Smart Start Academy

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The 13 Key Benefits of Early Childhood Education

When children are young, they are learning sponges. Every new experience, every word they learn, every behavior they adopt, is an investment in a more fruitful future.

You can never have a greater impression on a person than when they are in their early childhood years.

Most parents have always inherently understood this and the Government is starting to catch up.

President Obama agreed in his 2013 State of the Union address. Study after study after study reaches the same conclusion: early childhood education has a tremendous impact on life outcomes. Yet only 51% of 3-and-4 year olds in the US are enrolled in full-day preprimary programs, with no improvement in the last 15 years.

Early childhood education is about honing and molding the holistic child, which will eventually form the basis of their lifelong journey.

From my professional experience of more than 35 years as a preschool teacher, I have identified 13 essential benefits of early childhood education:

1. Socialization:

Socialization with people other than the child’s family in a safe environment is an essential foundational element to the below areas.

As parents, we intuitively understand that it’s important to introduce our children to other children and support their transition into their own friendship groups.

The earlier we do this, the better, as it helps children overcome shyness and gain self-confidence. If we leave this too long, we actually hinder their social development.

2. Concept of Cooperation:

Learning how to share, cooperate, take turns and persevere within a safe learning environment, guided by professionals who have the children’s best interests at heart.

This is especially important for the first child, who may not be used to sharing with their siblings at home - while it can be a difficult lesson, it’s so crucial to learn it early.

3. Encouraging Holistic Development:

The approach taken to build a strong foundation for a child’s emotional, social, physical and mental development, which will prepare them for a lifetime.

Early childhood educators are trained in identifying areas where support is needed for each child and building programs and activities around these. Their peers are also extremely important in this regard, as preschoolers are usually helpful, cooperative and inclusive.

4. Enthusiasm for Lifelong Learning:

Lessons should be given in a fun and exciting way that will encourage children to be effective learners. We need to inspire a thirst for learning with eagerness and enthusiasm.

Love of education- for reading, learning, discovery, nature- takes root in preschool.

5. Convey the Value of Education Through Experience:

Grasping the value of learning and education by setting an example as role models and by providing actual experiences.

While parents will always be the most important influence on a child’s early life, introducing them to a preschool environment provides them with a new perspective on the importance of education that will remain with them throughout their schooling journey. It also demonstrates that you value their education highly.

6. Respect:

Teaching the value of respect for others. This is not limited to people and belongings, but can also mean respect for their environment, both immediate and global.

There is no better place to learn this virtue than in a hectic preschool environment, where everything is shared and civility and manners are both taught and learned organically.

7. Teamwork:

Demonstrating and instilling the importance of teamwork that can teach respect for the opinions of others, listening, cooperation and equality.

Many preschool activities are centered around teamwork for this very reason; a person who learns how to work in a team at an early age will ultimately be more socially attuned and more employable!

8. Resilience:

It’s important that early childhood educators and parents work together to develop resilience in children as early as possible. By creating a consistent, secure and fair social environment, with clear expectations and predictable consequences, children can develop skills in managing themselves and their emotions.

It’s a teacher’s job to provide a challenging environment where children can learn through first hand experiences. They may experience bumps, bruises or losing a game from time-to-time, but this is the foundation for building coping strategies for greater challenges in life.

9. Concentration:

During preschool years, children explore at every opportunity to discover new experiences, new friends and new environments. Their minds are so lively and imaginative.

As early childhood educators we need to balance this zest with the ability to listen, follow directions, attend to tasks and participate in group activities to develop the critical life skill of concentration.

10. Patience:

Every day as adults, we encounter situations where our patience is tested. Children need opportunities to be involved in an abundance of social experiences, where they can explore and practice the social skill of patience.

By teaching through examples, role modeling and social experiences, children are able to develop their patience and learn to wait for their turn. Examples from the preschool setting include sharing a teacher’s attention, a toy, the playground or waiting in line for a game.

12. Confidence and Self-Esteem:

This is critical. A strong sense of wellbeing provides children with confidence, optimism and self-esteem which will encourage children to explore their talents, skills and interests.

Positive interactions with other children and teachers will promote a positive, healthy and secure view of themselves that will allow them to approach situations and problems confidently throughout their lives.

13. Exposure to Diversity:

Valuing difference and diversity are crucial to a child’s early development. Early childhood education serves to guide children to appreciate and accept differences and become well-rounded contributors to society.

It is important that children understand that everyone is unique and special in their own way with their own culture, beliefs and ethnicity.

Preschool is so much more than playing. While the basic educational benefits of preschool (such as literacy and numeracy) are tangible, the advances children achieve towards becoming well-rounded individuals are truly invaluable.

Please don’t let your child miss out on this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/vicki-palmer/the-13-key-benefits-of-ea_b_7943348.html

Our Goals | Toddler Program

Our Goals

The most important goal we have in our school for toddlers is to help each student experience meaningful and lifelong learning experiences. Rather than making our students conform to one way of learning or only learning in the classroom, we work hard to promote active thinking and exploring how things work. Our highly trained teachers facilitate purposeful play and intentional teaching practices.

We work to ensure that each student who leaves our daycare for toddlers has a great foundation for learning that will last their entire life. When a child starts off on the right foot, it can help them enter into the later educational programs with more excitement and understanding. These two factors have a lot of influence on how successful a student is in the learning process now and in the future.

We know that parents expect more from a daycare than just simply taking care of their child’s basic needs. We want to instill a love of learning, improving life skills, and a desire to be self aware in each of our students. Our toddler program works to make life easier for the student and their parents. We work hard to ensure we are giving the best quality of experiences to your toddler so that you know they are getting everything that they need during their formative years.

Baby Sign Language

Other children who benefit from learning sign language are those who are experiencing a communication delay, have a communication disorder, or show signs of autism. These are not uncommon in children and some families have found that learning sign language can help them to start communicating. It seems that some children just become comfortable pointing for the things that they need, so they find no reason to learn to vocalize their wants and needs.

Of course, these signs are no good to you as a parent if you do not know what they are and can’t use them at home. We work with parents to teach them all the signs that infants learn here along with how to support the learning and communicate with their child when they are at home.

...More

Infant Program (6 weeks-18 months)

We offer an infant daycare program for children in the range of 6 weeks of age to 18 months. Our teachers are happy to provide a loving and nurturing environment for every child. In order to offer the best care possible, our teachers and providers tailor this daycare for infants to fit the individual needs of the child and their family. This is best done meeting with the child’s parent(s) and discussing individual goals, needs, and even nutritional guidelines. Once a plan is set in place, our infant daycare teachers can provide personalized care to every child in the best way possible.

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Our Infant Program

The Opportunities We Provide

Our teachers provide many additional opportunities for your family to help your child meet the goals you have for them. The care and educational opportunities that are given at this age are much different than what is offered for older children, but they are still just as important for learning and development.

Baby Sign Language

One of the most popular things that we provide to this age group is teaching baby sign language. Between the ages of 8 months and 2 years of age, children begin communicating with others. Giving your child the means to communicate has been shown to help ease the frustration of the infant as well as the parent. We teach simple signs that have been adapted from American Sign Language that can help your child communicate a few months earlier than other children their age.

Of course, these signs are no good to you as a parent if you do not know what they are and can’t use them at home. We work with parents to teach them all the signs that infants learn here along with how to support the learning and communicate with their child when they are at home.

Singing Time

Our infant daycare’s in Jersey City and Hoboken include a lot of music and singing. According to emergent research, singing to an infant is important in their brain development and can even help prevent language problems later in life. Infants naturally enjoy listening to singing because of the difference in rhythms and tones it provides. One thing that is also important to note about music is that it helps to teach too. In songs like “Old McDonald Had a Farm” and “The Wheels on the Bus”, kids learn the different sounds animals make and about the world around them. Eventually, even small babies join in on trying to sing songs which helps to further enhance their experience with music.

Playtime and Exploration

Another key component of an infant’s learning happens through exploring the world around them. This is most commonly done during playtime, when they are free to crawl around and look at different objects. We provide plenty of interactive playtime so that your infant can learn to make sense of their world in a safe and controlled way. With so many different opportunities to learn about their environment, your child is able to grow into a curious and confident toddler.

We want to know how you feel about us! Please tell us about your experience with Smart Start Academy here! We are always striving to be the best!

The Surprising Secret to Raising a Well-Behaved Kid

My friend Emily has three amazingly well-behaved children. They put their toys away when she tells them to, go to bed without a fuss, and even settle their own disputes. I actually witnessed her 3-year-old son calmly ask for a truck back from a friend who had yanked it out of his hands.

Emily admits that her children have their moments—"They are kids, after all!"—but says that real discipline challenges are few and far between. "What's your secret?" I once asked, hoping she could impart some much-needed wisdom. "Threatening them with punishment? Giving them time-outs? Bribing them with Oreos?" Emily shook her head. "Nothing like that," she told me. "If I've done anything right, it's that I've made it clear from the get-go what I expect from them. Now, all I have to do is shoot them a look, and they know to discipline themselves."

It may sound too good to be true, but experts agree that Emily has the right idea about teaching kids to behave. "When you make your expectations clear from the time your children are toddlers, they internalize those expectations and begin to expect the same thing from themselves," says Sharon K. Hall, PhD, author of Raising Kids in the 21st Century. In other words, since kids are naturally inclined to want to please their parents, they'll try to behave in the way that you've taught them to. In fact, experts say that kids as young as 18 months are empathetic and responsive to their parents' expectations.

Even better news: Teaching self-discipline to a young child isn't as daunting as it sounds. "If you focus on the essentials starting at around age 2, your child will catch on faster, resist less, and ultimately behave better," says Robert Brooks, PhD, coauthor of Raising a Self-Disciplined Child. These four essentials will help you raise a kid who can keep her own behavior in check.

Helping Toddlers Expand Their Language Skills

Early language acquisition is instinctive and for most children tends to happen quite naturally. But how we as adults respond to their attempts to communicate can have an impact—accelerating or decelerating their language development. As a speech-language pathologist who works with young children who are in the process of acquiring and developing language, I have collected many strategies and techniques that help children learn. Here are some of the basics that you can use in everyday interactions with all children—those who are acquiring language typically and those who may be having a little more trouble.

Painting To Music – A Calming Activity for the daily Hustle

Turn on the music and encourage your child to paint to the music, if it’s slow and soft, paint how that sounds and if it’s loud and fast, paint that way… there is no wrong way to do this, and no two children attack it exactly the same way. Enjoy the break from the hectic holiday pace and relax with art!

Quick and healthy food tip!

Quick dinners to prepare, perfect for when schedules are tight during the week. Find the recipe here: http://ow.ly/WMizv

Brand New Advice For Feeding Your Family in Dietary Guidelines

A group of heavy-hitting health experts have just created a brand new set of recommendations for the best way to eat. Called the Dietary Guidelines for Americans and issued every five years by the USDA, the advice lays out the pattern of eating that's shown in research to be the best for health. This year's guidelines include a few new recommendations:

Cut way back on sugar: For the first time ever, the Dietary Guidelines give a specific recommendation: Less than 10 percent of your calories should come from added sugar each day (the kind put in by manufacturers, not the natural kind in fruit and milk). For grown-ups, that's a max of 12 teaspoons of added sugar. For kids 4-8, no more than 8 teaspoons; toddlers, no more than six. Americans of every age group are getting too much, and sugary drinks, snacks, and sweets are the main culprits. Also important: The committee advises against replacing added sugar with artificial sweeteners—and instead, simply choosing healthier options (like water instead of diet soda).

How: Serve water or milk with meals and snacks. Treat sugar-sweetened drinks as you would dessert. Go "half-sies" to cut the sugar in your child's favorites by 50 percent, like combining plain and flavored yogurts and plain and chocolate milk (get more ideas here).

Don't stress about cholesterol: Though the Dietary Guidelines have traditionally included a recommended limit on cholesterol, the latest version doesn't. Why? Research isn't conclusive that the cholesterol in foods has a negative impact on blood cholesterol levels.

How: Some foods that are naturally rich in cholesterol are also packed with nutrients—like eggs, lobster, shrimp, and lamb—so don't avoid those foods because you've heard they're high in cholesterol.

Focus on the big picture: The new guidelines stress the importance of the overall pattern of your diet, not the bite-by-bite nutrients. Unfortunately, our current pattern needs to go, since we're getting too much added sugar and sodium and not enough fruits and vegetables.

How: Don't crunch numbers or stress over the exact number of servings each day. Instead, think broadly: Does your family snack on fruits and veggies more than chips and cookies? Are most of your grains whole? Are most of the beverages you serve unsweetened?

Though the draft of the Dietary Guidelines released early last year included a recommendation to eat less meat, the final version didn't include it (some think the USDA caved to pressure from the meat industry to take it out). The guidelines do say that eating patterns that include lower intakes of meats and processed meats are associated with lower risk for conditions like heart disease, diabetes, and obesity. It also says that teen boys and men tend to eat more meat, poultry, and eggs than needed and should shift to eating less—and including more vegetables.

What stayed the same: The new Dietary Guidelines still recommend getting at least half of your grains as whole grains. They also advise choosing low-fat or non-fat dairy products, getting plenty of fruits and vegetables, and limiting sodium and saturated fat.

Sally Kuzemchak, MS, RD, is a registered dietitian, educator, and mom of two who blogs at Real Mom Nutrition. You can follow her on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and Instagram. She collaborated with Cooking Light on Dinnertime Survival Guide, a cookbook for busy families. In her spare time, she loads and unloads the dishwasher. Then loads it again.

Winter Safety Tips

Whether winter brings severe storms, light dustings or just cold temperatures, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) has some valuable tips on how to keep your children safe and warm.

What to Wear

Dress infants and children warmly for outdoor activities. Several thin layers will keep them dry and warm. Don’t forget warm boots, gloves or mittens, and a hat.
The rule of thumb for older babies and young children is to dress them in one more layer of clothing than an adult would wear in the same conditions.
When riding in the car, babies and children should wear thin, snug layers rather than thick, bulky coats or snowsuits.
Blankets, quilts, pillows, bumpers, sheepskins and other loose bedding should be kept out of an infant's sleeping enviroment because they are associated with suffocation deaths and may contribute to Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS). It is better to use sleep clothing like one-piece sleepers or wearable blankets is preferred.
If a blanket must be used to keep a sleeping infant warm, it should be thin and tucked under the crib mattress, reaching only as far as the baby’s chest, so the infant's face is less likely to become covered by bedding materials.

Hypothermia

Hypothermia develops when a child's temperature falls below normal due to exposure to colder temperatures. It often happens when a youngster is playing outdoors in extremely cold weather without wearing proper clothing or when clothes get wet. It can occur more quickly in children than in adults.
As hypothermia sets in, the child may shiver and become lethargic and clumsy. Speech may become slurred and body temperature will decline in more severe cases.
If you suspect your child is hypothermic, call 911 at once. Until help arrives, take the child indoors, remove any wet clothing, and wrap him in blankets or warm clothes.

If you've ever been pregnant, you know your baby bump seems to be a magnet for commentary from complete strangers. When I was pregnant with my second baby, I received lots of, "You're going to be busy," comments from passersby upon their discovery that I had another child. I figured, "Of course, I'll be busy. I'm busy now. Everyone's busy."

I had no idea.

I wasn't prepared for the transition from one child to two to be as much of an adjustment as I found it to be. I figured we were still playing "man-to-man" with just two kids and that crazy must really start when you have to shift to zone defense from two to three.

Here are some other parents' experiences along with a few tips for keeping sane while balancing competing needs.

10 Parenting Habits to Develop Before Your Child Becomes a Teen

It was during my 13-year-old's annual checkup that the doctor informed me that my parenting days are numbered. "You no longer have the greatest influence over your teenager. In fact, you come in fourth behind friends, teachers, and his doctor," he told me glibly. While I mentally threw a tantrum over his blasé inditement on my role as a parent, I considered whether I was willing to tuck my tail and move to the back of the line.

Admittedly, as I've moved into the role of parenting a teenager, the time that we spend together has been more restricted. Of course, that limits my overall influence, but I'm completely unwilling to watch from the back and hope for the best as my kids traverse their most formative years. Fortunately, by a heap of dumb luck, I have built some habits prior to the "dreaded teen years" that I hope will serve to carry my influence just a bit further and create a positive relationship with my teens.

1. Eat dinner together.
2. Put away your phone at the table and when you drive.
3. Set aside time to talk about their day.
4. Make physical contact.
5. Interact with their technology.
6. Spend time with their friends.
7. Understand their interests.
8. Find a hobby to share.
9. Tuck them into bed.
10. Let them fail (or succeed).

USDA Dietary Guidelines for Children

If we are what we eat, then American kids are Fritos. That’s just one of the major findings from the new USDA Dietary Guidelines. Fries and chips are the only “vegetables” on the list of top 25 calorie sources; fruit juice is the sole “fruit” to make the leaderboard.

The prevalence of these foods plays a big role in the childhood-obesity epidemic, which affects far more than our children’s waist sizes. Many chronic conditions are on the rise among kids, including asthma, allergies, diabetes, and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). And all of these conditions have been linked to what kids eat. Improving children’s diets in the following three areas that were addressed in the report would go a long way toward helping our kids stay healthy:

So how do you discover a child’s learning style? The simplest answer is through observation. It’s important to pay attention to how they act, where their interests lie, and what helps them process information. It isn’t about looking at the results of some kind of test. Does the child enjoy drawing? Does he or she seem more comfortable in a quiet or energetic environment? What picture books seem to capture their attention?

There are a lot of ways to discover which learning style is the most productive, even at such an early stage in their education. By addressing these individual needs, our teachers can bring a number of structured and free-play activities to the students that will enjoy and remember.

Building the Right Infant Daycare Curriculum Infants

Children between the ages of six weeks and 18 months – need a nurturing and loving environment in which they feel comfortable and receive the attention they need. Even at that early age, though, every child has individual personalities and needs. Any daycare curriculum built for them, then, must keep that in mind. Developing children require a lot of different activities and experiences to make the most of their time and benefit from a curriculum. This means that the learning experience has to address each aspect of the development process, and it has to be fun and immediately engaging. Infants at this age are developing quickly, so they need a lesson that helps them grow in both body and mind.

Healthy Body

At this stage in their development, infants are just starting to learn to control their movements and become fully mobile. Daily activities can involve rolling from side to side, learning to crawl, stand and walk. There are several motor skills that they can work on, too, which will help them build their abilities through repetition and experience. This means activities that include trial and error, object interaction and permanence, and cause and effect actions can be very beneficial. Whether this involves stacking and moving objects or just running around, this is a great way to start confidently using their hands, feet, arms, and legs.

Smart Start Academy - 180 Newark Ave