Today Tile Triggered Content

Your baby is beginning to recognise the names of some body parts.  

This fantastic book has a strong social and emotional theme. The story focuses on how one butterfly is unkind to Clara, and they are judgmental about her appearance. At the end of the story though, Clara emerges as a hero, and sends a wonderful message of you can still be kind to those who are not kind to you. It celebrates that we are all different and all special. 

Clara the Caterpillar offers up lovely vocabulary, some of which may be new to your child and require a little extra thought. It features words such as, ‘crestfallen,’ ‘camouflaged’ and ‘crimson,’ and provides tons of opportunities for you to pause and chat about the illustrations or language. 

We are surrounded by images on social media – often filtered, carefully staged photographs which can make us feel perfection is required at all times. As you adjust to parenthood, you might not feel you want a record of your bleary-eyed moments. 

We often think about how to focus our child’s attention, often believing we need to direct their gaze to one item or another, and make sure that they are looking at what they need to see in order to learn. But did you know that a big part of learning to focus on something involves learning to ignore everything else?  

This is called figure-ground perception – the ability to tune out what is not important to focus on the thing you’re interested in. When thinking about what we see, it’s visual figure-ground perception. 

Have you noticed your child enjoying some rough and tumble, physical play recently? For lots of us it’s worrying as we worry our child will get hurt, or hurt someone else. From tickling games to superhero role play, and all kinds of games involving racing around and crashing into each other, children are often drawn to this type of play. But why? And should you be worried or stop it just in case it causes tears?  

Rough and tumble is a way for children to playfully explore their bodies, boundaries and abilities. 

Many of us have music we associate with a specific season of our lives, or even with a single moment. Your child is learning to create these connections too and will soon have a bank of songs they connect to particular experiences or events.  

Your child needs to move and will often be in motion as they explore their world and develop their brain, but they are also developing the balance and focus needed to keep their body still. Now they’re able to enjoy being still for short periods of time you could try having a moment of mindfulness together by meditating.  

Meditation is a big concept, especially for a child, but at its core it means taking the time to be still and reflect.  

Becoming a new parent comes with all kinds of information from a myriad of sources. Advice is everywhere and it can become difficult to remember what you think about your life. But recognising everyday habits and making small, positive changes to these can help to bring back some clarity.

It’s a school trip today, and Luna is getting ready to go to the art gallery with her class and teachers. Everyone is excited, but one of the children from Luna’s class, Finn, doesn’t look excited. This story is beautifully illustrated, gives lots of opportunities to chat about art works and shows the importance of friendship.  

During their day at the art gallery, Luna and the rest of the class look at the art, they draw, and visit the shop.  

Your child is developing their social and language skills now and becoming a brilliant communicator. What do they need in order to have a conversation?  

You will notice your child is including more information when talking to other people. They are thinking about what the person already knows and what information they need to share so the other person understands them.