A Good Preschool Teacher's Role

I believe that early childhood educators play an important role in children’s life. A good teacher is more likely to shape children’s behaviors, attitudes and cognitive development. My dream is to be a successful preschool teacher. However, what the good teacher is.

IN MY OPINION:

Teachers should treat children like children. I am extremely serious on this point. Nowadays, we often unconsciously lapse into the different thinking that regards them as adults. If you do not believe that your thoughts sometimes like that way, you could consider about the following questions. Do you expect young children to be able to know what we are thinking? Do you look forward that their behaviors could be polite as we do? If your answer is yes, you will need to pay more attention on it because children’s cognitive skills are different from us, we cannot impose our thoughts on children.

Teachers should respect children and follow their pace of learning. Children have their own learning pace. Teacher cannot follow our own learning pace to treat them. We should know that children are not able to learn lots of skills all at once. They need step by step process to learn new skills. For example, tying shoes, button clothes, and cutting fruits are very easy for us, but children need more time to master these skills through their practicing. We need to wait and give them time to learn and to master. Helping kids to complete these seemed like simply work for us was not good for their development motor skills.

How to Deal with Children's Misbehavior?

When I was a little girl, my parents hope me to be superior to other children. They hoped to shape my behavior and personal quality as similar as their imaging. They set a serious of rules for me like be respect, be polite, be kind, and be clean. One day, my mother’s good friend invited us to her home. I was excited when she gave me a box of candies. I reached into the box and took a handful of candies in my hand. Suddenly, my father was angry with me and seriously told me just took one candy from the box. I refused and then my father considered I lose his face because my impolite behavior. He spanked me in the presence of aunt. My parents believed that punishment can correct my misbehavior.

Punishment hurt children’s heart, so every parent need to pay attention on their parenting way, especially managing children’s unfriendly or destructive behavior. How to deal with children’s misbehavior? There are many tips in Dealing with Children's Misbehavior.

- Remind your child of your love often. Love begets love.

- Give some space to your child but give the limits for the child' rude and destructive behavior.

- Know if the behavior was done on purpose and teach the child the harm of the action done unintentionally. Getting angry for something done unintentionally can make a child rebellious.

- Control your temper when dealing with a misbehaving child. If you get angry for an act done by your child out of resentment, you will just be completing a cycle of anger.

- Let your child recover from misbehavior. Time out in the bedroom will give your child time to think of the wrong actions done.

- Be firm with the punishments you give your child.

- Build a routine for your child that can make the child behave in a stable and secured manner.

- Give some breaks in the routine of the child, allow fun and enjoyment.

- Set the limits of the child firmly. Ask your child to agree on some consequences when the limit is   crossed.

Useful website: Correct Children's Behavior

Have Fun to Make Birthday Cake

When I was a child, I imaged that my mom could make or buy a beautiful birthday cake for me. This cake should make me feel special, but all of cakes my mom bought were different from my expectation. Therefore, I hope one day I can make special cakes for my child and my students.

There are many magic ideas on Incredible Birthday Cake Ideas. The one I like best is Purse Birthday Cake. I think every girl loves this cute cake. Do you want to make it ? Now, let's start to make it with Karen.

                                 From Sweet! Purse Birthday Cake

Ingredients:

• 2 (8-inch) round cakes
• 1 can (16 oz) vanilla frosting
• Red food coloring
• 1 Tootsie Roll Giant (2.25 oz)
• 10 brown M&M's
• 8 to 9 marshmallows
• 6 Whoppers
• 1 sheet green fruit leather
• 2 Tootsie Rolls

What you'll need:

• A bread knife
• A resealable sandwich-size plastic bag (Ziploc)
• A serving platter
• Scissors or a small letter-shaped cookie cutter

Trimming the cakes:

1. Place the cakes on a clean work surface. Using a bread knife, trim the tops to make them level. 
2. Spread a small amount of frosting on one cut surface. Place the other cake layer on top, cut side down and sandwich the cakes together. 
3. Cut a 1-inch strip from one side of the layer cake. Cut a 2-inch deep slice from the opposite edge (see template).

For the pink frosting:

1. Spoon 1/4 cup of the untinted vanilla frosting into a resealable plastic bag. 
2. Add a few drops of red food coloring to the remaining frosting to tint it a light pink. 
3. Place the cake on a serving platter, deeper-cut side down. Spread the pink frosting all over the cake and make smooth.

                                                            From Sweet! Purse Birthday Cake

To complete the decoration:

1. Snip a small corner from the bag with the vanilla frosting. Pipe dots along each thin side of the cake and attach the brown M&M's.
2. Bend the Tootsie Roll Giant into a "C" shape to make the handle and place on the top of the cake.
3. Cut the marshmallows with clean scissors, crosswise, into 4 slices. Arrange the marshmallows as flower petals along the top of the cake, adding some vanilla frosting to help secure them to the cake. Attach the Whoppers to the center of each flower with a dot of frosting. Cut small leaf shapes from the green fruit leather and tuck them underneath the marshmallow petals as leaves.
4. Heat the 2 Tootsie Rolls in the microwave for 2 to 3 seconds to soften. Roll out onto a sheet of wax paper and cut out desired letter using clean scissors or a small cookie cutter. Press the letter onto the front of the cake
Useful Blog:The Birthday Bolg

Bill Cosby---Parenting

Through seeing Bill Cosby’s Himself, I think parenting is important for every parent. For them, first being parents are the most amazing time in their lives. However, when their child gradually grows up, they start to believe their child is annoying and have brain damage. The main reason makes children like this because of their mother’s curse. Curse can bring anxiety, fear and pressure to children. Therefore, I understand whatever your child whether has brain damage or not, parents should not curse them. They need to be still and listen. Also, gently tell and explain to them what and why they need to do like this way. The most significant learning me achieved is using effective communication way instead of curse because this cannot deal with problems fundamentally, but bring some other troubles.

Frequently using the word "Good" is not good!

 

"You have done your breakfast, good girl."
"Sweetie, this is a good book for you."
"Your painting is good."
"Good job!"

Do you use the word "good" more frequently at home?

In fact, using different kinds of words, phrases, and sentences to communicate with young children are useful for their language development because they obtain language by observing and imitating adults. Not using diverse forms of speaking may have negative impact on children’s language expression. When you use the word "good" to respond to your child's behavior, they often feel confused because they do not know why they are good. So, we should use specific expression when you want to praise children’s behavior or skills. This way can make them clearly understand what appropriate ways or creative skills they use. For example, you have used many beautiful colors for your painting instead of your painting is good. Developing creative words of adults is not a neglectful part during child language development. Are you ready to change your words?

Gay/ Lesbian Partners should not adopt a child???

Is that gay/ lesbian couples should not adopt a child?

This is an interesting question for me to think about.

Here’s an analyzing from the video Having Gay Parents Is Weird

The teacher was very happy to talk about the story of two daddies and two mommies. She hoped all the children could love this book. It seems that she could accept a child with gay /lesbian parents and considered that homosexual parents could be good parents, but when she finished reading, she dropped the book into the trash can. Besides, when she was telling the book title for the class, all the children showed weird expression. What happened next? The child felt uncomfortable that two daddies see him to go to school and two mommies give him good night kisses. He was freaked out by the idea of having two mothers or two fathers and thought that he just could accept one daddy and one mommy in a family. In conclusion, this video implyed that same-sex couples should not adopt a child.

From fornewmoms.com

In my opinion, foster children need loving parents and stable homes. These are the most important parts for them, rather than choosing the gender of their parents. So, if two daddies see you to go to school and two mommies give you good night kisses, the child will feel happy because daddies or mommies express their love to you.

                                                  From thewillsadopt.wordpress.com

In our society, a number of children are waiting for adoption. Therefore, as long as you love children and have a stable home, both straight and homosexual couples have right to adopt them.

Bed-Wetting is not Children's Fault

I remind my cousin who was wetting the bed before eight years old almost every night. His father was angry with his wetting behavior and thought he was too lazy to get up to go to the bathroom. My uncle often rebuked him after he was wetting the bed because he believed my cousin’s bed-wetting made him lose face in our family. However, no one took my cousin to the hospital since they all considered the reason of enuresis was laziness. In fact, that is not my cousin’s fault. Bed- wetting have several behavioral and physiological causes, for example lack a hormone and bladder capacity is small. Also, this behavior could be inhibited by children’s family members. In addition, we need to make sure whether the child has urinary tract infections or not. So, we should encourage our children and built confidence for them rather than blame them.

How can we help our children who wet the bed? Bedwetting offers five ways to help children prevent bed-wetting.

· Limiting liquids before bedtime

· Encouraging the child to go to the bathroom before bedtime

· Praising the child on dry mornings

· Avoiding punishments

· Waking the child during the night to empty their bladder

We Shouldn’t Spank Our Child

    Nowadays, physical punishment is common in society. The study showed that about 90% of American parents having spanked their kids. Why parents spank their child? I think the reason is that different parents have different understanding on discipline, so some parents believe spanking is an effective way for shaping their child’s behavior. However, in my opinion, spanking harms child development. Parents need to change their belief of discipline.

First of all, spanking in childhood is more likely to cause negative behavior development after they grow up such as aggressive, antisocial, violent and criminal. According to the report, Adult’s physical aggression is inclined to the person who has the history of cruel physical punishment during his or her childhood (Larzelere, 1985). In a child eyes, parents do anything is right. So, when parents spank them, they naturally consider that hitting is an extremely normal behavior to solve conflict.

 Moreover, spanking during early years can enhance the probability of risk on emotional health problems in children’s later life. Kids know that spanking often use to punish bad child. If parents frequently spank them, they will feel guilty. As times passes, children feel less confident through spanking. In addition, the people who were “being spanked often or sometimes had higher lifetime rates of anxiety disorders, alcohol abuse or dependence and one or more externalizing problems” (Harriet L. MacMillan, 1999).

In conclusion, spanking is not good for children’s behavioral and emotional development. Therefore, parents need to change a way to punish child.

COOKING

Recently, my 5-year- old cousin always complains about the food her mother makes. In fact, it is not unpalatable about the food, but she is choosy in it. So, my aunt has to make food fun to stimulate my cousin’s appetite and sometimes cooks with her together.

I think cooking is very important for children’s development. It not only can promote child’s health and knowledge development, but also create memorable family time. Through cooking, children can learn science, math, geography and nutrition.

Science

  how ingredients mixed together

  how food grows

  how food change through cooking

Math

  Counting

  Sorting

  Money

  Weighing

  Measuring

  Shapes

  Colors

Geography

        Where food grows

Nutrition

Which food is healthy

Ready for school???

My cousin is a preschooler. Her mother starts to think about the right time to start a six years old child in elementary school. However, what is the best time to start school? Usually, children begin school around seven years old in my hometown. Is that my younger sister old enough for school? Is that she should wait next year? These questions make my aunt feel puzzled.

In my opinion, education is right for every child. Age is not the most important factor of attending school. I advise my aunt thinking over my cousin’s socio-emotional mature and intelligence.

Social-emotional skills are the basis for getting along with other children. Through my academic study, I know that lack of social skills can bring out troubles in making friends, academic failures, concentration problems, emotional difficulty and behavioral difficulties. So, we can use related questions to check whether my cousin is ready for school or not, such as can she share her feelings with others? Does she like play games with other children? Is she easy for making new friends? Can she do somethings by herself (go to the restroom, dress up, eat, wear her clothes, shoes and pants)?

Moreover, intelligence can make children learn new knowledge easily. We need to observe my younger sister's cognitive development and check the following questions to make sure our decision.

Can she try to write her name? Can she recognize some simple characters, colors and shapes? Can she count numbers from zero to twenty?  Can she pay attention on story time or playing time for about fifteen minutes?

Through these questions, we need to carfully consider about our children's skills and abilities and make a great decision on choosing the best time to start our child in school.

Bye 2011. Hello 2012

Goodbye 2011, the fantastic year, I have to say goodbye to you. January 23^rd,2012 is Chinese Spring Festival. A reunion dinner is held on New Year’s Eve where all my family members get together for celebration. It is a symbol of passing the year. Although this is my third year to celebrate in the American without my families, I still feel very happy. I want to thank for my two dear friends, Zhuzhu and Fanfan. It is you that warm my 2011. It is you that made me never feel alone.

2011, we tavelled to Florida and spent our happiest time in Disneyland.

2011, we took part in our first Halloween festival and we cheerfully celebrated our first Halloween.

2011, we decorated our home to celebrate our new roommate’s birthday and this was our first time to wear celebrity dress and high-heeled shoes.

2011, we ended the year celebrating Christmas, bought and drank our first bottle of wine.

It is awesome to look back, and then to think ahead and imagine what in these next 12 months brings to me. I am looking forward to 2012.

Bye 2011,

Hello 2012

My First Signs

I strongly recommend this book for new parents and infant classroom’s teachers because leaning baby sign language boosts communication between you and your little baby. Some parents doubt that sign language is just for special children. In fact, it is suitable for every baby.

Why is good for your baby?

1. Infant sign language increases baby's Confidence
When a child can sign their feelings, emotions, wants, or need and get satisfaction, their confidence increases and frustration are lessened.

2. Increases early literacy skills

3. Reinforces language skills

4. Helps babies to Focus

Why is good for you???


1. Signing minimizes stress and frustration for caregivers because you know what exactly is wanted results in loud crying, utter frustration, or tantrums

2. Signing reduces the guesswork in meeting infants' wants, needs, and thoughts

Useful Websites:

Baby Sign Language


How to teach baby sign language?

 

 

Natural Exploration

I called my 5-year-old sister this Thursday.

My aunt received the phone and said: "We are playing outside now. Your younger sister played nearly two hours, but still do not want to go home."

My hometown is located in the northeast of China. It is very cold in winter and the average temperature is -18 ℃. I cannot believe that she can play for a long time in such cold weather.

My aunt said: "This is the process of enjoying nature. If you have time, I suggest that you try it and pay attention on your walk. This is the best way for you to understand why children love playing in nature."

Originally, I just possess the purpose of exploring to start my "journey". While I go out of my apartment, a cold wind blows. Suddenly, some negative thought emerge in my head and I begin to complain the cold weather. The word of boring can describe my initial mood. I walk aimlessly and doubt that whether young children enjoy playing and walking in winter or not. Because I look at my surroundings, there is no difference than every time I see, such as cars, houses, ice and snow. I feel confused and disappointed.

I stop walking and close my eyes when I hesitated. Gradually, my blundering heart calm down. I hear sounds from birds, crows, cars, wind, trees and crunching the snow. The sounds mix together seems as symphony. I deeply experience the pleasure of sound. I open my eyes and look up at the sky. The blue sky, white clouds and brilliant sunshine make me feel the beautiful nature. Smell it, the air full of snow’s smell. I do not know how to describe it. All in all, the smell is delicate. In fact, under the busy life, I forget to enjoy the nature for a long time.

 I continue to walk in order to catch the nature which I seem to lose. Looking at surroundings, my mood is different than prior time. I feel comfortable, pleased and active to enjoy nature through walking. I always consider that winter is white, yet through observing, I find white does not stand for winter. Green pine tree, brown aspen’s limb, red leaves, yellow fallen leaves, grey stone, blue sky and golden sunshine make winter like a huge palette. I find many different color leaves and put them into my transparent bottle. Through these leaves, I feel that winter is not boring just as my life. No matter life is tough, I believe that I can see the “rainbow” at last through my effort and determination.

When I am on my way to my home, two men who hold bags go to their car in a hurry. I think I always do the similar things like them and have no time to experience surrounding things and natural view. Finishing this “journey”, I feel that I regain the ability of enjoying natural and surrounding life. In addition, I retrieve my childhood memory and know the reason why children love observing, exploring and enjoying nature. I love this experience.

Through this wonderful "journey", I suggest that parents should spent your precious time on enjoying and exploring nature with kids. It is not good for children to boost creativity, but also is good for you to reduce stress. Besides, this exploring process can enhance family bonds.

Useful websites for natural exploration:

Nature Rocks

BioKids