Totsy's Place

Here comes Halloween!

One of the first events that always makes us feel that winter is here is Halloween. The shops are full of all kinds of fabulous outfits and ghoulish treats.

Whilst trick or treating isn’t for us (well it’s far too cold!), we do love a good Halloween party.

Toddlers will love the dressing up aspect of Halloween and we’ve found loads of great reasonably priced outfits in lots of high street chain stores/supermarkets. However, if you’re on a tight budget, here are a few of our ideas to make your own costumes for your little ones:

Mummy
Wrap your child in white bandages. Use white face paint to finish off the scary look.  The stiff-legged walk helps to complete the effect.

Ghost: Use an old white sheet. Cut to length so that it’s short enough not to trip a little one up and cut eye holes.  Cutting armholes will help keep the sheet in place.

Skeleton
Use an old black tracksuit or black leggings & t-shirt. Cut out ‘bones’ from a white plastic bag and attach with craft glue. Use some face paints in black and white to complete the look.

So once your child looks the part ... it’s time to start some party games!

Lots of Halloween games can be adapted for preschoolers, they just need to be not too scary and age appropriate. We particularly love the following games as they encourage good listening & great co -operation.

Monster ‘Stop & Go’
 
Play Halloween music and have the children dance around like monsters & zombies.
When the music stops the children have to stop dancing and freeze.

With older preschoolers, the first child to move is out, and the game continues until only one child is left. With younger children – it’s almost impossible to have children who are ‘out’ – so just have lots of ‘winners’.

 

Pin The Face On The Pumpkin

Toddlers may not like to be blindfolded so try just putting your hands over their eyes.

Using a large piece of orange paper draw a big pumpkin. Draw triangle eyes and nose with a black marker, an X where the mouth should be and pin to the wall.

Cut separate pumpkin mouth/ teeth templates (one for each child) and get the children to decorate their pumpkin mouths. Put some blu tac on each child’s pumpkin mouth. Then, in turn, spin each child around, making sure that he/she is facing the pumpkin at the end. Cover their eyes and have them try to stick the mouth onto the pumpkin where they think it should be.
The child with the mouth closest to the X is the winner.

Wrap The Mummy

This one is a favourite Halloween game that’s easy to prepare. Ideally you need 2 teams and 2 grown ups. The object of the game is to see which team can wrap their grown up with toilet paper the fastest. At the end of the game, the grown up breaks out of the toilet paper making appropriate zombie noises etc…

We’d love to hear your suggestions of  more Halloween themed games for toddlers .

Over the last couple of weeks, lots of our little Talking Tots will have been coming along to class in their finest Halloween costumes – and helping witch find her friends in our fun vocabulary building game. Come and join our language boosting fun!. Click here to find a class near you.

International Stammering Day 2018

 

                                                    

 

Struggling with fluency is stressful and frustrating.

About 5% of children experience some difficulty with their fluency at some point. Most will achieve normal fluency with or without help.

For some children it may start gradually and it may come and go. While for other children it can begin quite suddenly and happen all of the time.

Non fluency usually starts in childhood and often between the ages of 2 - 5 years.  It coincides with the learning of many new physical and language skills. At this age children are learning many new words, using longer sentences and are asking lots of questions.

If you are concerned at all, seek early advice from a speech & language therapist. In the meantime here are our top tips for dealing with early non fluency:

• Respond to the difficulty that they are having in the same way that you would with any other difficulties that arise as they develop skills, such as learning to put shoes on. You wouldn’t just watch your child struggle with shoes … you’d help out.  Acknowledge the difficulty in a supportive way. You might refer to the non fluency as ‘bumpy talking’. You might want to acknowledge that it’s fine by saying something like “Don't worry, talking can be a bit tricky sometimes”
• Try not to react negatively. Stammering is not caused by parents, but any anxiety that you have can be passed on to your child.
• Keep your sentences short and simple and instead of asking questions, just try to comment on what your child is saying, so that you’re letting him know you are listening.

• It’s not easy, but where possible, try to avoid a hectic/rushed lifestyle. Stammering can increase when your child is tired or stressed. Children who stammer respond well to a routine and structure.
• Try and reduce the number of questions you ask and always give your child time to answer one question before asking another. This way, he’s less likely to feel under pressure.
• Try to keep eye contact when your child is having difficulty talking. Don't finish her sentences and try to focus on what your child is saying rather than how she’s saying it.
• It can be helpful if you slow down your rate of speech when talking to your child. Don’t tell your child to slow down or take a deep breath.
• Try and set aside a few minutes each day when you can give your full attention to your child in a calm and relaxed atmosphere. Let them lead the play or talk about their chosen topic. Try to talk about the things that are current rather than about things that happened in the past or are planned for the future.

It is not always easy to identify those children who will recover naturally from non-fluency and those who may need additional help. Speech & Language Therapists will assess your child and will make a judgement based on risk factors, such as if there is anyone else in the child's family who stammers. Then they may then decide to “watch and wait” or provide indirect or direct therapy depending on the age of your child.

Speech and language therapy for children who stammer is available under the NHS. You can refer your child to the local speech and language therapy department. Some private speech and language therapists also work with children who stammer.

 

Lisa & Tracey x

There's a chill in the air!

There’s a nip of Autumn in the air … but the weather is still good … so  it’s time to grab your jackets, buckets and rakes and head outside.  Get in to the garden or the park for some Autumn language games!

Play with leaves, twigs and conkers and talk about what you’re doing and what you see. The more times you repeat words with your child, the more likely they are to learn and understand them. 

Here’s an example list of words you can use when playing: 

Action words (verbs):

 Kick
 Jump
 Skipping
 Throw
 Fly
 Fall
Run
March

Nouns:

Leaf
Conker
Tree
Branch
Acorn
Twig
Stick
Bird
Stone
Bug
Worm

Adjectives (describing words):

Colours (green, red, orange, yellow, brown)
Dry
Wet
Dirty
Rough

Game ideas:

Sort different shapes, sizes  and colours of leaves.

Make a collage.

Use a puppet animal to ‘find’ & hide Autumn treasure.

Throw leaves in the air & see how many you can catch

Have a leaf race! Blow a leaf across a table with a straw. The first one across ‘the line’ is the winner.

Make leaf animals and people. Glue a leaf to a sheet of paper and put arms, legs, necks, heads, tails, etc… to make them into leaf people and animals.

Remember lots of repetition of words and phrases is the key to good language development.

Lisa & Tracey

Time for a change?

 

We all want a career we love, but for some of us it can take a long time to get to that point, especially if you’re hanging on to your job as the safe and familiar option.Sometimes, we need to take stock and decide what you want to do moving forward. We often hit a crossroads in our lives and need to decide whether to stay on the same path or choose a different direction. Here are our top tips to help you make that decision:

Be experimental and brave!
If you’ve been considering a career change for a while but nothing has come of it, maybe it’s time to stop thinking and just get going! Sometimes if you overthink the situation, you can become stuck … ‘analysis-paralysis’. To find a career that fills you with passion, you might have to step out of your comfort zone and seize the day.

Use your transferable skills

Think about your skills and the experience you have gained so far throughout your career. Define what your strengths are. Look for a role that combines the more enjoyable elements with fresh challenges to keep you passionate and excited about your future career.

Look for a career that joins your passion with a profitable business

You can actually let your passion become your full-time career and enjoy your daily working life to the full.

 

Don’t be afraid to shake it up

Life is short and it’s easy to become stuck in a rut. Redress the balance in your life and don’t be scared to do things that you wouldn’t normally do. It’s important to spend time with friends and family as well has having a rewarding career. It's you that wants to make a change, but it's also you who is your biggest obstacle.

Starting your own business could be the perfect way to achieve all of these things and make you excited about the future again!

There are a huge number of benefits that could transform not just your year, but your working life as a whole. Being part of the Talking Tots Franchise team means you can choose how often and where you work and how much money you earn, giving you the flexibility to shape your career around what you love.

Ask yourself:

• What are your personal goals?
• What's important to you?
• Do you want to be master of your own destiny?
• What gives meaning to your life?
• What do you want from your career?

Get in touch to request a free copy of our Franchise Prospectus   [email protected]    01253 735355  Lisa & Tracey