Fun Start: An idea a week to maximize your baby’s potential from birth to age 5

FUNSTART

An activity a week to maximize your baby’s potential from birth to age 5

June Oberlander

Table of Contents

Cover Page

Title Page

Preface

Introduction

PART I

Move the Body Parts

Response to Light

Moving an Object

Make a Cradle Gym

Mirror and Pendulum

The Sock Ball

Response to a Noise Maker

Awareness

Interaction With Your Baby With Understanding

Large Muscle Activities

Eye-Hand Coordination

Observing Different Faces

The Face Observation

Stomach Position and Free Movement

Listening to Sounds

Developing Grasp and Eye-Hand Coordination

Listen and Do

Nursery Rhymes

Reach to Grasp

More Awareness of Hands

Awareness of Fingers

Awareness of Toes

Move to Grasp

Drop and Fall

Listen to the Sounds

The Sock Ball Throw

Toss the Ball Up and Watch

Awareness of Feet

Stacking and Falling

Paper Noise

Shake, Listen and Find

Watch the Ball

Bowl and Ball Roll

Sizes

Blowing Bubbles and Water Splash

Shoe Box House

Feely Squares

The Magic Mirror

Faces

Move and Roll

Poking

Drop It in a Container

Pull and Let Go

Name and Find

Which Hand?

Listen and Do More

Command and Do

Where Does It Belong?

Point to It

Home Sounds

Over

In and Out

PART II

The Face and Head Game

Cotton Reels

Pick Up

Containers and Lids

Let’s Play Ball

Let’s Go Walking

Look at Me

What Made That Sound?

What’s Outside?

What is Moving?

What Can I Smell?

Let’s Go Fishing

Can I Dress Myself?

Exploring With Dirt, Sand or Rice

My New House

Rhythm Band Music

Exploring With Water

Put It Through the Slit or Hole

Finger-Painting Can Be Fun

Painting With a Brush

Inside-Outside

Upstairs and Downstairs

Home Clay Exploration

Cardboard Puzzles

Drop Small Objects in a Bottle

I Can Carry a Tray

Put the Fish in the Boat

Where Is the Room?

Big and Little

Stepping Stones

Stencil Up and Down

Vegetable Printing

This Side, That Side

On and Off

Straw and Cotton Reel Stack

Stuff It in the Box

Clothes Peg Snap

Shake and Find

Flowers in the Basket

Poke and Print

Collect and Return

Rip It

Saucepans and Lids

Funnel Fun

The Big Button

Fold It

Find and Touch

The Medicine Dropper

Button, Zip, Snap, Velcro

Listen and Draw

Open and Close

Find Me

PART III

Humpty Dumpty

Jack in the Box

Top and Bottom

Big and Little

Toss in the Bin

Let’s Make a Necklace

The Box Walk

My Name

What Colour Am I Wearing?

Moving Hands and Fingers

Jump and Hop

My Family

I Can Paint

Farm Animals

Put It in a Line

Jack Be Nimble

Feely Bag Fun

The Three Bears

Sock Match

Outline the Shape

Up and Down

What Belongs in the Drawer?

Rub-A-Dub-Dub

I Spy Red, I Spy Blue

The Washing Machine

Slide and Roll

I Can Dress Myself

Clapping Hands

Cotton Reel Roll

The Coat Hanger Hoop

Ladder Walk

Eggs in the Carton One Two Three

Fruits to See, Feel, Smell and Taste

The One-Two Walk

Tall and Short

Is It Hot or Cold?

Through the Tunnel

Little and Big

Bowling

Paper Plate Pull

Little Boy Blue

Leaf Matching

Place It On or Under

How Far Can You Throw?

My Colour Booklet

Belongings

What is Its Use?

Food, Ordinals and Eating

Foot Pushing

Sequence Fun

Tiptoe

Colour Pieces

PART IV

Ball Bounce

Early Skipping Fun

Pound, Pound, Pound

Animal Moves

Match Pictures

Colourful Fish

Climb Up and Down

Obstacle Line

Day and Night

Scissors

Me

Circle and Square

Hit or Miss

The Hole Punch Row

Name the Sound

Listen and Draw Book

Guess What?

Create With Tape

Jumping Fun

Where Does It Belong?

Print Painting

Nuts and Bolts

Pouring

Money Talk

Which Egg is It?

Two Parts Make a Whole

In and Out of the Box

On and Off

Tearing Strips

Three Triangles

Hoops

Foot Shapes

How Does It Taste?

Sort the Cutlery

Sink or Float

The Alphabet Song

Fabric Match

Shadow Fun

Gallop Fun

Trace the Shapes

I Can Do It

Fold It and Discover

Magnet Fun

Yes or No

Clothes Peg Toss

Listen and Move

What is Missing?

Tell Me How

Families

Hopscotch Fun

Finish It

Actions

PART V

Playing With Shapes

Junk Box

A Dozen

Mail

Letters and Lines

Sewing is Fun

The Telephone

More About Me

Fun With Letter Aa

Bouncing Bb

Cc, Cc, Cc

Dig Deep

Eggs in the Basket

Let’s Go Fishing

Goo Goo Goggles

The Hat Game

Inchworm

Jack-in-the-Box

The Kite

Lollipop Fun

My Mittens

Night-Time

Octopus

The Pickle Jar

My Quilt

The Rocket

Make a Snake

Tree Tops

The Umbrella

The Pretty Vase

My Wagon

The Musical Xylophone

Wind the Yellow Yarn

Zero

Finger-Writing

Labelling

More Ball

More Actions

Listen and Name

Rope Jumping

Feel and Tell

Foods

Jumping a Distance

Number Stairs and Counting

The Clock

Patterns

Picture Puzzles

My Name

Listen

Clothing

ABC Actions

The Travelling Bag

Acknowledgements

Copyright

About the Publisher

Preface
The early brain

Learning begins at birth! Research on brain development has shown that any attempt to maximise intellectual growth must begin in the first three years of life; the younger the child, the stronger the effect. Beginning education at age five is too late. Brain development before age one is more rapid and extensive than previously realised. Babies are born with billions of brain cells, many more than they have at age three and nearly twice as many as they have as adults.

Sensory experiences can affect which brain cells and cell connections live or die. Synapses (brain connections) not reinforced by what the baby experiences (e.g., voices, music, sights, smells, touch) shrink and die.

Brain development is much more vulnerable to environmental influence than suspected. Environment affects the number of brain cells, connections among them and the manner in which connections are wired. Ultimately, the adult has an approximate 1.3-kg walnut-shaped mass of grey matter consisting of billions of brain cells and trillions of synapses (the number varies according to whether a child grows up in an enriched environment or in an impoverished one). Nature acts as a sculptor throughout childhood, chiselling away the excessive cells so the brain can function more efficiently. Timing is very important. Therefore early stimulation of the brain is crucial for the development of sensory functions. Learning, memory, emotions and physiological responses are moulded in early development when the brain changes the most. Impoverished children receiving enrichment for three years averaged IQs 20 points above those who did not receive enrichment. Children exposed to inadequate amounts of play and touching developed brains 20-30 per cent smaller than normal.

Early musical training shapes children’s growing brains and boosts their learning power, aiding in the development of logic, abstract thinking, memory and creativity.Young children exposed to soothing music, especially classical with repeated patterns and rhythms, develop skills to master unrelated disciplines such as mathematics, engineering and chess because the same brain areas that appear to be stimulated are associated with temporal/spatial reasoning.

The influence of early environment on brain development is long lasting. When high-risk children entered educational programmes by six months of age, their incidence of mental retardation was reduced 80 per cent. By age three, these children had intelligence quotients that were 10-20 points higher than children of similar backgrounds who had not attended programmes. At age 12, these children still functioned at a higher level, and at age 15, the effects were even stronger, suggesting that early educational programmes can have long-lasting and cumulative effects.

Early stress has a negative impact on brain function. Negative experiences can have lasting effects because they can alter the organisation of the brain. Children raised in poor environments can display cognitive deficits by 18 months that may be irreversible. Children who enter preschool education at age three also show improvement, but they never appear to fully overcome what they lost in the first three years.

Parents and childcare providers need to be aware of what they could and should be doing to complement a child’s emerging stages of development. Stimulating a child properly is simple, but it takes time. Therefore a child needs both quality time and quantity time to build a positive attitude toward learning and life.

Both genetics and environment determine the brain’s architecture and potential. Automatic responses subside in early childhood; parents and childcare providers must provide the appropriate environment.

Understanding of infant brain development began in the 1970s. Studies showed that the brain develops the ability to interpret images only if it is stimulated during a brief period soon after birth. Without visual stimulation, a portion of the brain atrophies or is devoted to other tasks.

The developing human brain is receptive only to specific stimulation at certain times. If the optimum time is missed, it will take a child longer to learn that skill. Studies show that stimulated rats developed 25 per cent more neural connections than rats that were not stimulated.

A newborn infant has about 100 billion brain cells. The organisation of neurons is based upon sensory input. Each neuron is connected to up to 15,000 others to form a chemical-electrical labyrinth of incredible complexity so that an eight-month-old child may have 1,000 trillion synapses in his brain. These synapses must be used repeatedly or they will be eliminated or used for some other purpose. This winnowing process continues to about the age of puberty when brain wiring is complete.

Research has shown that the human brain consists of neurons (nerve cells) that analyse, coordinate and store information received through the senses. Most neurons have one ‘outgoing’fibre (axon) that sends signals to other neurons and many‘incoming’fibres (dendrites) that receive signals. At the end of the axon, this signal triggers the release of one or more neurotransmitters. These chemical messengers flow across the one-millionth-of-an-inch gap (synapse) between the axon and one or many waiting dendrites. The dendrites then translate the message back into electricity and rush it to the receiving neuron. Movement occurs at about 320 kilometres per hour and may be repeated up to 600 times per second.

Intelligence depends on the number of brain cells and the number of brain cell connections.

Brain growth occurs in spurts. Most visual brain connections are made by eight months. Speech patterns are usually impossible prior to 18 months. Learning language is totally dependent upon sensory input. Neural connections are established only for repeated sounds. Most young children can learn more than one language easily, whereas 10-year-old children learn with more difficulty.

Infants distinguish hundreds of spoken sounds and learn to recognise repetitive phonemes (the smallest unit of language, e.g., the ‘b’sound in ‘boy’) and demonstrate this awareness with vigorous sucking. As time passes, this potential fades as the brain is only wired to repetitive sounds. Initially, the correct way to speak to an infant is with short, simple, sentences using good voice inflection, but to avoid substituting the child’s name for the pronoun ‘you’. Parents should also speak frequently to babies in ordinary language used with adults with as many different words as possible. Television and radio sounds are perceived by babies as background noise and are not effective substitutes for parental interaction.

The sense of touch (e.g., stroking, hugging, kissing, feeling environmental textures) is crucial for proper brain development. Rat pups failed to thrive when deprived of their mother’s touch, but human surrogate stroking provided the required tactile stimulation. Appropriate human touch releases important human growth hormones, promotes brain-controlled functions like weight gain, motor skills and restful sleep while reducing stress or hyperactivity.

Visual stimulation (e.g., bright and contrasting colours, bold patterns and human faces) will promote motor dexterity and cement relationships. In an infant, the field of vision is narrow, the ability to refract light is minimal, and focusing of muscles is weak. A newborn sees colour, brightness and motion, but only hazy images. Depth perception, binocular vision and general acuity require time to develop.

Incorrect or inappropriate stimulation (e.g., yelling, rough handling, violence, fear, different care-givers or abuse) can create the wrong type of synaptic connections, making the brain forever susceptible to inappropriate responses (anger) and impulsive actions (violence). Such children have difficulty forming relationships, do poorly in school, often need special education, develop more behavioural problems, and are likely to use drugs and alcohol as teenagers. Neglect, or sustained lack of attention and affection, can cause erratic behaviour. Brains of severely neglected children show big black holes where the dense matter that coordinates affiliation, feelings and learning is supposed to be.

REMEMBER, THE BEST THING THAT PARENTS CAN SPEND ON THEIR CHILD IS THEIR TIME!

Clyde G. Oberlander

Introduction
Suggestions to help implement the activities

This handbook was written primarily to bridge the gap between home and school. It contains weekly activities to correspond to the developmental patterns of each age group from birth to age five. There are 260 age appropriate activities that mainly use household items for materials. Explicit directions are written in layman’s language to ensure that people who use this book will understand how to implement each activity. A brief evaluation follows each experience so that the person will know what the desired outcome should be from each activity. Some activities may appear to be similar, but the intended concept for each activity is different. The title of the weekly activity and the evaluation of each should clarify any confusion.

There are parents who try to teach concepts or skills too early and consequently frustrate the child. They may present other concepts too late or not at all; therefore these parents have missed the optimum time to teach these concepts. Recent studies have confirmed that very early stimulation in young children gives them an enriched approach to learning, which produces better scholars in school; however, it must be done at the proper time.

As a retired kindergarten teacher with over 25 years of experience, I know that many gaps in learning can be prevented if children are subjected to brief, stimulating and challenging experiences at the appropriate age and developmental level. Basic concepts are more difficult for children to learn in school because they may have experienced lags in developmental learning at home.

How to use this handbook

 Read through an entire weekly activity that is appropriate for the age of the child, remembering safety first.

 Make certain that you understand the intended purpose of the activity.

 Collect and assemble the necessary materials.

 Decide how you plan to implement the activity.

 Administer an activity when the child appears to be ready. It may not be at the same time each day.

 Avoid too much structure but be consistent. Just doing an activity every now and then may prove to be ineffective.

 Review the brief evaluation of each activity and evaluate the child’s progress.

 Remember, a child begins at birth with an almost non-existent attention span that gradually expands to approximately 15 seconds during the first few months. Subsequently, the period of attention slowly increases. By age four, the child may still only be able to engage in an activity for a brief time. It depends on the child. With guidance and patience a child’s attention span can be increased.

 Repeat the same weekly activity or repeat previously suggested activities throughout a given week. Repetition is very important.

 Stop an activity when the child appears disinterested, frustrated or inattentive. Record this activity and try it again later. Feel free to alter the suggestions to meet the needs of the child.

 Avoid introducing activities too soon. Pace the activities slowly and steadily.

 Subsequent to doing an activity, refer to the measurable parameters checklist in the back of this book and have a pencil and paper ready to make notes of any observations, additions or comments regarding the activity and the child’s responses.

MEASURABLE PARAMETERS TO PROFILE CHILD DEVELOPMENT is a valuable checklist guide to help you determine the progress of a child from birth to age five through observations using a scoring system. It parallels skills addressed in the book and helps prevent the overlooking of skills that should be developed. This guide is divided into yearly segments—the first year contains two six-month checklist periods—and indicates whether a child’s progress is satisfactory or delayed and when a child is ready for school. Evaluation of a child should allow for different growth patterns and different personalities and needs.Young children learn through different play experiences and learn best when one concept (idea) at a time is presented. Children need to be guided with love, patience and praise and need to do activities that best suit their needs at their developmental level so they can succeed more often than fail.