You can help them by creating a routine and safe areas around the house, as well as assisting with sitting up properly. Be sure to let them develop their skills at their own pace, as every child develops at different ages so there is no need to rush natural development.

As your child reaches toddler age around 2- 3 years old, your child will start showing signs that it’s time to start socialising them outside of family circles.

2 Years Old

At this age, majority of infants will be steady on their feet and be able to walk around. They will also start reaching out to play with other children, but not sharing any toys with them. We recommend introducing them to other children if that is the case. You could also try signing up for a class or a parent-focused meet up group in your local area. Let your child take their time in wanting to play with others.

How?

Once your child is ready to socialise, attending a local nursery or toddler group to play with others offers a good opportunity. Nursery activities are a crucial aspect in helping a child to develop their communication and learning skills. They also help to build up the trust between children and other adults and allow the former to learn about new social settings.

At Scallywags Nursery, we encourage children to take part in various activities, so that they may learn about the world around them. We run music sessions with a teacher, which helps toddlers acquire skills in rhythm and pitch through the use of instruments, singing and listening. By working together with other children, your child will be involved in an environment that allows them to make new friends and develop new skills along the way.

Group activities also help a child with their socialisation skills.

Along with our music sessions, we have other group focused activities that encourage socialising. One of these is the sensory room, where the children use their bodily senses (Sight, smell and touch) to explore the room. It is an activity that allows them to become familiar with being in a different environment, as well as promoting socialisation through the use of problem solving together as a team.

You can also try to encourage social development yourself, by talking to your child through baby talk and using eye contact, teaching them about being empathetic to others around them, and gently encouraging them to try new experiences.

Yoga sessions for younger children is another group activity that we organise at Scallywags. This consists of toddlers being placed in ability groups, based on how skilled they are in the activity. This exercise class encourages teamwork amongst the toddlers, allowing them to improve on their mobility skills and build up friendships with other children by working and communicating together.

Telling and reading stories helps to develop a child’s understanding on how to relate/react to another child’s feelings. Many children’s stories speak about our emotions, such as feeling happy, sad, excited etc, and with this concept, your child will have more knowledge on other children’s emotions. Empathy for others is demonstrated and learned by how you react and relate to your child and how you as a parent relate to those around you.  For example, if a child falls down and hurts themselves, explain to your child what has happened and how they can help that toddler to feel better. As a parent responding to the situation in a loving and practical way, we help your toddler understand how to respond.

They say that children learn what they live and therefore as a parent the main influence on a child’s social development is you and the environments they experience. Babies and toddlers are programmed to mimic behaviours. Communication and nature with your child are key to developing a confident and sociable individual.

Weaning is a hugely exciting time for babies as they try new tastes and textures. In the beginning stages, how much your baby takes is less important than getting them used to the idea of eating. Your baby will still be getting most of their nutrition from breast milk or infant formula.

When to start Weaning
It’s usually recommended to wait until around 6 months before starting to introduce solid foods. This gives your baby time to develop so they can cope fully with solid foods. It also means they will be more able to feed themselves more.

There are also certain signs to look out for when it comes to introducing weaning, these include:

• Your baby can stay in a sitting position and hold their head steady
• They can coordinate their eyes, hands and mouth so they can see the food, pick it up and put it in their mouth by themselves
• They can swallow food – babies who are not ready for solids will push their food back out with their tongue and get more round their face than they do in their mouths

If your baby was born prematurely, ask your health visitor or GP for advice on when to start introducing solid foods.

Choose the right time of day
Your baby won’t be in the mood for food if they’re sleepy. Choose a time of day when they’re awake and alert, but not distracted.

How to start solid foods
To begin with, your baby will only need a small amount of food before their usual milk feed. Don’t worry about how much they eat, the most important thing is getting them used to new tastes and textures.

Pick the right foods
Try a smooth purée or finger foods to start with. Good foods for puréeing include fruit and vegetables. Soft fruit or avocado that your baby can pick up are also ideal. Cut foods roughly the same size as your own fingers so your baby can hold them. Just make sure you don’t give soft round foods like grapes or cherry tomatoes that your baby can choke on.

The very first mouthful of food may come straight back out because your baby has pushed their tongue forwards, as they do when they’re drinking milk. It may take a few mouthfuls or even a few meals to work out that if they push their tongue backwards the food will stay in their mouth and they will be able to swallow it.

Be patient and keep offering a variety of foods, even the ones they do not seem to like. It may take 10 tries or more for your baby to get used to new foods, flavours and textures. There will be days when they eat more and somewhere they eat less, don’t worry, this is perfectly normal.