The Relationship Between Music and Brain Development in Children
Research shows music is good for children and has many cognitive benefits in their development. In fact, modern neurological research has discovered music and child development are deeply intertwined. Exposure to music can help children develop new neural connections, language skills, and more. As children engage with different types of music, whether through singing, listening or dancing, their brains undergo a symphony of activities that engages many areas of the brain including those related to: Working memory Language Processing Emotional Regulation of Self-Control Prob...
Supporting Healthy Screen Habits for Children
In today’s digital world, screens are everywhere. From smartphones and tablets to TVs and computers, children are exposed to technology daily, often for long periods of time. While devices can offer educational benefits and entertainment, it is also important to understand how too much screen time can affect your child’s development and what you can do as a parent to support healthy habits. Research shows that too much screen time can have a significant impact on a child’s physical, cognitive, and emotional development. Language Development - According to a study published b...
Stepping Stone School Continues to Elevate our High Standards and Progressive Program!
At Stepping Stone School, our focus is, and always will be, to provide the highest quality care and education for our children and families. From digital literacy and safety to emotional intelligence and positive self-regulation skills, our program provides the latest research-based curriculum combined with the reputable educational standards we are nationally recognized for. We are also emphasizing a reconnection to nature and implementing environmental sustainability practices to help develop responsible citizens. Our Proud to be Polite™ program focuses on the development of manners and...
The Value of Constructive Play & How to Encourage it at Home
As a parent, it is easy to overlook the value of everyday toys, such as blocks, Legos® and Tinker Toys®. However, the daily utilization of these toys are proven to be a vital benefit to a child’s development. These toys fall under the category of constructive play. Through constructive play, children learn about materials and objects and how to use them to create, build, order and manipulate. By age four, constructive play is the most common form of play. Constructive play is also a big part of our S.T.R.E.A.M. curriculum at Stepping Stone School has been suggested that children who eng...
The Benefits of Sensory Play in Childhood Development
Children are naturally curious and absolutely love exploring the world around them through their senses. Sensory play includes activities involving touch, smell, sight, sound and taste, but it also covers movement, balance and spatial awareness. Sensory play is a vital component of childhood development and research shows that exposure to sensory-rich environments positively influence cognitive development. This type of play, where children explore various materials, textures, sounds, smells and sights can invite children into a world of limitless exploration. The types of sensory play a...
Outdoor Classrooms
As parents of young children attending Stepping Stone School, you're likely aware of the importance of outdoor play in your child's early education. But do you know just how impactful it can be? Let's explore the numerous advantages that outdoor play brings to your child's learning and development. It Invites Children to Learn Science - Nature is a perfect classroom for young explorers. You don't need formal science lessons; outdoor play naturally encourages your child's curiosity. Children are born discoverers, and their questions can become group inquiry projects. Outdoor play natur...
Peace of Mind for Parents - Choosing Meaningful STREAM Activities for Your Child
Young children love to explore the world around them—and STREAM activities are a great way to help them do it. STREAM stands for science, technology, engineering, arts and math. There are lots of STREAM activities available online for families and children to do at home, but some are better than others! With so many STREAM ideas to choose from, how do you find what is best for your child? Here are some questions you can ask yourself: 1. Will this activity interest my child? Is your child interested in building? Collecting rocks? Looking at the night sky? Choos...
Peace of Mind for Parents - Developing Your Child's Spatial Thinking Skills
Research suggests that children’s early mathematics learning—including spatial-thinking skills—is related to later success in both reading and math. Spatial thinking involves children learning to navigate through their environment, to use maps and diagrams to solve problems, and to follow directions. These skills are linked to later achievement in STREAM (Science, Technology, Relationships, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics) fields, and these skills grow tremendously during early childhood. Here are some tips for supporting your child's spatial thinking! Play Fun Spatial-Thinking Act...
1.4 million words
Astounding new research estimates that young children who have been read to multiple times a day from infancy until they reach school age have heard an average of 1.4 million more words than their peers who have never been read to. Even if a child has only heard one book a day, she has still heard 290,000 more words by the time she reaches kindergarten. (Grabmeier, 2019) The language in books, unlike conversational language, introduces children to more complex vocabulary words not always heard in day to day conversation. Therefore, well-read children enjoy a rich vocabulary, improved...
3 Important Ways to Communicate with Your Infant
For a new parent, it can be frustrating not knowing what your infant’s wants and needs are. What does a loud screeching cry mean? Does it mean that he is hungry or hurt? What about a soft cry? Aside from the crying, what do her body signals mean, such as arching her back, rubbing her ears, or moving her arms around? These are all questions that go through a parent’s mind on a daily basis when they are caring for their infant. Infants communicate well before they are able to speak and are born with the ability to express many different, and rather important, emotions. Here are some gen...
Infants and Toddlers and Math, Oh My!
The idea of very young children participating in mathematical thinking may seem strange to some, however, researchers have observed infants at six months of age demonstrating matching skills, sorting and classifying, and recognizing amounts of more and less. These basic math skills exhibit as children work to understand the world around them. Between the ages of one and two, children develop number sense and are able to pick out one or two objects when asked. They develop a sense of shape and space, as they sort objects, stack blocks, and complete simple puzzles. By the middle of th...
Big Body Play
Puppies do it. Kittens do it. Elephants and monkeys do it. And yes, young boys and girls do it. Rough and tumble or big body play (BBP) like running, climbing, jumping and even wrestling is necessary for proper brain development in children and beneficial for building relationships and developing healthier bodies. At Stepping Stone School, we recognize the need for young children to use large muscle groups in safe yet physically challenging ways. Our shaded outdoor play areas are designed with safety in mind with equipment appropriate for each age group. During the rainy ...
Mathematics Development and Learning
The “M” in S.T.E.A.M. stands for Mathematics! Concrete experiences with math concepts and interactions with teachers have a direct impact on your children’s acquisition of mathematical skills. When children manipulate materials in their classrooms and learning centers, they practice math skills. All Children at Stepping Stone School: Use number concepts and operations Explore and describe spatial relationships and shapes Compare and measure Demonstrate knowledge of patterns For example, in block centers, children explore the differences in sizes and shapes ...
The Five Best Coding Toys that Won’t Break the Bank!
At Stepping Stone School, we are excited to unite technology and learning as we teach introductory skills in our early childhood classrooms by focusing on Coding Foundations. Coding foundations include higher order thinking skills associated with the coding process, including tasks like analyzing, predicting, planning, patterning, sequencing, sorting, organizing, and evaluating. Before introducing children to the technology tools used for coding, we practice the concepts of higher order thinking skills through screen-free, hands-on activities basic to the coding process. These a...
Higher Order Processing Skills to Improve Resilience
When you look closely at the Stepping Stone School learning plans, you will see a set of parentheses under each activity in which teachers communicate the purpose of each activity. We call these descriptive words our “Purpose Notations.” As a teacher, I often used the purpose notation “self-regulation” interchangeably with “self-control.” Not really understanding the differences. Recently, I read an article describing the differences written by Professor Emeritus and author, Stuart Shanker, “self-regulation is what makes self-control possible, or, in many cases, unnece...
Benefits of Play
Two-year-old Ellie set the baby doll in a chair at the table. She balanced a stack of pretend food, a small plate, and a cup and set them on the table before her doll. Ellie took great care to put the food up to the doll’s mouth and hold the cup to his lips. Then, Ellie picked up the baby doll, patted his back and laid him carefully in the doll bed for his nap. Through her play, my daughter showed me just how well she knows her routine. Ellie demonstrates caring attitudes as she fed her baby doll and gently tucked him into bed. She is making connections between the symbolism ...
Importance of Sleep
I pulled up to my daughter’s elementary school at the end of her first day of Kindergarten. I saw her waiting in the car rider lane with half of her hair pulled out of her pony tail and her thumb in her mouth – the tell-tale signs that my five-year-old was exhausted. Not all children are as obvious in displaying their exhaustion. Dr. Michael Breus, clinical psychologist and a leading specialist on sleep disorders, connects a slew of behaviors with the amount of sleep a child gets each night. Children who get enough healthy sleep are “optimally alert” which means they demo...
5 Things to Do with Your Children Before School Starts
My soon-to-be kindergartener asks regularly, “Do I get to go to Kindergarten today?” We’ve marked the calendar, purchased school supplies, met with other up-and-coming Kindergarteners, but, the day is not coming soon enough for my excited five-year-old. Whether your child is entering elementary school for the first time or returning for another year, here are five things you can do to help your child prepare mentally for the challenging rigors of the upcoming school year: Get Reading. Beginning in infancy, reading together builds language acquisition and literacy skills. A ...
Loose Parts
Four-year-old, Ethan, was huddled over a pile of rocks he had collected from around the playground. As I walked over to him, he told me he was looking for “interesting” rocks. Naturally, I wondered what made a rock “interesting.” As I watched, he began sorting his rocks into several piles according to the level of interest: crystal-like formations, streaks of a different color, or a unique shape. I asked him to tell me which pile had more and then watched as he pointed. Pressing further, I inquired as to how he knew it had more. First, he compared the size of the piles sh...
The Power of Touch
Over nine months of waiting for that moment when I would finally hold my child for the first time. It is one thing to carry a child through pregnancy, but something completely different to touch his face, feel his tiny fingers wrap around your own, and to kiss his soft cheeks. Touch is the first sense to develop in utero and is the most strongly developed by birth. Through the science of touch, we learn about the presence of neurons in our skin which relay information about our environment through receptors specialized for touch. Our sense of touch enables us to learn about ourselv...
Learning Through Play
Children across generations no matter their race, culture, or gender participate in play: enjoying games, inventing stories, imagining and creating worlds within their world. Psychologist David Whitebread of Cambridge University states “Play is essential to their development. They [children] need to learn to persevere, to control attention, to control emotions. Kids learn these things through playing.” (Kohn, 2015). Behavior research connects play to children’s development at several levels: linguistically, cognitively, mathematically, scientifically, and socially. Young c...
Benefits of Early Bilingualism
Infants have the innate ability to learn multiple languages. According to research by expert Linda Espinosa, Professor Emeritus at the University of Missouri at Columbia, the early years are an ideal time to acquire multiple languages. (Espinosa, 2015) Her research demonstrates when young children are exposed to a secondary language at an early age - no matter how short the experience and no matter the pairs of languages involved - there are observable neural changes in the way in which language is organized in the child’s brain. Children as young as seven months, demonstrate highe...
The Effective Use of Computers with Young Children
Stepping Stone School recently made a major investment in new computer hardware and learning software which has been installed in every three year old through school age classroom at each campus. The use of computers with young children has been intensely studied since the early 1980s. Research has taught us that technology can change the way children think, what they learn, and how they interact with their peers and adults. It can also be used to teach the same old stuff in a thinly disguised version of the same old way. That is why Stepping Stone School has been a pioneer in the placement...