|
|
|
|
| Wee Watch Newsletter
May/June 2009 |
|
| DATES WEE WATCH |
| Mother's Day
May 10th
Victoria Day (stat)
May 18th
"Play It Safe" Week
May 25 - 29th
Father's Day
June 21st
"Celebrate Canada" Day
June 23rd |
|
 Greetings!
May and June bring a special time for families by celebrating Mother's Day and Father's Day. Often, this is a time that children will make special cards, help with breakfast preparations or do a special chore as a thank you gesture. Enjoy watching your child's attempts to do something special for you. Some of these gestures are listed in the Wee Learn section of this newsletter.
Happy Mother's and Father's Day to you.
Thank you, Mom.
Thank you, Dad.
Three small words.
So much to add.
For all your love
and your support
a million words
would be too short.
The words, "I love you"
seem too few
to express the love
I have for you.
Thank you to all the Wee Watch Providers, children and families that contributed to our TOGETHER WEE CAN "Fill a Bag To Fill a Tummy". Many food banks across Ontario were recipients of the wonderfully decorated bags filled with much-needed food for community families.
Our "TWICE IS NICE ART SHOW" once again proved that our children can do their part in taking care of the environment. Children were busy using their creative talent by transforming egg cartons into indoor gardens, paper towel tubes into puppets, pop bottles into reusable bowling games, just to name a few.
Sincerely,
Leslie Wilson |
|
|
|
Wee Watch has a wonderful opportunity to participate together in activities on certain days, weeks and months. These "Together Wee Can" events are exclusive to Wee Watch. All activities and events are carefully chosen for their importance to children and their families. These events provide a great learning opportunity that meets the needs of children of all ages and ultimately strengthens our Wee Watch community.
May 2009
TOGETHER WEE CAN
"PLAY IT SAFE"
Safe Kids Week is an annual public awareness program designed to help reduce the frequency and severity of preventable childhood injuries. In keeping with the need to send a safety message out to parents and children, we have planned a week long program of "Play It Safe" activities. These activities will reinforce safety in the home and outdoors, including safety rules for walking in the neighbourhood, playing at the park or riding bicycles. Teaching young children each and every day how to be safe will give them skills to last all their life.
June 2009
TOGETHER WEE CAN
"CELEBRATE CANADA"
Celebrate Canada is an 11-day event that is celebrated each year from June 21 to July 1 all across the country. Parties, picnics and other get togethers are planned to get entire communities together and celebrate the diverse country we live in.
June 23rd has been chosen as the TOGETHER WEE CAN "Celebrate Canada" Day. Whether a park day or playgroup is planned with other Providers, or they celebrate on their own with the children, this day should be filled with games, crafts, and lots of red and white! It's a great day for Providers to talk about some Canadian facts and what makes Canada so great.
|
Our exclusive "Wee Learn Program" is designed to meet the specific learning needs of each of our children enrolled. The Wee Learn Program provides the flexibility for each child to participate at his own pace and is designed to allow each child from the youngest Wee Beginner to the oldest Wee Mentor to learn as they play. As there is a mix of individual and group activities in the homes, the children are also given lots of opportunities to develop their social skills as well.
Your Provider is given resources that include age appropriate activities addressing areas of language, cognitive, math/science, fine motor and gross motor development. These resources include a Calendar of theme related activities, an Activity Handbook full of easy homemade activities for each age group and website activity pages to further build on fine motor, math and language skills they have already been working on in their Play and Learn booklets.
Each month, take a look at the progress your child is making in his Play and Learn booklet. These booklets are a great keepsake and give you an opportunity to see the skills such as cognitive, math, fine motor skills your child is working on each and every day.
Our newsletter theme this month is promoting independence. One of the greatest gifts we can give children is to provide them with the time, patience and encouragement to develop their self-help skills, thus fostering independence. While Wee Beginners to Wee Mentors, learn how to do simple tasks for themselves such as putting a toy away, Wee Builders and up learn to put their skills to use in assuming more responsibilities within the family household.
Please click on the link below to learn more about age-appropriate expectations and positive ways to encourage independence in your child.
|
| WEE BEGINNERS
PROMOTING INDEPENDENCE
As parents and Providers, we want to raise children to be responsible and independent. Independence needs to be fostered at an early age and continue throughout childhood. When we encourage independence, children will believe they are capable which will in turn build their confidence.
One of the best ways to foster independence is to follow one simple rule: don't do things for children that they can do for themselves. We all know that if we do daily tasks ourselves, they would be done quicker, but this would not give children the opportunity to develop their gross and fine motor skills, or the opportunity to receive praise for accomplishing something on their own. Let your child walk with you to the mailbox instead of riding in a stroller. Let him crawl or walk up the steps (with your supervision) for bedtime, instead of carrying him. Giving your child the opportunity every day to master new skills will eventually lead to activities that help not only himself, but others as well.
Wee Beginner Activities:
- Put toys away
- Bring you their shoes for outdoor play
- Learn to feed themselves finger foods
- Get a clean diaper for a diaper change
- Untape their diaper during diaper change
- Take their socks off before bathtime
- Choose a book for storytime
|
WEE EXPLORERS
LET ME HELP!
Children between the ages of 18 months and four years are prime candidates for learning about household chores. At this stage, they are eager to please and be just like their parents and other important adults in their life. The trick is to find suitable age-appropriate chores for children to do that will not undermine their confidence and their pleasure in helping.
Toddlers are most likely to enjoy small, easy tasks that they can master on their own. Don't expect perfection. If your toddler receives criticism for the spoons in the wrong place or water spills beside the plant, your child's eagerness to help will surely evaporate.
As well, make sure you give your toddler plenty of time to finish the task. It is reasonable to expect that a toddler will get distracted while picking up toys. Joining in on the task may make it more enjoyable and focus the attention back on the task at hand. Encouragement can be as simple as counting the toys as they are placed in the basket or saying "let's put the dolls down for a nap in their shoebox beds" as opposed to saying "put the dolls away".
Wee Explorer Activities:
-take off and put on simple articles of clothing like shorts, shoes, etc.
-putting his dirty clothes in a clothes hamper
-put clothes on clothes hooks
-put away toys
-water plants
-choose clothes from two choices
-put napkins and placemats on the table
|
WEE BUILDERS
CHORES GALORE!
Chores help children develop their eye-hand coordination, time management skills, and to solve problems. Chores should be a regular part of a family's daily routine, from attempting to make a bed in the morning, to putting toys away before snacktime or outdoor play, as well as assisting with dinnertime tasks. Everyday tasks give children hands-on experience and an opportunity to have their own responsibilities in the family household.
Building on the self-help skills that you have been promoting during the infant and toddler stage, three year olds are ready for more opportunities to help around the house. Children should be encouraged to participate in chores that may traditionally be done by another gender. Curb your inclination to give a girl the typical female tasks such as helping to cook, folding laundry, etc. Mix up the duties for the chores so that the children develop a wide range of skills and interests.
Wee Builder Activities:
-set the table
-clear her own plate
-help with simple food preparation
-get her own snack from small containers
-help weed the garden
-fold towels
-wash plastic dishes and cups
-put garbage in a trash container
-help make her bed
|
WEE LEARNERS
POSITIVE APPROACH TO CHORES!
Toddlers and young preschoolers are often enthusiastic about any new responsibilities they may be given. Older children on the other hand, become more independent and may resist their chore responsibilities especially when there are much more pressing matters to attend to such as their ever growing Lego tower, or friends knocking on the door to come out and play.
Make it Possible to Succeed
For a child with a messy room, you will have greater success if you break down the job into a few small ones. Instead of "cleaning her room" you may want to say "make your bed and put the dirty clothes in the hamper". The toys and the clean clothes can wait for another day.
Make it Fun
Toddlers often need a team approach to get a task done. But older children don't necessarily need your assistance but rather your creative skills in making a job fun. If your child is resisting or dawdling in completing a task, make a game out of it. Set a timer and call a 10-minute panic pickup. This may encourage her to get dressed or put the toys away before the timer goes off. Your child may be more productive if you have a few 10 minute chore breaks in a day or weekend as opposed to an hour long tug of war.
Give Limited Choices
Unless your child has a choice, you are better to refrain from using words like "would you like to clean up the toys?". Wee Learners are ready to be able to have a small list of chores to choose from. Keep it simple as too many choices can be overwhelming.
Remember, as parents, we don't like the feeling of not being appreciated by our children. That rule of thumb should apply to children as well. They should receive praise and recognition for continuing to contribute to the household chores.
Adding on to an ever growing list of tasks that your child can accomplish, they will welcome new added responsibilities.
Wee Learner Activities:
· help with preparing meals, under supervision
· help put clean clothes into piles for each family member, ready to fold
· help carry grocery bags and put away the groceries
· rake leaves, help with the gardening upkeep
· help make a grocery list
· wash dishes
|
WEE EXPERTS
BEYOND THE BASIC CHORES
As children get older, we should be promoting a sense of responsibility and participation in the family by involving them in chores that go beyond their own personal effects. Once your child attends school, family related chores teach your child a valuable lesson. Your child will get a sense that helping others is important, that tasks may be unpleasant but are needed for the health and safety of the entire family, and that contributing to the family is an important aspect of growing up.  Encouraging children to assist in family-related activities may need explanation on the sequence of how to get the job done as well as why it is important in the first place. Remember, your child will not understand why they are cleaning the bathroom sink if they didn't squirt the globs of toothpaste in it. Explaining how important it is to keep surfaces clean for everyone's health may lead to less struggles. You may be needed to assist the first few times so that your child is able to master the new added responsibilities.
Wee Expert Activities:
- giving pets a bath
- clean bathroom sink
- rinse bathtub after use
- help with the laundry using the washer and dryer
- mop floors
- help with meal preparation
- serving meals
|
| WEE MENTORS
SCHOOL-AGED RESPONSIBILITIES
School aged children, depending on their age, maturity and strength, can be given more demanding household chores.
Although school aged children have a general understanding of what is expected of them, they will still need some nudging from time to time, even though they know some tasks need to be done daily, weekly or monthly. Many families choose to develop a chart of everyone's responsibilities as a reminder of what needs to be done without the verbal reminder. This chart can be changed weekly or monthly so that the chores and responsibilities can be divvied up differently each time. Remember to always thank children when they do their chores in a timely manner.
Money as an Incentive
It is not a good idea to use an allowance as payment for household tasks. Chores provide an opportunity to develop skills and confidence and are part of their contribution to the family.
Allowance, on the other hand, may be given for special tasks or projects that they are willing to do such spring cleaning tasks, helping to decorate a room for a party. Allowance for these types of activities is a good start to learning about work and how to save money.
Wee Mentor Activities:
-more pet-care duties such as walking the dog, changing the bird cage lining, brushing the dog
-sorting laundry and putting the clean folded clothes in each person's room
-helping to plan, prepare and clean up after meals
-washing the car
-seeping the front steps
-making their beds
-reading to younger siblings
-weeding, planting, watering the garden
|
PLAY IT SAFE!
Safe Kids Week is a national education campaign presented by Safe Kids Canada. Every year during Safe Kids Week, we are asked to join Safe Kids Canada to focus attention on preventing injuries to children.
This year's campaign is Home Product Safety. Our Wee Watch homes go through a strict safety check which includes monthly inspection of equipment used in the homes by our qualified Home Visitors. The Wee Watch Site Safety Checklist also includes inspection of where equipment is placed in the home, the safety measures required for each room that the children may use as well as keeping Providers up to date on any recalls or warnings from Health Canada.
By promoting Safe Kids Canada Home Product Safety, we hope this information will provide you with added safety measures you can take in your home. Please pass the Safe Kids Canada information to any friends or family members that may have children in their home.
Please visit the www.safekidscanada.ca website and test your knowledge in the Home Product Safety Quiz. Please view the great information by going to For Parents and clicking on Product Safety. You will find product safety information from car seats to strollers, etc. as well as a new fact sheet under Resources called "Home Safe Home".
| |
Wee Watch
105 Main Street,
Unionville, ON L3R 2G1
905-479-4274; 1-800-663-6072
Fax: 905-479-9047
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
