Author: Shira Leibowitz

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Blogs Preschool

How to Prepare Your Child for Preschool Near Elmsford, New York

featured image blog titled "How to Prepare Your Child for Preschool Near Elmsford, New York?"
How to Prepare Your Child for Preschool Near Elmsford, New York

Elmsford is a small community in New York filled with many young families. Everywhere you go, you can see loving parents and their children strolling around the neighborhood. Many children are nervous about leaving their parents when they start their first day in preschool. This is entirely normal, and strong preschool programs, focused on relationships, support children through the transition. 

Why Do I Need to Prepare Them for Preschool?

Preparing your child for preschool is important to help your child feel secure and safe. By preparing for the big day, you can gradually help them understand what preschool is and what to expect when they get there.

How Can I Do This?

There are a lot of things you can do to prepare your child for preschool. Let us take a look at a few ways:

  • Visit Your Kids’ Preschool

Before school starts, children benefit from getting a feel of the place they will be for preschool. Show them the playground, the classrooms, and the other areas. Let them meet their teacher and maybe some of their classmates. Helping them to see where they will be can help alleviate anxiety about being away from home. 

While they are off playing, you could talk to the preschool teachers. Having a good relationship with the teachers can help your child be successful. Working together toward one goal will further that success.

  • Role Play About Preschool

Try having a role-playing session with your children in the setting of a classroom. Pretend to be the teacher and teach them about the things that they will encounter in preschool. Show them how fun preschool can be so that they know they have nothing to worry about.

  • Read to Your Kids

Reading to your kids has proven to be a major tool in being ready for school. It also can help deal with emotions and feelings. Having that one on one time with you is incredibly important to you and your child. Children who are read to tend to be more successful in school from the beginning. They won’t struggle as much to keep up and can learn an incredible amount just from reading. 

  • Give Them New Backpacks 

Having your child help pick out a backpack for school can help them get excited about preschool. 

Make Your Kids Feel at Home in Discovery Village

Discovery Village Childcare & Preschool is a daycare center in Tarrytown, NY. In addition to exceptional childcare services and a caring community, Discovery Village helps children learn, explore, create, and discover their skills and talents. Preschool is the time where children start to build the foundation of their personalities. If you want your kids to go to an exceptional preschool near Elmsford, NY, Discovery Village is the right place for you. Check out their website today at DiscoveryVillageCenter.com.  Or call them at 914-631-1009

Categories
Blogs Infant Preschool

Creating Hopeful Rainbows

White Plains Chalk Art Courtesy of Leah Evan - Posted on White Plains Moms & Dads Facebook Page
We Love You & Hope You Have a Great Day Chalk Art. Courtesy of Leah Evan, White Plains Moms & Dads Facebook Group

In these uncertain times, as we all try the best we can to settle into a new, uncharted normal, what I’ve been searching for most is hope. Although moments of despair and fear hit hard, hope is also ever present. Rainbow art ideas for all ages have helped.

While physically distanced from the families of Discovery Village, the childcare and preschool I run in Tarrytown, NY, I’ve begun sending home activity ideas for infants, toddlers, preschoolers (some of which even their older siblings and their grownups can enjoy). Rainbow art ideas have been among our favorites. While as of now our commitment is to reopen next Monday, March 30th, with the blessing of New York State, to do what we are able to care for the children of essential workers, the majority of us will be physically distant for an as of yet undetermined amount of time.

To connect to others with hope, I now plan to share these activity ideas more broadly, on this blog, as many families seek ways to keep their youngest children safe and healthy, while also joyous, active, engaged, and hopeful.

As a first post, I offer five ways to be creative and hopeful with rainbows. These are merely possibilities to prompt your thinking and imagination! You can come up with many more!

I invite you to share your hopeful rainbows on your property for neighbors taking solitary walks, and on social media for friends who are physically apart, yet seeking connection.

1. Chalk Rainbows

This is the activity that inspires my hope, and so it is the place I begin. Make rainbow chalk art with inspiring messages for your neighbors locally (and globally posting on social media.)

Rainbow Art Ideas, White Plains Chalk Art Courtesy of Leah Evan - Posted on White Plains Moms & Dads Facebook Page
We Love You & Hope You Have a Great Day Chalk Art. Courtesy of Leah Evan, White Plains Moms & Dads Facebook Group

2. Eat the Rainbow

Have your children been looking for snacks? You can create healthy, colorful snacks. Talk to children about each of the colors.

Red: Keeps your heart and blood healthy

Orange: Protects your eyes and reduces sickness

Yellow: Good for skin health, digestion, and immunity

Green: Keeps bones strong and strengthens immunity

Blue and Purple: Improve memory and brain function.

Rainbow Art Ideas - Eat The Rainbow

Photo: courtesy of blog.learningresources.com

3. Dot Rainbows

Use dot paint or even make circle marks with crayons or markers. For those of you not opposed to using food for art, or not opposed to some sweets, you can also use marshmallows. Attach marshmallows to toothpicks, dip into paint, and dot away. You can even glue the marshmallow down at the end as clouds.

Rainbow Art Ideas, Marshmallow Rainbow Prints

Photo: Courtesy of learnplayimagine.com

4. Rainbow Suncatcher Collage

This one takes some materials you may need to order. It might be worth it to bring some hope to your home and your neighbors, as well as some meaningful fun for kids!

Materials Needed:

Tissue Paper, Contact Paper, Construction paper, Scissors

Cut the middle out of a piece of construction paper and stick onto a large piece of contact paper. Place squares of tissue paper onto the contact paper in a rainbow pattern, or any pattern children like. Hang up on the window and see the light shine through!

Rainbow Art Ideas - Tissue Paper Rainbows

Photo: Courtesy of whereimaginationgrows.com

5. Rainbow Circles in the Style of Wassily Kandinsky

Children can create circle rainbow art in the style of Wassily Kandinsky.

Note: If you do not know the work of Wassily Kandinsky, look him up. He is considered to be a pioneer of abstract art.

I share three examples:

Kandinsky, Squares with Concentric Circles

Squares with Concentric Circles

Kandinsky, 1913

Photo Courtesy of: Wikipedia. Org

Kandinsky, Circles in a Circle

Circles in a Circle

Kandinsky, 1923

Photo Courtesy of: Wikipedia. Org

Several Circles

Kandinsky, 1926

Photo: Courtesy of: Wikipedia.Org

 

Stay healthy and hopeful!

Categories
Blogs

Character at the Core! The Too Infrequently Discussed “Secret Sauce” of Reggio-Inspired Learning

Reggio-Inspired Learning
Character at the Core! The Too Infrequently Discussed "Secret Sauce" of Reggio-Inspired Learning

What is it that distinguishes Reggio-inspired learning? 

An array of lists from Reggio-inspired schools across the globe distill the program into a relatively small number of key elements. These typically include:

Student Interest: Learning stems from children’s interests and curiosity.

Relationships as Key to Learning: Learning emerges through relationships with others including peers, teachers, and other members of the community.

Self expression and Creativity: Reggio has a notion of “100 languages” or the many ways children express their ideas, feelings, and creativity. Children deserve experiences engaging them in a wide range of materials and modes of creativity.

Project-Based Learning: Learning occurs through short and long terms projects and teachers create the conditions for children to become engaged in these projects

The Physical Environment As a Central Teaching Element: The classroom is considered the “third teacher” (parents are first and school educators are second). As such, the physical environment of schools is a critical contributor to learning.

The Flexible Use of Time: Children are given time to become deeply immersed in activities of interest to them.

Documentation and Sharing: A record is kept of the process of learning for children to review and see their own progress, as well as to share with others. 

Parents as Partners: Parents are respected as the primary influences on children’s learning and are actively engaged in life at school.

While I love each and every one of these key elements of Reggio-inspired learning, there is another central principle, rarely highlighted as a core to the approach, that inspires me even more.

The Reggio approach emerged out of inspired parental love and hope. 

What is now known around the world as Reggio-inspired learning began in the days following World War II when a group of parents in the war torn region of Reggio Emilia in northern Italy banded together to build a preschool. Having just withstood the horrors of Nazism and fascism, they wanted a school that would prepare their children to stand strong against oppression, injustice, and inequality. 

And so, for me, the core of Reggio-inspired learning is to strive to recreate the inspired parental love and hope that existed at the very beginning in Reggio-Emilia. It is our role as educators to support parents to prepare children to stand strong against the oppression, injustice, and inequality they may experience in a future we cannot yet even imagine. How to do so requires ongoing reflection and creative collaboration. As a beginning, at Discovery Village we have embraced the core value of caring – caring for self, others, our communities, and our world. We spent the entire month of February in interdisciplinary projects and activities focused on caring. 

Putting values and character at the core of what we do will be an ongoing commitment. As we focus on impactful implementation, I welcome your thoughts, ideas, and insights.

Categories
Blogs

Child Care near Elmsford, New York?

Child Care Near Elmsford New York
Why Should You Enroll Your Kids in the Best Child Care near Elmsford, New York?

Are you looking for quality child care near Elmsford New York. Just 24 miles northeast of Manhattan, the 1.1-square-mile Elmsford is one of six villages in the town of Greenburgh. The village, though, is quiet; its roughly 4,700 residents live on tree-lined streets in neighborhoods sprinkled with parks that are full of children.

Is My Child Safe in a Child Care Center?

There are many Child Care Centers to keep your child while you are at work. Discovery Village is unique. We offer the care of a village, the creativity of an art studio, and the discovery of a science lab. Children are immersed in quality learning and care. We have a state of the art keyless entry system, ensuring that parents can enter during center hours to see their children, while we keep those we do not know out. Families living and work can find at Discovery Village the best of child care near Elmsford.

Why Should I Leave my Child at Discovery Village?

At Discovery Village, children take part in designing classrooms into communities where they pursue their interests through projects and play. These communities incorporate fun, creativity and social interaction. 

Early education can build the foundation of your child’s future. Here are a few benefits in enrolling your child:

  • Child Care Centers Can Help Develop Social and Emotional Maturity

When you leave your children at Discovery Village, you give them the chance to meet new people. They will learn to share and mature while working together to create a community of fun, independence and creativity.

For all age groups Discovery Village’s high quality, imaginative learning experiences support children to thrive today while setting foundations for the future.

Child Care Services from Discovery Village

Discovery Village Childcare & Preschool is a child care institution located in Tarrytown, NY. Their goal is to provide an innovative approach to early childhood learning. They also designed their classrooms to nurture children’s interests. Focusing on caring relationships and creative self-expression, Discovery Village aims to give your children the best experience they need with different projects that can cultivate their curiosity and creativity.

From newborn through pre-K, Discovery village meets your child where they are to help them grow and develop with experience that includes self-care, care for others, care for our communities and care for our world. Check out their website today at DiscoveryVillageCenter.com and enroll your child today. You may also call them now at 914-631-1009!