![]() ![]() ![]() Serve a Heart-Healthy Dietįood is important for our bodies. Let’s start to invest in our children’s hearts, and our own, this month so that they will be saying thanks for years to come by doing these three things: 1. We know that when you take care of your heart, starting at a young age, you will increase the likelihood that you will live a longer life. Every year, 1 in 4 deaths are caused by heart disease. "I Love (hands over heart or draw a heart on chest) Being in the Choosy Kids Club (hand sign for C) I Love (hands over heart or draw a heart on chest) Being in the Empty Space Club (make up a movement for empty, i.e.It is important to focus on our children’s hearts daily because according to, heart disease is the leading cause of death for men and women in the United States. ![]() Make up movements that you can do together, for example: As the song plays, do the movements with your child that are asked for during the song and during the chorus (designed as a rest period). The song even empowers children by welcoming them into the Empty Space Club if they can move and play without bumping into anything or anyone. It encourages children to look for and move into spaces that are empty and not filled with another person. If children understand empty and full, and have practiced with hands on props and desktop visuals, they have the foundation necessary to apply the vocabulary and the concepts to their own movements and their relationships with obstacles and other people.Ĭhoosy Kids has a songabout moving only into empty spaces. This brings with it lots of opportunity for dialog and discussion…even math and measuring concepts. Using containers or cups with water, sand, cereal or other items in them help demonstrate the difference between empty or full. ![]() Another helpful strategy for applying concepts to a young child’s awareness of space is to use the terms empty and full to your advantage. This also helps children “see” the self-space of others while practicing. So how can we help children avoid collisions while having fun learning about space relationships when playing games, moving to music, pretending, and simply exploring? One way is to use props like a hula hoop to not only be the child’s “place” on the floor, but to help your child actually pick up self-space and see that it moves around too. From a child’s perspective, if my self-space is how much room my body needs in my “place,” what happens when I start moving around the room or play yard in something called shared space? It can be a bit challenging but we can help children learn that they take their self-space with them into shared space…and so does everyone else! And now, the familiar safe and self-regulated movements become VERY challenging when other things or other children are included. Young children need lots of practice time for learning about locations in space (up-down, high-low, on top-below, over-under, in front of front –behind, etc.) and judging distance. Most teachers call this place “personal” space or “self” space.īut space awareness is more than a spot on the floor or carpet. And many teachers have children return to their place after doing an activity somewhere else. Knowledge about space, and how I use and manage my body in relation to objects, obstacles, and other movers.įor decades, preschool children have been introduced to sitting or standing on a carpet to define the place (or space) that belongs to them. Space awareness has complex components, but in simple terms for home practice, space awareness is: Have you ever wondered how children actually learn to control their movements, or how we can help them become more skillful movers? We have all watched and winced as our youngest children collide with coffee tables, chairs, playground equipment, and of course, other children. Even play time can test a child’s enthusiasm and eagerness.Īlmost all young children love to move around, and given a little bit of open space, moving may change to galloping or running. It can be exhilarating for some and frightening for others. It’s back to school time and my thoughts turn to young children adjusting to new environments, routines, and faces. Linda Carson, founder of Choosy Kids, LLC ![]()
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