Some amazing occurrences at our day care:





1. A three and a half year old rides a two wheeler without training wheel.

2. A fourteen month old gets her own Duplo board and builds more complete projects every day. Her best yet is twenty five pieces.

3. A three year old and a four year old sit across from each other and complete a one hundred piece puzzle, each working on one half of the puzzle and then joining it. Completely their idea!

4. Two four year olds learn all the parts of the human body; skeletal, respiratory, digestive, and circulatory systems from large colorful posters and are so proud when they can transfer that information to what’s happening to them.

5. A group of four to four and a half year olds painted the globe on a yoga ball (I called on my grandson to outline the countries to scale for them). They were responsible to work from a regular map to find the name and color of each country. The result is hanging proudly in the daycare.

6. A seventeen month old invites himself into the phonics class and now knows the sound for half of the alphabet letters.





When I first opened my daycare I never imagined that a broad group of children from different family experiences could accomplish an infinite list of amazing achievements. I did not screen children, but I did select parents who agreed with my philosophy that children were incredibly intelligent from the day they were born, and when you live that belief, the child never set limits on themselves.





This approach will be much more successful if your child has clearly defined behavioral boundaries and well defined rules that they are expected to follow all the time. You will be giving them more freedom and decision making, which will be more successful when they understand clear behavioral expectations.





We always made sure we had a very stimulating environment, encouraged each child to accomplish challenging goals, and supported interests they had that seemed very advanced. There was often a lot of work involved on everyone’s part. We continually shared that “having to work hard” was a good thing, and we should not believe that accomplishments should be easy.





They Key is:





1. Get to know your child very well. Applaud their accomplishments that come easy and encourage those that require more effort.





2. Whenever they were setting a goal that jumped too many steps, we identified some interim challenge that they could accomplish along the way.





3. We never say “you can’t” but instead “let’s try it this way first.”





4. Our day care allows for all age groups to be exposed to the same information and challenges. Some toys or programs that we originally designed for four and five year olds are now being accomplished by two a half and three year olds. It never occurs to the younger children that what they are accomplishing is exceptional.





5. Watch and listen for signs of disinterest or visible boredom. They are both red flags that you need to provide your child with more opportunities and challenges.





6. They always have a lot of decision making opportunities and freedom of choice throughout the day. A really important component!





Parents or visitors who bring their child to the daycare a little later in the morning are typically amazed at the energy levels in the rooms, the skilled communication levels, and the responsibility the children having i.e. during free play time, to challenge themselves.





If there is no organized group in your area that provides this environment, apply it to your child alone or with friends who have similar values. You will still have an amazing result!





Contact us if you need help or reassurance, and also tell us about your success and challenges! We would love to hear from you! Info@SmartParentSmartChild.com



