All My Children

For an indoor party it’s a good thing to think of balloons — they always look festive. So do the traditional decorations for a Christmas party of paper chains, holly and ivy, tinsel and glitter, stars, shining balls and bells. But you will want other ideas for parties with a particular theme. Continue Reading »

Jade only plays with one particular child at the pre-school. If that child is absent, Jade just sits by herself. She is co-operative with adults and joins in with tasks but will not play with any other child during the free play session. When her particular friend is at the pre-school, Jade dislikes being joined in a game by anyone else. Continue Reading »

A birthday table makes a charming and practical focus on this special day. Family tradition prefers to use the same piece of furniture every birthday: a coffee table, chest or sideboard would be suitable.

A festive ‘birthday cloth’ covers the table which bears cards, presents, flowers and maybe the birthday cake. In some countries the cake appears at breakfast time, in which case the birthday child (or adult) waits outside the room while the family gathers around the table. When the cake candles are alight, a little bell is rung to give the signal for the door to be opened and the birthday song to begin. Continue Reading »

This sets out in brief format some ideas you might like to think about when planning a challenging play and learning environment. The way in which you organise this is key to children’s learning and development. Some questions you may ask are as follows.

How can I:

• support and extend learning though planning play activities?
• help children to be spontaneous?
• extend children’s language and communication through play?
• help children make sense of the world around them?
• make children aware of the risks and challenges that (especially the outside) world presents?
• make sure that children experience things in a safe situation?

Continue Reading »

While just this or that poor impulse,

Which for once had play unstifled,

Seems the sole work of a life-time

That away the rest have trifled.

In the days when parents and children played the same games, they shared a virtually automatic understanding of the purposes of play: to be both meaningful and enjoyable. This is still true concerning the most primitive, earliest, and hence most important play, that of the infant—and woe unto the child if it is not.

When a baby tosses a rattle out of his crib and his mother hands it back to him, in their moment of mutual delight the mother hardly notices the fact that in this new achievement, her infant is asking himself some very important questions: “Can I influence my objective environment without dire consequences to myself? Can I safely assert my will and manipulate objects without suffering for it? Can I rid myself of something that annoys me? Can I relinquish control of my belongings temporarily without losing them altogether?” Continue Reading »

Each guest is given something to wear to indicate a Pooh character. To decorate the room make a tree (using a large branch from the garden or cardboard etc.) over the doorway, and this can be Pooh’s house. If you have a hatch into the kitchen, make this the entrance to Pooh’s house instead, and serve ice-cream or even a meal through it. Decorate the rest of the room with greenery to look like the forest.

An Easter Party

Primroses and other spring flowers, and fluffy chicks are all you need for table decorations, with perhaps Easter bunnies for place-markers, unless you are going to paint or decorate Easter eggs beforehand. Continue Reading »

Establishing a street children committee

Towards the end of the meeting of the community resources, it is important to ask those present to indicate whether or not they wish to commit themselves to becoming part and parcel of a proposed street children committee. It is important to indicate the implications of such a commitment which are, among others:

• to have regular meetings (possibly every two weeks), especially at first in order to get organised;
• to possibly become part and parcel of the care group to screen or assess the children;

Continue Reading »

Charity begins at home, and so does learning about aggression. A child will understand that shooting and killing people is wrong when the parent who was playfully made a target inquires who is going to pour the milk in the future or go to the store for ice cream. Such a question can convince a child of the need to keep his aggression under control in his own best interests, as no abstract description of the horrors of war could do. To be told that what we want to do—shoot the gun—is wrong annoys and frustrates us, and puts us on the defensive. But realizing things on the basis of one’s own experience and interest—that is, a parent who has been shot can no longer serve the child—makes the learning become positive. Continue Reading »

There are many contributions that only parents can make to their child’s play. For example, no teacher, and certainly no age-mate, can be as deeply and personally involved in play that seems to relate to the child’s future as are his parents. Play is anchored in the present, but it also takes up and tries to solve problems of the past, and it is often future-directed as well. Continue Reading »

The permanent underlying positive ties between parents and children were strengthened at Halloween—after all, adults made this outburst of naughtiness possible and encouraged it, with their merriment barely hidden behind their pretense of being scared. This holiday told children that deep down, despite adult demands to socialize the child, their parents did not totally reject the negative side of the child’s feelings toward them. Continue Reading »