The Foundation for Success or Failure: Young children are affected by, and have an effect upon, almost everyone and everything that they come in contact with. Encouraging a child to be active and to explore fosters success.  Failure is created by constantly saying “NO” each time a child tries to do something new.  Praise provides encouragement, while criticism leads to loss of interest.  To encourage learning, tell children what to do, instead of what not to do.  The level of competence reached by each child is directly related to the type and quality of interaction.

Children Imitate Their Parents:  The more children see and do, the more they learn.  To teach children to do things for themselves is rewarding and builds self-esteem. Children’s natural curiosity drives them to question, explore, and discover more about the world in which they live.  Allow children to construct their own knowledge. (J. Piaget)

Three Basic Guidelines:  Parents can provide a variety of concrete play experiences.  In an atmosphere where children are free to explore and ask questions, children develop self-confidence as they learn many new skills.

Patience:  Children need a lot of time to think.  When mistakes are made, adults should not scold the child.  Children should be encouraged to try the activity again.  Parents should allow children to follow their interests.

Repetition: Children need to repeat activities often.  This is how they learn.  Familiar activities build self-confidence.  The more successful children feel the more motivated they are to try and learn new things.

Concrete Experiences:  Children are interested in working with real things.  Experiences are the best instructors for young children. The materials can be inexpensive and simple to use.  Parents can introduce bits of novelty that provide challenges for children, and respond in ways that match children’s skill level. 

Infants: Baa, Baa Black Sheep - Learning nursery rhymes and fingers plays and acting them out are effective ways to develop vocabulary and language skills. Infants can examine their bodies and compare themselves to animals in a concrete way.  They have five toes on each foot, but a sheep does not.

Toddlers: Bottle Caps - Learning of some kind is going on in every child every waking moment of every day.  These can be both positive and negative experiences, and can be direct, indirect, or unintended.  Have toddlers begin a bottle cap collection for classifying counting and crafts.  Have them sort caps by size, color, and function.  (plastic or metal)

Preschoolers: Woodworking – Have preschoolers read stories about transportation, then have them collect scraps of wood and build their own designs of trains, cars, boats and planes.    Encourage them work with real tools such as a hammer, screwdriver, tape measure and various types of screws, bolts, and nuts under adult supervision.

If you always do what you’ve always done…you’ll always get what you always got.