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Good habits follow your child throughout their lifetime, so it is never too early to instill its importance to your child. In fact, introducing these habits into their lifestyle earlier on makes it easier for your child to incorporate them into their daily life. Encouraging your child to do these three things every day can help them develop the foundation for a happy, healthy, and successful life.  1. Healthy Eating Habits for Kids: Avoid a sedentary lifestyle Inspiring your child to make healthy food choices every day can be a difficult, uphill battle since they are surrounded by fast food, sugary treats, and soft drinks regularly. However, it is essential to embed healthy choices within your child's lifestyle. Encourage your child to choose water over sugary drinks by keeping them outside the house and setting an example yourself. Soft drinks provide no nutrients and can also add calories that lead to weight problems in the future. Healthy School Lunch Ideas: Many nutritionists, including Hillary Wright from the Harvard Vanguard Medical Associates, encourage incorporating at least 3 of the five food groups: Grains, Vegetables, Fruit, Meats/Poultry/Legumes, and Reduced Fats. However, beyond food groups, the key to making healthy eating enjoyable is by considering your child’s preferences. By understanding what your child enjoys, and finding a healthier alternative, or including your child in the lunch-making process, you are bound to be more successful in making sure your child is consuming their nutritious meal. Here are some quick and easy ideas:
Physical Activities for Kids: Furthermore, help your child avoid a sedentary lifestyle by making physical exercise a family activity and keeping the activities fun and engaging. Children should have at least 60 minutes of exercise each day as physical exercise not only keeps them strong and healthy, but it also helps improve their mood, self-esteem and do better in school. From enrolling or engaging in traditional sports, to incorporating simple toys like balloons for a “keep the balloon up” game, or playing music for an upbeat dance party, there are a plethora of ways to make exercise fun.  2. Age Appropriate Chores for Kids Your child might be able to do more than you think. Two to three-year-olds can put their toys away, dust their rooms or put their clothes in the hamper, while six to seven year old can set the dinner tables, sort laundry and make their beds. Finding age-appropriate chores not only helps make your life easier, but more importantly, teaches your children the meaningful lessons of responsibility and independence. As Julie Lythcott-Haims, former Stanford University Dean and author of How to Raise an Adult says, "By making them do chores ... they realize, 'I have to do the work of life in order to be part of life.”  3. Read More Books Developing strong reading skills is a crucial component of school readiness and lasting academic success in the future. Many studies have shown that children exposed to reading before preschool are more likely to do well when they reach their period of formal education. Beyond cognitive and academic benefits, reading can also help build up a child's self-esteem as well as strengthen their social and emotional development. According to a New York University study, reading to very young children is linked to decreased levels of aggression, hyperactivity, and attention difficulties. With its lifetime benefits, it is essential for your child to read at least 15 minutes each day. Encourage your child to read by allowing them to pick books they like. Also, make reading experiences engaging by interacting with your child–discuss what you read, ask questions, and make recommendations.  Citations:
https://www.webmd.com/parenting/features/chores-for-children#3 https://www.healthline.com/health/healthy-habits-mothers-should-teach-kids https://www.pbs.org/parents/thrive/why-reading-aloud-to-kids-helps-them-thrive https://www.all4kids.org/2017/03/03/importance-reading-children/ https://www.studyinternational.com/news/how-to-instil-healthy-habits-in-kids/ https://www.sesamestreet.org/toolkits/healthyhabits https://www.leapfrog.com/en-us/learning-path/articles/make-reading-fun
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In this blog post, Oakland Public Library's Pat Toney recommends literacy tips and community resources (including kidappolis!) for early learning. Read the original article here : http://oaklandlibrary.org/blogs/childrens-services/focus-early-learning When I went to library school in 2008, I knew I wanted to be a Children’s Librarian because I wanted to share the joy of reading. As my career develops my focus on early learning and parent engagement is clear, thus I was super excited to hear Pamela Paul’s recent interview on KQED Forum discussing her new book, co-written with her colleague Maria Russo, "How to Raise a Reader." Pamela shares family literacy tips on creating read-aloud routines, "championing genre fiction" and nurturing a love of books in kids of all age.
My favorite five family literacy tips for raising a reader:
 In my role as an outreach librarian, I present storytime once a month at the rec centers noted above.
LitLab Announces Participation in the Second Cohort of the 2019 Visible Connect Accelerator Program!8/12/2019 LitLab is one of six nonprofits awarded a $15,000 financial grant, Visible technology, and mentorship to support efforts to create connected and interactive early learning environments using mobile technology. Oakland, August 12, 2019 ---LitLab, a nonprofit that encourages early childhood learning, announced today participation in the 2019 Visible Connect Accelerator Program, which supports nonprofit organizations changing their communities using mobile technology. Visible Connect is hosted by Visible, the all-digital phone service backed by Verizon, in continued partnership with Uncharted, a social impact accelerator.
As part of the 9-month program, LitLab will receive a $15,000 financial grant, free mobile devices with one year of Visible service, and executive mentorship with experts that have extensive business experience. Additionally, LitLab will receive introductions to a funders investing in early-stage social innovation. This year’s cohort is comprised of nonprofits tackling critical social issues, including education equality, mental health care for members of the military and veterans, social justice, and more. The selected organizations include: Empower Work is building a future where every person is supported, valued, and empowered at work. They provide immediate, confidential support - emotional and tactical - for tough work situations via SMS. Good Call protects the rights of marginalized communities by providing immediate access to legal support in case of arrest. LitLab accelerates underserved children's learning to narrow the opportunity gap. Their products revolutionize the way ELL families ensure their children’s academic and lifelong success. The Objective Zero Foundation combats suicide within the military community by enhancing access to wellness resources and peer support. UPchieve is a free, online platform that connects low-income students with live tutors any time they need it. WeThrive equips underestimated youth to own their future by helping teachers increase classroom engagement, real-world learning and future-readiness by creating student-run companies, earning real revenues. "We are beyond excited to be part of this accelerator," said Laura Reed, the CEO of LItLab. "It comes at a perfect time for us and where we hope to be a year from now. Visible Connect will help us build a runway to grow faster and serve more families that need our programs more than ever before". “Visible congratulates and welcomes each nonprofit accepted to the second cohort of Visible Connect,” said Miguel Quiroga, CEO of Visible. “We applaud their innovative use of mobile technology and look forward to supporting these organizations as they make a lasting positive impact in their communities.” More information can be found at www.visible.com/connect. About LitLab LitLab is a nonprofit with a vision of supporting early learning and family engagement through provision of literacy resources and the use of digital tools and mobile technology. LitLab activates literacy skill development in children and families in under-resourced communities to counter existing trends, supporting all early learners in achieving academic success. With early vocabulary development a leading indicator of foundational literacy skill growth, the LitLab mission is to create connected and interactive learning environments by deploying books, digital content, and blended learning solutions for children, their caregivers, and educators, in the child’s home language. About Visible Backed by Verizon, Visible is the first all-digital wireless carrier in the US, offering unlimited text, talk, data, and hotspot, with speeds up to 5 Mbps, all running on Verizon’s 4G LTE Network. Visible is fundamentally changing the way consumers get, pay for, and manage their phone service. For more information, go to www.visible.com or search for it in the App Store or the Play Store. About Uncharted Uncharted is a social impact accelerator that builds coordinated movements of people to tackle problems from all angles. They partner with corporations, foundations, and governments to launch initiatives that connect those working on the same problem and help them go to scale. To date, Uncharted has helped social entrepreneurs raise $252 million, create impact in 96 countries, and benefit 37 million lives. A child’s development during the first eight years can, in many ways, determine their future success. Throughout this critical early stage, children reach academic milestones while developing social-emotional and executive functioning skills. As a result, access to high-quality early childhood education is key not only to families, but to society as a whole. This social benefit impacts everything from lower crime rates to reduced health risks. Yet, many families, especially those in the low-income bracket, have limited resources to invest in high-quality early education. The resulting increase in education inequality has negative repercussions for society overall. Technology is a powerful tool that mitigates such disparities while improving learning outcomes. Despite its potential, technology is less accessible in early childhood settings compared with primary and secondary school settings. There is still a lot of room to expand edtech to equalize learning opportunities for the youngest learners. Edtech helps students actively learn Through interactive games and animated video lessons, the best edtech helps children reinforce a desire to learn while taking on a more active role in their own learning process, making it easier to grapple with difficult-to-understand concepts. The interactive and audio/visual elements of clever edtech encourage children’s creativity, as they make use of a range of technological media to express themselves. Beyond acquiring typical classroom concepts, technology allows students to expand their learning horizons and develop non-academic skill sets including those related to social-emotional learning and executive functioning.  Edtech can help improve the quality of instruction Through different tech tools, teachers can implement targeted, effective learning techniques personalized to each child’s needs to optimize learning outcomes. Additionally, edtech can help teachers have the resources to further professional development, so they can gain new insights that can improve their quality of instruction. Lastly, edtech can offer resources that streamline classroom management from taking attendance to assessment documentation, allowing teachers to focus their time and effort on teaching. In a Houghton Mifflin Harcourt survey, 44 percent of educators have experienced time savings because of technology, but 72 percent agree that there is still room for technology to improve workflow and make processes more efficient.   Edtech encourages parental involvement in children's learning processesEdtech can be used to form a bridge of communication between teachers and parents, by keeping parents updated on their child’s progress and fostering a sense of awareness of upcoming events and projects. Parental involvement is essential in empowering students success in the classroom, as research has proven that students with involved parents have better academic performance, fewer behavioural problems and are more likely to complete high school. Moreover, learning should not be limited to the classroom since edtech makes it more accessible for parents to reinforce learning and concept to their children at home. Edtech makes it easier for parents to find and manage trustworthy programs and resources for their children. For example, kidappolis is an app platform that uses assessments to curate a catalogue of learning apps customized to each child’s learning goals.
There is promise in the early education technology sector as it offers unique solutions to challenges that traditional education often fails to address. With the support of edtech, education can minimize inequalities and change the destiny of millions of children. |
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