I owe Cape Town’s Child Magazine and their comprehensive listing of pre-schools  for this one.  I would have never found the school on my own (and it turns out I couldn’t even find it with my GPS – thank goodness Jacky was able to direct me over the phone).

Hidden away in a quiet bend in Galway Road, Heathfield is the Blue Moon Montessori School set in a quaint little garden. The school building is pretty enough from the outside,  but it was the inside that really impressed me.  Big open flowing spaces filled with light streaming in from the wall to wall windows.  And here’s the big surprise … it was relatively quiet.  Busy:  with children walking, moving, eating, painting everywhere – but quiet!?! Text book example of organised chaos.

I realised that my preconceived ideas about the Montessori education system may have been way off.  I have never quite been able to fully grasp the concept of self-directed activity in a pre-school classroom, it seemed completely contradictory to what I had always thought education to be, but today I saw it in action and it worked!  I also saw two other practices in the classroom that completely astounded me: Firstly, all the educational materials were stored in glass containers.  Glass + 3 year olds = danger? Doesn’t it? But Jacky was ready for me.  When I asked her about it her answer was wonderfully simple: “We use glass because it breaks.  That is the lesson isn’t it? We can’t always keep children away from glass objects, but we can teach them how to handle glass carefully so that it does not break”.  The second practice was that of helping yourself to snack – today’s snack was a delicious looking fruit salad -when you feel like it. Whoa! I had expected that this would cause a stampede of little bodies, all fighting to get to the food first.  But what I saw was the complete opposite, a pretty little girl dishing up her snack by herself … and then washing her own plate! Double Whoa!!! It inspired me to read up more about the Montessori philosophy and the more I read the more it seems to make sense.

I spent my entire school career in a traditional, sit-still-and-listen, only-do-what-I-tell-you-to type of educational system (and I think I turned out kinda okay? – I hope? ), but in my professional career I have been intensely disillusioned by the results of this kind of educational setting.  It simply does not produce independent thinkers and is not conducive to the development of true leadership.  What I saw today at Blue Moon Montessori has given me some hope that reaching these ideals might just be possible.  Later, I found this quote by Maria Montessori and I couldn’t help feeling like Maria and I were kindred spirits: “Establishing lasting peace is the work of education, all politics can do is keep us out of war”.

Even better news is that Blue Moon Montessori now also have a foundation phase group (6-9 years) and I’m really hoping that they consider starting a senior primary (9 – 12 year) group.

If you are considering a Montessori education for your child, I would strongly recommend that you have a look at this school.  Contact Jacky on 021 712 0221 or ask to visit them on their campus.

Kids learning about the world through the wonder of play dough.

I’m not a night owl.  In fact, most nights I battle to stay awake past 8pm. But last Wednesday evening I found myself in the kitchen at 11:30pm happily humming to myself and shuffling along in my slippers – making play dough. I would have probably kept going till dawn had I not run out flour!

I never seem to tire of seeing how a pot full of runny gunk can turn into that wonderful, pliable, mouldable, stretch-break-and-reunitable substance known as play dough.  And it seems to have the same effect on kids.  In my teaching days I always relied on hauling out my big tub of play dough at the end of a difficult day to calm the kids down – and it worked every time. It also has immense educational value and so, I’ve decided to share with you my play dough recipe and some ideas on how to use it – have fun!

To make playdough you will need:

2 cup of cake flour (NOT the self-raising kind)

1 cup of salt

2 cups of water

2 tablespoons of oil

2 tablespoons of cream of tartar

1 teaspoon of food colouring in your favourite colour

Mix all the ingredients well in a medium sized pot and  place the pot on the stove. Stir over medium heat until the liquid thickens and becomes pliable then take the pot off of the stove and wait for your play dough to cool down. Ta-da: As easy as that!

Some ideas on how to use your play dough:

• Using primary colours to mix secondary colours: This must be one of my all time favourite party tricks (at least 5 years olds seem to find it pretty amusing). Make three batches of play dough in the primary colours (red, blue and yellow) and then break off equally sized portions from each colour. In your hands, mix and knead together two colours at a time and watch the colour change to a secondary colour.  This is a great way to demonstrate to your kids that red + blue = purple; red + yellow = orange; blue + yellow = green and then also that red + blue + yellow = brown. I also like to make a batch of white play dough (just leave out the food colouring) and use this to create lighter shades of each colour and of course, you’ll need to mix white and red to make every little girl’s favourite colour: pink.
• Enhance your child’s sensory experience  by adding a few drops of food essence or some aromatherapy oils to the ingredients when you make your play dough to tickle his olfactory (smell) sense or add different grains and legumes such as rice, sago, butter beans or lentils to your batch of already made play dough to stimulate his tactile (touch) sense.
• Make a batch of play dough in your child’s favourite colour (although the colour therapists would probably recommend that you use calming colours such as blue, green or purple) and add a few drops of lavender aromatherapy oil to it.  Give it to him to play with when he’s feeling a little stressed or needs to calm down.  This also works as a stress reliever for tired moms – you might even want to keep a small ball of this dough in your desk drawer at work.
• Use cookie cutters, plastic eating utensils, dough rollers, old curlers, and just about anything you can think of to make different shapes and patterns in your play dough.  The pliability of play dough also makes it a great tool to teach children about different shapes: for instance, if you stretch out the sides of a square you get a rectangle and in the same way you get a cylinder when you roll up the sides of a rectangle.
• All that tearing, kneading, rolling and pinching is wonderful to help develop and strengthen the fine motor muscles in your child’s fingers, hands and wrists.
• Let your imagination run wild. There is not a monster, creature or fantasy figure that cannot be crafted with a little bit of creative thought and a brightly coloured batch of play dough.
• If you have a school aged child, have him create his letters, sight words, spelling words and numbers out of play dough instead of the boring old pen and paper method.  Not only will he have tons of fun doing it, but he’ll have consolidated the lesson a whole lot better  having experienced the concepts in their 3-dimensional form.
• In the same way, play dough can be used very effectively to demonstrate the concepts of division and fractions to school aged-children

Story telling is an art as old as the hills and children of all ages love listening to stories.  A good story can inspire, teach and even heal and playtherapists often use stories in the form of narrative therapy with young children.

If you live in the Cape Town area, consider joining Lisa Cohen for an interactive storytelling evening and learn how to enhance your storytelling abilities so that your child receives stories in the best way possible!
In this workshop, Lisa focuses on:
- reading stories to children in captivating and enchanting ways
- harnessing your own imagination and creative expression
- making up or improvising stories to tell your child in any special moment/difficulty/celebration
- learning to listen and connect with your child
- having fun with the art of storytelling!

When: Thursday 16th February 2012
Time: 7:30 – 9:30pm
Where: TBA
Cost: R120
Booking essential!

Contact lisa@growatale.co.za or 083 6444980

School readiness depends as much on emotional maturity as it does on scholastic ability.

In order to be deemed cognitively school ready, children need to achieve a test age of 6  years 3 months on school readiness assessments.  Yet, I have assessed many children who have scored much higher than this and still recommended that they were not school ready based on their levels of emotional maturity.  This happens very often with children whose birthdays fall in the last quarter of the year and are having to compete with classmates who are virtually a year older and more capable, simply by virtue of their age.

There also seems to be a commonly held myth that all children reach the same level of maturity at the same age.  Children vary greatly in their levels of emotional maturity.  This is partly influenced by parenting but also depends to a large extent on a natural developmental process and will increase with time.

So what exactly do we look for when we assess school readiness? By no means are we expecting children to act like miniature versions of serious adults.  We still expect them to be childlike, to be more focused on fun than anything else and to be largely egocentric in their outlook, but we expect them to display some of the following traits:

• Confidence.  Is your child confident enough to speak up in a busy classroom when he is uncomfortable or needs help? A formal schooling environment does not always allow the teacher to pay individual attention to each child and children who do not speak up may easily fall behind. Children also need to be able to let the teacher know when they need a bathroom break, are feeling ill, do not have the right tools or are being bullied.
• Separation. Does your child separate easily from you when you drop him off in the morning or are the goodbyes long, teary affairs? Some crying in the first few weeks is absolutely normal and is even expected, but teachers simply will not have the time (and often will not have the patience) to console a tearful child all day long.
• Responsibility for his belongings. Does your child remember to put his lunchbox back in his bag and his eraser back in his pencil case or is his teacher constantly running after him returning lost goods?
• Concentration. Is your child able to sit still at a desk and concentrate for relatively long periods at a time?  Grade 1 teachers will allow for many short breaks during the day, but a child who is constantly getting out of his seat can be very disruptive and will soon elicit complaints from his classmates.
• Problem solving.  Is your child able to solve the majority of basic little problems that pop up on a daily basis? For example, will he know to borrow a ruler from a friend if he doesn’t have one or ask his teacher to phone you if he’s left his lunch behind or go to look in the lost property box when he can’t find his jersey? This also relates to social interactions. “Telling on” is probably the phrase heard most often on foundation phase playgrounds and teachers expect to be asked to be both judge and jury in certain cases, but children need at least some basic skills in resolving minor conflicts.
• Independence. Can your child complete most tasks on his own or is he constantly running to his teacher’s table for approval or intervention?
• Persistence. Carefully designed lessons include both tasks that are easy to complete, so that learners experience a sense of accomplishment, and tasks that are challenging, to extend the learners.  Some children have a habit of simply shrugging their shoulders and repeating the familiar refrain “I can’t do it” without ever really having given the task a full go, thus never progressing to higher levels of academic work.

Kids learning to read …

Learning to decode arbitrary symbols into spoken language … learning to gather information from authors who are not physically present and in some cases, might not even be alive anymore … It truly is a miracle!

Reading is definitely no small feat and all Grade 1 teachers undoubtedly deserve heaps of praise, but learning to read starts long before Grade 1.   Al quick look at the going’s on in a pre-school classroom might look like anything but an early literacy lesson, but what you are seeing there between the chaos of little bodies and coloured toys strewn over the floor is in fact kids learning to read.

The games they play at this age start forming connections in the brain to ease the transition to formal instruction in reading.  Here are some ways to enhance your child’s pre-literacy skills:

• Play games like I spy.  This is a wonderful way to introduce your little one to phonics.  Remember to use the initial sound rather than the initial letter though.  In other words, say something like “I spy something beginning with a Ah/Buh/Kuh/Duh” and not “Ay/Bee/See/Dee”.
• Play the clapping game. Choose a word, starting with short, simple little words and then slowly progressing onto longer words, and break the word up into syllables rhythmically clapping at the end of each syllable. For instance “but (clap) ter (clap) fly” or “hip (clap) po (clap) po (clap) ta (clap) mus (clap)”.  Being able to break words up into syllables aids children greatly when spelling as it helps to reveal double consonants and allows the child to focus on smaller sections of a long word at a time.
• Develop your child’s auditory discrimination skills. Tell him that you are going to be playing a game in which you are going to try and trick him. You are going to say pairs of different words that sound the same (such as bag – bad; run – fun; tub – tug) but every now and again to trick him you are going to say the same word twice (e.g. buck – buck, pin – pin) his role is to tell you when the words are the “same” and when they are “different”.
• Focus on spatial orientation  by getting your child to place one object under / above / next to / behind / in front of another.  This will help him with his letter recognition in that he will be able to remember that, for instance, that the letter i has a dot above it; the letter a has a line next to a circle, the letter g has a tail that curls in below a circle, etc.
• Enhance your child’s sequencing skills by asking him to copy the way you have thread different coloured beads onto a string or to copy a pattern with pegs onto a peg board from a stimulus card.  Later this will help him to remember simple reading & spelling rules such as: in the word cat the letter c comes first, then the letter a, then the letter t.
• Pick a word and see how many words your child can think of that rhyme with it.  This will help him identify words that start or end with the same sound.
• Kids learn to recognise certain letters through their association with common symbols. It is often no surprise that children can easily identify the letters M and P through their association with the MacDonalds and Pick&Pay signs they spot on an almost daily basis. This is called incidental learning.  Type out words for common objects (such as wall, door, ball, mat, bat, pen, etc) in a big, grade 1 font and stick the words on the related items.  There is a chance that your child will find these words more easy to recognise when his formal instruction in reading begins.
• Remember to point out shapes to your child.  Children are often taught letter recognition by being told that a capital A looks like a triangle with a line through it, the letter e is a half-circle with tail curving below it, the letter b begins with a line and then has a circle attached.

The best keep secret in the Southern Suburbs?

With being new in the area and trying to set up a practice, I’ve been spending a lot of time going around to schools to meet with staff, to introduce myself and to get a general feel for each school.  And what an interesting exercise it has been!

I have been so impressed by some of the schools that I have visited and feel I simply have to share.

Bergvliet Primary School is tucked away in a quiet little street, aptly named Children’s Way, in the suburb and I doubt that I would have been able to find it without the help of my GPS.  I met with Fiona van der Linde the school’s social worker and Angela Leech, the remedial teacher and was instantly impressed with their experience and knowledge.  Getting the theory of emotion and remediation right is one thing, but it was these ladies’ understanding of what it takes to implement these ideals in practice that really impressed me. Fiona and Angela speak very passionately about what they do and the children they deal with and from where I was sitting it seemed pretty clear that they care very deeply about each of the children they take under their wings.

The school is model-C school and currently has in the region of about 600+ pupils.  The school buildings and grounds are quaint and neat and not overly decorative or lavish (I often cringe to think what the school fees must be at some of the overly decorative and grand schools that I visit).  The hallways were filled with the sounds of children learning and someone playing the piano and all the classrooms were colourfully decorated with children’s art.

While sitting in the reception area I read the notice boards, detailing the rich history of the school and was instantly struck by how few principals had been employed since the school came into existence.  I’ve always believed that to be a simple rule of thumb on which to judge any school – the longer the principals stay, the better the school.

So if you live or work in the Begvliet / Plumstead / Tokai area and are looking for a school in the area, I would definitely recommend that you consider Bergvliet Primary School.  The school can be contacted on 021 715 1103.

Ritalin – friend or foe?

I am often asked to give my opinion on the use of Ritalin (and it’s counterparts) in the treatment of children with ADD or ADHD.  The question usually comes from parents whose children have recently been diagnosed, confused by the multitude of conflicting reports and opinions on the subject. Truthfully, I hate being asked this question.  I am not qualified to prescribe medication and would much rather have the professionals who are, give their answers. But I’ll tell you what I’ve seen:

I’ve seen how it can virtually be a life-saver for those children whose incredible potential had previously been hampered by their inability to concentrate.  I’ve seen how they grow in confidence and how their self-esteem improves. How their social circle widens as their impulsive behaviour is curtailed and they are no longer constantly in trouble with the teacher.  I’ve seen them arrive in the morning neater and cleaner than in the days before Ritalin, when mom had to keep reminding them to get ready for school or to put their dirty laundry in the wash.  I’ve also seen how much neater their books and bags are from not constantly being forgotten out on the sports field or on the bus and I swear, I’ve even seen their handwriting improve in some cases.

But, I’ve also seen the ugly side.  The listless or zombie-like expressions some children get. The irritability and aggression.  The loss of appetite. The weepiness.

So now what? How on earth is that supposed to help you make up your mind about whether to medicate or not?

My advice is this:

1. Make very, very, very sure that your child is definitely suffering from ADHD or ADD before even considering medication.  Too often children are diagnosed by so called experts simply from the information given by parents on a questionnaire or by having a ten minute interview with the child.  Make sure you’ve had a complete psycho-educational assessment done to screen for any other possible causes of distractability or low academic performance and have your child examined by a neurologist, rather than a psychiatrist, if at all possible.  And get a second or even a third opinion if you don’t feel comfortable.  Medicating a child is a big decision and you need all the information you can get.

2. Try the alternatives first if you’re not happy to medicate.  It has been my observation that the alternative treatments such as the Feingold diet, Omega-3 based supplements and other homeopathic remedies, neurotherapy, etc are not as effective as medication. But it’s still worth a shot as some children do respond really well to these treatments. And many of these treatments work wonders when used in conjunction with the correct medication.

3. Get everyone on board.  There is a huge stigma attached to the use of Ritalin and parents are often shunned as being “bad” parents who don’t know how to handle their “spirited” child. Crap! I’d like to see how these people cope after they’ve been running around after a hyperactive, impulsive  child all day. Parenting a child with ADD or ADHD can be very difficult and you need to make sure grandparents, aunts, uncles and teachers are all on the same page as you.  Sit them down and tell them about your decision to medicate and be firm if you have to. You will need their buy-in support later to make sure that your little one gets his correct dosage at the correct time when he’s visiting.

4. Check-in with your neurologist regularly and tell him about any concerns you may have.  The initial stages might include quite a bit of “tweeking” of the medication to find the correct drug and dosage.  This can be a little frustrating, with medication often being changed every few weeks, but is well worth it. I’ve seen children flourish when the neurologist (finally) hits on the correct dosage and medication / combination.

5. Stick with it.  Parents, in two minds about the use of medication, are often guilty of not giving medication regularly or not giving the long-acting medications over a long enough time period to kick into effect.  Once you’ve made up your mind to give your child the medicine set your alarm to go off at the times he needs to take it and commit to giving it to him every day as prescribed.

This is a difficult decision to make, but armed with accurate information and a supportive relationship with all involved can be a very positive experience.  Best of luck!

Tips for passing the school readiness assessment

Now, of course I won’t be giving you tips on how to help your child cheat on the school readiness assessment, as that would be unethical and would completely defeat the object of the assessment.  But many of the school readiness assessments standardised for use in South Africa include 2 items that are, in my opinion, rather outdated.

The first of these requires that the child tie a knot and bow in a shoelace – a great test of fine motor ability and motor planning. But tying a knot (and especially a bow) requires a certain amount of practice, something our children no longer do thanks to a wonderful new generation of shoes that all tie with Velcro straps or zips.  Undoubtedly saving busy moms lots of time but unknowingly tripping children up in their school readiness assessments. The unfair part about this is that several tests will then indicate that children have weak fine motor skills, while in fact their skills are perfectly adequate.

The second item requires that children are able to read an analogue clock.  This item was designed as a measure of both number sense  and independence, but has been rendered completely unnecessary by the use of digital displays on wristwatches and the newest must-have school accessory cellphones (yes, sad as it is, I’ve seen grade 1′s walking around on the playground with fancy Black Berries!).

So, the tip is: teach your child how to tie shoelaces and to read an analogue clock.  Sorry, there’s no short-cut around these issues but they will stand your child in good stead come assessment day and have the added benefits of allowing your child to gain a sense of accomplishment and a chance to spend some quiet time bonding with your special little person in our increasingly rushed society.

Have fun!

How is ADHD diagnosed?

The majority of my referrals come from teachers, suspecting that a child in their class suffers from ADHD / ADD. And although teachers are not qualified to make this diagnosis, I have to honestly admit that 90% of the time they are right on the money.  So, heed the teacher’s call. Chances are that she’s not just trying to make your child’s life difficult or that she dislikes your child, but that her concern is genuine.  Trust that she has enough experience and know-how to be able to recognize the tell-tale signs such as distractability, impulsiveness and difficulty in maintaining focused attention.

Parents also often approach me saying that a GP or Psychiatrist has diagnosed their child as suffering from ADHD. The method of diagnosis used is usually a short interview with the child and a questionnaire completed by both the parents and the child’s teachers.  Now, although these are recognized methods of diagnosis for ADHD / ADD, I’m not entirely comfortable with using them on their own.  I would rather have the child seen to by a Neurologist who will take an EEG (Electroencephalogram) recording of the overall brain activity and analyse the data to try and detect abnormalities in the brain function.  The Neurologist will often insist on a full psycho-educational report from an Educational Psychologist.  The reason for this is to eliminate any other causes of distractability or poor academic performance, such as low IQ, poor self-esteem or learning difficulties.  In other words, during the assessment the Educational Psychologist will screen for everything other than ADHD / ADD while at the same time noting typical ADHD / ADD behaviour such as a lack of focused attention, being easily distracted, impulsively answering questions, difficulty sitting still, continuous yawning and /or continuous fidgeting.

If you suspect that your child might be suffering from ADHD / ADD, I would suggest that you:

1. Start by chatting to his / her teacher.  If the teacher expresses similar concerns …
2. Take your child for a full psycho-educational assessment with an Educational Psychologist, who will (if he or she also suspects ADHD / ADD) …
3. Refer you to a Peadiatric Neurologist, who will analyse the data from an EEG to confirm or refute the diagnosis.