Toys and games for fun over the Easter holidays

Take a look below for suggestions of toys and games to keep the kids entertained over the Easter holidays for lots of Easter fun.

Helping Your Child Make New Friends

Making new friends can be a daunting task, but it’s a common element of life, and we all go through moments where we have to connect with people to form friendships. Having a healthy range of friendships is going to greatly boost confidence in your child, and give you the freedom to let your child go further with their skills.

In this guide from a senior school in Surrey, we take a look at the ways you can help your child make new friends, including the ones that can last for a lifetime.

How to Encourage Your Child to Exercise

Keeping fit and healthy comes from exercising on a regular basis. If your child isn’t exercising that often, they can cause potential health risks in the future like weight gain or muscle loss. To help keep your child motivated to exercise each week, here are some tips from this boarding school in Dublin.

Teaching Your Child How to Overcome Obstacles

Problems and issues come up all of the time. It’s going to be a big part of your child’s life when they learn to pick up these skills, which is why you should direct your child through the methods that help your child learn to solve problems in their own way. 

5 Signs Your Child is Unhappy at School

There could be a host of reasons why your child is struggling in school, but it could also be because they are unhappy. It’s important to look into what your child is upset about, and how to take action. Here are some signs your child isn’t happy at school.

Top Tips for Teaching Your Child About Personal Hygiene

Personal hygiene should be taught from a very young age. It will guide your child through the things they will need to do to maintain healthy teeth, gums, and keeping germs at bay. We can never keep everything away from children, especially when many germs are found in schools or nurseries, but we can teach our kids how to remain clean and healthy. Here are some top tips.

The Benefits of Extracurricular Activities for Children

Extracurricular activities are a great way for children to get to grips with their skills, as well as developing the skills needed to solve problems, feel confident in themselves, and gain a lot of experience through others. It’s also an amazing tactic to help children know what activities they enjoy and which they are happy to avoid.

This senior school in Herefordshire has highlighted the big benefits to extracurricular activities for children.

Tips for encouraging an active imagination in your child

There are many ways to encourage an active imagination in your child. But the question is, why should we? An active imagination in a child means that they will develop critical life. Nearly all children have the power of imagination, to turn a stick into a sword or a blanket into a Cape. This can seem like an ordinary part of childhood, but is a crucial part in a child's development. Adults should encourage children to use their imagination as much as possible to keep the flame lit for as long as possible. Here are some tips from a private boy’s school in Hampstead on encouraging an active imagination in your child. 

Helping your child to strengthen their fine motor skills

Fine motor skills, what are they? This is the use of the small muscles in our hands, wrists, fingers, feet and toes. Fine motor skills involve movement of small muscles in your child’s body that requires the brain to coordinate between the action and what is being seen. Fine motor skills can impact simple activities such as using a fork to and using a pencil to write. They start to develop and strengthen as your child uses the muscles more and more. Some of the best ways to develop these muscles is by learning how to grasp, hold, press and use pincer grips. But what makes them so important? These skills will ensure that your child will be able to complete daily activities such as buttoning up his shirt and tying their own shoe laces. You'll find that your child’s self-confidence and ability is affected too. Here is some advice from a boarding school in the South East on helping a child to strengthen their fine motor skills.

Helping your child become more environmentally conscious

Teaching your child to take responsibility for how they treat the world around them is an important duty of every parent. As children ourselves, we grew up learning about the ozone layer and the threat of what global warming could do to our planet. Now as parents, we are finding ourselves teaching our children the same thing but from a completely different perspective. We are teaching them how to be aware of the different environmental issues that we are facing and the war on plastic and how to be greener. Helping children understand the world of nature not only helps the environment but themselves too. Nowadays, with high expectations when it comes to academics as well as life itself, mental health issues are on the increase. Being in nature is known to help people feel more positive which is why parents are encouraged to teach their children more about it. Here's some advice on how to help your child become more environmentally conscious.

How to help your child expand their vocabulary

Helping a child expand their vocabulary is more than just teaching them a few extra words. Developing a wide vocabulary is actually fundamentally important for children. The extent of a child's vocabulary by the start of school can be a great predictor on how well their educational outcome is. It also helps boost social skills and confidence from childhood into adulthood. Alongside traditional education, the input you put in as a parent to expand your child’s vocabulary is crucial, as up to 95% of words your child learns comes from you. The good news is that it is easy to integrate vocabulary development into your child's everyday life through routine such as reading, talking and playing. Here are some top tips on how to help your child expand their vocabulary.

Should I Consider Theatre School for My Child?

Whether your child has two left feet or has a genuine performing talent, theatre school can be beneficial for them. There are lots of careers that exist within the entertainment industry and are lucrative too. It can help them to prepare for the real world of performing arts as they are taught by industry professionals themselves and are helped to build key life skills such as emotional intelligence. If you're thinking about sending your child to a stage school, here are some important factors to consider. 

How to Raise a Team Player

Whether you like those around you or not, the chances are that you will need to get along and work with them in some capacity. The same is so for the workplace where you cannot always choose who to work with. It takes skill to be able to do this and work cohesively with others and it is known as team working. Just like other important life skills, it takes practice to build and one of the ways in which you can do this is through sports. They are team games where there is a common goal sought after and everyone must pull their weight. If you would like to learn more about the ways in which you can help your child to build their team working skills, take a look at these from an independent school in Surrey.

A Parents' Guide to A-Levels

A-levels are important qualifications, especially if your child is planning to go to higher education. They are also valued by employers because they give an insight into a student’s strengths and weaknesses.

A-level qualifications are achieved through written examinations and coursework. However, with subjects such as performing arts there are also practical examinations. 

Choosing A-level subjects can be a challenging time for students. The choices they make at this point can have a big impact on their future studies and career. 

To help your children make the right A-level choices, an independent boarding college in Cardiff have put together the following advice for parents:

Top Tips for Helping Your Child Learn a New Language

Learning languages at home will not only support your child’s education, but it will also benefit their future. Furthermore, studies show that multilingual children have enriched personal skills.

If you would like to know how to help your child learn a new language, here are some great tips from an independent school for girls in London…

The Benefits of Outdoor Learning for Children

Every parent knows how much children love to be outside. Playing outdoors is not only fun, but it also provides plenty of new and exciting learning opportunities for children. To help you discover more of the benefits associated with outdoor learning, I have collaborated with an independent preparatory school in Banstead to share these interesting facts…

Supporting Your Child Through The Exam Period

The school exam period can cause a lot of stress for children. Not only must they put a lot of time and effort into revision, but they also have an anxious wait to find out their exam results. 

If you would like to know how best to support your child through their exams, here is some great advice from an independent college in Bath…

Encourage kids to get active & play outdoors with these top products

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As we embrace sunnier days and get out and about once again, the kids are loving playing outdoors. 

Outdoor play is not only fun for kids but it is vital to physical health, emotional wellbeing, independence, enabling all five senses to run wild, mental health and social interaction. 

To make playtime fun and encourage the kids to get moving here are a few of our favourite outdoor toys perfect for active play in the sun this summer.

Xplora XGO2 children’s smartwatch review

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A couple of years ago we bought our eldest son a basic, budget kids fitness tracker watch. He loved keeping track of his steps, challenging himself to beat his personal best, and it supported his learning of time thanks to being a standard watch too. However it has always been a little temperamental, being very awkward to charge and over the past few months the battery life and step counter has been unreliable and inaccurate. As we have been looking for a replacement for him we were keen to try out the Xplora XGO2 children’s smartwatch.

The XGO2 is an android smartwatch from renowned Norwegian smartwatch company Xplora. This multifunctional children’s smartwatch is a feature rich gadget and boasts a myriad of functions that are fun for children whilst also providing parents with peace of mind.  

A Quick Look at the EYFS Age Group

The strongest of castles have arisen from the most solid of foundations. If we translate this into the world of childcare, it is clear to see that behaviours at a very young age will inevitably impact how a child interacts with the outside world as he or she begins to grow up. Some will even argue that these formative years will have a massive impact upon the child upon reaching adulthood. The age group associated with these early stages is commonly referred to by the acronym EYFS. It is a good idea to take a closer look at this concept as well as what children will learn. We will then move on to discuss some powerful assessment strategies that are now employed. 

What Ages are Associated with the EYFS Group?

EYFS is an abbreviation for "Early Years Foundation Stage". While the exact ages may differ slightly, they are generally categorised between zero and five years. As you may have already guessed, this is when a child will learn the basic fundamentals of life. Important skill sets will likewise be developed during this time frame. So, how does a child acquire such knowledge when we consider the fact that he or she is very young?

Games, Play and More

Many of the skills which a child will acquire during these years are the results of simple games and playing with others. However, there is a bit more than meets the eye in this respect. Within educational settings, children will also be taught a handful of additional fundamentals including:

• Language and communication.

• Interpersonal and social development.

• Physical development.

• Basic maths.

• Personal expression and the arts.

So, we now come to the next relevant question. How will childcare professionals monitor these metrics in order to better determine how a child is developing?

Observational Techniques

It is first important to mention that children will not be tested during the EYFS years. Instead, professionals will assess their development through passive forms of monitoring. The behaviour of the child will therefore not be altered during the process. One of the most common ways involves tracking observation (taking notes and recording details that can be used to understand behavioural patterns). As technology now comes into play, tools such as those developed by www.tinytracker.co.uk have become extremely useful. Some other options which will often be used by childcare experts include time tracking and narrative stories. 

We can think of the EYFS years as the time in the life of a child when he or she develops the fundamentals required in order to interact with the world. Of course, every child tends to develop at a different pace. This is why observing this stage is important when determining if any extra guidance may be required. During this formative time period, the very ways in which a child views the world are inextricably shaped. So, appreciating how this child is coping is obviously crucial in regards to long-term development.