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2018 / Archives for May 2018

Archives for May 2018

Light It Up Blue for Autism Awareness Day

May 4, 2018 By Michelle Yannaco

World Autism Awareness Day (WAAD), celebrated each year on April 2, was adopted by the United Nations in 2007 to shine a bright light on autism. Autism is one of only three health issues to be recognized with its own day by the United Nations. WAAD activities increase world knowledge of autism and impart information about the importance of early diagnosis and early intervention. Additionally, WAAD celebrates the unique talents and skills of persons with autism around the world.

Each April 2, Autism Speaks celebrates Light It Up Blue along with the international autism community. In honor of people with autism worldwide, iconic landmarks, hotels, sporting venues, concert halls, museums, schools, universities, bridges, retail stores, and thousands of homes will light blue beginning on April 2! 

Visit the Autism Speaks website and register to show your support.

Ways to Light it Up Blue

:

Light Homes, Businesses, Schools, and Landmarks Blue:

  • Change outdoor or indoor white bulbs to blue bulbs.
  • Tint windows with blue gel sheets
  • Cover existing fixtures with blue gel filters
  • Project the Autism Speaks puzzle piece or Light It Up Blue logo on walls or buildings

Wear Blue

  • Ask family, friends, coworkers, and staff to wear blue (ties, scarfs, shirts, etc.)
  • Supply Autism Speaks lapel pins, bracelets, or other blue accessories to wear during the month of April.

Post Blue

  • Personalize your LIUB Selfie Sign to tell us where you Light It Up Blue
  • Post your photos on Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Instagram, or Flickr with the hashtag #LIUB to be a part of the global autism awareness movement!
  • Turn your website blue with our Site It Up Blue kit or add the Light It Up Blue logo with a link to autismspeaks.org/liub
  • Turn your Facebook or Twitter profile picture blue
  • Tweet autism facts with the hashtag #LIUB

Raise Awareness with Blue

  • Distribute information about autism, World Autism Awareness Day, and Light It Up Blue in your establishment, neighborhood, or company.
  • Invite a local Autism Speaks representative to speak to your staff, school, or town about autism and the Light It Up Blue campaign.
  • Reach out to local media to let the community know about your great work for the autism community and your support of autism speaks!

three kids at preschool
Read Next | Learn about All the Best Pre-school or Daycare Centers on Staten Island

Filed Under: Special Needs Articles

This Is How to Start School Anxiety-Free

May 1, 2018 By Michelle Yannaco

Back to School or Starting School — either way, many children experience separation anxiety when the carefree days of summer are over and school is in session. Inevitably, change may be difficult for some, but there are a few things you can do to ease your reluctant child into the routine of going to school. Below, Cheri Sterman, Director of Child Development at Crayola, offers her thoughts:

  • For very young children, use art as a window to understand what a kid is feeling. Remember that art at this age is not yet realistic looking, but from energetic scribbles, parents can hear their kids’ story and where fears or pride points come to life.
  • Use colorful schedules and charts to help ease morning routines. Encourage your kids to make personal decisions when possible and sketch the decisions or note the agreements you make on a chart to serve as a visual reminder of plans, e.g., clothing choices and bed times.
  • Fresh new supplies give kids a fresh start to a new year of colorful learning and new friendships – the excitement kids feel while picking out new school supplies generates excitement about going into a new school year.
  • Start BTS shopping early. Shopping for new supplies gives parents the opportunity to talk about the new school year – guide kids to imagine their new classrooms, friends, teachers and subjects and establish a dialog for success before the year begins. Not waiting for the last minute means less stress, more options, and less running around from store to store.
  • Make the shopping experience a celebratory outing with your kids. Focus on the excitement of being “one year older” and “moving up a grade.” BTS shopping can be a bonding experience.
  • Empower kids to make their own decisions on items not specified by the school supply list. Empower them to embrace the reality that school is coming – from the backpack design to new clothes and the color of lunch box.
  • Read Next | Melatonin for Kids: Is it Safe?

  • Prepare for the changes to daily routines. Work with your kids to develop a chore chart that includes activities such as packing lunches, reviewing backpacks, and completing homework. Being able to check off completed tasks will help make the new routine more manageable.
  • Create a homework center. Designate an area in the house (perhaps a corner of the kitchen or in your kids’ room) to be a place where the homework supplies are organized and ready to use. This simple space preparation will relieve tension that can occur on the first nights homework is assigned. Add in a few special treats in the way of supplies that remain at home in the homework center.
  • Make mistakes less stressful by using erasable products. If kids are struggling with multiplication facts or need more practice with vocabulary or spelling words–select a small dry erase board and dry erase crayons so they can easily practice and erase, building these basic skills before taking a school test.
  • Maximize summer before school starts. Enjoy creative experiences as a family, weaving learning into fun.  Ask your kids to draw your favorite part of the day either in a journal with colored pencils or on the driveway with sidewalk chalk. Visually expressing ideas is an important skill to develop and helps kids organize their thoughts and communicate with others.
  • As summer is waning, remember to keep learning skills fresh to avoid eroding the learning from the prior year. After reading a book, have your kid draw a new cover that depicts a different ending and then tell their revised story.
  • If travel is part of your summer plans, have your kid draw a map of the places you’ll visit, calculate the miles, and sketch some sights along the way. Crayons and index cards make great travel postcards that your kid can create and mail from the road.

For more ideas, parents can find playful, learning projects on Crayola.com in both the craft and lesson plan sections of the website to keep kids’ minds from “getting rusty” and gearing them up for an exciting new year of learning!

three kids at preschool
Read Next | Learn about All the Best Pre-school or Daycare Centers on Staten Island

Filed Under: Positive Parenting Tagged With: school

Fun and Easy Indoor Games and Amusements for Kids

May 18, 2018 By Staten Island Parent Staff

Whether it’s snowing or not, sometimes those frigid temperatures outside leave you feeling less than enthusiastic about going, well, anywhere in the middle of the winter. But that doesn’t mean your family should plop down on the couch and spend the day glued to the TV. Your kids will have a blast with any of these games.

Laundry Basket Skee Ball

1. Turn a Costco diaper box or similar sized box into a basic ramp that launches the balls into the air. To make the ramp, cut off the top and one end from the box. Then use a couple of cereal boxes to create a curved ramp and tape it in place with duct tape.

2. To play the game, simply roll balls up the ramp and launch them into the laundry baskets. You can use two baskets, with the closer one labeled 50 points and the farther one labeled 100 points, or you can add more baskets for higher point values.

From FrugalFun4Boys.com


Balloon Tennis

1. Gather plastic spoons, paint stirrers, or oversized popsicle sticks; painter’s tape; paper plates and balloons.

2.Tape the stick to the plate.

3. Hit the ball back and forth or balance on the plate as you run across the room.

— Courtesy of Toddler Approved.


Pool Noodle Basketball

1. Slit a toilet paper tube along the side and roll it tighter to fit inside the noodle, slipping each end over half of it. Then use duct tape to secure the noodle ends together. The TP tube just helps give it stability and not come apart so easily.

2. Use a beach ball to play basketball.

3. Tape the noodles horizontally or vertically.

From everneveragain.blogspot.ca

Read Next | 35 Boredom Busters


Classic Game Ideas

Check out this page from Momjunction.com featuring a bunch of old favorites that you might have forgotten all about!


Snow Traffic Jam

1. Scoop up snow from outside.

2. Lay it out on baking sheets.

3. Use toy cars and trucks (especially those with plows and scoops) to create your traffic jam.

— Courtesy of What We Do All Day


Paper Plane Target Practice

1. Get a large piece of drawing paper, or tape a few pieces of oak tag together.

2. Cut various circles of different sizes, assigning each a point value. The larger and lower circles should have lower point values, and the smaller and higher circles should have a higher point value.

3. Teach your children how to fold a paper airplane. Each child can create their own. You can use different-colored paper for each child.

4. Have the kids stand a few feet away from the “target” and toss their airplanes. The person with the most points at the end wins! Play as many rounds as you want.

— Courtesy of Sewing Mama Raeanna


Toilet Paper Roll Dinosaur Skeleton

1. Start collecting toilet paper and paper towel rolls. Wrapping paper rolls would work as well. Collect as many as you can.

2. Do an internet search of dinosaur skeletons and select one to use as your model.

3. Draw or trace the dinosaur head on a piece of paper and cut it out.

4. Make sure you take a picture to always remember your homemade prehistoric pal!

— Courtesy of  Your Modern Family


Color Wheel Scavenger Hunt

1. Choose seven or eight different colors, then get a piece of construction paper for each color.

2. Tape the colored construction paper on the floor in a large circle, creating a color wheel of colored boxes.

3. Instruct your children to locate various toys or objects for each color.

4. Have them race around and place the objects on their coordinating color boxes and see how many objects they can find for each.

— Courtesy of Toddler Approved


Indoor Snowball Kit

 

1. Find a white storage bin for the kit, which can be purchased at the dollar store. You can also use a white sand pail.

2. Cut snowman face shapes from craft foam or black construction paper.

3. Glue them to the bin.

4. Grab a bunch of white socks and roll them tightly into balls.

5. Start your snowball fight!

— Courtesy of Growing a Jeweled Rose


Marshmallow Sculptures

1. You will need a large bag of mini-marshmallows and a package of toothpicks.

2. Set up the marshmallows and toothpicks on plates on the table.

3. Have kids pierce each end of the toothpick with the marshmallows, and then repeat with other toothpicks. The sculptures can be as large or small as they want.

— Courtesy of The Mother Huddle


Water Bottle Bowling

1. Collect ten empty bottled water or other empty bottle, preferably at least 16 ounce-size, to use as bowling pins.

2. Decorate your bottles any way you like. You can glue numbers on with felt as shown in the picture, or you can cover the bottles with bunch of silly socks. Or you can just leave them plain, if you’re not the crafty type!

3. Find a ball to use. Try using a small NERF basketball, or any type of softer ball that accompanies a sports set for young kids.

4. Ready, set, bowl!

— Courtesy of Mandee Made


Indoor Beach Party

1. Fill an inflatable pool with brightly colored balls.

2. Lay out beach towels and open a beach umbrella.

3. Dig out your sand pails, shovels, and other beach toys.

4. Play beach themed games like a hula-hoop contest, indoor beach volleyball (use balloons!), and limbo.

5. Make summery dishes like fruit kebobs and popsicles.

6. Crank up the heat and break out the bathing suits, sunglasses, and flip flops.

— Courtesy of How Does She?


Hallway Laser Maze

1. Get some red crepe paper and some tape.

2. This can be done with painter’s tape as well, but you’ll need to tape the sides together to avoid stickiness.

2. You can create it for the kids or have them help with the process. Tape it high, tape it low and all ways in between. Be sure to spread the paper apart enough for everyone to fit through. You want it to be slightly difficult but not impossible.

3. Have your little ninjas and spies navigate the laser maze.  You may have to do some adjusting as they go along. Have fun!

— Courtesy of Brassy Apple


Ball Toss

1. You will need at least five buckets, preferably of the same size. You can use toy storage bins. They do not have to match or be the same color.

2. Line up the buckets in a row.

3. Write “10”, “20”, “30”, 40″, and “50” and tape a sheet to the inside of each bucket, placing them in ascending numerical order.

4. Put several balls (use any small, soft balls you have around the house- handballs, small Nerf balls, etc.) in a sand pail.

5. Have your children take turns tossing the balls into the buckets, earning the amount of points indicated on each bucket. The one with the highest score at the end wins!

— Courtesy of Catch My Party


pediatrician with child
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Filed Under: Family Fun, Stuff To Do Tagged With: games

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