by Julie | Aug 10, 2016 | Blog
Why is it so important to learn problem-solving skills? Whether you’re a student, a parent, a businessperson, or the president of a country, you face problems every day that need solving. Maybe you’re trying to save your business, keep your job, or end the world financial crisis. Maybe you simply need to eat more healthily or find more time to spend with your family. Whether the issue is big or small, we all set goals for ourselves, face challenges, and strive to overcome them. Effective problem solving skills are therefore essential for both academic and social success.
Since problem solving is key to being able to do all other aspects of mathematics, we need to be sure that we provide plenty of opportunities for problem solving for our children, and not be too quick to do it for them when they can work it out for themselves. We need to allow our children to find ways to solve their problems. If a child is struggling with a problem, it is important that we guide him towards solving that problem. We don’t want to just leave him to struggle and struggle until he gives up. But we also don’t want to fix all his problems for him. Playing games or doing activities that involve problem solving can be a non-threatening way to develop these skills in your child.
One of the ways you can help your child if she is struggling with a puzzle or a problem solving activity is with the HAND OVER HAND technique. If the child is using a posting activity like the one in the photo and is struggling to get the lid into the hole, put your hand over your child’s hand and guide her hand, while you verbalise what you are doing. You can say “turn your hand” while you gently turn her hand. This way your child is able to experience success and will start to learn how to try different ways if the first way doesn’t work. If your child is struggling and you take the lid from her and do it for her, then she believes that she is incapable of doing it and only an adult can manage. But if you use the “hand over hand” technique, then she will experience the joy of success herself, and it will motivate her to try again.
It is so important to remember that success in Maths is strongly linked to confidence. If a child believes that he will be able to solve a problem in Maths, then he is very likely to succeed. But so many of our children say, “Maths is too hard. I can’t do Maths”, so before they have even started, they have failed. It is our responsibility to help children to be excited to solve problems, and in so doing empower our children to tackle Maths more confidently.
by Julie | Aug 1, 2016 | Blog
This dedicated team is making a huge impact on the educational future of so many young children. They are:
(front row, l to r): Thokozile Shelembe (mentor), Magdel Hounsom (Occupational Therapist), Slindile Chamane (mentor)
(back row, l to r): Thandeka Dlamini (mentor), Joseph Mohlakoana (administrative assistant), Nontobeko Mnikathi (workshop assistant), Sthembile Magwaza (mentor), Julie Hay (director and trainer), and Linda Hill (project coordinator and fundraiser).
This year the team are reaching almost 900 children under 6 years of age with their mentorship programe, and over 40 000 children have benefitted from the Waste2Toys training that their parents and teachers have attended. The following feedback is just one example of the many positive comments that are received about the work that this team is doing:
“This was an absolutely incredible workshop! My colleagues and I have benefitted so much from this training. We deal with lots of disabled children in our sector and we plan to use this not only in our therapy to improve hand-motor skills [for signing] but also to create awareness of how they can do something different with their lives. Your team has been incredible and some amazing work is being done. Thank you so much!” Sharika, social worker at the KZN Blind and Deaf Society.
by Julie | Jun 29, 2016 | Blog
Ten pin bowling, or “Skittles”, is such a lovely game to play with children from 2 years and up. The idea is to set up a row of objects and the child throws his ball to try to knock as many of them over as possible. You can use 2 litre coke bottles, 500ml drink bottles, milk bottles, toilet roll inners or tin cans. The younger the child, the bigger the skittles and the wider the row of skittles needs to be. As the child gets better at aiming, the skittles used can be smaller.
Set up the skittles in a long line at first. This gives the child a better chance at hitting over at least some of the skittles. It is important that your child experiences some success, as if he always misses the skittles with his ball, he won’t want to play anymore.
Let him count how many skittles he has knocked over, then let him set them up again in a line, and do it again.
As the child gets better at knocking down the skittles in a row, you can place them in a triangle, with one skittle in the front, two skittles behind that, three skittles behind that, etc. Placing the skittles like this also helps the child with counting, as there is 1 in the 1st row, 2 in the 2nd row, 3 in the 3rd row, etc.
This game develops the following skills that your child will need for school:
EYE-HAND COORDINATION:
The eyes need to send the information that they can see to the brain, and the brain has to send the details to the hand muscles to tell them what they must do. These messages from the eye to the brain to the muscles have to happen very quickly, and this skill improves with practice. Why is this important for school? Think of when your child is writing in his exercise book. His eyes have to tell his brain where the first line is, and his brain has to tell the muscles in his hand where to put his pencil so that he can write on the first line. When his eyes see that his hand is coming to the end of the page, his eyes must tell his brain to tell his hand to stop, to pick up the pencil and to move the pencil back to the beginning of the next line. This is just one area where eye-hand coordination is used at school.
When he is throwing the ball at the skittles, his eyes are telling his brain where the skittles are, and his brain tells his hand which direction to throw the ball.
When she is putting the skittles back up in the row, her eyes are telling her brain where the skittles must go, and her brain tells her hand to where to put them.
So knocking down the skittle AND setting them up again are good activities to develop eye-hand coordination.
COUNTING AND ONE-TO-ONE CORRESPONDENCE:
By counting how many skittles have been knocked down and how many are still standing, the child is learning to say the numbers in the correct order AND he is learning to count actual objects. Many young children have memorized the number words in the proper order (counting), but sometimes do not yet understand that they must say one number with each object (one-to-one correspondence). For example, they might say “1,2,3,4,5″ but miss out an object. Or, they count one object twice. A child has to learn that for every item, there is a number that goes with it. It is important, therefore, that when a child is counting objects, he can either touch or point with a finger at each object as he says each number.
Without understanding one-to-one correspondence, a child will be unable to do Maths at school.
NUMBER RECOGNITION
For those children who are in Grade R and older, you can write numerals on the toilet rolls or bottles and they can practice putting them up in the correct order. It is important that you draw the same number of dots on the back of the skittle as the numeral on the front, so that if the child can’t remember what the numeral is, she can count the dots on the back to remind herself. It is also a good idea to put a line around the bottom of the skittle, so that the child knows which way up the skittle must stand. This will prevent her from putting the numerals upside down and thinking that is how they must be written.
by Julie | Jun 21, 2016 | Blog
We had a very successful road trip to the Western Cape, kindly sponsored by the Emirates Airline Foundation and Barloworld Transport. We were away for 10 days, drove more than 3 600km, ran 6 workshops for 142 adults, and reached 3 253 children from areas where access to educational toys is a luxury, not the norm.
Our first workshop was held at Vrystaat Nasorgsentrum (Free State Care Centre) in Bloemfontein, where we shared our ideas with teachers, Occupational Therapists, social workers, and sheltered workshop managers. It was such a wonderful group of people and their palpable enthusiasm and energy made us so excited to see how they are going to implement these ideas in their respective communities.
“Thank you one and all for the absolutely wonderful training today”. “It wasn’t just a workshop, it was an experience.” This was just some of the feedback we got from the Waste2Toys workshop we ran in Franschoek in the Western Cape (approximately 1100km from Pietermaritzburg). Thanks to Lynn and her team at Bhabhathane Trust, who initiated this trip, 15 ECD centres and 5 Primary Schools had representatives present. What an impact these 39 ladies and 1 gentleman will make in their communities!
The third workshop was held in a church hall in Maitland, Cape Town. Coordinated by Vernon, from Barloworld’s “Smart Matter”, this workshop saw principals from 14 different ECD Centres in 3 municipal wards of Mitchell’s Plain attend our training, meaning that the impact of this small group of ladies will have far-reaching effects. Zandile, from Nanny ‘n Me, a company involved in training ladies who are employed to care of small children, also attended and thoroughly enjoyed the course. Some of the feedback we received from the principals included comments like, “It was awesome, I never thought you can do so much with scrap!”, “Very informative, nice skills development for adults and children, exciting and an eye opener”, and “It was very informative, could take it home and explain to my teachers, will be doing workshop with them soon.”
Khayalitsha is a stark contrast to the beauty of so many Cape Town suburbs, but nestled in the heart of it is Ikamva Labantu, an organisation that is working hard to bring hope and help to the members of this community. We were delighted to be able to train 39 ECD practitioners from the surrounding areas at their Early Childhood Learning Centre, and we have been asked to return soon to run more training for the other groups they teach. The ladies’ fascination with our “toys” and their obvious enjoyment when they were asked to try them out proved once again that we are all children at heart!
The fifth workshop was held in Delft. The teachers at this Educare Centre really enjoyed learning new information and had lots of questions to ask. The area they draw from experiences a lot of crime, especially from gangs and drug-related incidents, and these teachers have a big responsibility trying to create a safe zone in their centre.
We finished our trip on a high, with a very successful Waste2Toys workshop held at Fikelela AIDS Project. The participants included foster mothers, carers from the Children’s Homes and facilitators of community projects. It was wonderful that a representative from the Emirates Airline Foundation, which sponsored these workshops, was able to participate in the training with us and see the light-bulb moments for so many for the participants. When a delegate comes to you at the end and says, “You have given me something in my heart today. I feel like I now have something special to offer to my community”, then you know you have done something right!
As the sun rose on our final day and we began the last 12 hours of our journey home, the team reflected on how grateful we are to the many people who had enabled us to reach so many children in the Free State and Western Cape. Our humble thanks goes to the Emirates Airline Foundation (and all the people who so kindly donate on their flights!); to Barloworld Transport, whose sponsored Ford Ranger got us safely to Cape Town and back; to Sunshine Bakery, who provided us with most of the 12 000 bread bags we used on this trip from their schools’ competition; to St. John’s Diocesan School for Girls, whose pupils provide us with a consistent supply of clean recycling; to each of our Rainbow Champions whose monthly contributions ensure that our organisation continues; to Waltons Stationery, for giving us a better price on the sharp scissors and markers that we give each delegate; and to each person in and around Pietermaritzburg that makes an effort to wash and deliver their recycling to us for us to use.
We are constantly humbled by the enormity of the task that we are entrusted with, but we start every day believing that we have to do what we can, where we are, with what we have, and it is thanks to our amazing donors that we are able to give so many children a chance at a brighter future.
by Julie | Jun 9, 2016 | Blog
In order to use a pencil properly, etc, your child needs to be able to separate his index finger from his other fingers. To show you how hard this can be for some children, I want you to close your fingers against the palm of your hand with your thumb sticking out the side. You mustn’t use your thumb at all during this exercise.
Keeping all the other fingers down, I want you to point to the roof with your index finger. Go on, try it!
Well done! That’s a piece of cake! Now put that finger down and point only your baby finger at the roof. Keep all the other fingers down and your thumb to the side.
Quite easy? Now put that finger down, and point only your fourth finger (ring finger) at the roof. Don’t hold the other fingers down with your thumb!
Can you feel how hard it is? Can you feel how sore those muscles are in your hand? That’s because you haven’t practiced separating that finger from the other fingers, because you seldom need to use that finger by itself (unless you play a musical instrument!).
A child who hasn’t practiced separating his index finger from the other fingers will find writing very difficult. You can imagine how challenging it would be to manipulate a pencil if the muscles in your hand were in such pain every time you used that finger! “Flick Soccer” is an awesome game to help your child to use his index finger separately from the other fingers.
First you and your child need to make some small ‘balls’ to play “Flick Soccer” with. Take a small piece of magazine paper and tear off a piece.
Using the tips of your fingers, scrunch the paper into a tight ball. Feel how the muscles in your fingers are working while you are doing this. This is a great activity for children to do, so let your child make his own balls at the same time.
Both you and your child need some ‘soccer posts’. The lids off a milk bottle or cold drink bottle work perfectly for this. You are going to take turns to flick the ball with your index finger and try to shoot it into each other’s goals. The best way to do this is to rest the heel of your hand on the table or floor, so that only your index finger can move. You can defend your goal using ONLY your index finger – all the other fingers must be tucked away.
One of the best parts of this game for your child is the fact that you are playing WITH him, so get down to his level and have fun!
