Parents Guide
MC Mighty Families Blog
At Mainer Canadian, we know that behind every Mighty Learner is a powerful family that cares and supports from home. At Mainer Canadian we empower our parents with practical knowledge and skills to support their children's development.
Here on the blog you will find tips, tricks and information to empower yourself as a parent.
The importance of
Dizzy Play
Mission
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"Children love to spin around until they're too dizzy to stand up, laugh with others about nothing in particular, mumble nonsense words in a tumultuous conversation, put their pants on their heads or their jackets on their legs, and act out with their friends. they revel in its power to turn the world upside down, playfully confident that it can restore it." -Flight: Alberta's Early Learning and Care Framework You've probably never heard of "dizzy play." I certainly hadn't until I read the full Alberta manifesto on early learning.
Dizzy Play is essentially the epitome of childhood. It's messy, noisy, and expressive. Flight defines motion sickness as "a relatively new term used to describe the important learning and development that occurs for children when they create disorder and rearrangement within play experiences. Elements of motion sickness are present in experiences such as roughhousing and tumbling, full-body play. exploration, and humor and language play."
This type of play is stimulating for children, and also for adults when given the opportunity. However, as caregivers and educators in a child's life, it can be difficult to tolerate Allowing children the experience of being "in charge" of their world for a moment, creating chaos and then ordering it their way, releasing energy, causing change, laughing uncontrollably, all require a release on the part of the adult. Not only does play provide a healthy release for children both emotionally and physically, but it also brings great joy in life. At Mainer Canadian, we challenge our educators to allow fast-paced play at school.It can be noisy and messy, but so is childhood and we want our students to live their childhood to the fullest.
Here are some flight framework questions to process your own views on dizzy play as a parent:
- "How do you value and respond to physical noises in dizzy play?
- What is your comfort level and how does this affect the trade-offs you make for this type of play? downhill, dancing barefoot, or singing at the top of their lungs.”
Special thanks to the people of Alberta who are challenging educators and parents around the world to rethink the early years!
Developing
Fine motor skills
What are fine motor skills? Its all the activities that involve the use of small muscles that control the the hand, fingers and thumbs.
Developing fine motor skills help children perform important tasks such as feeding themselves, grabbing objects such as pencils, scissors and finally, writing.
Having this ability accomplishes self-care and helps a child’s self-esteem and confidence grow.
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Many preschools push children to write too soon. Instead of focusing on the child's development the focus is on academic performance.
The problem is when the focus is academics we miss the developmental base needed for high performance academically. When pushed to write too soon children don't develop adequate hand strength and coordination which leads to incorrect pencil grip, pain when writing, frustration and resistance to school activities.
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At Mount View we believe that focusing first on a child's development is what leads to high academic performance. That's why our classes are play-based, providing children with the opportunities to develop their whole person.
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Activities that MC use to help motor skills development:
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-Playing with playdoh and clay
-Cutting material of all different textures
-Manipulating small objects like beads and peas
