PanayiotisArvanitili

This book is a classic! Its a fun book to teach children about the alphabet but it also is full of rhyming and repetition. The entire alphabet climbs up the coconut tree in this book but "Chicka chicka boom boom! Will there be enough room?" Once all the letters make it to the top the tree is too full and Chicka chicka boom boom! they all come crashing down.  Photo 1 After reading this book make some tambourines with your child. You'll need some durable paper plates, a stapler, crayons or markers and some dried beans. Have your child color each side of the plate using pictures from the book. Add some beans between the two plates and staple them together. Then try reading the book again but have your child shake the tambourine whenever you read the words chicka chicka boom boom!  Your child may want to shake their noisy tambourine throughout the entire book so before you begin reading start my giving them a sign that means "keep your tambourine quiet". Something...

Kids love creating noise. It's built into their DNA! They love new things, new sounds and they love when they are the ones to discover it! Encourage their creativity by making these musical bell shakers.  Photo 1 Here's what you'll need: Photo 2 wooden chop sticks colored pipe cleaners bells Have your child thread as many bells as they choose onto the pipe cleaners. Then wrap the pipe cleaner around the top of the chop stick leaving enough room for a handle. That's it! Now you'll have your own musical band to preform for you. This is a good playgroup activity that will encourage the kids to create music together. 

" KBYU Eleven, a local Utah television station, is a great resource for parents and all of those who are helping raise a child.  KBYU Eleven includes quality educational television programs, a safe online environment, and video parenting workshops." KBYU 11 KBYU offers a kids and family section online where TV program schedules  are located along with corresponding educational activities and reading resources. This section also includes a 12 video workshop for parents that teaches them how to prepare their children for school and successful learning ( READY TO LEARN ). Another section that KBYU offers on their website is a community section where resources, events and contests can be found.   Speaking of contests...check out the Utah County Moms Blog to enter a contest to win 2 free vouchers to this years Deer Valley Music Festival! Click here for more information and to enter. The Festival is Saturday June 29th and the contest ends this Friday June 28th....

Zach had just  finished preschool;  as we pulled away on the last day he got a bit emotional and said:  "I'm gonna miss that preschool.....I'm gonna miss it every single day, I'm gonna miss all the kids there and playing with them and I'm gonna miss the girl I had a crush on.....all of them....Charlotte, and Lindy...." I have often wondered why my brother Zach felt only sadness while leaving on his last day of preschool. I think a lot of us generally know our children's physical limits but when it comes to their emotional limits, do we expect too much as parents? Emotional development grows and matures just like physical development. We cannot expect an infant to be able to walk at 6 months when they haven't developed the muscle strength to do so. This is similar to how we cannot expect our children to correctly understand emotions when they haven't yet developed or become aware of the emotion. There are four primary emotions: Joy, Anger, Sadne...

Click here to purchase this book at Barnes and Noble Smiley the shark wants to play with all of his other ocean friends but once he finds out that his smile actually frightens the other creatures he doesn't feel like smiling anymore. His smile later saves his friends from a dangerous situation and he realizes that his smile is special. After reading this story make your own smiley shark like the one below! Put the smiley shark in a place where your child will see it (maybe on the bathroom mirror or on the ceiling above their bed so they'll see it when they wake up). Do this as a reminder for them to SMILE and be HAPPY ! Click here for a printable shark page

Photo 1 Next time you have some kids over for a playgroup try this easy and non-messy activity. This may be best for little boys but girls will have fun too. Have every child bring some of their favorite cars and search your home for the toy cars you have. Line your floor and couch with masking tape lines to mimic roads and you're ready to go! This will keep your kids entertained for hours! Photo 2