This article about Acornkids is written by,  Shireen Thomas-Stark, who is a Counselling Psychologist in Private Practice and specialises in Play Therapy and working with children in all aspects of emotional coping.

Children learn through play. Many skills are developed through play. Logical thinking, problem-solving and creativity can be developed and exercised through play. Play is a powerful medium to access their thoughts and communicate in way that they understand. As adults, if we learn to play with our children we learn to grow with them and develop strong relationships based on sound interpersonal connection.

Bathing is a common everyday routine. Acorn products enable parents to turn their bath tubs into a playground of learning and connecting in very unique ways. Each Acorn product is designed as an experience through which parents can access their children’s hearts and minds.

It often happens that as adults we forget how to play effectively with our children, or we run out of ideas. It’s great to have products pre-designed to allow the learning and connections to happen without much planning needed. Here are a few skill-based developments that are natural products of the play you experience with your Acorn bath products:

Creativity
Creativity is the building block of problem-solving. Problem-solving allows children to initiate responses to emotional situations in order to obtain control and mastery over their own feelings and responses to situations.

Soap Putty: What a great way to create objects from a ball of soap. Being able to create instills a sense of confidence in children. When those creations are useful and perform a function they become innovative inventors.

Kaleidofoam: Being able to manipulate the foam into pictures and patterns where there was previously just foam enables children to become the masters of their own fantasy.

Bath Crayons: Allows children the opportunity to create and master their own art. It is a non-threatening way to explore artistic possibility. The end result is easily washed off with no pressure of creating a lasting impression that may be open to judgement of any kind.

Emotional Expression
One of the chief coping skills in dealing with emotion involves the expression of our thoughts and feelings. The ability to initiate and maintain conversation is also a powerful tool for social confidence.

Surfs Up Fun Foam: This bath foam allows for conversation and language development regarding the animals discovered in your bath when searching under the bubbles. The same is true of people often there is a lot of emotion that exists under the surface- when we look for it or ask about it is amazing which gems may appear. This foam provides an opportunity to have fun together and have competitions of “search and rescue”.

Funky Faces: These stickers allow us to explore different expressions. The different situations in which we react differently can be discussed to facilitate emotional awareness. Initiating emotional discussion with children on a regular basis will create confidence in social situations and in accessing resources in difficult situations.

Flexibility
Flexibility involves the skill being able to generate alternative solutions to problems or situations. Being flexible allows children the freedom of adapting to the situations around them. Managing and embracing change is an asset in terms of emotional adjustment.

Angel Powder: A great product highlighting the possibility of positive change. Being able to initiate the change in the colour of their bath introduces the possibility of them being in control of certain changes within their experience.

Gloop: The possibility that things are not always as we expect them to be is perfectly illustrated by Gloop. Soap that is gooey and pliable allows flexibility in thinking and challenges our general expectations.

Super Slush: Super Slush allows children to experience the bath in a different textural environment. The process of action results in reaction is illustrated perfectly through its use.

Problem solving
Problem solving and decision making ability allows children the benefit of directing their lives and reactions to the world. Being able to work through a particular situation requires creativity and perseverance. When these qualities are present within a child their ability to regulate their emotional world increases as does their ability to adjust and be resilient in the face of adversity.

Angel Beads: Provide the opportunity for children to work to develop a solution or outcome. Manipulating the beads determines how quickly change occurs. A great analogy for the work we need to employ to solve issues

Bath Pops: Playing with bath pops reinforces the logical thinking process in order to reach my goal. Taking time to follow the steps and employing delayed gratification in waiting for the sponge to emerge allows a unique set of skills to develop.

This blog article was written by Shireen Thomas-Stark, who is a Counselling Psychologist in Private Practice and specialises in Play Therapy and working with children in all aspects of emotional coping.
Centre for Therapeutic Excellence
134 Cambridge Street Tel: 011 425-0688
Farrarmere, Benoni Cell: 084 86 999 86

A fun experiment to do at home with your kids. If you don't have Acornkids Angel Powder use bicarbonate soda and food colouring instead!

	You will need: two small plastic drinks bottles large piece of card vinegar angel powder (or bicarbonate of soda and food colouring) washing-up liquid large plate or tray funnel pen or pencil scissors tape
	Step 1 Copy this shape onto the card. It needs to be big enough to fit around the bottle.
	Step 2: Cut out the shape and bend it into a cone as shown. Secure it with tape.
	Step 3 Using a funnel, fill one of the bottles until it is about one-third full of vinegar.
	Step 4  Add one tablespoon of washing up liquid and put the bottle to one side.
	Step 5 Put the second bottle on a tray/plate and pour in three teaspoons of angel powder.
	Step 6 Place the card cone over the bottle.
	Step 7 Make sure the hole is level with the bottle opening.
	Step 8 Using a funnel, pour in the vinegar and washing up liquid mixture. Remove the funnel and wait!
	Step 9  When the vinegar and angel powder mix together, they produce carbon dioxide gas. Thi sgas creates bubbles in the vinegar and the washing up liquid. The foaming messy mixture expands and forces itself out of the top of the bottle.

A fun experiment to do at home with your kids. If you don't have Acornkids Angel Powder use bicarbonate soda instead!

	You will need: small drinks bottle balloon angel powder (or bicarbonate of soda) vinegar funnel teaspoon
	Step 1 Using a funnel, pour about a third of a cup of vinegar into the bottle.
	Step 2: Slide the balloon onto the funnel as shown here
	Step 4 Put two teaspoons of Angel Powder onto a teaspoon into the balloon.  Remove the funnel from the balloon.
	Step 5  Twist the neck of the balloon to stop the Angel Powder from falling out. Then stretch the mouth of the balloon over the bottle,taking care not to let any of the Angel Powder drop into it.
	Step 6 Hold the bottle, lift up the balloon, untwist the balloon neck and empty the Angel Powder into the vinegar.
	Step 7  The Angel Powder and vinegar mix together, they create a gas called carbon dioxide. All gases expand to fill any available space, so the carbon dioxide inflates the balloon

A fun experiment to do at home with your kids. If you don't have Acornkids Angel Powder use food colouring instead!

	You will need: plate milk food colouring washing up liquid funnel teaspoon
	Step 1 Pour some milk into a plate or glass dish.
	Step 2: Add some Angel Powder (or food colouring) to the milk.
	Step 3 Add a few different colours.
	Step 4 Drop a small amount of washing-up liquid onto the centre of the mixture.
	Step 5 The washing -up liquid breaks the surface tension and the milk molecules move apart.
	Step 6 As the milk moves, the colours run into one another.

Last week we chatted about the Social skills that our little ones need to develop before being able to sit comfortably in a classroom to concentrate on their work. (If you haven’t read it yet, please click here[KH1]  to follow the link and don’t forget to leave a comment!) This week, we’re going to tackle another misconception which is their Physical Development. Luckily, this is something that we can all work on during the Summer Holidays with our kids!

Most of us look at our little ones and think that, because they’re roughly the same height and size of an average 6 year old, they must be sufficiently physically developed. But this is actually not the best indicator to check.

Rather check out for these pointers to see if your kids are lacking in their physical development: <

1. They battle to site still or upright, especially over a longer period of time.

2. They are fidgety and battle to concentrate on one activity at a time.

3. They move their tongues while cutting or drawing.

4. They press too hard on the paper and maybe break their crayons.

    

5. Now you may be wondering what on earth concentrating and fidgeting has to do with your kids’ Physical Development, but this is because their Physical School Readiness skills are actually also very closely linked to your kids’ muscle tone, as well as their fine motor skills.

If your kids battle to finely control their little fingers before they start school… they’re going to battle to do all sorts of activities like writing and crafts.

If their muscle tone is so poor that they can’t sit still for long periods of time… they’re really going struggle to focus on and finish one activity. And if they’re not doing the activities in class, they’re not going to learn that skill that the teacher has planned! See the problem here?

Now before you start stressing that your kids are not physically developed before the New Year, growing your kids’ Physical Development skills is actually pretty easy. Now is actually a perfect time of year to focus on developing your kids’ Physical skills because of the glorious Summer Holidays starting! It just requires a bit of patience and energy from your side too like:

1. Rolling or throwing a ball.

2. Building blocks like Lego.

3. Any activities that require movement like running, crawling or skipping.

4. Any activities where their heads are lower than their hands – like a puzzle on the floor.

Once again, I hope that you have found this post useful! Please don’t forget to comment below. I’d love to hear from you! What outdoor activities have you got planned with your kids these holidays? Next week we’ll focus on a couple that will keep your kids entertained for hours!

Also, if you’re keen to receive our monthly newsletter packed with Acornkids Specials, Competitions and much more, please pop an email to me on yvonne@acornkids.com.  

Welcome to the first of our weekly Positive Parenting blog posts! Here at Acornkids, we have an absolute passion for children. We love to celebrate your little ones and share in the experiences as they grow and learn every single day. So please feel free to comment and share stories of your own below. To kick off our Positive Parenting blog, I’d like to tackle a question that pops into every parent’s head (at least once if not a million times) before taking the next really exciting yet equally terrifying milestone of ‘Big School’.  “What can I, as a parent, do to make sure that my kids have the very best education?”  You see, preparing your kids for school is so much more than having them academically ready. Teachers are here to teach them the academics, parents are here to teach them that and everything in between! In fact, there are four main areas of development that kids need to master before stepping into their first ...

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Children learn through play. Many skills are developed through play. Logical thinking, problem-solving and creativity can be developed and exercised through play. Play is a powerful medium to access their thoughts and communicate in way that they understand. As adults, if we learn to play with our children we learn to grow with them and develop strong relationships based on sound interpersonal connection. Bathing is a common everyday routine. Acorn products enable parents to turn their bath tubs into a playground of learning and connecting in very unique ways. Each Acorn product is designed as an experience through which parents can access their children’s hearts and minds. It often happens that as adults we forget how to play effectively with our children, or we run out of ideas. It’s great to have products pre-designed to allow the learning and connections to happen without much planning needed. Here are a few skill-based developments that are natural products of the play you experience wi ...

Read the rest of entry »