If you have a preschooler, you need a set of blocks. It is really that simple.
Why are blocks a must? First, they are concrete.  Preschoolers aren’t ready to think in the abstract ways that worksheets require.  Plus, their developing writing skills (fine motor development) won’t allow them to think through writing as quickly as their minds work.  Blocks do.

Not only do blocks allow for concrete learning, they also tap into your preschooler’s need for repetition while learning.  Young children will stack and knock down blocks over and over again because of the sensory rewards—the sight of the blocks falling is breath-taking and the sound is awesome.  

Because many of us associate math with worksheets, we think that preschoolers aren’t ready for math lessons.  Maria Montessori, a pioneer in early childhood education, emphasized the importance of concrete forms in math education between the ages of three and five.  Math manipulatives facilitate the abstract thought needed later to compute numbers. She recommended that young children constantly move objects, like blocks and beads, and use their senses while learning because it leads to a later desire to write out a mathematical operation.  

Blocks are often available, but they are not always used for intentional math & play sessions.  Simply having blocks available for a preschooler to use does not take full advantage of the potential that blocks have to construct a math mind. To unlock the mathematical benefits of block play, your child needs social interaction with you.  

If you don’t have wooden blocks, you can make your own blocks out of lightweight cardboard boxes (tissue boxes, cereal boxes, oatmeal canisters).  For added weight, pack them with newspaper and tape them shut.  Whether you have wooden blocks or not, making some cardboard boxes together and talking about their size and shape and what you would like to build with them is a great way to introduce your intentional math & play sessions.

Here are some age-appropriate purposeful block play ideas:

• Lay out block pattern with three or four blocks (triangle, circle, triangle, square) and ask your preschooler to match or continue the pattern.  Recognizing and predicting patterns is an important logic and math skill
• Select eight to ten blocks and ask your child to “Make something really cool.”  You may find that your preschooler creates roads, a house with walls and floors, or the tallest possible tower.  No matter what, give lots of praise and ask open ended questions like, “What will people do in this room?” or “Why doesn’t your tower fall down?”  If you notice a clear preference for constructing one type of structure after playing this game several times, ask your preschooler to create a new type of structure.  You might say, “I love your towers, but could you make a town with roads this time?”  Building a variety of structures fosters different types of mathematical thinking.
• Name the different block shapes and point out similar shapes around the room.  For example, the rectangular window or circle rug.  By doing this, you introduce the concept of mathematical shapes as structures, much like what they have built during block play.
• Encourage your child to sort the blocks by size.  Use comparison words like big and small.  Later when your child is asked to find the bigger number, he will have a concrete reference for size.  Also reinforce the use of comparison words with concrete objects by asking your child to stack the small block on the big block and the big block on the small block.  Stacking blocks of different sizes (and letting them fall) fosters the spatial reasoning needed in geometry and offers hands-on problem solving skills.
• Get out a tape measure and note specific differences in the sizes of the blocks.  By using tape measure, you introduce units of measure and fine tune comparisons. (Leave lots of time for this activity because both of you will want to measure everything—including each other.)

Block play is a rich parent/child activity—filled with touch, sight, sound, repetition, and imagination.  The guided, tactile learning activities listed here are meant to help you lead your child into a curiosity for the world of mathematics.  That sense of curiosity—the desire to know—is the most prized school-readiness skill and so easy to build.

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A child can learn and benefit greatly from being read to right from the day they are born.

Big ones, little ones, soft ones, plastic ones and musical ones. Children's books come in all sorts of fascinating shapes and sizes. Grab a book and snuggle up on the sofa with your child and share the joy of story telling with them. The benefits of reading out loud to your baby or young child are simply endless!

Benefits

• It encourages children to make connections between the "heard" word and the meaning "behind" the word.
• It gives them a positive foundation to pre-reading skills that aids the process of becoming independent readers in the future.
• One of the most important skills a parent can teach children is how to communicate: how to speak, listen, and to read. By reading aloud to your children, you are teaching them all of these skills.
• Reading to young children also expands their vocabulary, improves memory, and allows them to practice listening skills.
• Read to your child from a variety of sources. Such as books, cereal boxes, magazines, road signs, and greeting cards. By reading from a variety of sources, you are teaching the importance of the written word.
• Try making books from cardboard and pasting pictures from magazines - kids love these.
• As your child becomes older, he will want books that actually tell a story and have an ending that makes sense to him. Books help to develop the preschooler's attention span. They contribute to children forming a rich vocabulary and verbal skills.
• Books also help to develop thinking and the imagination.
• They also contribute to the development of  basic reading concepts such as following the words from the left to right side of a page. Place books within easy reach of your child, so they can enjoy looking at them on their own.

So go and grab some books from your local book shop. Or get into the habit of taking your young child to the library to choose his own. This can go a long way to helping your child become a proficient and confident reader later on in life.

These great tips and more are from the highly acclaimed book The Triumphant Child - A practical guide to raising 2, 3 and year olds.

As a parent, it is so frustrating to hear your own child back chatting, name calling or using bad language.

Luckily, with a little understanding and self-restraint, parents can put a lid on talking back. Firstly, try to find out WHY the child is behaving in this way. The child could be hungry, tired, frustrated, a victim of bullying or copying older siblings. Keep in mind that when kids talk back, something else is going on underneath. The goal is to help them express it constructively. Below are some strategies that could help to clean up your preschooler’s act!

Avoid yelling, talking back or getting angry yourself

If you do this then you are reinforcing the behavior. Your child is angry, frustrated, or upset about something. Try to find out what is the root cause of the problem. Do not make it a bigger problem.

Communicate with them

When your preschooler backchats you, let them know that you care about their feelings, even if you do not approve of the way they are expressing them. Acknowledging your child’s emotions can often diffuse the situation and stop it from becoming a big scene. If you can get past the attitude, you may be able to sort out what is going on and come up with some solutions.

Let them know how it makes you feel

When your child has calmed down, let them know how their behavior makes you feel. For example, if your child shouts - “I hate you”, you could explain that you love them very much and hearing those words hurt your feelings. You do not need to make a big deal out of it but it is important to let children know their words and behavior can affect others.

Share the problem-solving process

Ensure your child understands that there are choices they can make about their behavior. If they are unable to listen because they are so angry or upset or defiant, then try talking about it later as a family. Role-play some scenarios. As a family talk about what could happen next

Children learn bad words before they learn the meaning of them

As hard as it is, try not to react to your young child swearing. Some children may delight in saying the word just to get a reaction out of adult Preschoolers may innocently repeat something they have heard or be unsure of it’s meaning. If it is a one off incident, it is probably best to ignore it. Your child does not know what they are saying and chances are will not repeat it again. If it becomes an ongoing problem - ask them what the word means then briefly explain why it is not acceptable.

Tell your child firmly that you do not accept bad language

Be careful of not using bad language yourself. If used to express frustration, give them an alternative word. Have fun choosing descriptive words to use e.g. rats, jeepers, pumpkin, chocolate bananas….

Apologize when you overreact

Model what they can do when they overreact or say things they do not mean. If you make a mistake, make it better - “I am sorry that I shouted and called you a bad boy. I was frustrated that you would not pick up the toys, but that is not excuse for calling you names”.

With preschoolers, often ‘NO’ is a common backchat

If you are constantly hearing “NO” then think about how you are phrasing the instruction – For example -“Are you ready to go home now?” (When leaving a friends house), is almost asking for a “NO”. Try instead “We are leaving in 5 minutes”, followed by “We are leaving now”.

You simply cannot avoid disagreements with your children

However, you can have RULES for disagreements

• Don't attack
• Don't belittle
• Don't condemn
• Define what the problem is
• Define how to rectify it Figure out what can be done to prevent it in the future
• Make up your own family rules

Broken-record approach

Be consistent and fair with what you will and will not tolerate. Repeat why you find their behavior unacceptable. Try to remain calm and repeat it numerous times if necessary. They will get the message eventually!

Reward good behavior

Ensure your child is rewarded and congratulated when they are having a good day (or hour…..). Congratulate good behavior; let them know you are noticing when they choose not to ask "WHY" or say "NO".

Be firm, consistent, calm, and loving in dealing with your child’s misbehavior. Reassure the child that it is the behavior that is unacceptable, not him or her. In the end, always give a hug and tell him or her how much you love him

Nelly (mother of two sons aged 3 and 4) says ‘Both my boys are very defiant and like to question EVERYTHING I ask them to do. Star charts worked well. As a family, we try to focus on the positive behavior and not the negative. I attended an anger management course for parents recently and that helped a lot. It gave me a few strategies to deal with my emotions. My boys push me to my limits on a daily basis!’

These great tips and more are from the highly acclaimed book The Triumphant Child - A practical guide to raising 2, 3 and year olds.

There is something special about two year olds. Everything is wondrous and magical to them. Their imaginations are really taking off and they have such a passion for life! Here are some tips for developing your two year old's learning.

• Encourage independence by providing shoes and clothes that are easy to get on and off.
• Check your child for signs of readiness - this is usually a good age to work on potty training.
• Encourage make-believe play by having a wide range of pretend toys such as plastic kitchen utensils, plastic play food, doctors kit, dolls and babies.
• Make simple books by cutting out pictures and gluing them with your child. Talk to them about what they think is happening in the pictures.
• Take your two year old to a park so they can practice running, jumping, climbing, sliding and swinging -tires them out too!
• Have your child learn about classification by sorting through the washing. They can put socks with socks and shirts with shirts.
• Provide paints and boxes so your child can decorate them - while doing this you could talk about the colors your child is using and experiment with mixing them. For example, "what will happen if we mix yellow and blue?"
• Make roads for your child to drive their cars on- you could use masking tape ( I used toilet paper once - not such a great idea when it came to cleaning up!!) Trace a road in the dirt outside - draw a road on the pavement with chalk. By following these "roads" your child is working on developing her physical fine motor skills.
• Put a few dishes in the sink with some dishwashing liquid and have your child "wash" them for you - two year olds love to help out and do what you do.
• Use puppets to teach your child about feelings: one puppet could be laughing and you could ask your child how does this one feel? Then move onto angry and sad. This helps children put words to feelings so they can describe how they are feeling to you. 

These great tips and more are from the highly acclaimed book The Triumphant Child - A practical guide to raising 2, 3 and year olds.