Let’s face it, the last two years has been very challenging, between the pandemic and home schooling it has been stressful for many. This has caused a setback in teachers’ ability to teach and therefore the ability to help children learn. So we thought that as we’re in a new year it would be good to highlight some ways in which us parents can support not only our children’s learning but support their teachers/ nurseries.
How working with your child’s teacher will help them learn
Research has shown that children’s parents who supports their child’s teacher and work together get better grades, show fewer signs of behavioural issues and demonstrate better social skills. Teachers spend a lot of time with our children, they observe them all day. If you build a relationship with your child’s teacher you then are able to ask the right questions to help our child develop and succeed at school. Below are some tips on how you can support your child’s learning in school at home:
Encourage focus and concentration – and how too much screen time affects this
Children being able to focus and concentrate in the classroom is an important skill. Many teachers sometimes struggle with children who do not focus on the lesson at hand. Teaching important lessons means teachers have little time to waste. Learning to concentrate and focus is actually a skill, which needs practice. With modern technology and screens, it makes it even harder for children to concentrate for longer periods. How much screen time a child gets affects their brain development. Research has shown that younger children who have too much screen time can affect their brain development (which is crucial between ages 0-3) and negatively affects their language development and attention span.
For younger children, you can turn off screens for set periods and encourage quiet time and learning. Do things like reading, messy and independent play. Try encouraging quiet time as a way to encourage your child’s thinking. Also try focusing on one task at a time, whether it’s reading or playing with a train set. For older children try to observe how they learn at home. Are they studying with their phone next to them or are the listening to music, which distracts them? Talk to them about establishing the best learning environment. Then you can work on establishing this together. You can ask questions like what helps you concentrate; do you have a favourite place to study in the house?
2. Encourage your child to be independent
The more independent your child is the better they’ll learn at school. Simple things like; for younger children getting them to fetch their coat and zip it up themselves and put on their shoes, helps to build independence. You can also encourage independence at home such as getting them involved in adult tasks including; cleaning, cooking, making their own lunches etc (with supervision). This will help build a sense of independence and responsibility.
3. Communication is key
Keeping in touch and regular communication with your child’s teacher or key worker in nursery is important. Some parents do struggle with what things to ask, but it’s important to ask questions that can give you a meaningful answer. Ask questions that are focused on specific topics, rather than vague questions like “how was their day?” You want to find out things like what your child is doing well at and what extra support they need, if any. Ask questions to find out if there’s anything that you can do to help your child at home, find out what their biggest challenges are. Teachers will appreciate you trying to work with them. Before any school holidays, check in with them to see if there’s any areas of focus while your child has broken up from school.
Trying to create some kind of partnership with your child’s teacher or key worker at nursery can help your child stay in the right direction.
Natalie is the co-founder and illustrator at Little Scholars Playground. She is passionate about literacy, learning, illustrating, black women in STEM and Montessori.
2021, what a year! In 2020 we were having a casual conversation about how difficult it is to find wide-ranging books for young children with main character representation of black people specifically. As people of action, we quickly determined that between us, we possessed the skillset to begin to chip-away at this problem. Fast-forward and Little Scholars Playground was born in February 2021. The business has grown so fast and we have to thank all of the people who has bought from us, shared and liked our content on social media, so THANK YOU!
We create EVERYTHING ourselves, Denhue is the author of all our books and I’m the illustrator of all our books and content. It’s been hard work (especially while juggling a one-year-old daughter, our inspiration behind the business), but has also been so worth it. We started the business with a vision board and we can safely say that we have pretty much stuck to all the images we put on it. Vision boards are a great way to visualise your goals and can definitely help you to meet them. So we highly recommend creating one when you start your business.
Our vision board
Our products
This year we published 3 board books, which have been very well received. We’re so proud of Zara’s Caribbean Adventure, a lift-the-flap board book, Emmanuel’s African Adventure, a lift-the-flap board book and ABC First words board book. We have received no help creating these books and have financed everything ourselves.
We also created a bundle of 6 educational posters. Young children are visual learners. Their brains absorb visual information MUCH faster than text. Educational posters shouldn’t just be confined to the classroom, but should also be displayed in the home. Therefore we feel that our posters are great for both parents and teachers.
In such a short space of time, to be recognised for our hard work has been heart-warming. We have been seen on ITV, BBC Radio London, Sade Magazine, The Voice Newspaper, UK Black Writers Forum, Dope Black Mums and more!
Awards
In November, I became a finalist for the Precious Awards, in their Start Up Business of The Year category. An awards ceremony celebrating women of colour in business and leadership. Although I did not win, it was still an honour to be a finalist.
What’s coming in 2022
We have lots planned for 2022, we’re currently working on 2 children’s books (for children aged 5+) as well as our first STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths) learning resource. Also due to the popularity of our Christmas gift bundles, we will be bringing our gift bundles back in January. They will be available all year round, suitable for any occasions with our new generic gift wrap. These gift bundles will be suitable for all occasions, including; Birthday’s, Christening’s, Baptisms, Baby Showers, Easter, Thanks Giving, Eid…..all occasions!
It’s been a great year for us here at Little Scholars Playground! Thanks for being on the journey with us. Here’s to 2021 and Happy New Year when it comes!
Natalie is the co-founder and illustrator at Little Scholars Playground. She is passionate about literacy, learning, illustrating, black women in STEM and Montessori.
Welcome to the home of Little Scholars Playground! We’re a children’s book publisher and early years hub. We create diverse children’s books and learning resources.
It started in 2020 lockdown…
We were having a casual conversation about how difficult it is to find wide-ranging books for young children with main character representation of black people specifically. As people of action, we quickly determined that between us, we possessed the skillset to begin to chip-away at this problem. Fast-forward and Little Scholars Playground was born in February 2021. With a single mission to create engaging, diverse children’s literature and learning resources. We create everything ourselves, Denhue is the author of all of our books and Natalie is the illustrator.
Our business has grown RAPIDLY, so we thought we’d share some tips on how you can start your own business and side hustle. More and more people are becoming self-employed or finding a side-hustle to nurture their talents and of course to bring in more income, which can be seen particularly amongst women. The number of freelance mothers has grown by 79 percent since 2008*. Research shows it allows mums to pursue their career while being able to spend quality time with their families.
So, you want to pursue self-employment or have a side-hustle but how?
Find the right hustle for you
Think about what you’re good at and nurture your talents. Ask yourself what are your skill sets, think about the things you’re good at and what people tell you you’re good at.
Think about what problem you’re trying to solve. The most successful businesses start with trying to solve a problem. For example, we struggled to find books, which featured a Black protagonist
Consider if there’s a true need for the business and is your idea realistic?
2. What’s your business mission, objectives and goals
Think about what your business mission is/ your businesses purpose. Always refer back to it in whatever you do. This helps to create consistency in your brand and allows you to always think of the why in what you do
Ensure your goals are attainable and realistic. Setting out clear goals and objectives will help you to not only start your business but take your business to the next level.
3. Get your finances in order
Start to think about your budget and how much you would need to invest in your business, think about ALL of the costs. If finances are low, think about creating a Kickstarter or do some Crowdfunding. They can be good ways to generate some money to get your business started.
4. Running the business
Starting a business or side hustle will mean some early morning and late nights, especially if you’re a working mum. But blocking out some time to focus on the business is important. Schedule at least an hour or two per week to focus solely on your new business.
5. Establish your target market
In order to get customers, you need to first establish who your target market is, who is likely to buy your product or service? Knowing who your target market is, allows you to market to the right people.
6. Have a support system
Having people to talk to about all the struggles and trials of setting up a business is important. They can help keep you going if it starts to feel overwhelming. But not only that you can also bounce ideas off them
Networking is also a great way to build a support system. There are many networking events for boss women out there.
7. Taking the leap to becoming a BOSS
When business starts to take off, you may be in a position to take your side hustle to the next level and leave your place of work. It’s always a gamble as employment is steady income to pay them bills! We recommend having at least 6 months’ worth of savings, just so you have a buffer to fall back on if you have a slow month or two.
So, you’re thinking about starting that side hustle or business, go for it! Now’s the time. We have seen a shift in consumers wanting to support small businesses. Good Luck! If you know someone who wants to start a business or have a side-hustle do send them this blog.
Natalie is the co-founder and illustrator at Little Scholars Playground. She is passionate about literacy, learning, illustrating, black women in STEM and Montessori.
Children learn through experience and observation. One of the practices in Montessori is to involve children in tasks around the home. Children love imitating what they see their parents do. So it’s a great idea to let your child start to help you with your household chores from as young as 2 years old.
So what are the benefits to letting your child help with chores?
Involving your child in chores helps them to learn team working skills, builds valuable life skills, helps to teach them independence and helps to keep them occupied while you get tasks around the house done, win, win!
What tasks can you get your child involved in?
Involving your child in chores helps them to learn team working skills, builds valuable life skills, helps to teach them independence and helps to keep them occupied while you get tasks around the house done, win, win!
Cooking
Giving toddlers a supervised activity to do in the kitchen, will help them feel involved when you’re cooking. For example get them to help with measuring ingredients when you’re baking, using scales and spoons. Once measured get them to help you put the ingredients into a bowl. They can also help with the stirring and of course their favourite, tasting! You could also get them to sort and count the fruits in the fruit bowl, which will help with their learning of numbers.
Loading the dishwasher
Another supervised activity children can get involved in, in the kitchen is loading the dishwasher. Particularly placing the utensils in the utensils tray (not knives). This will help improve their hand eye coordination and helps encourage some independence.
Laundry day
Create some fun with laundry. Whilst supervised get your toddler to help you sort the dirty laundry into piles by colour before putting them in the washing machine. This will help them learn their colours through talking to them and repetition as you do this weekly task. You can also get your toddler to match socks. These laundry tasks will help your child to develop their motor-skills.
Recycling
Why not involve your child when you’re recycling. Talk about why we recycle and the different types of materials that you can recycle. You can even go on to make something out of some of the items you’re recycling to demonstrate that you can re-use some items and not just through them away.
Washing up
Children love playing in water and love bubbles. So washing up will be lots of fun for them. You can stand your toddler on a chair in front of the sink, standing next to them so they don’t fall. Or simply place a washing up bowl on the floor and get them to wash up. Just be prepared that it may get a little wet!
Child sized brooms, mops and utensils
Children will love sweeping and mopping with their child sized broom and mop. This will help them to like doing it as they got older because let’s face it mopping is not much fun! So get them started early on.
Just remember never force a young child to do tasks if they’re not showing interest. Also let go of perfection, realistically the dishes will not be washed very clean and that’s ok. Most importantly have fun!
Natalie is the co-founder and illustrator at Little Scholars Playground. She is passionate about literacy, learning, illustrating, black women in STEM and Montessori.
Babies and young children are sponges that soak up everything around them. So naturally when books are read to them, they take in all the language and words they hear. Reading to children boosts their brain development in a big way, but not only that it acts as bonding time for you and your child. Therefore we recommend some story time EVERY day.
So what are the benefits of reading to your child?
Brain and language development
Even the youngest children benefit from hearing their parents read to them. Studies have shown that babies who are regularly read to, get higher scores in language skills, promotes higher IQs and improves brain development, such as problem-solving skills.
Provides bonding time
Reading provides a great opportunity for you to bond with your child. It also acts as a little wind down time during a busy and hectic day.
Improves your child’s listening skills
listening is a skill children MUST gain before they can read themselves. So naturally hearing a story read out loud to them involves them having to comprehend and listen.
Helps your child have a larger vocabulary
Experts say reading books to children helps expand the number and variety of words they use. If you think about it, books you read often have words you may not otherwise use in your everyday speech. While reading you may not realise but you will often use more specific names for things such as animals and places etc as well as use more adjectives (descriptive words).
Improved attention span
Reading to children helps them develop key concentration skills as they have to sit still and listen in order to comprehend what is being read to them. This will also help improve their attention span.
Helps them learn life lessons
Books help to provide an opportunity to talk about real-life situations in an age-appropriate way. They can also reflect what happens in real-world situations, reading books on specific subjects may help children deal with something new that may feel scary, such as Coronavirus, racism, moving home and going to the Doctors etc
Sparks creativity in your child
Children have vivid imagination, so books help to feed their creativity by opening up a new and often magical world to them. Creativity is important for developing your child’s interests, ideas, as well as helping with their emotional health.
It’s beneficial to read to your child from birth. Talk to your baby as you look at the picture books you’re reading, describing what you can see. For example, point to a picture and ask “What’s this?” or declare “That’s a Monkey!” to get your child engaging with the book. Keep repeating what you can see, as repetition helps things and words to stick in your child’s mind. We have two books suitable for children, shop books here (or click on the image below).
Starting regular reading from birth will help your child become the little scholar they can be, happy reading!
Natalie is the co-founder and illustrator at Little Scholars Playground. She is passionate about literacy, learning, illustrating, black women in STEM and Montessori.
