Positive Playdates: Building Social Skills

We ran this article a little over a year ago, but wanted to bring it back since we had a lot of interest on this topic. Enjoy!


Positive Playdates: Building Social Skills

Building social skills in children is always a key objective for both parents and nannies. Playdates can be positive experiences for building skills before those formal school years. Here are a few tips to keep in mind when planning playdate experiences.

Cookies with Friends

by Kelly Miller

In 1997, I started a tradition with two of my college roommates.  I had just gotten married, and I wanted to bake Christmas cookies.  In past years my mom and I did this together, and I thought since I had no children, I would do this with girlfriends.  The first year was very time consuming:  we got together with cookbooks, chose recipes, went to the grocery store and started baking.  12 hours later, we were done.

Now it is 2010, and we have streamlined the process to make it efficient and quick.  We each come with three recipes

Kitchen Scientist

Recently, I saw a segment on early morning television news that I thought would be fun to share with you. It featured,  Liz Heinecke, the founder of the Kitchen Pantry Scientist, making Spy Juice from cranberries. Her website http://www.kitchenpantryscientist.com/ has many great child friendly science activities and experiments, complete with videos, using common household items and foods. It would have been great to have this resource when I was young and I’m sure my parents would have appreciated it. They gave me a chemistry set one year for Christmas, which I loved. However, I poured one of my botched experiments down the drain in our laundry tub; it hardened in the drain trap and resulted in a plumber bill which I’m sure they did not appreciate! So, check this site out for some safe and fun science activities! 

Mary O'Connor

Math for Preschoolers

Math is present in all parts of our daily lives, which makes teaching math to preschoolers a breeze. You don't need to look hard to find numbers, shapes and measurements right at home. Creativity and homemade games, allow you to teach preschoolers many basic math concepts and skills without investing in lots of commercial products or toys. Here are just a few ideas to get you started.

Simple Games You Can Make

Stuffed Shelf of Traditional Games

While there are many wonderful games to purchase that are beneficial to young children, I always enjoyed making my own. It offered the opportunity to make them specific to a subject, theme, holiday, season, or another other topic of interest. I could also make different options such as having a simpler version for the youngest child while offering other challenge levels to the older ones.

These four games can take you a long way! Here's the basics you'll need to create your own games:

Self Care

Taking care of yourself it important! It enables you to do your best for the children in your care. Check out Regarding Nannies post for today which is a good reminder to us all about self care.

http://regardingnannies.com/2010/11/monday-moxie-nanny-101-self-care-on-and-off-the-job/

Safety Check

Are you wondering if the toys or products you purchase for your home and family are safe? The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission is on the job!

The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission is charged with protecting the public from unreasonable risks of serious injury or death from thousands of types of consumer products under the agency's jurisdiction. The CPSC is committed to protecting consumers and families from products that pose a fire, electrical, chemical, or mechanical hazard or can injure children. The CPSC's work to ensure the safety of consumer products - such as toys, cribs, power tools, cigarette lighters, and household chemicals - contributed significantly to the 30 percent decline in the rate of deaths and injuries associated with consumer products over the past 30 years.


You can check out their website for more information - http://www.cpsc.gov/.