Drawing development in children

Children love to draw. As teachers and parents, we encourage our children to express their feelings through aesthetic engagement like drawing. While children are enjoying themselves, adults may feel a bit lost. We may ask ourselves, "Should I draw with them and show them how they should draw a star properly?" "My daughter is 3 years old already, should she be able to draw a portrait?" "At 6

Cycle-of-life for Toddlers

Have you ever tried talking to your toddler about life? And you may say, "What? They're too young for that!" You think so? The more I interact with kids, the more I think they know something about life that I don't, or at least I've forgotten about. I'd like to share a cute little short film with you and your tots - yes, a film about life that I'm sure both of you would love.For more films for

Beautiful Barefoot Books

Their books are full of colour and culture; their books bring children into a whole new world of imagination. There books are BEAUTIFUL! Not only do I like Barefoot Books for the the above reasons, I also love the initial intention and core values behind this community of children literature. As quoted from the official website, this is how it all started, "Barefoot Books began with two mothers

How Mother Goose helps Baby Massage

Baby massage has become quite popular. Even if parents do not know the massage techniques, they still enjoy touching their baby gently because they know that their babies like it. Baby massage is an intimate time between mommy/daddy and baby - baby lies down comfortably at a position where they can make eye contact with mommy/daddy (whoever's giving the massage), and they long for every touch.

Music in the first 3 years

"Getting in Tune" is my favorite publications by Zero to Three; I recommend it to ALL parents. It talks about the musical development of babies and how music and movement relate to bonding and creativity development.Please click here for the .pdf version of "Getting in Tune" (be patient, it takes a while to load)

幼兒與藝術

我很鼓勵家長送小朋友上畫班或手工藝班。即使是未懂走路的小孩子﹐他們正出於一個觸角非常敏感的階段﹔父母可以開始讓他們碰碰顏料﹑膠水﹑泥膠等不同物料。

其實坊間很多幼兒藝術班正為孩子提供這接觸藝術的機會。但每當我看到街上那些剛剛懂走路的小孩一臉茫然捧著他們的“製成品”﹐我都會覺得奇怪。他們拿著的可能是一隻用紙碟製成的小雞﹑一架用“廁紙筒”造的私家車﹐甚至是一隻跟他們身高差不多的海洋生物。我們都知道﹐這些製成品只是滿足成年人的道具 - 兩三歲的小孩子需要的不是一件製成品.

藝術是一種反映人們對世界的認知的渠道﹐對小孩子亦然。幼兒的創作不需要原因﹑不需要結果﹑更不需要方法。紙碟和小雞﹑廁紙筒和車﹐在小孩子眼內可能根本沒有直接的關係﹔這些製成品只反映成年人的創意(而且是不高的創意)。你放一張白紙﹑一些顏色筆在孩子 面前﹐他們會認真地畫﹐他們要一筆一筆地證明顏色筆與白紙的關係﹔說到這裡﹐

Lullaby and "Motherese"

"Motherese" is the term used in child devlopment research which refers to the special inflection, tonality and language used when caregivers (usually, but not necessarily mothers) interact with babies. Usually, we call it "baby talk". It is an interesting topic because it seems like the characteristics of "motherese" are similar across many different cultures.Naturally, mothers talk and sing to

To my dear little friends

那次不辭而別﹐令我到今天仍然耿耿于懷。

小朋友﹐我們彼此認識一年多了 - 那即是你們的大半生。我看著你們成長﹔從爬行到蹦蹦跳跳﹑從呀呀學語到懂得主動跟我說早晨﹑從愛哭變成主動...有幾個甚至在媽媽的肚子裡面已經聽過我的聲音 - 大概這就是緣份罷﹖

沒有工作的星期六早上﹐感覺很清閒﹔對於一星期裡面﹐終於有一天可以睡晚一點﹑星期五晚上我終於可以晚點回家﹐我是感恩的 - 畢竟那是我過去兩年來都未享受過的生活啊!但是﹐到現在我仍然會在每個星期六早上想你們一遍﹕

Sabrina仍然像從前般害羞﹑常常躲在爸爸身後跟老師玩捉迷藏嗎﹖
Audrey依舊會一走進課室便大聲跟大家說聲哈囉嗎﹖
Jay還是一樣喜歡站在圈圈中間表演跳舞嗎﹖
Christopher還常常用那殺死人的眼神望著老師嗎﹖
Elena那“招牌”的扭屁股舞步有沒有進步啊﹖
Alby還是一樣愛跳跳跳﹐

BBC Health - Baby recognizes mother's tunes

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/2125207.stmBBC-Parenting has quite a good archive on music and babies. This is an easy-to-read article for those mommies and daddies who are interested in finding out more about this topic.

Playing PEEKABOO seriously

Mommy-and-me music is a nice short article that gets parents thinking about what kind of musical games should you play with your children at different ages. Sometimes, adults overlook; games seem pointless and boring to us usually has great educational values behind.I like using the "peek-a-boo" game as an example. Come on, we all know that i...t's not the most exciting game in the world, but we

Music perception and Cognition in the First Year of Life (Ilari, 2002)

This is a journal title from an 2002 issue of the Early Child Development and Care; the author is a professor from McGill who has contributed a lot to this field.The article tries to review the literature published and experiments done on music perception and cognition for babies.The first thing I looked at was its 3-pages long references. I took out my highlighter and highlighted the key words

音樂與BB (0 至 9 個月)

這幾年﹐遊戲班的冒起令家長開始留意到學前教育的重要性。坊間的選擇眾多﹔音樂﹑體操﹑語文等等都是家長的選擇。未知家長們有否留意﹐大部份的遊戲班通常都建議BB在六個月大時開始參加﹐只有音樂班會歡迎剛出生的BB參加。(從前教音樂班﹐最小的學生在參加時只有三個星期大﹔每個星期看著他一點一點地成長是多麼奇妙的事情!)那是為什麼﹖難到體操班﹑語文班不想早早招攬生意嗎﹖BB通常會在出生後的頭六個月﹐慢慢掌握從頭﹑到頸﹑到上半身﹐最後到下半身的活動。這是生長的定律﹐不用上課﹐不用特別訓練﹐正常的BB也會自然達標。既然還未能坐起﹑未能轉身﹐當然沒有需要上體操課﹑Flashcard課。但音樂不同﹐BB的聽力早在他們出生前已經很發達﹔他們喜歡聽爸爸媽媽的聲音﹑他們才幾個月大便已經有自己喜歡的音樂。(如喜歡簡單的旋律﹑不喜歡吵耳的Rock 'n Roll﹑喜歡唱歌聲音多於樂器聲等。)其實不用上遊戲班﹐

OWL BABIES by Martin Waddell and Patrick Benson

This is one of the BEST children books I've come across. It is very difficult to have toddlers sit down for a 10-minutes story, but this story has never failed me once. It's not just pictures, in fact, the colours used in the illustration is quite dark (same tone as the cover).The story is quite long comparing to normal picture books for toddlers, but they love the storyline so much; that's why