Childcare centers meet the needs of children of a variety of ages, and must put a great deal of thought and effort into the spaces necessary for infants versus the spaces needed for a preschool classroom. You may find, as you visit daycare centers and as your own children grow from infancy into the preschool years, that their classrooms evolve, …
Focusing on Nutrition: How Summit Kids Academy Promotes Lifelong Healthy Eating Habits
If you’re concerned about your family’s nutrition, you may have heard the term “clean eating” in your searches for healthy meal plans and ingredients. What is clean eating? Clean eating is a way of looking at the ingredients you put into your body and choosing only whole, unprocessed, and mainly plant-based ingredients. Unrefined and unprocessed grains, flours, and sugars, as …
The Effect of Afterschool Arts Programs on Young Children
As any family with a child enrolled at Summit Kids Academy knows, a well-rounded approach to education is integral to everything we do. Summit believes that the hours children spend in its afterschool program are precious. After examining the research on afterschool arts education programming, Summit has landed on an arts focus in its own afterschool programming for young children. …
What Makes a Daycare Program “The Best”?
From the moment parents discover that they are going to have their first child, their thoughts turn to quality childcare. Parents, naturally, want the very best for their children, from the nutritious food they eat to the activities they’re involved in, and, of course, the daycare center they are enrolled in each day. Your child’s daycare will become a significant …
Using the “Why” Phase to Promote Conversation with Your Young Child
By the time your young child turns three years of age, he may begin asking you “why” in response to nearly everything you tell him. It can be a long phase, and one that is exhausting for many parents. However, these “why” questions often show general interest in topics, and can be a great way to foster stimulating and ongoing …
Taming Toy Clutter: How to Organize Your Home’s Toy Collection
Do you find yourself looking around at your child’s toy collection and becoming stressed out about the amount of toys in your home, and the fact that they are poorly organized? Are your kids constantly losing toys, or making huge messes without any clear idea of how to clean everything up? First, find a special spot for each favorite toy. …
Nurturing Resilience in Young Children
Resilience does not come easily to very young children. When a toy is unavailable or a difficult task is looming, many toddlers and preschoolers simply collapse. But helping them to build a foundation that will support greater resilience as they get older is invaluable. Resilience is the ability to look at a setback or a difficulty, and to manage one’s …
When Sleep Concerns Arise During the Preschool Years: How to Solve Three Common Problems
Parents often believe that night wakings, sleep disturbances, and difficulty getting children to sleep is restricted to the infancy stage. But many parents of preschoolers will notice that sleep concerns may start to crop up around this age, due to changing nap patterns, feelings of separation anxiety, and, well, the fact that your child is no longer in a crib …
Like Riding a Bike: Eight Strategies to Make the Learning Process Easier for Your Child
Riding a bicycle is an integral part of childhood for many kids. The feeling of the wind rushing past them, the newfound independence, and the relationship between a child and her bike can be such a positive experience. But the learning process is tough, and these tips can make it a little easier for both parents and kids! Choose a …
Tackling Fears and Phobias in Young Children Using a Stepwise Approach
Phobias in young children are incredibly common. Some children can recall slipping too far into the deeper end of the pool and now have a fear of the water. Others have been confronted by overly boisterous dogs and may be wary of going near any dogs at all. And some children may develop a fear of the dark due to …