blog Archives - Grateful Hearts Preschool

This Easy Technique Can Help Your Child Learn Better Handwashing Skills

Posted on August 6, 2025August 8, 2025 by admin

With cold and flu season just around the corner, we all want to do as much as we can to avoid getting sick. That’s hard with little kids with busy hands that want to explore the world around them. Regular handwashing can help cut down on how many germs a child is exposed to, but only if they wash properly.

This can be a hard concept for children. Even when handwashing is demonstrated slowly and patiently, a child may not grasp how to get the soap all over their hands, or that they need to wash for longer than a few seconds.

A visible demonstration can really help kids see what good handwashing practice looks like, and you can give this to your kids with a simple, household item.

Cinnamon and Oil for Visible “Germs.”

To help your child learn proper handwashing skills, all you need is some plain vegetable oil and a sprinkle of cinnamon. Apply the oil to your child’s hands, followed by a sprinkle of cinnamon. Now they can see the mess on their hands very visibly.

Let the child try to wash their hands off. While you might share step-by-step instructions, sometimes it’s also better to ask open-ended questions and let them explore a good handwashing technique on their own.

Let them explore what happens they just rinse their hands off quickly. Did the oil and cinnamon come off? If not, what might work to try and make their hands clean. Would soap work better? Warm water instead of cold?

By letting them trouble shoot the problem of visibly dirty hands, you help them understand handwashing more thoroughly. The next time they go to wash their hands, they may remember how helpful soap and warm water is in washing up.

Testing Theories

When the child has decided that they’ve finished with their handwashing, they can test how well they did by wiping their hands on a clean paper towel. Together, look at the paper towel. Did any smudges from left over bits end up on the towel? What does that mean for clean hands?

They may decide they need to wash their hands again more thoroughly, or if the paper towel is clean give themselves a little pat on the back. Either way, they have a clear idea now of what to do the next time they need clean hands.

Hand washing is an important part of life. People wash their hands after going to the bathroom, before eating, and any time their hands get dirty. How well hands are washed can determine how often someone gets sick, so good handwashing practices are essential.

By practicing handwashing in a way a child can visibly see, kids have a better chance of remembering what to do and how to do it the next time they need to wash their hands. This exploration-based method of learning takes the pressure off of kids and let them troubleshoot a problem all by themselves, creating positive learning on many different levels.

Having Meaningful Conversations with Kids

Posted on June 4, 2025June 4, 2025 by admin

Communication is one of the most critical skills a child will ever learn. Through holding conversations with a variety of other people, they learn important things like how to ask for what they want, how to resolve a conflict, or to get an answer to a question.

Conversation broadens a child’s world, expands their vocabulary, and it helps them in so many other ways. Most kids will learn how to communicate through every day life, but their abilities can be improved through holding meaningful conversations with them.

Ask Questions that Support Conversation

One great step to supporting conversation with children is to ask questions that guide them into thinking and engaging. As an example, if you are reading with them, you can ask questions about the book as you go along.

Good questions might be, “Do you think they are very happy right now? Why do you think that?”

This challenges the child to think about the story they have heard so far, remember what has happened, and answer based on what they have seen and heard.

Although this may seem relatively simple, these critical thinking skills are the basis for many conversations they will have throughout their lives.

The best questions are open-ended, ones that can’t be answered with a simple yes or no answer. The more they need to say to share their thoughts, the richer their vocabulary will become.

Play Interactive Games

Sometimes playing a game can be just the sort of thing to spark conversation with kids. A game of “Would You Rather?” Can become pretty fun, especially if the child is trying to decide on important comparisons. Would they rather be a unicorn, or a dinosaur? Would they rather eat toast, or eggs?

A child who may be too nervous to speak up when asked about a story, may feel more comfortable talking about a funny choice. By laughing over the choices and deciding why toast is better than eggs, you can end up with some fun, and sometimes surprisingly deep, conversation.

Be Patient

Especially when children are young, it can take time for them to get their ideas out. They may stammer, take long pauses, or even retreat from the conversation. If a child genuinely isn’t ready for a conversation right now, it’s okay to put a pause on it and come back later.

If they just need a little more time to get their ideas out, give them that time. Let them try to get their thoughts out first and provide support with suggested words only after they’ve had a chance to get their idea out themselves.

This helps foster independence and lets them know you value their thoughts.

Having meaningful conversations is important for kids. It helps foster good relationships with them, lets them practice their conversations skills, build their vocabulary, and learn how to get along with others.

Make holding meaningful conversations with your child a daily event, so they can build these skills from an early age.

Help Bored Kids With Activity Jars

Posted on May 6, 2025May 6, 2025 by admin

As we creep ever closer to summer, it’s time for children to respond to longer days with statements such as, “I’m bored!” It’s not always easy to keep children busy when they feel like there’s nothing to do, but you can help bored kids find some relief with Activity Jars.

Activity Jars are a tool parents, teachers and other caregivers can use to redirect bored kids. All you have to do is get a bunch of large popsicle sticks and a jar. On each popsicle stick, write an activity on it. When a kid says they are bored, they can take a popsicle stick and do the activity on it.

It’s good to have several activity jars, with various themes on the front. Kids can choose between categories such as imaginative play, water play, messy play, and more. This way, the kids will have an idea of what sort of activity they might pull out of the jar before drawing an activity stick.

Not sure what to write on the popsicle sticks? Here are a few fun ideas:

Make a Playdough Sculpture

Often kids may want to play with playdough, but they don’t have an idea of what to create. Feel free to be more specific on this stick, such as building a caterpillar, or trying to make a teacup. Children can have fun trying to shape a specific object, or perhaps just getting the playdough out is enough to spark their imagination.

Pretend Play

You can set up a whole jar full of pretend play scenarios to help spark ideas for kids. This might include setting up a pizza store, a coffee shop, or a fancy restaurant. They could play firefighter, police man, or doctor.

With a variety of different shops or jobs they could play, they’re just a dress up chest away from hours of fun.

Crafting

Crafting is another fun way to help kids with boredom. Here, you’ll need to customize the sticks to craft options you have available. It can be helpful to have the pieces needed for a particular craft presorted into a ziplock bag, so all that is needed if they draw the stick is to give them the correct bag.

Ideas for crafting could be seasonal, like coloring and decorating a Christmas Tree, or it might be something a bit more messy, like decorating slime. It depends on the child and the availability of items.

Write Your Own Book

It’s easy to make a blank book for kids to write in. Simply fold 3 pages or so of regular printer paper in half, punch a hole at the top and bottom, and tie it with string to hold all of the pages together. Now, kids can write or draw their own stories. The activity jar can be filled with prompts such as Cinderella, or Dragons, to help get kids going.

Once you’ve gotten the idea of how to make activity jars, the sky is the limit. Make a jar with ideas for different things to draw or color. Make a jar for fashion shows, or what ever else is popular with the kids. Often all children need is something to spark their imagination before they have lots of new ideas of their own. Activity jars are a great way to spark those ideas.

Preschool: When Are Children Ready to Start?

Posted on March 26, 2025March 26, 2025 by admin

The studies are in. Preschools have been shown to help children throughout their life, from their first day of school all the way to adulthood. Most parents probably realize that preschool is beneficial to children, but when are children ready to start?

Preschool is good for children under the age of five. Every child is unique, so it’s important to pay attention to your individual child’s readiness signs to decide when they should take their first steps through preschool doors.

Transitions

A big part of a day at preschool is transitioning from one activity to another. They transition from being in their parent’s care, to being in the care of their teacher. They may be asked to transition from play time to lunch time, from circle time to outdoor play.

Many young children struggle with transitions. While it’s not a requirement for children to handle transitions well, especially if they are not neurotypical, coping well with transitions is a great sign of readiness.

If you’re not sure, you can practice transitions at home. How well does your child respond to being moved from one area to another, even if it’s in your own home? Practicing these transitions is a great way to help them prepare for preschool and give you an idea of how they’ll respond.

Communication

How well can your child express his or her needs? Can they ask for more food if they are hungry, or let the teachers know if they feel too hot and need to cool down? Even if your child isn’t very verbal yet, if they can sign for what they want or communicate their needs in another way, it can make preschool much easier for them.

Following Directions

If you ask your child for a specific toy, can they bring it to you? It’s extremely helpful to your child’s experience if they have practiced following instructions before. Luckily, practicing following directions is easy.

All you have to do to ensure your child has learned how to follow directions is to practice, even if it’s a very simple direction. It could be putting on their socks and shoes, being asked to bring their coat, or any other small thing. As long as they have been asked to do something in the past, and were able to follow through with that, they’ve had some practice on following directions.

Learning how to follow directions makes their experience so much easier during their first few days at preschool.

All of these things are signs that your child is ready for preschool, but don’t worry if they don’t have these things mastered yet. Some children may not meet all of these signs of readiness but could still be ready for preschool. An example might be a child who is otherwise ready but has a speech delay.

If a child is speech delayed, they may actually benefit from preschool since they will spend their time in a more language rich environment.

There’s also good evidence that even young infants can benefit from being in an enriched, learning environment. Young children who attend a daycare or preschool are typically more adaptable, have better immunity, and learn more appropriate social behavior than those that don’t.

If you’re unsure, call your local preschool and ask about whether your child may be ready for preschool or not. They’ll be able to help you figure out if your child is ready to begin their journey into early learning.

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