BLOG

At emmasplace.ca you can find free Easter worksheets, recommended books for Easter, songs and ideas. Here some of the free material.  

Spring is here the days will start warming up  that means more time outside.  There are plenty of things to do with children while outside, explore, motivate their curiosity , learn and most important have fun.
Here are some ideas:

1. Go for a flower hunt around the neighborhood,  called the   names and colours of the flowers.
2. Play I spy Flowers.
3. Visit a farm
4. Go for a walk or a bike to see the different sign of Spring.
5. Make a collage, what colours do you see show some pictures of flowers.  You can find some ideas and recipes in my website.
6.  Use rainbow colours  to make a rainbow with chalks, paint outside.
7. Plant a seed make a record of the seed growing.
8. Visit a botanic garden
9. Play garden or a flower store
10. From caterpillar to butterfly .  Buy a caterpillar and let the children observe the process and then release the butterflies. You can buy Painted Ladies caterpillars on line (flutter buys for example)
11. Nature collage using natural materials, like sticks little 
12. make a bird feeder or a house bird
13. Watch a caterpillar turn into butterfly.  Then release with the children the butterfly outside.  You can find online some stores  like flutterbuys.ca.
14. Make a terarium: In a glass container,  Cover the bottom of your terrarium with a 1 1/2 inch of small stones or pebbles.  Add a very thin layer of activated charcoal, add a layer of potting soil. Add your plants, small gardening tools. 
15. Make playdough  (you can find some recipes of playdoug in my website)
16. Potato stamping
17. Egg Grass head: you will need eggs, you can boil them for 15 minutes, let them cool and then carefully take the egg from the shell with a spoon, let the children decorate the egg or make a face with a marker, put 3/4 of soil in the egg, then put the grass seeds and cover the grass seed with soil and put a little water, watering every day and keep in the sun.  In three days you will start to see the grass coming up.
18. Cress Head Eggs: Another is the cress seeds, you can boil the egg or carefully empty the inside, let the children make a face, then you put two cottons in each egg and the seeds and add a little water. Find a sunny place to put your plant and wait for about three to four days, water every day.

According to research in Canada and USA, as well of the recommendations of the OMS, infants should not be exposed to any electronic screen.
Children between 2 and 4  years old, should not exceed of one hour of sedentary screen each day children older than 5 y ears old,  should have not more than two hours of recreational screen time.
 Older toddlers  and preschoolers if expose to screen time this should be mostly educational material, and music to reinforce some educational activity provided for an educator or a parent.
So, What parents and caregivers can do?  Limited especially cartoons and movies, always watch with them the program, especially the new ones,  and be special vigilant for the ads.  
Remember that young children has short attention span so do not expose to long movies even if they are PG rated.

Encourage outdoor activities and play,  exploring, wondering,  listening to music and stories  and encourage play. Daily  Physical activity is very important for their development, so Reinforce exercise, sports, yoga. 
How to tell when is   too much screen time? When you  notice your child nervous, lonely, overly tired, fearful, isolated from friends, angry, and with difficulty to  concentrate.

​Younger children learn for the interaction in the real world  and exploring it.