Helping Children Grow and Develop

Talk with the children as you go through the day together. Answer their questions (after question, after question...) with simple straightforward answers and discuss your thoughts and ideas with them. Sharing activities such as making muffins for snacks, sorting the laundry or watering the plants can become fun learning experiences for everyone. As you’re walking to the park, you can talk about the names of the streets and the street signs, the dogs or cats that you see, or look for all of the houses that have a number three beside their door. Take advantage of these casual opportunities to help children learn about the world around them. Children are interested in everything around them, so the possibilities are endless.

Provide books, toys and activities that are open-ended. That is, that they supply ideas that will create continued play. After reading a book about starting school, you might encourage the children to talk about their feelings about going to school, and then play school themselves. Playing with a plastic farm set may spark an interest in paying a visit to a real farm and finding out more about animals. Building blocks, such as Lego, can be played with over and over again and children particularly enjoy this activity because they can decide for themselves on the direction that their creation will take.

Share your own interests with the children. Talking about your own ideas and beliefs will expand the children’s world and establish a connection between you. Do you love reading? Then you will probably enjoy reading stories with the kids. Help them become comfortable finding their way around the library and teach them about the joy of books. Do you enjoy nature? Share your knowledge and enthusiasm with the children, in your backyard, on your walks or at the park, about birds, squirrels, plants and trees. Cooking, crafts or computers - choose an activity that you enjoy and share it with the children in your care.

Build on the interests of individual children within your day care group as well. A child will feel special and appreciated when the focus is on his or her particular interest. If there is a child in the group who is especially interested in fish, for example, he might be invited to bring some related books and toys from home to share with the group along with any information that he has. Others in the group could then be encouraged to add their own items and information to further build on the interest. You could arrange for a field trip to a museum and additional supporting activities as a follow-up. This kind of active learning is very responsive to the children’s interest and would be enjoyable as well as informative.

Additional Resource:

You Bet I Care! Caring and Learning Environments: Quality in Regulated Family Child Care Across Canada