Bonding with your child, Brain Development, Calming an angry child, child development, Effective Communication, Effective Parenting;, Emotional Intelligence, EQ, Frustration, Gifted Parenting, Gifted Parenting; Parenting Styles; Effective Parenting, Language, Life Skills, Love, Loving Communication, Self Control, Tough Times

How to Launch Better Behaviour (and Better Learning) in your Child

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12
Mar

How to Launch Better Behaviour (and Better Learning) in your Child Children of all ages develop, learn and behave better when their parents are warm and nurturing. All parents function somewhere on a continuum, with positive “warm and nurturing” at one end and negative “cold and unapproachable” at the other. And, regardless of how much […]

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Why and How to Develop Listening Skills in Your Child.

Posted on by admin
08
Nov

  Why and How to Develop Listening Skills in Your Child. We all know people who can hear perfectly and yet are terrible listeners. Hearing is typically present from birth. It’s simply a physical act of receiving sound stimulation and sending it to the brain for reception. On the other hand, listening is a skill […]

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Bonding with your child, Newborn Activities

Connecting with Your Newborn

Posted on by admin
30
Jul

Connecting with Your Newborn There are few moments in life that are as exciting and nerve wracking at the same time as that hour when you bring your newborn baby home from the hospital. You place him safely in his cot and gaze at him in awe with an incredible sense of joy… And then, […]

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Baby Sign Language, Biting, Brain Development, Bullying, Calming an angry child, child development, Following instruction; child development, Frustration, Self Control, Touch Therapy

What to do When Your Toddler Hits or Bites.

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30
Mar

  What to do when your toddler hits or bites. Nobody likes to be on the receiving end of a toddler’s punch or bite – especially if the behaviour seems to be growing into a habit and the nipper doesn’t respond to discipline. What’s more, the display of aggression can be quite unsettling when a […]

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Baby Sign Language, Boost your child's Brain; Speech Development, Brain Development, child development, Language, Language Development, learning tools, Talking

BABY SIGN LANGUAGE: How, When and Why?

Posted on by admin
28
Mar

  Teaching babies and toddlers to use gestures for specific words before they are physically able to speak makes a whole lot of sense on many levels.   Will baby sign language delay my child’s speech development? Studies have shown that children who use this kind of early “sign language” show no delay in speech […]

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Brain Development, child development, Confidence, Develop Concentration, Developing Confidence in your Child; Benefits of One-on-One Interaction; Boost your Child's Brain; Brain Development; Effective Parenting; How children learn, development, Effective Communication, Following instruction; child development, How children learn, Learning, Life Skills, Self Control, The Practica Program

How to use Instructions to Develop Self-control in a Toddler.

Posted on by admin
23
Mar

  Children who have learned to follow instructions typically exhibit more self-control than other children, because learning to follow instructions involves practising to act with intent, which is the exact opposite of acting impulsively. That brings us to the question: “How do I teach my toddler to follow instructions?” The answer is: “By physically showing […]

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Brain Development, child development, development, Feeding, Food, Food Wars, Obesity, The Practica Program, Toddlers and Eating, Unhealthy Diet

How Toddlers Develop Food Preferences.

Posted on by admin
01
Mar

Have you ever wondered exactly why nutritionists cringe when they see one year olds eat chocolates, cheese curls, macaroni cheese, potato chips and chocolate mousse? It’s because these foods are addictive. Their high-carb-high-fat content triggers the dopamine reward system in our brains to shout for more. And, after a while, they dominate our preferences. They […]

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Boost your child's Brain; Speech Development, Brain Development, child development, development, Effective Communication, Following instruction; Brain Development, Following instruction; child development, Language, Language Development, Learning, Music, Nursery Rhymes, Social Development, Speech and Language Milestones, Talking, Teaching Communication Skills, The Practica Program

Teach Nursery Rhymes Early for Better Reading Later.

Posted on by admin
08
Feb

Photo Credit: http://mattnerphotography.com Researchers studied a group of 64 children when they were 3 years old, and the more rhymes they knew then, the better they were able to read 3 years later. They have concluded that this is the case because rhymes train children to be more sensitive to the speech sounds within words. (Read […]

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How children learn, Language Development, Learning, Life Skills, Mathematical Development, Memory, Milestones, Social Development, Speech and Language Milestones, The Practica Program

Birth to 24 months: 14 Fundamental Areas of Development

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25
Jan

It’s uninspiring when an educational programme considers only the most basic areas of development. Children learn more quickly during their early years than at any other time in life, simply because the plasticity of the human brain decreases with age. In other words, the younger your child, the greater an enriched environment will impact on […]

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child development, Develop Concentration, development, educational toys, Executive Functioning, Following instruction; Brain Development, Following instruction; child development, Instructional Play, learning tools, Milestones, The Practica Program, Wooden Block Set

Practica Programme Apparatus Blog Post Series – Wooden Block Set

Posted on by admin
20
Jan

The Practica Programme provides more than 4000 age-appropriate activity ideas for children from birth up to 7 years of age. The kit is packaged in a wooden toy box that includes a set of 8 User Guides and 28 sets of carefully selected sets of educational apparatus.   It’s the most comprehensive educational home programme […]

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Brain Development, Confidence, Constructive Criticism, development, educational toys, Effective Parenting;, Finger Painting, Following instruction; child development, Good Praise, learning tools, Relationship Boosters, Self Esteem

5 Tips for Facilitating Great Finger Paint Sessions

Posted on by admin
21
Dec

Are you embarrassed to admit that you have never made finger paint for your child? Join the club. It sounds like a messy business from start to finish and it’s definitely not the kind of thing most mothers want to do every week.But, children love it and it makes good pictures to post on Facebook. […]

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The 21st Century Skills for School

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29
Nov

  What is expected of your child? For decades, the first thing that sprung to mind when parents thought about properly preparing their children for success was getting them to pass a school readiness test with flying colours. But the world is changing. Schools, specifically private schools, are now calling for a wider approach. “Being […]

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child development, Choosing the right toy; Age-appropriate Toys, development, educational toys, Following instruction; Brain Development, Following instruction; child development, How children learn, Instructional Play, learning tools, The Practica Program

The Magic of Instructional Play

Posted on by admin
22
Jul

“Instructional play is an enjoyable activity or game that results in learning.” ~ Dr Donalyn Heise in “Dare to be Positive!”   We’ve recently had a look at how important it is to intentionally create learning opportunities for our children in which they can practise their ability to remember instructions, focus their attention, complete tasks […]

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