Literacy-Rich Home through the Summer
Read early and read often. The early years are critical to developing a lifelong love of reading. It’s never too early to begin reading to your child! The tips below offer some fun ways you can help your child become a happy and confident reader. Try a new tip each week. See what works best for your child.
■ Snuggle up with a book.
When you hold your baby close and look at a book together, your baby will enjoy the snuggling and hearing your voice as well as the story.
■ Choose baby-friendly books.
Books with bright and bold or high-contrast illustrations are easier for young babies to see, and will grab their attention. Books made of cloth or soft plastic (for the bathtub) or “board books” with sturdy cardboard pages are easier for a baby to handle.
■ Talk with your baby—all day long.
Describe the weather or which apples you are choosing at the grocery. Talk about the pictures in a book or things you see on a walk. Ask questions. By listening, your child learns words, ideas, and how language works.
■ Give everything a name.
Build your child’s vocabulary by talking about interesting words and objects. For example, “Look at that airplane! Those are the wings of the plane. Why do you think they are called wings?”
■ Say how much you enjoy reading.
Tell your child how much you enjoy reading with him or her. Talk about “story time” as the favorite part of your day.
■ Read with fun in your voice.
Read to your child with humor and expression. Use different voices. Ham it up!
■ Know when to stop.
Put the book away for a while if your child loses interest or is having trouble paying attention.
■ Be interactive.
Discuss what’s happening in the book, point out things on the page, and ask questions or draw pictures.
■ Read it again and again.
Go ahead and read your child’s favorite book for the 100th time!
■ Talk about writing, too.
Mention to your child how we read from left to right and how words are separated by spaces.
■ Point out print everywhere.
Talk about the written words you see in the world around you. Ask your child to find a new word on each outing.
Visit www.ReadingRockets.org for more information on how you can launch a child into a bright future through reading.
Frog Street Pre-K At Home - Resources for Parents
Conscious Discipline--FREE Parent Resources
Ideas by the Bushel--Monthly Activity Calendars
The Science--Five Senses
The Five Senses of touch, sight, smell, taste, and hearing are one of the key ways in which children take in information, respond to their environment, seek nourishment and comfort, and bond with their caregivers. While some senses, like touch and hearing, are fully developed at birth, others, such as sight, take several months to mature.
Below is what to expect and what you can do to stimulate each of your baby's senses. Stimulating the senses helps with a child's creativity and imagination, allows children to regulate, develop social skills with peers such as cooperation and turn-taking, develops motor skills, and teaches self-expression. For example, incorporating sensory play such as freeze dance with rain sticks or spice painting a canvas with peers/siblings helps your child develop important motor skills and social skills such as creativity, cooperation, and getting along with others. Parents are their children’s first and best teachers of their child’s senses and therefore have a role in being actively involved in developing their children’s understanding of their senses. Children are more aware of their senses when their parents are involved and the best sensory activities occur when the adult participates alongside the child, rather than just providing the materials. Becoming part of your child’s sensory world such as playing in slime might be hard at first but is beneficial for all parties involved! As adults, we tend to be much more visual, but for young children, all the senses converge to form an overall impression of how the world works.
What was previously understood as an infant’s reflexes, such as the suckling reflex, rooting reflex, and the grasp and walking reflexes, are now known to be aspects of a motive to learn more. Even very small babies understand a lot and are not as reflex controlled as was once believed. Things that a newborn does are usually triggered by some sort of motive to learn more. If you have ever watched a baby mouth objects, it’s not because they are hungry or really wanting to gross you out it’s because they are exploring how they feel with their mouths.
* Remember that not every child is the same and some may reach certain milestones at different ages. *
The 5 senses:
Vision
At birth, your baby is only able to see around 8 to 12 inches away or the distance between a parent’s face to the baby in their arms. Their vision is blurry and they may appear to have uncoordinated eye movements or even seem cross-eyed. A newborn's eyes are a little more than half the size of an adult's eyes. They grow the most in the first year, then slowly grow until puberty.
Newborns see mostly shapes and shades and whether something is big, small, bright, or dark. By eight weeks, babies begin to more easily focus their eyes on the faces of a parent or other person near them. However, babies can follow or track an object in the first few weeks. Eye-hand coordination begins to develop as the infant starts tracking moving objects with their eyes and reaching for them. Newborns can detect light and dark but cannot see all colors. Therefore, many baby books and infant stimulation toys have distinct black and white patterns. By 4 months, your baby will see farther and use his eyes to track moving objects, and by 5 months he’ll have more depth perception. Somewhere between 4 and 6 months, he’ll be able to see all colors. By 10 months of age, a baby should be able to grasp objects with thumb and forefinger.
And by the time he's walking and crawling, between 8 and 12 months, he'll be able to use his depth perception to judge distances as he explores. Parents should encourage crawling rather than early walking to help the child develop better eye-hand coordination. Your child’s focus continues to improve over the first 2 to 3 years of life until reaching normal 20/20 vision.
Hearing
Your baby can hear sounds from the outside world when you’re about 23 weeks pregnant. By 35 weeks, all parts of the ear are completely formed, but your baby’s hearing continues to be fine-tuned, even after birth. Since a baby's hearing starts to develop while she's still in the womb, many mothers say during their pregnancy, their baby kicked or jumped in response to loud noises and quieted with soft, soothing music. Early development also explains why your child is familiar with your voice when she's born. She may startle when a door slams because newborns are sensitive to changes in sound, but they can also tune out loud noises after hearing them several times. Also, once she's asleep don't be surprised if she snoozes through even the loudest noises.
Newborn babies with normal hearing will also pay quiet attention to the mother's or father's voice. And they will briefly stop moving when sound at a conversational level is begun. Newborns seem to prefer a higher-pitched voice (the mother's) to a low sounding voice (males). At about 4 months, babies start to look for the source of a sound, and by 6 months they try to imitate sounds. By 8 months, they babble and respond to changes in tone of voice. By your baby's first birthday, she'll probably say single words like "ma-ma" and "da-da" and respond to her own name.
Touch
The touch sense develops in utero (prenatal period) at around 16 weeks making it one of the best-developed senses at birth and continues to develop and works well after other senses fail in old age. Tactile learning and touch are essential for a child’s growth in physical abilities, cognitive and language skills, and even social and emotional development.
Babies explore through touch, but their preferred tool is their mouth! So don't worry if he sucks or chews on anything he can get his hands on. Instead, make sure you give him things that are safe and clean. When they have more control of their hands and arms, they’ll reach out and grab anything within her reach. According to Tiffany Field, Ph.D., director of The Touch Research Institute at the University of Miami Medical School says, “Babies can distinguish among different temperatures, textures, shapes, and even weights of objects right away.” Most touch activities involve the hands and feet. Children learn how to communicate with others through touch. Engaging their hands builds their fine motor skills, helping them learn how to do more for themselves, such as writing their names and buttoning their coats.A child touching objects is important for development but equally important is “safe touches” or affection enacted on a child. Being exposed to the world can cause confusion and panic in newborns. However, touch, such as placing your hand on the child’s belly, cuddling closely, and swaddling can make your baby feel warm and secure. Researchers found that loving touch, characterized by a slow caress or gentle stroking increases the brain's ability to construct a sense of body ownership and plays a big part in creating and sustaining a healthy sense of self.
Holding a baby for feedings is also important because touch is crucial to bonding. Science supports the idea that warmth and affection expressed by parents to their children results in life-long positive outcomes for those children. Higher self-esteem improved academic performance, better parent-child communication, and fewer psychological and behavior problems have been linked to this type of affection. On the other hand, children who do not receive this affection tend to have lower self-esteem and to feel more alienated, hostile, aggressive, and anti-social.
For more info on touch click here
Smell
Your child’s olfactory or smell center in their brain forms very early in fetal development. Your baby will have a good sense of smell from birth. She gets to know your scent on Day 1 and probably recognizes the scent of other people in her life within about a week. "Babies are especially sensitive to the smell of breast milk and can even distinguish it from formula," says Nicholas J. Tapas, M.D.. Research shows newborns have a keen sense of smell and within the first few days they will show a preference for the smell of their own mother, especially to her breast milk.
Your baby's sense of smell plays an important part in her development. It's closely connected to her sense of taste, so it influences what she likes to eat. By recognizing your scent, she feels comforted and secure knowing that she's with you. You can help her distinguish your scent by not wearing highly perfumed or fragranced skin products in the early days. When you cuddle with your baby and smell each other's scent, you both experience higher levels of the hormone oxytocin. This so-called love hormone helps you bond with your baby.
Explore with smells because as children are exposed to different smells, they learn more about their environment by distinguishing between good and bad smells, comfortable and uncomfortable smells to identify comfort and possible danger. Your child's sense of smell will continue to develop until she's around 8 years old.
Taste
Taste buds begin forming early in fetal development around 9 weeks, and a baby’s taste buds are already fully developed at birth. Children have a few preferences from birth such as human milk and breastfeeding. This is especially true if they are breastfed first and then offered formula or a bottle. They are also born with a preference for sweets instead of sour or bitter flavors, which they can detect through breast milk. That’s why he may seem less than thrilled to nurse after you’ve eaten brussels sprouts, and greedy after you’ve had a piece of cake.
Newborn to 3 months: Your baby's sense of taste is very sensitive. Newborns can have a wider range of taste buds when compared to adults. This is because taste buds in newborns can be found on the tonsils and the back of the throat, as well as on the tongue. During her first three months, your baby can distinguish between sweet and bitter tastes. She prefers sweet flavors, like the taste of breast milk.
3 to 6 months: Your child’s tongue will grow by 3 months of age, and you may now notice the variety of items he is putting in his mouth, such as stuffed animals or a blanket. Your child is now using his tongue to try and make sense of different textures and tastes. At around 5 months, your baby's sense of taste has changed and he's able to react more to salty tastes. It's not a good idea to give your baby salty foods at this stage, though.
6 to 12 months: After eating breastmilk or formula for several months, children may seem surprised by the tastes of solids. Being accustomed to the taste of milk can cause your child to be suspicious of solid foods at first. After getting on solid food, you'll most likely notice that your child loves the taste of some new foods right away. As they are also likely to reject certain foods it is important to offer them numerous times. Experts suggest offering a new food at least eight times before deciding your baby doesn't like it. By about 7-8 months your baby will have developed the motor capacity to try finger foods which allows ample opportunity for her to try new tastes and explore different textures with a variety of soft fruits or vegetables.
Mother’s Day Around the World
While versions of Mother’s Day are celebrated worldwide, traditions vary depending on the country. In Thailand, for example, Mother’s Day is always celebrated in August on the birthday of the current queen, Sirikit.
Another alternate observance of Mother’s Day can be found in Ethiopia, where families gather each fall to sing songs and eat a large feast as part of Antrosht, a multi-day celebration honoring motherhood.
In the United States, Mother’s Day continues to be celebrated by presenting mothers and other women with gifts and flowers, and it has become one of the biggest holidays for consumer spending. Families also celebrate by giving mothers a day off from activities like cooking or other household chores.
At times, Mother’s Day has also been a date for launching political or feminist causes. In 1968 Coretta Scott King, wife of Martin Luther King Jr., used Mother’s Day to host a march in support of underprivileged women and children. In the 1970s women’s groups also used the holiday as a time to highlight the need for equal rights and access to childcare.
THINGS MOMS SHOULD DO FOR THEIR KIDS EVERY DAY
In the midst of our busy days, it is easy to steamroll through the hours. Be sure you don’t miss the things moms should do for their kids for a strong parent- child relationship.
SHOW PHYSICAL AFFECTION. Take time to really connect with your child. Sit down and let your child crawl onto your lap. Make hug time fun.
BE FULLY PRESENT. Put down your phone, turn off the iPad and stop loading the dishwasher when your children want your attention.
BE KIND. There is no doubt we love our children, but love without kindness
doesn’t feel very loving.
USE LOVING WORDS. A mother’s words are powerful! Compliment them
every day.
DISCIPLINE CALMLY. While screaming at them might feel good and appear to be effective, it’s really not. Keeping our cool while we shape our children helps us to discipline with firmness instead of harshness. https://consciousdiscipline.com/free-resources/
LAUGH WITH THEM. A strong parent-child relationship needs a good dose of levity. Laugh with your children at what they think is funny. Point out things that you think are funny. And if all else fails—tickle them!
CDC’s Eight Tips for Safe and Healthy Summertime Work and Play
Whether you are planning an overseas vacation, getting ready for a staycation, or will be working outdoors, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s latest health tips, alerts, and social media updates include practical advice for travelers, swimmers, and everyone who wants to beat the summer heat.
“Summer is a great time to travel and enjoy the great outdoors, but it’s important to take simple, common-sense precautions,” said CDC Principal Deputy Director Anne Schuchat, M.D. “From information about travel vaccinations to tips to prevent insect bites, CDC provides resources to help keep you and your loved ones healthy and safe.”
Travel abroad safely
Before traveling abroad, check out health and safety risks at your destination. Animal illnesses and drinking water might be very different from what you’re used to and could make you sick. Get needed vaccinations at least 4 to 6 weeks before you leave to ensure you’re protected by the time you travel.
CDC’s Summer Travel Abroad site has health and safety tips for anyone traveling outside the United States. CDC’s latest traveler’s health updates include information about measles and malaria. Many countries are experiencing measles outbreaks, including Brazil, England, France, Israel, Japan and Ukraine. Check out CDC’s Vaccine Information Statements (VIS) to get the latest information. New anti-malarial medications are available for travelers to parts of the Caribbean, Central and South America, Southeast Asia, and Africa. About 1,700 cases of malaria are diagnosed every year in U.S. travelers who go abroad.
Swimming safety
Swimming, one of the most popular summer activities for children and adults, gets the spotlight May 24–30, when we observe Healthy and Safe Swimming Week | Healthy Swimming | Healthy Water | CDC.
This year’s theme, “Pool Chemistry for Healthy and Safe Swimming,” highlights the roles that swimmers, parents of young swimmers, aquatics and beach staff, residential pool owners, and public health officials play in preventing disease outbreaks, drowning, and pool chemical injuries.
CDC recommends that everyone check out the latest inspection score of pools where you plan to swim. Look for inspection scores online or on site. Chemicals like chlorine are added to pool water to kill germs and stop them from spreading, helping to keep swimmers healthy. However, mishandling pool chemicals can cause injuries. Owners and operators of both public and privately owned pools, hot tubs/spas, and water playgrounds can take steps to prevent pool chemical injuries.
Young Worker Safety and Health
Young workers (ages 15–24) have higher rates of job-related injury compared to adult workers. To help keep young workers safe at their summer jobs, CDC’s National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) is participating in the social media campaign, #MySafeSummerJobexternal icon, to provide workplace safety and health information and resources to employers of youth, young workers, parents, and educators. My Safe Summer Job is a collaboration between government agencies—including the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) and NIOSH—and numerous professional and non-profit organizations, including CareerSafe and the National Safety Council. The campaign is raising awareness about job-related hazards and how to address them, workers’ rights and responsibilities, voicing safety concerns on the job, and injury prevention.
Beat the heat and rays
Heat kills more than 600 people in the United States each year. Preventing heat-related illnesses, including heat stroke and heat exhaustion, is important for people of all ages, but extreme heat poses the greatest risk for people under age 4 and over 65, and anyone who has a pre-existing medical condition or who lives in a home without air conditioning. The best ways to protect yourself from heat include staying cool, hydrated, and informed: find air-conditioning during hot hours and wear cool clothing, drink plenty of liquids, and pay attention to heat advisories. NIOSH offers several recommendations and tools that employers can incorporate into trainings, and workers can use in real-time, in order to help stay safe when working in heat.
Sunburn is a common summertime injury. Unprotected skin can be burned by the sun’s UV rays in as little as 15 minutes, but can take up to 12 hours for the skin to show the damage. CDC recommends staying out of the sun between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m., when its UV rays are at their highest level. Sunscreen is recommended for anyone working and playing outside in the summer, even on cloudy days. Hats, sunglasses, and long sleeves are also recommended for outdoors activities.
Children’s health and safety
Summer activities, such as riding a bike and playground time, are great for a child’s development. To keep kids healthy and safe all summer long, be sure children use helmets that fit well while riding their bikes and follow playground safety tips from CDC’s website. Parents should ensure children stay safe while traveling in cars. Children should be properly buckled in a car seat, booster seat, or seat belt —whichever is appropriate for their weight, height, and age — on every trip. Properly buckling upimage icon reduces serious and fatal injuries by up to 80 percent. Children under age 13 are best protected in the back seat.
Stay up to date on vaccines
Making sure your child is up to date on vaccines is key to protecting them against serious diseases throughout their life. The summer is a great time to make appointments for your child to get recommended vaccines or to catch up on vaccines they might have missed when they were younger. CDC’s recommended immunization schedule is safe and effective at protecting your child from 14 infectious diseases like measles, chickenpox, and rubella. It’s based on how your child’s immune system responds to vaccines at various ages, and how likely your child is to be exposed to a particular disease. CDC also recommends three vaccines for all 11- to 12-year-old boys and girls to prevent infections that can cause meningitis, HPV cancers, and whooping cough. More information about how vaccines work, where to find vaccines in your areaexternal icon, and what vaccines your child needs can be found on CDC vaccine website, www.cdc.gov/vaccines.
Food safety
Food poisoning peaks during summer months due to warmer temperatures, which can let foodborne germs thrive. Each year, 1 in 6 Americans get sick from eating contaminated food. CDC also has advice for food safety when grilling.
Insect protection
Protect yourself and your family from insect bites by using Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)-registered insect repellentsexternal icon with active ingredients such as DEET. Apply repellents only to exposed skin or clothing, as directed on the product label and always follow instructions when applying insect repellent to children.
https://www.cdc.gov/media/releases/2019/p0517-eight-tips-healthy-summer.html
Coronavirus Disease and Oral Health
Find out what dental offices are doing to keep patients and parents safe in Coronavirus Disease and Oral Health: Information for Parents About Visiting the Dental Office. Learn what to expect before and during a dental visit.
The coronavirus disease and oral health handouts can be paired with other resources, including Brush, Book, Bed: How to Structure Your Child’s Nighttime Routine and many Healthy Habits for Happy Smiles handouts, to provide additional information
Region 14 ESC Head Start Staff
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