Fall is a great season to enjoy with the whole family.  It’s not quite as sunny as summer but still bright and cheerful just the same.  The weather and temperature is just right – not to hot and not too cold – to enjoy the outdoors with the kids.  There are a number of fun fall activities for kids that you might want to put in your bonding calendar.  Give these activities a try:

Autumn Collage

Take a stroll with your kids and set out on a mission to collect curiously shaped leaves for an autumn collage. You pick up acorns and small twigs too if you want.  If you have smaller kids, do not let them go off on their own.  You want to make sure that they do not get their hands on anything sharp or dangerous.  When you get back home with your stashes of leaves in an assortment of golden colors, you can start putting together your collage.

You can use ordinary bond paper or you can use a poster board.  Have some paint, glue, scissors, pencils, and coloring materials on-hand.  You can basically make any design or image you want by gluing the leaves you gathered on your choice of paper.  You and your kids can work together in one project or you can each have your own artwork.  You can also make several collages so you can have your own private exhibit at the end of the day (or week if you want more artworks to display).

Stamp Art

Make use of the apples and pumpkins that are abundant in the autumn season. You will have to cut shapes out of pumpkin and apples for your kids to use in their stamp art.  Start by cutting a good sized pumpkin and a couple of apples into slices that are about 2 inches thick. You can use cookie cutters are your guide by tracing the shapes on the pumpkin and apple slices.  Carve out the “flesh” outside of your traced lines to leave a raised area that will serve as the stamp.

When your stamps are done, put different colors of paint in small paper plates, lay out sheets of paper, and your art table is all set.  You and your kids can let your creative juices run and stamp away.

Sugar and Spice Bake Day

Since spices are often associated with the season, among the great fun fall activities for kids is to make sweet treats using spices. Apples and pumpkin are also ingredients that go well with spices like cloves, cinnamon, ginger, and nutmeg.  Recipes for treats like Gingerbread Cookies, Apple Crumble, and Pumpkin Pie are available in child-friendly versions that will be easy for you and your kids to follow.

Fun Fall Activities at Young Scholars Academy

Young Scholars Academy in Colorado Springs provides quality child care no matter the season. But we are especially excited about fall and the new school year. Young Scholars Child Care in Colorado springs offers child care programs for infants to school age children. We also have some exciting childcare enrichment programs! Come check out our programs and contact us today!

Is your little one about to start kindergarten? If so, then you must be feeling both excited and nervous. There’s no need to worry, though, for this is an all-natural part of being a parent.

Nevertheless, you can help your child experience kindergarten for the first time in a positive way with these essential starting kindergarten tips

Become involved in the school

A parent’s involvement is necessary for the child to feel more secure, thus, allowing him to perform better in school. This is important in all levels, but especially so in kindergarten.

Teachers would want you to stay in touch with them so that you can collaborate with them to help your child have an enriching learning experience. Get to know your child’s teacher and exchange contact information with him or her.

Also, it helps to do a bit of inspection on the school grounds. For instance, you must ensure that the playground is certified safe for kindergarteners.

Teach your child proper etiquette

Gradually, instill proper manners in your child so that he can interact well with both the kids and adults that he is about to meet. Proper bathroom etiquette such as how to wash hands and flush must not be overlooked as well. That way, your child will know how to use the bathroom with minimal supervision.

Let them practice basic skills ahead of time

Empower your child by equipping him with some basic skills even before he starts kindergarten. This will not only motivate him to want to learn more, but also let him gain the confidence he needs to tackle the tasks in store for him in the classroom.

Here is a list of some of the basic kindergarten readiness skills that you and your little one can bond over for a couple of minutes each day:

Shapes and Color Recognition. Your child will learn how to identify basic shapes and colors. It helps to hang posters of shapes and colors on his bedroom wall and playing several games to help enhance his ability to recognize them.

Letter and Sound Recognition. In most kindergartens, children are taught to recognize the letters of the alphabet, especially the sounds associated with each letter. Aside from singing the Alphabet song, you can also try games such as by playing with alphabet magnets on the refrigerator with your child. A poster with pictures, each of which has a name that starts with a letter in the alphabet, is also useful.

Number recognition. Basic counting skills are taught to kindergarteners, including recognition of the common numeral system (which is Arabic numerals, in most cases). You can recite the numbers with your child and play with number refrigerator magnets, or hang a poster with the numbers and pictures to represent the different numbers.

Fine motor skills. Give your child some crayons, markers and some age-appropriate activity sheets to practice his drawing, coloring and writing skills ahead of time. By letting your child practice early on, he can perform more confidently in the classroom.

Hopefully, these tips have also inspired you to think of even more ways to help your child start kindergarten confidently. Feel free to share these starting kindergarten tips to other parents as well.

Starting Kindergarten with Young Scholars Academy of Colorado Springs

Young Scholars Academy is dedicated to helping you and your child transition into kindergarten. Our Preschool and Junior Kindergarten programs can help your child prepare for the big step into kindergarten. Come check out our programs and contact us today. We look forward to hearing from you!

Like many things in life, childcare programs are not all made equal. Childcare comes in a variety of types. From simple in home babysitting, to educational childcare programs like preschool, to school age programs, childcare is as diverse as the children who benefit from it. But just because they are different doesn’t mean that one is better than the other. A babysitter is fine if you just need to get away for an evening. But if you want childcare with purpose, childcare that is more than supervision, childcare that exercises your little one’s mind and ignites their creativity, educational childcare with childcare enrichment programs is what you are looking for. Let’s take a look.

What are Childcare Enrichment Programs?

Childcare enrichment programs are programs that focus on the mental and creative development of your child. From art to music, STEM programs to dance, childcare enrichment programs both supplement and enrich a child’s educational development.

Music Childcare Enrichment Programs

The importance of music education cannot be overstated.  Music education has been shown to give children a number of cognitive benefits as well. Early music education is linked to higher test scores and contributes to ease of language acquisition and reasoning skills in young children.

The memorization techniques that are required to keep time, beat and melody all coming together into one boosts the parts of the brain associated with recall and memory. Keeping time and beat also contribute to the development of fluid intelligence and control.

Art Enrichment Programs

Before written language, there was art. Cave paintings scribbled by our Neolithic ancestors make clear the natural tendency for human beings to represent their lives in picture and story. Unfortunately, art education programs have suffered years of cutbacks and limited budgets. But that is starting to change. More and more education experts are acknowledging that art is an important element of a child’s education. And it’s never too early to start. In fact, many early childhood education centers are incorporating art programs for young children into their curriculum.

Foreign Languages

With foreign language programs, the younger the student the better. A young child’s mind is primed for language acquisition. It is important to realize that to a young child the language of their parents is just as foreign as Swahili is to an adult English speaker. The difference is the fact that the child does not have the limiting brain structures that develop as we age. They can absorb new words as concepts, while us adults absorb them as equivalencies between words, requiring the dreaded memorization techniques that made foreign language a bore in highschool. If you get them started early with a childcare enrichment programs that focuses on foreign languages, they will learn it with the same ease as they learn their native language.

Childcare Enrichment Programs with Young Scholars Academy

Young Scholars Academy of Colorado Springs has a number of childcare enrichment programs. From sign language to music and dance, Young Scholars Academy is dedicated to diversifying your child’s learning experience. Come check out our child care programs and contact us today.

If your little one is coming up on kindergarten age, it might be time to consider enrolling him or her in a quality pre kindergarten program. The benefits of pre k education has been documented time and again in study after study. Let’s take a look at what pre k education programs are and how they can benefit your child.

What are Pre Kindergarten Education programs? 

Pre K education, also called preschool, or pre kindergarten, is a great transitional milestone for both children and parents. As a parent, it is perhaps the first time that you have willingly surrendered your child over to a near total stranger for any significant period of time. Naturally, that in itself can produce a good deal of anxiety. To reduce this added stress, it is important that parents get to know their childcare providers.

For children, the preschool experience is actually slightly less traumatic. The world of a child is a world of wonder and new experiences. The pre K environment is just a new chapter in their day to day adventures. That is not to say that all children adjust perfectly. The most common issue children entering pre k education face is separation anxiety. You can help your little one through this with these fantastic and easy tips

Pre k education is the transition between structured and unstructured learning. It is the pathway to kindergarten and grade school and, later on, college and adulthood. As toddlers and infants, the primary learning environment for children is the home and family. It is here that the little scholars take their first steps, speak their first words, make their first mistakes and learn from all of it. It is a precious time for parents, often thoroughly documented in photo and video!

Benefits of Preschool and Early Childhood Education

Children fortunate enough to be enrolled in a pre kindergarten program or other early childhood education programs have an easier time adapting to kindergarten. Long term studies show that preschool students actually end up earning more money, are less likely to need remedial or special education programs, are less likely to have behavior issues and have higher earnings later in life than children who did not attend a preschool or early childhood education program.

Children in early childhood education programs benefit significantly from the excellent socialization environment that is provided in these programs. Children learn to play, work with and learn in social groups, which teaches them concepts like turn taking, sharing and develops their sense of empathy and compassion for others.

These benefits prepare the little scholar of an early childhood education programs for learning in kindergarten and beyond!

Pre K Education at Young Scholars Academy

Young Scholars Academy of Colorado Springs puts your child first with quality pre k education programs. Our Junior Kindergarten program is specially designed to help children make the transition from preschool to the kindergarten classroom. Give your child a head start with Young Scholars Academy’s pre k programs! Contact us today to get started. We look forward to hearing from you!