July 2015 – Here is the calendar for July.  Get out and have some summer fun!

November 2014

Language calendar from the Moog center.

September 2014 language calendar from the Moog Center

August 2014 language calendar from the Moog Center

Here is the June Language Calendar from moog center!June 2014

Today I read a fantastic, quick article about young children and self control.  Improving kids’ self control not only improves their behavior, but an author also points out: “There’s a study by Meghan McClellan that uses self-control as a very important predictor of school readiness and school success and showing that during the four year old or five year old years, if children make improvement in their self-control, then they also improve in the kinds of measures of math and literacy that they’re being assessed on.”

My husband is a middle school teacher and we often discuss how kids who have self-control skills are farther ahead in the classroom setting for a variety of reasons.  I see it in little kids too – kids who are able to control their impulses and understand that following the rules benefits them often make quick progress in learning new speech sounds.

This article gives many great ideas that can be incorporated into your everyday routines with your kids  – games like Simon Says, complex dramatic play, and following their interests.  It also points out that strict discipline is NOT a way to increase a child’s self control.  I know we will be using these things at our house with our 3-year-old, and I encourage you to explore ways you can build self-control activities into your day!

Each month, the Moog Center puts out a calendar with daily language-building activities.  They are as simple as “open a kitchen drawer, pull out five items, and talk about each one”.  I’ll try to post them here each month, but if I forget, you can always find them at moogcenter.org!  Here is the March 2014 Language Calendar

Welcome to my website!  I’m constantly recommending songs, games, books, etc… to parents when I’m out on home visits, so I figured it would make sense to put them all in one place on a website.   This is my first attempt at a website, so right now it’s a little unorganized, but hopefully you find something useful as you look around.