Megaskills for Babies, Toddlers and Beyond

by Rich, Dorothy

• ISBN13: 9781402212147
• ISBN10: 1402212143
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2009-01-01
• Publisher: Sourcebooks Inc

Summary

Over 300,000 Megaskills books sold - A breakthrough new MegaSkills book - the first of its kind for developing character and achievement in the early years "This new book continues the key MegaSkills commitment to showing how parents can work with their children at home to help them learn." Marian Wright Edelman, president, Children's Defense fun For more than 20 years the MegaSkills program has taught parents how to help their children develop the abilities and values essential for success in school and in life. Now, nationally respected educators Dorothy Rich and Beverly Mattox show you how to start building MegaSkills before children reach school age. Specially designed for ages one through six, MegaSkills for Babies, Toddlers, and Beyondgives you hands-on techniques and kid-friendly activities to teach the 12 MegaSkills: Confidence Motivation Effort Responsibility Initiative Perseverance Caring Teamwork Problem-Solving Common Sense Focus Respect Along with the age-specific activities, this guide contains: Activities for children with disabilities How to get the best from technology MegaSkills measures for parents A wealth of additional resources "These inventive 'recipes'for parent-child activities build competence and confi dence and character, helping parents help their children make the most of childhood's earliest years." Judith Viorst, author of Alexander and the Wonderful, Marvelous, Excellent, Terrifc Ninety Days

Table of Contents

Foreword	p. xi
What This Book Is About and Why It's Important	p. 1
Getting Started	p. 9
Understanding MegaSkills	p. 15
Starting Out: Ages 1-2 Years	p. 29
Keeping Going: Ages 2-3 Years	p. 47
Sailing Along: Ages Advanced 2-3 Years	p. 75
Moving Forward: Ages 3-4 Years	p. 107
Taking Big Steps: Ages 4-5 Years	p. 141
Opening School Doors: Ages 5-6 Years	p. 177
Look, Listen, and Do MegaSkills	p. 217
Tech Tips	p. 235
MegaSkills Measures	p. 241
MegaSkills Activities Across the Age Levels	p. 259
Our MegaSkills Activities Calendar	p. 261
The MegaSkills Early Childhood Library	p. 265
Finding Resources and Help on Websites	p. 271
MegaSkills Impact: The Need and the Evidence	p. 275
Acknowledgments	p. 279
About the Authors	p. 283
Table of Contents provided by Ingram. All Rights Reserved.

Excerpts

Excerpt from Chapter 1: What This book is About and Why It's Important"The child supplies the power, but the parents have to do the steering." - Benjamin SpockWhen parents and teachers across the world are asked what they want for their children, their answers center on the cornerstones of character and achievement: responsibility, dependability, curiosity, eagerness to learn, self-discipline, sensitivity to others, and willingness to work hard. So, where are the "recipes" to teach these attitudes and behaviors? They are here, in this book.Everyone says our kids have to know more. To try to make this happen, preschool and school curriculums are being pushed down from first grade to kindergarten, some from third grade to first. This is the wrong way to go. Sure, many of our children can learn more than they are currently learning, but driving the usual curriculum down younger and younger is not a winning solution. Using traditional curricula keyed to test scores ignores the basic prerequisites for character and achievement that our kids need to learn at home.That's what this book offers - the basics that can be learned easily and naturally before children are school age, so that when they go to school, they go with abilities well beyond the alphabet and counting to ten.Having taught MegaSkills to school age children for over twenty years, we have been urged to create MegaSkills for children starting at age one and moving to school entry. This program is not designed to create "little Einsteins." It is designed to create curious, positive learners. MegaSkills for Babies, Toddlers, and Beyond is the result of our tested experience and is a response to children's learning needs today, which are greater than the learning needs of yesterday.