Discovering your Child's Hidden Talents

Children are eager learners and have a tremendous ability to display amazing talents early on. Child prodigies are a common phenomenon in any kind of society, one rich with resources and ones that offer nothing but a large dumpster. Children are able to display great amounts of curiosity in things around them, and as care givers we try our best to lead the road open for especially talented kids to discover themselves.

Kids Island Nursery functions in collaboration with EYFS (UK) in caring and educating young children in their first years of life. The standards and protocols of the EYFS framework that outlines our curriculum, and daily activities; demand creativity in our teaching methods.

The EYFS nursery system strategizes that children are unique and are not just bundles of joy, but are also bundles of immense talent, and power. By seeing children as individuals learning and discovering their own unique place in this world, the EYFS recommends that nursery activities reflect this of children.
There is a never a dull moment at our children’s day care and pre-kindergarten school in Dubai. We incorporate interesting and exciting activities that are meant to drive the sparkle in your child’s mind to learn and develop special skills.

Our daily plans includes the basics, of language, maths, numbers, and play time, but to ensure your child receives a well rounded bundle of stimulation, we include activities like free play, show and tell, art, storytelling, cooking, music, dance, theatre and various other fun activities that keep children engaged and active throughout the day.

We believe our daily learning plans should be outlined to accommodate different interests of children, in hopes that each child will find at least one thing they enjoy, which they may pursue as a talent or hobby for a life.

Along with mental and emotional developmental aspects, our days are filled basic sports activities that are child friendly and age appropriate. Our teachers allow children the freedom to discover their likes by encouraging freedom of expression.

Cultivating interest in learning and development is a process, a fun process, and interest cannot be forced. Keeping this in mind, and using the guidelines set forth by EYFS, our teachers constantly stay updated on the latest news and studies concerning early child development. EYFS emphasizes on using creative ways to teach children to help them develop their own unique set of skills.

We understand that children should have time to play and time to study & learn, making sure that kids can be kids without having to conform to expectations. Some children are born with special gifts, and an institute responsible for caring for young children, we take it upon ourselves to help them discover these hidden traits without ever feeling that they have to.

Many parents make the mistake of forcing young children into hours of training for one specific ability for whole days, in hopes that they may become child prodigies. This has been proven to leave children frustrated when they fail at these activities or have no interest in pursuing such interests. Find the right nursery, that offers children all the resources to develop, and possibly discover their interests while at school and still be able to come home and relax. Forced developments should be trust on children, as their love for a particular subject, or profound ability to succeed in special area, should be discovered naturally.
If you’re interested in visiting the Kids Island and Cocoon Nurseries, drop in with your child and explore our facilities, talk to our team of international teachers who will be more than happy to show you around, and answer any questions that you may have about early child development.

A healthy Preschooler

As preschools Dubai, Kids Island and Cocoon Nurseries are responsible for making sure that every student in our care is healthy and able to actively take part in their development. Keeping young toddlers free from infection and disease, is a joined effort of parents and teachers. Working together will ensure information is shared, hygiene practices perfected and the children themselves benefit from consistent guidelines from both environments.

Keeping your preschooler healthy is as important ensuring they reach certain milestones. You child will first start mingling with lots of other children when they first start Dubai day care or preschool. It is a time when they will catch illness, injure them and also strengthen their immune systems for the future. They become fussy eaters, cuts and bruises become an everyday cry. Whether at home or at school, they will be curious and touch everything, and sometimes even want to taste it all too.

It is not to say that you should keep your child locked up 24/7 so they are arms way from danger, but taking precautionary steps to help them overcome their injury if it happens, as well as take necessary steps to ensure they remain healthy is responsibility that falls on us adults.

Children are prone to illness and in most cases, catch it from each other at school or in the playground. Falling sick is common and necessary as they build their immune systems, gaining resistance to each disease as they grow older. If you feel your child is sick keep them at home, until they are not contagious and are well enough to attend to school. Preschool activities demand physical activity, which may exhaust a sick child greatly pushing him to relapse no sooner they are well again. Avoid being around your child, if you feel you may have caught something as well, hand over responsibility to the other parent for a day or two, and maintain high standards of hygiene when anyone in the family is sick.

Preventing disease is as important as curing it. Make sure you child understands the importance of washing their hands before and after eating, playing outside, or touching something that might be filled with germs will go a long way in disease prevention. Help your child learn the right way to wash their hands as well. This will help to educate and improve their own levels of personal hygiene even when not under your supervision.
Let them get lots of sleep at night as it strengthens their mind and body. Sleeping also helps to fight disease and infection, and a common cold or fever will break soon after a long nap.

Young children generally require between 10 and 12 hours of sleep every night. A short nap in the afternoon is a recommendation made by many paediatricians, as children actually tire easily and aren’t able to go long hours without actually taking a rest. Tired children become fussy eaters, have bad mood swings, can become angry and unwell quite easily.

A healthy diet inclusive of lots of fruits, vegetables, proteins, and water is important in a child’s diet. In modern times, many parents depend on take-away meals or quick-fixes to make up for the lack of time to cook wholesome well rounded meals at home. If you feel your family is not getting the required nutrients every day, make it a point to ensure your child has plenty of fruits and juices to snack on during the day, compensating during the weekend.

Some doctors recommend giving your preschooler a dose of multivitamins each day. But there is such a thing as too much of a good thing. So unless your toddler is a picky eater, has a iron deficiency, is lactose intolerant, or has some kind of food allergy, substituting vital minerals and vitamins with a supplement is a good move, but it is not necessary to give them whole doses of vitamins and minerals unless prescribed by your paediatrician.

Always consult your doctor for health advice when it comes to your toddler, but following a few good routines everyday to keep your child on the right track will do them a world of good.

Preschoolers Eating Habits

At Kids Island Nursery we encourage community and level the playing field for children at snack time. We provide all new children with a see through compartmentalized container which helps them to identify their meals from home and eat it together. In most instances, a child’s eating habit at home, is much different from that at our Dubai nursery school, and parents are usually concerned that toddlers and young children are not getting the nutrients they need when they are on holidays. Here’s a guide to help your child eat better and a couple of insights into the nutritional requirements of preschoolers.

A common concern we hear from pre-kindergarten parents after the holidays is “My child never sat at the table once to complete a meal” or “She hates her vegetables, or “How do you get her to finish her breakfast?”. The simple answer to that question is that we don’t. When children are surrounded by their friends and groups they wish to be a part of, they naturally “Follow the leader”, hence, meal time will see one child leading the rest of them to do the same. They compete against each other to finish their meals first, they talk and discuss their specials and favourites and you may even see them pecking into their neighbours lunch box.
At home things are different from when he is at Jumeirah day care. Your child will need to keep himself entertained or be entertained by you, or he may require his favourite cartoon to complete his snack. A common problem that parents face, is that they are unable to get their child to eat everything they have been served. A worry that they are not getting all the nutrients by leaving portions could be justified but there is also a good explanation for why this happens. When we serve ourselves, we generally require larger portions of everything. For instance if dinner meant a chicken breast, boiled vegetables and mash potatoes, you may be inclined to reduce the boiled vegetable and mash potatoes servings by a small amount but leave the whole chicken breast on the plate.
Children have much smaller tummies and therefore the appetite is also a lot less than what an adult would have. In this case, your toddler may finish the chicken, but have no room left for his vegetables, which to his advantage he does not like anyway. To have him finishing everything on his plate and enjoy a balanced meal, you have to decrease the portions of all items that you serve him. May be cut the chicken in half, reduce mash potatoes into a third of the portion and half the boiled vegetables.
If he still doesn’t finish his meal, it might because a child’s tummy is about the size of his clenched fist, so he may have to take breaks before actually being able to eat everything served. Taking breaks is healthy for children, as they get more nutrition when portions are left to a manageable amount for digestion.
Children are constantly in a love-hate relationship with vegetables and fruits. Sometimes its all they eat all day long, and sometimes they don’t want to go near a plate that has vegetables on it. Children are trying to state their ground, and they may refuse vegetables to be in control or prove independence. In this case the oldest trick in the book is to trick them into having their daily servings of vegetables. One recipe could be to grate carrot and or finely cut herbs and mix it in with cakes or cream cheese, call it rainbow cheese. Another way to make sure they get their daily surviving of fruit, would be to make popsicles out of fresh juice at home. If your child is already biting on ice cubes, turn fruit juice into ice cubes instead.
In general, children need a lot less nutrition than adults do, and there’s chances are that he is eating what he needs in smaller portions. To make sure he is getting all the nutrients his body needs, plan out the weeks meals to include a little bit of everything, and the chances are that your toddler is doing just fine.

Learning Difficulties

Children are known to be fast learners and thus pick things up more easily than adults do. But for some parents they may find themselves worried when their child still hasn’t started talking at age two, or is struggling to learn the alphabet at five.

Children with learning disabilities may show early warning signs by talking later than other kids do or will struggle to count to ten even with practice. Your child could have a learning disability, but this does not mean they aren’t smart just that they require a special method of teaching and patience to help them across.
Many people mistake learning disabilities for having a lower IQ, but psychologists agree that children who are slow require special attention early to help them overcome the difficulties they face. The problem usually has to do with the way he learns and not his intelligence. These children are almost always in the higher percentile of intelligence, but have a hard time absorbing information, and sometimes have a higher IQ than the others. They just have to work harder to understand the information. But once they do, they are on their way to successfully making it through preschool.

Early signs to look for in children with Learning Disabilities

There is no specific time that children are supposed to achieve important milestones, just an average age in months where children generally achieve certain goals. When children pass these average timelines to talk, walk, or pronounce simple words, they may be experiencing learning difficulties. Children with disabilities are categorized into three easy to understand groups; Reading difficulties, writing difficulties, and math skills. There are also a range of other learning difficulties associated with motor skills, memory, and coordination.
All learning difficulties are categorized with systematic counteractive measures to help children with special needs succeed through school. In most cases, a child will have just one type of learning difficulty, but it is not uncommon to have a combination of two or more.

Dyslexia is the term given to children with reading difficulties and dyscalculia is associates with children who have trouble with maths. Attention deficit disorders are not considered learning difficulties, but children who have learning difficulties sometimes have attention difficulties as well.
As a parent you may first start to notice signs of learning disabilities in your baby’s first and second year when they begin to speak, pick up words, pick things up and respond to simple commands. When any of these goals are not reached at the far end of the spectrum, your child may need some extra attention to help them learn absorb the information.

Delayed speech is the first sign that something may be wrong. In some cases, children may start to speak on time, but nothing they say makes much sense, they may pronounce words wrong, and will learn new words at a slower pace than most others. He or she may recite the alphabet without a problem but will not be able to identify the alphabet when shown. Coordination and motor skills may be noticed when they struggle to hold a crayon or follow simple commands as “come here”

Regardless of the learning difficulty your child has, we at Kids Island and Cocoon Nurseries follow strict guidelines set forth by the Early Years Foundation Stage (EFYS) UK to ensure that all children receive proper care and attention during their Dubai preschool years. We work very closely with parents of children to ensure that their time with us at nursery school is appropriately reported to give parents of children with learning difficulties enough time to plan out a course of action. Our highly regulated nursery environment is staffed by some of the most dedicated educators of young preschoolers, who receive constant training in their role as pre-kindergarten teachers. Visit our nursery Dubai to give your child the best platform to shine in his endeavours.

Keeping Children Safe

Raising a toddler is hard work. Although its commonly perceived that only the twos are tough, keeping your child safe and motivated to behave, live safely and learn for the first years of their life is a game you learn while you play. International Preschools Dubai have it easy, as we follow strict guidelines from the EYFS UK Framework and our caregivers are able to put their knowledge and experience to practice during school hours. However, when your little one returns home for the day, they may feel like letting lose, and losing focus.

Children are no different from us adults, who perform better with a hypothetical carrot dangling ahead. A little motivation can benefit your child in the long run, and can come from anywhere they spend most of their hours at, like home, family and at Kids Island Nursery. We at Kids Island like to form partnerships with parents to ensure your child receives a solid foundation for life.

If you have different aged children, then it a good idea to interconnect the responsibilities and rewards to ensure you always have one of your children looking out for the other. The old fashioned way of using a basic hand drawn chart to keep your children in check, works wonders. Although child psychologists recommend against always rewarding good behaviour, periodical rewards help them to understand that only good behaviour will receive positive reinforcements.

For a two year old, your main concern for behaviour would be his own safety. It can be difficult to make sure that she doesn't put her finger into a hidden electrical socket, or slide down the staircase railing because she saw her older brother do the same. One way to ensure both your children are safe would be to first, educate your two year old on the safety of electrical sockets anywhere at home or outside. A task, requesting him to bring any unprotected electrical sockets to your attention, will have him looking for danger and alerting you to it. This will not only keep him safe, but he may even pass on the knowledge to another friend or sibling. Knowing there is something he can look forward to for being good and safe, will keep him motivated on the task.

The same task can be reversed and your oldest child, will receive a check, each time, he took care of his younger sibling, a few turns and you can choose to reward him periodically for good behaviour and showcasing responsibility for his and his brothers safety. Interconnecting responsibility, relating the dangers, and rewarding their achievements, will have them coming back for checks boxes and looking for more ways to have more stars on the chart. You can use a chart like this for just about anything, including school work, milestones achieved, politeness to other children, or even helping you out at home.
Kids Island and Cocoon Nurseries, British preschools, day care and day nurseries are dedicated to child safety and wellbeing. We strive to ensure your child stays healthy, safe, and motivated, on being smart and happy. Visit us to have a tour of our nurseries and meet our staff if you are looking for a safe and secure nursery for your most precious possession.

Behavioural Problems

Kids Island Nursery and Resolving conflict and behavioural problems amongst toddlers
When it comes to young children and their siblings, even in the case of older children, conflict is a common phenomenon brought on by completely natural emotions. Jealousy, attention, insecurities, and not knowing what their own place is in the family can cause your toddler to become aggressive towards, you, his younger or older siblings, and even with his friends from school.

Acting out, throwing tantrums, depression, fear, are contributing factors to what might result in tantrums at Dubai preschool, at home or in public places. Sometimes children may seem stubborn even if you did take them out, or took them with you to the supermarket. These times can be trying for parents, who are trying to balance the need of every child, along with work life and alone time.

Some children accept and welcome another brother or sister, while other act indifferent, and for some others accepting another baby in to the family will take time. Patience and diligence is key in these instances, and what your oldest child may need, could as simply be just some quality time with just them. A new baby is quite literally a handful, but may be each parent can take turns spending time with both children. Watching a movie without outside interruptions, like phone calls, or checking your emails.

Sometimes children just need you to themselves and they have not mastered the art of communicating this need to you as yet. But with constant chats, and leaving the door open for them to approach you whenever something troubles them, will help your child and you adjust to new responsibilities and role changes.
Role change is by far the most prominent of all factors that causes young children to show aggressive behaviour. If you have toddlers who are close in age, like two and four, you may find yourself playing referee more often than you'd like to. Most often than not, one of them will dominate while the other remains submissive. This situation will probably find you yelling at one, while protecting the other causing more friction between the two. Its best to treat both children equally, and talk to them individually. Empathy is key, and making both children understand where the other is coming from, will aid in both children finding middle ground and coming to a compromise. If you feel at this moment that one may have been unfair to other, talk to them separately, explain to them how their action is wrong, and you have immense trust in them to be good, and that you know they are capable of being fair to their younger siblings. Talking to them in this way, will improve their behaviour at home, in public and at our nursery school Dubai, and you may even see a positive shift in their behaviour towards other children and their own siblings.

Bad Behaviour at preschool

Worried about my child's bad behaviour in preschool

Many parents are faced with this common dilemma where they are told their child is acting up, or being difficult. Usually when a child is around 30 months old, when they begin to form their unique personalities, they may display bouts of anger, anxiety, depression, or difficulty concentrating on a single task for long. As frustrating as it might be, and as easily as self-blame is, getting to the bottom of the problem is part of the solution.

When you are in charge of more than 15 children in a nursery classroom, as teachers we expect that the group will have varying personalities, shortcomings and some will have behavioural patterns different from the rest.
Although parenting styles do have some effect on the child, most often than not, there is usually an underlying problem that the child is having trouble in expressing their emotions. Some very renowned psychologists state that dealing aggressively with a differently behaved child will weigh negatively on the child and probably contribute further to bad behaviour.

Some studies show that children can show signs of varying behaviour at infant stages as well. Where you may have noticed your baby struggling to sleep, difficult to soothe even after a feeding, or becomes irritable throughout the day. There is however, a fine line between normal or average behaviour and one that might be considered difficult. Infants are inclined to cry and be irritable as it is their only form of communication with you. So feelings of humid weather, a bite, a scratch, an uncomfortable position, a wet diaper, or hunger are all communicated through crying. Therefore, it would not be advised to label your child difficult just from this alone.

There are various categories of children that may need extra help and close observation into their behaviour. Many expert child psychologists say that labelling children with negative terms puts parents and families under more pressure and feelings of guilt looking for cure or a solution. It also recognizes that children are inevitably going to be different and not the same.
Some children listen to instructions and do pay attention to what is happening around them, while others have selective attention. These children are generally more active than others in their playgroup Dubai. They will respond well to things like television or song and dance, but are unable to sit still through an art class or writing assignment. Some of these types of personalities are considered extremely smart and bright children, although they may not fare well with theory.

Unconventional children are those children who do everything different from an average group of children. They are more intense when it comes to showing emotions and therefore require organized routines to help them stay in control and have familiar territory all the time.

Difficult children who struggle with day-to-day tasks at preschools in Dubai, do not respond well to being yelled at, as it would increase their frustration even more. Instead, we try to look for patterns that bring this behaviour on, and come to a compromise.

We at Kids Island Nursery try our best to accommodate all kinds of personalities helping parents from various cultures adapt and accept a very multicultural society. Our teachers interact with parents to help those children find middle ground and achieve great success at our Dubai Kindergarten. If you have concerns about your child and feel they may have difficulty fitting in, talk to us today.