Every day a child learns a little bit more about themselves, their environment and the people around them. At KiwiOz Nannies we believe nannies have a great opportunity to help children learn. We are the primary caregiver in the absence of the parent- the role model and 'life coach' who can help a child grow in confidence-just by being proactive and aware of how we can help.
Here are our top 5 tips on how to teach your wee ones every day:
1. Understand why what you do matters: You may not even be aware of exactly how playing with a child or guiding play can help them to learn. Nearly every activity a child does is a learning experience. Their fine and gross motors skills, cognitive, social and emotional development and speech and language are improving every day. Find out the basics about these areas of learning here. Once you are aware of how a child develops, you can start thinking about how you can help that process.
2. Have a 'theme' each week and a basic lesson plan to go with it. For example- you theme might be 'butterflies' and on Tuesday you might plan to make play dough butterflies. During the process roll the play dough into small balls and this will help your wee ones develop strength in their hands and contributes to good pre handwriting skills.
3. Encourage 'Ah Ha' moments. As a nanny it's important to give children time to play on their own. Self led play both indoors and outdoors engages children and encourages a natural learning and curiosity. If you give a child space to explore and learn on their own they will create their own learning moments and their confidence will flourish. As the nanny your role is observe and recognise these learning moments- find out more about how to do that here.
4. Keep things simple. Move at the pace of the individual child and use resources that they love. If your child is into cars use toy cars to teach them lessons and get them involved through real world usage. Have fun! Your child will learn faster and with more ease if you are relaxed and having fun as well. Turn off your phone, focus on the child and give them the space and time they need to truly interact and learn.
5. Become a story teller. As a nanny you also need to build a strong bond of trust with the parents you work for.
Sharing your experiences during the day using a nanny diary, scrap booking, taking photos and recording learning stories are all excellent ways to:
a) showcase your expertise
b) record how you are helping the children grow and learn every day
c) build trust with the parents and keep them involved in the children's day
As one nanny said:
‘I also write in my daily/weekly log what it is we have done and what area of learning and development it covers so the parents understand that whilst we spent an hour tearing up the old phone book and scrunching up the pages and then tossing them into the rubbish bin, we weren't just messing around, we were actually doing finger and hand exercises (to assist with writing at a later stage) and improving our aim and fine and gross motor skills as well as strengthening our core muscles and having fun too’
Do you have any other good tips on how to be a nanny educator? Please tell us below!
A very helpful post pointing out the educational/developmental aspects of even simple activities, and thus working within the Quality Assurance Framework. Will recommend to our nannies through the Susan Rogan Family Care Facebook page.
ReplyDeleteThanks Susan!
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