For Parents:Celebrating Valentine’s Day with Your Kids

To many people, Valentine’s Day is usually a holiday that’s all about romance- lovers going to specially organized Valentine parties, couples rekindling their marriage vows through series of romantic events, and so on. Thus, with almost everyone associating Valentine’s Day with romance and sexually immoral acts perpetrated by some people on this day, it almost seems there’s no place for kids in Valentine’s Day celebration. This has made many parents paranoid and worried about the ideal way to involve their kids in Valentine celebration without getting them exposed to negative acts some people have associated with Valentine’s Day celebration.

While the idea of a romantic getaway with a significant other may sound like the perfect way to spend Valentine’s Day for youths/singles, parents can still find a way to celebrate with their children too.

Kids love holidays and traditions, and there are lots of fun ways to make Valentine’s Day special.

Here are some tips, tricks and suggestions on how to safely and positively celebrate Valentine’s Day with your kids at home.

Beautify Your House

We traditionally decorate our home during Christmas and New Year season, why not Valentine’s Day too? So, get some inexpensive decorations like balloons and ribbons—anything you feel can captivate your kids, and then let them hang them up. Items like flowers, tickertapes, and tablecloths can also be used.

Play Games

Create fun and love-themed games by play them with your kids. Many games that are childhood favorites can be modified to include a Valentine’s Day theme. For example, it’s easy to find free printable templates for games like Valentine’s Bingo and others. You can make the games even more fun by making your own customized version of the games. Something like this:

Learn Something

One of the best ways to demonstrate to your kids that reading is fun is to include it in celebration activities like Valentine’s Day and others. For instance, let your kids read about the legend of St. Valentine and. You can also take the opportunity to encourage reading by choosing a few of the great love-themed storybooks available and reading them with your kids.

Feed the Bellies

Cook easy, kid-friendly Valentine’s Day cakes, snacks and healthy meals to signpost the love day. More importantly, involve your kids in the cooking process as cooking and baking, experts say, provide all kinds of valuable lessons in many aspects of math and reading. While the little children do the pouring and dumping, the older ones can learn to read recipes and measure ingredients.

Organize a Party

Once the house is decorated, games have been set; and delicious treats made available, then let your in-house Valentine’s Day kids’ party begin. Let your kids invite a few friends from neighborhood to share the fun with them. Some singing and dancing will not hurt your kids. Besides, dancing is one of the best ways to channel the seemingly boundless energy of children. It has a lot of benefits.

Tell Your Children You Love Them

Are you surprised by this? Yes, many parents will be, because nearly every parent presumes their kids know they already love them. While this is true, it doesn’t mean we should forget to say the actual words regularly. Love needs reassurance. Even if you tell your kids every day that you love them, devise a means to say it a special way on Valentine’s Day. Or is it not love what Valentine’s Day is really all about?

 

 

Why Preschool Education is Very Important

Preschool education is very important as it lays the foundation for all that is to come in a child’s educational development. Researches have established that the human brain develops the vast majority of its neurons, and it’s most receptive to learning, between birth and three years of age. In fact, the intake of new information is critical to the formation of active neural pathways (Shonkoff & Phillips, 2000).

Though the learning capabilities of humans continue for the rest of their lives, the intensity demonstrated in the preschool years cannot be sustained at higher age. Thus, children need positive early learning experiences to help their intellectual, social and emotional development for later school success. Briefly discussed below are some reasons why Preschool education is considered important:

• Preschool education promotes language and cognitive skills

Through playing rhyming games and storytelling techniques, preschool teachers skillfully develop children’s linguistic and cognitive abilities.

• It helps develop motor skills

Having good motor skills helps children explore the world around them and also helps with cognitive development. Having children play and learn together in a preschool setting immensely boosts this skill.

• Preschool activities boost pre-math and literacy skills
• It nurtures a child’s curiosity
• Preschool promotes social and emotional development

Preschool provides avenues for children to gain a sense of self, explore, play with their peers, socialize, and build confidence.

• It prepares children for kindergarten

Preschool education experience makes easy children’s introduction to Kindergarten.

The great learning capability exhibited by children at this tender age, no doubt, has fueled the proliferation of early childhood programs in recent times. Nearly every school now has Preschool section taking care of the educational potentials of toddlers.

Given the high level of advantage a sound Preschool education provides, it becomes highly important that standard preschool education textbooks are developed to set young scholars up for future academic, emotional, and social success. This is what led to the development of LANTERN PRESCHOOL BOOKS, a unique textbook series prepared with the purpose of “helping children discover the joy of learning.”

As earlier established, infants are in the early stage of literacy development, and as such need books to build their confidence. Lantern Preschool books are designed to lay a solid foundation in: personal, social and emotional development, language development, the arts, early mathematical experiences, the world around us, and so on.

Authored by Preschool educational experts, Lantern Preschool books feature: repetitive phrases and sounds to maintain a child’s growing interest, rhymes and simple structure, non-verbal approaches to stimulate children visually and mentally and also encourage children to create their own stories, familiar objects and experiences that are enjoyable to children, children-interest designs, etc. Above all, the books follow the specifications of the NERDC pre-primary curriculum and contain Teaching Hints to aid teachers’ effectiveness.

Preschool education, through its play-like methods and relaxed teaching styles, help make use of the great assimilative capacities of children at the tender age and give them a solid foundation for the future ahead.