Integral Education: Strategic Challenges & Road-Map ahead (VII). Strategic Innovation in Education – Toddlers (Part C).
Today is the turn of Toddlers 2. We have defined Toddlers 2 as those who are between 24 months (2 years) to 36 months (3 years).
The whole idea about this journey through each early childhood phases is to show you in the simplest way, the connection or the link between the brain development process and education. My purpose is to wake up the interest in parents or parents to be about all these things. I am not an expert, but if you visit the experts´websites, my job will be ultimately done. Maybe we all know or have heard or read something about social, cognitive, emotional and physical skills or milestones per age, but we have not realized into our own actions, about the importance of our own adults’ behavior, words, and role modeling to our kids’ development.
Remember the rationale behind these writings is not about “how can you do your baby smarter” or how can we increase our babies IQ in the future. Of course, I have had to write some bits and pieces about it, but that is not my purpose. The bottom line of this saga is to help us to realize that parents are the main actors in providing a nurturing, loving and beautiful environment for babies to find the best route to learning.
As mentioned above, the four aspects per age that we are analyzing are physical skills, social, cognitive thinking and emotional aspects. As parents or parents to be, we can help to educate our kids, since the mother´s womb. Of course, children go step by step, systematically, developing all their brain functions. For my personal taste, we also have included spiritual guidance, or spirituality, which includes morality (bad vs wrong) and the concept of God in the education of kids. 
How not to do it? Every time you explore nature and see all the beauty of it, we can´t deny the awe of God (The highest source of love) in all his creations. We have to introduce our children to God before they are born. Even if you perceive babies don´t understand it, kids get used to these ideas if we share them. If you read to them bible stories, it is a lovely blessing. “Scientists have found that babies aged between 19 and 21 months understand fairness and can apply it in different situations”.
Toddlers between 2 to 3 years are usually called “little earthquakes”. And let´s visit the following slides:
If you wish to download the last slides here, please click: Eliescalante November 2018 Integral Education EducationToddlers 2.
Some suggestions for parents who have kids of this age, or for parents to be:
- Let children work out problems independently. Encourage him or her to find solutions (despite the craziest ideas)
- Encourage creativity with large pegs to group, sort, or stack, paints, large crayons, etc.
- Talk clearly to children using simple, positive statements, allowing children to respond back
- Expose children to a variety of books, like picture books, short story books, poems, rhymes. This is the time for reading every day
- Ask children to guess what will come next in a story
- Ask children to picture things that have happened in the past or might happen in the future
- Sing throughout the day. Dance with them.
- Kindle at this age their desire for artistic expressions (let him or her choose their preferred artistic discipline: painting, singing, dancing, acting-shows)
- Always find time to go out with him or her to exploring nature
- Keep your child active with a social sport he may like. If you like, a specific sport, he or she will also like to do it
- Help them to imagine acting plays or stage shows. Let them choose the character they wish to represent, and ignite imagination to create stories with a beginning and a happy end
- Bend, kneel or sit down to establish eye contact when talking to children
- Find a class where he or she can interact with other children to play together. If you can´t pay for it, try to gather with other friends who have toddlers of your kid´s age and meet two times per week in a park or garden or a place where kids can interact safely.
- Limit the screen TV, tablets or smartphone to no more than 1 or 2 hours per day
- And do not forget to be kind to your kid. Show him love by kissing, hugging and many words of appreciation.
On my next post, we will continue with pre-schoolers (kids between 3 to 5 years). Stay tuned,
Thank you.
Source references I encourage you to follow:
http://bbbgeorgia.org/childDev_24-36.php
https://www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/childdevelopment/positiveparenting/toddlers2.html
https://www.healthychildren.org/English/ages-stages/toddler/Pages/default.aspx
https://www.zerotothree.org/resources/321-nurturing-your-child-s-development-from-birth-to-2-months
https://www.momjunction.com/articles/stages-of-moral-development-in-children_0082017/#gref
https://www.cgbabyclub.co.uk/article/your-toddlers-physical-development-2-3-years
https://raisingchildren.net.au/toddlers
https://greatergood.berkeley.edu/article/item/how_to_be_a_kindness_role_model_for_your_kids
Disclaimer: All the presentation slides shown on this blog are prepared by Eleonora Escalante MBA-MEng. Nevertheless, all the pictures or videos shown on this blog are not mine. I do not own any of the lovely photos or images posted unless otherwise stated.
Eleonora Escalante Strategy 