Teaching Math to a Toddler

Having started the Doman Math program for Gavin late, I am often unsure of how much he is really absorbing.  Although he doesn’t oppose me when I use the Red Dot Cards with him, I still wonder if I need to supplement our sessions with other teaching materials.  I’ve tried various methods on him with

Toddler Cooperation – It's All in the Bribe

I’ve often read that we should try to focus on rewarding good behaviour rather than punishing bad behaviour in order to gain more cooperation from a toddler.  Recently, I discovered that the key to success using this disciplinary tactic is not so much in the act of rewarding the behaviour but in the actual bribe

How Do You Feed Medicine to a Toddler?

I was down with mastitis again over the last couple of days.  Is it me or was it a particularly nasty bout this time?  Ordinarily, I would have been on the road to recovery after a day or two.  This time, I started to feel crook on Thursday and was still feeling rather delicate on

Toddler Play: A Modified Montessori Setup

With the addition of Gareth, we have had to rethink our storage space so there would be room for all our things.  Ever since I read about the Montessori Method, I have wanted to design accessible shelves to store Gavin’s toys so he could lead his play time by deciding which toys he wanted to

Tools of the Mind: Supporting Development in Preschool and Kindergarten

This article is written as my interpretation of the Tools of the Mind program.  If you wish to read the words from the horse’s mouth, you should purchase your own copy of “Tools of the Mind: The Vygotskian Approach to Early Childhood Education” by Elena Bodrova and Deborah J. Leong. Read about Supporting Infant Development.

School Readiness from the Vygotskian Aspect

In my haste to publish the last post on defining school readiness, I missed some of the salient points of school readiness as defined by Vygotsky which I felt were interesting because they differ somewhat from the traditional considerations regarding a toddler’s readiness for school. What were Vygotsky’s views on school readiness? Vygotsky believed there

How to Make Your Toddler Feel Special

Lately Gavin’s been picking up a lot of bad habits and I’ve come to realise that these habits are all related to Gareth.  For instance, sucking his hands – Gareth is at the stage where he loves sucking on his hands and from time to time we’ll wipe the saliva off his hands.  Gavin –

Definining School Readiness

Since the day I agreed to start sending Aristotle to pre-school, I have been trying to decide if he is physically and emotionally ready for school.  There are many recommendations based on exactly when a child should go to school – age cut-offs and specific signs. On Today’s Motherhood – an online parenting magazine published in

A Lesson on Toddlers and the Cough Reflex

Some time back, when Gavin was sick, he had a coughing bout while Daddy was taking him out of the shower.  Since the cough sounded very “phlegmy”, Daddy suggested he spit out the phlegm.  Although most of us would rather spit out the phlegm rather than swallow it, I’m sure any experienced parent would know

Review: Cloth Pull-Up Diapers

With Gavin’s on-off potty training progress, I decided to buy him some cloth diaper pull-ups last year before I delivered Gareth.  To be honest, I was expecting him to regress even further once Gareth was born, though I’m glad to say that he’s faring quite well so far.  I bought him 3 Happy Heiny’s pocket