We’re so excited to have the children back for a full week at The Children’s House, for the first time in a loooong time!! We spent the few days last week just getting to know the children and introducing them to each other & the new class routines, so this week is more about getting to know each other better. We will be doing paintings for our birthday walls and making friendship wreaths with the children, as well as doing mindfulness at the end of the week. As part of the Practical Life area of Montessori activities, we will also be practising carrying trays with objects, and putting on our coats – this helps the children to gain independence, while also refining their gross motor skills; we spend a lot of time in September concentrating on developing the children’s gross & fine motor skills & refining their spatial awareness.

Song: Do You See? (tune: Do you know the Muffin Man?)

Do you see our friend (name), friend (name), friend (name)?
Do you see our friend (name), somewhere in our room?
Yes I see our friend (name), friend (name), friend (name),
Yes I see our friend (name), somewhere in our room!

Please be aware that we will be asking you 3 questions each morning about your children:

1. Does your child have a temperature?
2. Is your child on any medication?
3. Has your child been unwell over the last 48 hours?

If the answer to these 3 questions is no, then we are delighted to welcome your child into class – if any of the answers are yes, then your child will need to stay at home until they have been well & healthy for at least 48 hours.

This is in order to protect the health & safety of your child, all the other children & their families, & our staff.

Thank you for helping to keep us all safe & well!!

We are holding our open day on Monday 31st August, from 9.30 until 1.30 – by appointment only!

Please confirm your appointment, come in, view the school with your children and meet the teachers!

Classes will be resuming on Wednesday 2nd September,

with staggered drop off & collection times for the first week or so to settle in the children.

Please bring in a change of clothes in clearly labelled ziplock bag for your child,

& ensure they are wearing weather appropriate clothes as we will be spending half the class time outdoors!!

Can’t wait to see you all!!

Here at The Children’s House we’re getting ready for reopening in September (yay!!) – & although we know that it will be quite different from previous years, we are just as excited about the new term starting  – if not more so, as a return to some sort of normality is much needed by us all at this stage! We can’t wait to meet the new & returning children, & for those who are moving on to primary school, we hope to see them before the end of the summer for a farewell gathering & wish them all the best in starting ‘Big School’ – we know they’ll get on *so* well, make lots of new friends & learn loads of new things!!

This is a post about transitions, in case any of you are wondering how you can support your child whether in starting or returning to preschool, or transitioning to primary school.

There are a ton of great resources from Autism Little Learners which are visual stories relating to COVID 19; we especially like the one about separation anxiety which might especially apply to children starting or returning to preschool

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1mfBxk19ns8L4CdqbFXDo7-7-3aCezDXF/view

and another about going back to school which might be a good visual for older children who will be returning to a different type of primary schooling https://drive.google.com/file/d/1cFYEsI1oBS1gO5G7IM7rljTYDMEQfMOy/view

Usually from May onwards we would have liaised with the local school in Sallins & brought the children up to have a look around it – some of them may not have been going to this particular school but it gives the idea of the much bigger scale of primary school as opposed to preschool, as we normally get to see the classrooms, the children out at playtime (it’s like a jungle!!!, the library etc. It would be a good idea if possible for you to take your child to the primary school they will be attending & familiarise them with the place, maybe point out e.g. this is where you’ll stand in line in  the morning time; this is where I’ll collect you; this is where you’ll have your outdoors play etc. The same can be done for the Montessori – show your child the building & the outdoors area, talk to them about how things will be in September & especially the changes due to COVID e.g. ‘Mammies & daddies won’t be coming into the school for the moment, it’s only for the children & the teachers’ while always reassuring them that you/another caregiver will be there to collect them in a little while, after they’ve played with their friends & had snack etc in order to lessen separation anxiety. Try getting your child’s uniform & books for primary school well enough in advance for them to be familiar with them, & talk about their timetable of the day & what they’ll be doing & learning in a positive way – it might be a daunting time ahead but it’s also an exciting time!

The main things that we would focus on for school readiness with the children aren’t the academic skills (apart from recognising & maybe writing their own name), but rather self-care skills, communication skills, social & emotional skills, & fostering their love of learning – which doesn’t usually prove too difficult! Self-care would involve taking off & putting on coat & shoes, using the toilet, wiping nose, opening lunch box etc – you can practice all these skills at home. Communication skills would focus on things such as the child being able to communicate their needs, as well as being able to listen to others & follow instructions from their teacher. Social & emotional skills important for school would be ones such as sharing, turn-taking, independence & confidence (for instance encourage your child to make decisions for themselves at home, then notice & praise them for making good decisions), emotional regulation – e.g. if something unfair happens, how does the child deal with it, encourage them to use their words to sort out a situation & stand up for themselves in an appropriate way.

I probably talked about emotional regulation before but it’s hugely important at this age & especially during this time of disruption to routines, & something that we support the development of throughout the year in The Children’s House. Always keep reminding your child how good they are at regulating their emotions by praising when they use strategies to calm themselves down like deep breathing, or when they resolve conflict through using their words rather than crying or hitting out. If they are upset try to support them by acknowledging & naming their feelings & why they might be feeling that way, & asking them for a way to help themselves feel better e.g. ‘I know you’re upset because …. but what might make you feel better?’ You might have to give suggestions in the beginning e.g. ‘a hug? Your teddy? Going for a walk?’ & then encourage them to come up with their own suggestions themselves, in this way reinforcing their own emotional resilience in the future; they get the idea that they can make themselves feel better & don’t have to depend on others to make them feel better, which is very liberating & confidence building!

There are a lot of visual aids you can use, some of which I have attached pictures of from our school such as the feelings wheel you can print out & laminate, & make an arrow for it so the child just moves it around depending on how they feel – it’s a lovely visual & also indirectly reinforces the idea that feelings are transient & temporary (which is nice for you when they’re in the middle of a minor meltdown!!) The emotion faces are very simple & straight forward to make – just cut out some circles from coloured card & draw faces showing different emotions on them e.g. happy, sad, angry, tired etc – & encourage your child to use them to show how they’re feeling.

A really nice activity to do is to get your child to do a self portrait – sit them in front of a mirror with paper & pencils or crayons & ask them to really look at their own faces, talk about what colour their eyes are, what type of hair they have etc & then get them to draw themselves. You can then look at the picture with them & ask them how they were feeling when they drew themselves. (This can be extended into doing a body portrait on long sheets of butcher paper; just get your child to lie down, draw around their outline & ask them to fill in the body using paint, crayons, materials, glitter…whatever you have to hand – but again, encourage them to focus on whichever part of the body they’re doing e.g. ‘look at how long your legs are, you’re really growing! Your arms are so strong aren’t they?’ & name body parts for them e.g. ankles, elbows, shins, collarbone etc.)

As a family you can create a ‘Compliments Tree’; this is to encourage children to think positively of others of themselves & of others, & all you need is a branch stuck in a vase (alternatively use an empty jar & have a Compliments Jar) & some pieces of paper or card. Pick a member of the family & ask everyone else in the family to say their favourite thing about that person, then write all the compliments down & hang them on the tree. Take turns going around the family & you’ll have a lovely collection of compliments to read any time someone needs a bit of morale boosting! And whenever someone gives a compliment just add it to the collection.

Back to transitions!! The National Parents Council have produced an online video about supporting your child in the transition from preschool to primary school:

http://www.npc.ie/news-events/early-years-video?fbclid=IwAR19610mdj9arOCJ63v0kmYeEHaYfsJBKDYg6vORVBD28Nm47Uz6NYGt-ZA

And finally here’s a couple of links from the government which give some useful information about your child returning to preschool:

https://www.gov.ie/en/publication/e18e6-ready-to-reopen/

https://www.gov.ie/en/campaigns/1e8a3-lets-get-ready/?referrer=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.gov.ie%2Fletsgetready%2F&fbclid=IwAR27FyeLXPw4X3v1QPc-uUP6BfC-hBAI5TNGNAQKSCrIg_TMrCl3ds9SxqA

As with all school settings this coming September, things will be done differently in The Children’s House to ensure the health, safety & comfort of children, staff & families alike, but it will still be a happy, caring & stimulating environment full of supportive and positive interactions, & we cannot wait to get back to it!!! In the meantime, we hope that you’re all keeping safe & well, & we know that you as parents are doing the most amazing job at looking after, & out for, your little ones – just don’t forget to take care of yourselves too!

Love from all at The Children’s House xx

Hi everyone, just to let you know that as things stand at the moment we will be re-opening as planned on Wed 2nd September.

Classes will stay as they are size-wise, & each class will have 2 teachers.

Things happily won’t be changing very much for your children, but we as the adults will be adapting how we operate to ensure maximum health & safety is achieved for everyone…. we will be updating with any relevant details during the summer!

It’s all sporting activities this week at The Children’s House! This time of year we always have sports day & we’re so sad to be missing it with your children, so we thought we’d send on some ideas for sports at home this week. Exercising is so good for your child’s mental health, & there are lots of fun ways to get them up & going.

Obstacle course: we often make these in school during the year, both indoors & outdoors – these are great for practising & refining gross motor movements like crawling, running, jumping, skipping, hopping, rolling, balancing, moving sideways/ backwards… if indoors (which can often be the most surprisingly fun as you can use everyday objects & furniture in a more exciting & unexpected way) rearrange furniture with your child’s help so you have to climb OVER & crawl UNDER tables & chairs rather than go AROUND them (using prepositions to describe actions to add to your child’s vocabulary & understanding), take turns throwing rolled up socks into a basin, do a sack race in a pillow, egg & spoon race, long jump – all can be done indoors or outdoors to much hilarity!! Draw chalk on the ground outside/ place a rope indoors to walk on a line, or set up a row of cushions/ pillows on the ground & get your child to walk from 1 end to the other, good for practising balance. Try walking while balancing books or cushions on your head…Set up a course with 6 stations & let us know how quickly you can complete the course – & please send us in the photos of your wonderful creations!!!

Healthy Kidz – Week 1 – Virtual Sports Day Long Jump

Colour run: use chalks, objects or even make pictures to mark out areas of different colour, call a colour & have your child run to that area. This can be made more difficult by using shapes or numbers instead of colours, & if it is still too easy try following a sequence & build on the number of instructions to suit your child. Set a timer and see how many you can get? Sounds like a good activity to tire little people out with! If you have outdoors space & chalk why not try hopscotch – such a fun game, & it reinforces the numbers for your child too.

Animal Walk: Inside or out, encourage your child to slither like a snake, hope like a frog, gallop like a horse, or walk like a bear on all fours. Who will find the most imaginative way to move?

Keep the Balloon Up: see how long you can keep the balloon in the air!  Use your hands, feet, head, elbows, knees or even a bat or racket to keep it from touching the ground. Have a competition with family and friends or time yourself and see can you beat your own record!

Puddle Jumping: Why not make the most of the rain! Get your wellies on and enjoy jumping in, out and over puddles.

Blanket Toss: Take a blanket or a towel and have 2 or more children hold the corners. Throw a ball on top, enjoy as the children work together to send the ball into the air and catch it again. Throw ping pong balls, a beach ball or a balloon onto it & try to keep throwing them back up in the air for as long as possible, such a fun activity!!

Kick Bowling: With some recycled materials like cardboard tubes or empty bottles set up some skittles and try to knock them down by kicking a ball. If this is too easy increase the challenge by using balls that decrease in size. We often do bowling at Halloween in school using little pumpkins to bowl toilet rolls stacked in a pyramid!

Treasure hunt: give instructions to your child to find something rough, smooth, soft, hard, different shapes, different colours, living/ non-living…

Play hide & seek indoors or outdoors – sometimes hiding really obviously on a child behind a curtain or door, or under a blanket is the funniest thing ever!!

Exercises on the spot: running, jumping, hopping, star jumps, anything at all – get your child to make up new exercises for you…then do some yoga & stretching to cool down.

Rob the Nest: Use whatever you have to hand at home, balls, socks or even tin cans. Place all of the items in a central space and ask the children to take 5 steps away. Set a timer and see who can run into the centre and collect the most items within the time set.

Rob the Nest (Running) – PhysEd Game/Activity

Tumble drop: Have your child lie down on their back with a pile of bean bags or rolled up socks or gloves beside their feet and a bucket on the floor just above their head. The aim of the game is to get as many items into the bucket within a set time using only their feet.

Drama: Act out your child’s favourite story or song with them, use puppets made from socks or teddies to play different parts too. Cut out a bit of a cereal box to make a little puppet theatre/ television to use. Colour faces on wooden spoons to make puppets. Sing songs using different pitched voices, do dramatic games like ‘What time is it Mr Wolf?’ – this is a great one again for reinforcing numbers, while being the best fun! (In case you’re not familiar with this game, stand a good distance from your child with your back to them; they have to ask ‘what time is it Mr Wolf?’ & you say e.g. ‘1 o’clock’/ ‘4 o’clock’), then your child has to take that many steps towards you; when you judge they are close enough & they ask the question, you shout ‘dinner time’ & turn around to chase them, obviously lots of tickles when they’re caught!!

Why not design & make medals or trophies for the end of your sports week with your children?

https://theimaginationtree.com/salt-dough-olympic-medals/

https://www.thecreationstation.co.uk/inspiration/how-to-make-a-childrens-crafty-trophy

Poem: I’m a Big Bad Wolf (to be read in as OTT manner as possible!)

I’m a big bad wolf and I look for things to eat –
I don’t like leaves and berries; I only like meat!
I see those little piggies – am I dreaming, or awake?
Those chubby little creatures…
What a dinner they will make!!

Hi everyone, hope you’re all keeping safe & well! This week we’ve got activities that your child can do using another wonderful pack from Sue which you’ll get delivered later in the week; we will be making worry dolls, a traditional Guatemalan peg doll that the children can confide their worries in and the dolls are meant to take the worries away. According to folklore, if your child places the doll under their pillow before going to sleep, the doll is thought to worry in the child’s place, thereby letting them sleep peacefully & waking without their worries as the doll has taken them away during the night! We always reiterate to the children that they should always tell their parents/guardians/teachers about their worries, but if for instance they are awake in the middle of the night and need a bit of comfort, the worry dolls are a lovely support. We make these towards the end of every school year; there was one child who was in our Montessori for 3 years, & his mother told me he put all 3 of his worry dolls under his pillow the night before starting primary school…

All you need is traditional wooden pegs, markers to draw a face, & scraps of wool/material to glue on! Of course you can bring geography into this activity by looking to see where Guatemala is on a map/ globe, & talking about the continent of North America (Guatemala is in Central America which is the southernmost part of North America!!), then pointing out the other 6 continents, talking about family you might have living in other continents, where do the child’s favourite animals come from etc.

Something we do in school from the beginning of the year, which can really help if your child is visibly worried or anxious about something, is to practice deep breathing – this is the first step of doing yoga with them, & listening to your body. We just simply ask the children to put their hands on their tummies & take some long deep breaths, & model this for them, exaggerating as much as possible how slowly you can breathe in & out. This in itself is a great exercise for when you might need to try & calm a child down about something – it focuses them by giving them something to do with their hands – & it is also a lovely relaxation activity; you can add to it by getting them to do it lying down, & putting a teddy on their tummy & they can see it rising & falling with their breathing. Any techniques for self soothing are just wonderful to encourage in children from the early years, which is 1 of the reasons we incorporate yoga & mindfulness into our classes. I’ve attached some exercise cards with more breathing exercise ideas.

Back to our pack!! – this Father’s day page of facts can be done for dads or granddads; it’s great to ask your child these questions & see what their answers are – usually more hilarious than accurate! The pack will also contain materials to make a hot air balloon sun catcher, using hot air balloon cut outs & bits of coloured cellophane paper. Also the children will be getting bubble wrap, to use for painting & printing – definitely not for bursting!!!!

The song this week about colours can be done using Lámh signing – it’s the colours song!! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mr-VFbrnGs4

The Colours Song

Are you wearing red today, red today, red today? Are you wearing red today, yes or no? Yes I’m wearing red today, red today, red today! Yes I’m wearing red today, yes, yes, yes!

Are you wearing blue today, blue today, blue today? Are you wearing blue today, yes or no? No I’m not wearing blue today, blue today, blue today! No I’m not wearing blue today, no, no, no!

Are you wearing green today…

Are you wearing yellow today…

Are you wearing white today…

Hope you all have a great week, love from us all at The Children’s House xx

We’re SO proud of Elliot, who came first in his age group in the Heritage in Schools Backyard Bioblitz competition – & no wonder, as you can see how beautiful his illustrations are!! Amazing art work Elliot (now 1 of Kildare’s leading naturalists!)

We’re doing Kids in the Kitchen this week at The Children’s House!! All activities based around the fact that your children are probably very enthusiastic to help you out in the kitchen, so why not put that energy to good use?! We’ve got some straight forward recipes to try, art activities to do, science experiments…

To start, you can try the simplest of recipes to great success with children, using (mostly!) healthy recipes – cut water melon into triangles, deseed, & freeze for water melon pops; make ham & cheese wraps by simply cutting or grating the cheese onto the ham & wrapping the ham around the cheese; fill muffin holders with yogurt & berries, then freeze – add mashed banana, cinnamon, pistachios for variation!

Make fruit & spinach smoothies using any fruit you like with a little natural yoghurt; create delicious pizzas using just 1 cup each of Greek yoghurt & self-raising flour for a delicious dough base with any toppings you like; cut carrots, courgettes, celery, cucumber, peppers into healthy sticks & dip into cream cheese or hummus for a tasty snack; cook onions, veg & stock to make vegetable soup – all perfect to get little helpers involved in!

Why not try some art using kitchen utensils – set out paint on paper plates/ trays & let your child use spatulas, mashers, whisks etc to make amazing abstract designs! Then to make sure your child looks the part, why not make a chef’s hat with them? https://www.redtedart.com/paper-chefs-hat-diy-instructions/ Wrap a hair tie around a kitchen sponge & use it to sponge paint & make beautiful patterns… Make pasta bracelets or necklaces – just paint & decorate pasta shapes, thread onto string & voila! Another great art activity is to do fruit or vegetable stamping – cut apples, peppers, broccoli florets, celery sticks or potatoes in half, then paint & stamp to create geometric patterns – decorate old plain t shirts or pillow cases!! Alternatively, if like me you have a certain amount of used wine corks floating around your kitchen, you can carve little designs into the tops & let your child use them as stamps. Or save up your egg boxes, cut out the individual egg cups, paint them & lace onto string to make a beautiful flower garland.

Many of the activities we suggested for science week were based on what you find in your kitchen, & you might find a few more good ideas for science experiments here https://modernparentsmessykids.com/stem-20-kitchen-science-experiments-kids-will-love/

Don’t forget the importance of food hygiene, & to emphasise that hand washing is essential before any cooking activities!

Our song this week is Apples & Bananas https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r5WLXZspD1M

I like to eat, eat, eat apples and bananas, I like to eat, eat, eat apples and bananas, I like to eat, eat, eat apples and bananas, I like to eat, eat, eat apples and bananas.

Now let’s make a long “a” sound – ay-ples and ba-nay-nays; I like to ate, ate, ate ay-ples and ba-nay-nays, I like to ate, ate, ate ay-ples and ba-nay-nays.

Let’s try a long “e” sound… ee-ples and ba-nee-nees: I like to eat, eat, eat ee-ples and ba-nee-nees, I like to eat, eat, eat ee-ples and ba-nee-nees.

How about a long “i” sound… i-ples and ba-nigh-nighs: I like to ite, ite, ite i-ples and ba-nigh-nighs, I like to ite, ite, ite i-ples and ba-nigh-nighs.

Great, let’s sing it with a long “o” sound…oh-ples and ba-no-nos: I like to ote, ote, ote oh-ples and ba-no-nos, I like to ote, ote, ote oh-ples and ba-no-nos.

I know let’s make an “oo” sound…oo-ples and ba-noo-noos: I like to oot, oot, oot, oopples and ba-noo-noos, I like to oot, oot, oot, oopples and ba-noo-noos.

Last one…apples and bananas! I like to eat, eat, eat apples and bananas, I like to eat, eat, eat apples and bananas, I like to eat, eat, eat apples and bananas, I like to eat, eat, eat apples and bananas.