Use a Timer to get Children to Complete An Activity
Ask your host parents how much time they think it should take your host kids to complete a certain tasks that you and your host kids struggle with. Then set the timer and have a race against the clock to get things done before the timer beeps. There is no reward, just a high five and a challenge to do it faster the next day. This makes it fun and exciting! Once the behavior has changed and the struggle is over, you will not need the timer as the expectation has been set and met.
Use a timer for things like
- getting dressed
- room cleaning–set the timer for five or ten minutes and challenge your host kids to clean as much of the toys room as possible before the timer beeps
- playtime before doing homework or chores
June is Zoo and Aquarium Month
Visit Westport’s Earthplace, the Norwalk Maritime Aquarium or Beardsley Zoo or set up a pretend zoo with play animals and blocks. Invite the host parents to visit your pretend zoo. Read One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish or If I Ran the Zoo, both by Dr. Seuss. Encourage the children to make up their own animals and draw them. Think of all the animal sounds you can and play a game guessing what animal you are. You may find that the same animal says one thing in America and something quite different in your own country!
June 4 – Aesop was born on this date. His stories, all with a lesson at the end are still well known today. Read one to your host children.
June 6 – National Applesauce Cake Day
Here’s a recipe for a healthy and delicious snack to make with the children
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup shortening
2 cup flour
2 teaspoon baking soda
2 teaspoon cinnamon
1 1/2 cups applesauce
1 cup raisins or dried cranberries
Mix first sugar and shortening, then add flour, baking soda and cinnamon. Mix in applesauce and raisins/cranberries. Place in a greased and floured 9 x 13 inch baking pan and bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour.
Try new foods! Are you caring for children who are fussy eaters or are reluctant to try new things? Make a tasting passport. Take several pieces of computer paper and fold in half and staple. On the front write “Tasting Passport” and the child’s name and the date you started. Look for food pictures in magazines that the child can glue into his passport when he tries a new food.
~Dream catchers. Native Americans used dream catchers to keep bad dreams away and let good dreams come in. Simple to make for 5 year olds and older, this is a fun craft activity that can then be hung in the child’s room.
~Take an ordinary paper plate and cut the center out of it leaving just the rim of the plate. Color the rim the child’s favorite color. Next, punch holes with a hole punch every inch or two all the way around the plate. Then, string the yarn back and forth from one side of the rim to the other forming a web like design inside of the paper ring. Decide which is the top and which is the bottom of their dream catcher. At the bottom of the dream catcher attach small feathers.
