At Growing Kids Learning Centers, we offer an infant program that provides your baby with the environment and tools needed to help them hit different developmental milestones. While every child is different and will reach these milestones at a different pace, it is always beneficial for parents to know where their child should be and if they are hitting the milestones early, on time, or a little later than usual. Again, these milestones are only guidelines. If your baby isn’t reaching certain milestones by a certain age, there is no need to worry! They may just fall behind in some areas while they excel in others. A good thing to keep in mind is that some babies start walking at nine months and others don’t start until they hit the 18-month mark.

If you want to learn more about average baby milestones, read on! You can help your little one continue to develop new skills and get a jumpstart to their education by enrolling them in our infant program!

By Two Months

In the first two months of your baby’s life, they will be developing a lot and you may not even realize it! They will develop some social, language, cognitive, and physical skills during this time. While it may just seem like your baby is being a baby, they are learning and growing every day!

Social and Emotional Skills

At this stage in your baby’s life, they likely love interacting with those around them and are beginning to be more social. You may notice that they are smiling at people more. They are likely also looking at you, their parents, often. At this age, they may also begin to try calming themselves, even if it’s only for a brief moment. You may notice them bringing their hands to their face and sucking on a finger or their hand to try and soothe themselves.

Language and Communication Skills

Your little one will also be developing language and communication skills during this time. At this age, developing language and communication skills means beginning to coo, making gurgling sounds, and turning their head at sounds. Your baby also likely recognizes your voice, as well as the tone and emotions in your voice. They probably find comfort in hearing you speak.

Cognitive Skills

Cognitive skills are learning, thinking, and problem-solving skills. During the first two months of your baby’s life, they will begin to develop a variety of these skills. Your little one will begin paying attention to faces, start following things with their eyes, and recognizing people. They will also start showing signs of boredom, such as crying or fussing, if an activity doesn’t change.

Movement and Physical Development

By two months, your baby likely has built some neck muscles and is able to hold their head up for a period of time. They may also begin to push up while lying on their tummy. The movements they make with their arms and legs are going to slowly get smoother, rather than the choppy and jerky movements of a younger baby.

By Six Months

In the next few months, your baby will develop a ton of new skills and begin to act like a real little human! They will continue to improve upon the skills they have been developing for months and learn new ones too!

Social and Emotional Skills

By six months, your little one will know familiar faces and begin to recognize when someone is a stranger. They will love playing, with their parents and others. Your baby will likely start responding to other people’s emotions and they will seem happy a majority of the time. Your six month old will also start to show a liking to looking at themselves in the mirror!

Language and Communication Skills

Your baby will develop many new language skills by the time they reach six months. They will begin to respond to sounds by making a sound of their own. They may begin to start mimicking sounds, such as “ba,” “ah,” “da,” “ma,” and others. They will begin to babble more and make sounds to show displeasure and joy. Your baby will likely start responding to their own name as well!

Cognitive Skills

At six months, your child will begin to look around at things nearby, observing the world around them. They will also show curiosity in different things and try to grab things that are out of their reach. They will also bring things to their mouth and pass things from one hand to the other.

Movement and Physical Development

Your baby should be able to or begin to try rolling over in both directions, from tummy to back and back to tummy. They should be able to sit without support. They should also be able to stand with support and be able to use their legs to hold their weight. They may even bounce while standing. At six months, your baby should be crawling and may rock back and forth.

By One Year

In the first year of your baby’s life, they will learn and develop a lot. When your baby turns one, they are officially a toddler! They may begin to use words, be able to stand on their own, and be able to take a few steps by their first birthday. However, not every one year old reaches these milestones quite yet.

Social and Emotional Skills

By one, your little one may begin to act shy or nervous around strangers and cry when one of their parents leave. They will likely start repeating sounds or copying actions to get attention. Your child may begin to play games like peek-a-boo and hand you a book when they want to hear a story. At this age, your kiddo likely has favorite people and things.

Language and Communication Skills

Your one year old should be able to respond to simple spoken requests and use gestures, such as shaking their head no and waving goodbye. They may start to try and say some words and repeat words you say. Your little one will likely begin saying “mama,” “dada,” and other simple words. They are also likely to start mimicking the changing tones of speaking when making sounds.

Cognitive Skills

Your toddler is more curious and active at this age. They will likely explore things in different ways, such as throwing, shaking, and banging. They will be able to find hidden items easily and begin to look at the right item when it is named. They will likely begin to copy gestures and use items correctly, like a cup or brush. Your one year old may spend time moving an item in and out of a container. They will be able to follow simple directions, such as “pick up the toys.”

Movement and Physical Development

Your one year old should be able to get into the sitting position without help. They will also begin to pull themselves into a standing position, stand alone, and may begin to walk while holding furniture. At this age, many one-year-olds may start trying to walk without assistance, but not every one year old does this.

During the first year of your child’s life, they will develop a lot of new skills and hit a variety of different developmental milestones. While every child develops at a different pace, if you are concerned that your little one is not developing as they should, be sure to talk to your child’s doctor. They will be able to tell you if it is something to worry about or if you should just keep working with your child.

During this first year of life, you can help your kiddo develop by talking to them, reading to them, naming objects you see, playing on the floor with them, doing tummy time, making time for active play, and simply engaging with your baby. A lot of the things your child will learn and the skills they will develop often come from observing you and the world around them. The more you talk and play with your little one, the more likely they will develop those skills on time.

If you want to help your child in their development and learning, be sure to enroll them at Growing Kids Learning Center! Our infant program will help them develop social, cognitive, language, and physical skills. We incorporate a variety of different activities to help with babies’ development, including learning activities and exploratory-based lessons. This is a great way to help your infant develop the necessary skills and start learning at an early age. Plus they will get to socialize, which is always beneficial for little ones! Learn more about our infant program and contact us with any questions you may have.

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At Growing Kids Learning Centers, we offer child care programs that help young kids learn and grow. Our programs include everything from infant care to preschool and after-school care. We know that young kids, starting at infancy, are observing and learning on a daily basis. While our staff can help your child learn and develop the skills they need at each stage in their early lives, there are ways you can help them learn as well!

In this blog, we are going to give you some ideas for how to teach your child at home and help them continue to learn during this strange time!

Read to Them

No matter how young your child is, reading to your child can help them develop language skills. In a previous blog, we talked about the benefits of reading to your kids. Not only does it give you something to do together, but it can improve their literacy skills, promote a longer attention span, stimulate imagination, expose them to language, and more. Reading to your child is extremely beneficial and can help them develop a variety of new skills.

Try to read to your child every day, even if it is right before bedtime. As they begin to learn to read, you can also have them read to you to help develop their language skills even more.

Make Them Read

This time we aren’t talking about books. To help your child continue working on their language skills and begin to realize that everything has a name and words are everywhere, have them read everything. When you walk down the street, have them read street signs. Have them read the back of the cereal box. Any time you see a word that they know or can sound out, have them read it.

This is a great way to help them connect items to their names and find meaning in different words. They will also be able to begin to understand that language is a regular part of everyday life.

If your child cannot quite read yet, you can have them point out letters that they recognize and tell you what sound it makes. Just because your kiddo has not started to read, it does not mean that they can’t benefit from this as well!

Label Items

Another way to help them with their language skills is to label the items in your home. Think of a preschool classroom — many teachers have the items throughout the classroom labeled so that children can begin to read those words and understand that these words are connected to the object.

Label the lamp, clock, closet, doors, windows, oven, bookshelf, toy box, chairs, couches, and anything else in your home. While your house might look silly for a while, with everything labeled, it can help your child learn. They will be able to go around the house reading each label and understanding exactly what that word is.

Make Them Count

Just like making them read random words you see throughout your day, you should also make them count! When you see a group of anything — could be ducks, flowers, chocolate chips, or toys — ask them to count how many they see. This can help them learn their numbers and begin to count to higher numbers.

This can also help them realize that even though the ducks may be walking around, there are still only five. Children may try to count a duck twice because it walks somewhere else in the group. Help them learn that just because they moved to different spots doesn’t mean there are suddenly more! As your child begins to feel more confident with their counting skills, they will start counting things that they see in groups, even without your prompting them.

Do Arts and Crafts

Arts and crafts are not only fun and a great way to keep your kiddos entertained, but they can also be beneficial for your little ones. Arts and crafts require fine motor skills, which is something that children develop at a young age. Fine motor skills include the ability to mold playdough, draw with a pencil, paint with a paintbrush, and other tasks that involve small hand movements. Doing crafts with your kids allows them to develop these skills and have fun doing it!

Crafts are also beneficial for children because this activity allows them to be creative. Creativity is something you should always encourage in your children. It can help boost their imagination, improve problem-solving skills, and boosts confidence. Giving your child a creative outlet can be very beneficial for their development and growth and crafting is a great way to do that!

Play Games

Playing games with your child can teach them a variety of different things. While there are number and letter games that help them with, well, numbers and letters, other games can be extremely beneficial as well. Playing matching games can help them with a variety of things. These types of games can improve concentration, increase short term memory, boost attention to detail, help to notice similarities in objects, and so much more. Matching games are a great way to help your child learn and develop new skills.

As your child gets a little older, start playing board games with them. Board games can help your child learn to follow directions, take turns, and teaches them about sportsmanship. Games are fun to play with your kiddos, but they can also be very beneficial for their growth and development.

Explore the Outdoors

Learning doesn’t also have to be about numbers, letters, shapes, and colors. Learning can be about experiences and exploring. Go explore the great outdoors with your child. Whether you head into your back yard or walk a nearby trail. Ask your child what they see, what they notice, what sounds they hear, what smells they smell. Make them notice their senses. Get up close to trees to examine the bark. Lay in the grass to see a ladybug crawling up a blade of grass.

Getting outside and allowing your child to explore nature and follow their interests is a great way to help them learn about the world around them.

Answer Questions

Kids ask a lot of questions and while it can be annoying at times, this is how they learn and it is important to answer their questions. When your child reaches the why phase, giving them answers can help them understand how things work and what is going on in the world around them. They will be able to learn when you answer these questions.

If they ask a question that you do not know the answer to, learn it together! Search the internet for the answer and talk about it with your child. You may learn something new yourself as well!

There are many ways to help your child learn at home, and they don’t have to be as time-consuming and difficult as sitting down and trying to teach them an actual lesson. Simply add these mini “lessons” into your regular daily routine and help your child learn, grow, and develop while at home. When life goes back to normal, be sure to check out Growing Kids Learning Centers. We have locations in South Bend, Elkhart, Valparaiso, Goshen, Chesterton, Plymouth, and Warsaw! This makes it easy for you to find a location near you. Contact us with any questions you may have and start working with your child at home!

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If the thought of your child pointing out a person who is different than them is simply mortifying, you’re not alone. It’s common for kids to want to understand the newness of the world around them! However, there are great lessons in empathy that show up at these opportunities.

You might not fully be able to prevent your child from shouting about a woman using a wheelchair, but you will be able to teach tolerance with these tips from Growing Kids Learning Centers. Find out how to teach young kids about differences, and look into preschool and child care with our schools in South Bend (at Ireland Road, State Road 23, and North Bendix Drive), Chesterton, Goshen, Warsaw, Plymouth, Elkhart, Bristol, or Valparaiso today!

Give Examples

If you’re trying to avoid having your child call attention to someone who’s different from them, be proactive! Find books and movies that show great examples of representation. If the majority of your child’s exposure to fictional and nonfictional characters are very similar to them or your family, find more diverse examples.

There are some amazing, kid-friendly books that do the work of giving examples of differences for you. Purchase “It’s Okay to Be Different” by Todd Parr, “Elmer” by David McKee, “Princess Hair” by Sharee Miller, and “The Boy in the Dress” by David Walliams for your library collection.

Have Open Discussions

When you were growing up, you might have had moments where adults told you not to notice or think about other people’s differences. You might have even been told not to talk about them, or been scolded for your inquiries. At best, this breeds a lot of curiosity without direction; at worst, it creates feelings of shame.

No child should be ashamed for asking questions, especially when they have no context for what they’re asking about. Have conversations about appropriate times (and speaking volumes!) to ask questions, how other people might feel if they become the center of attention without their permission, and how you will always answer your child’s questions — it just might not be right when they want an answer.

Relate it Back to Them

The great thing about this lesson is that everyone is different! We all have our own unique tendencies, looks, and personalities. Even when your child might feel like someone else is different, the truth is that the stranger walking on the street will find them (your child) just as different!

It’s always important to focus on how we have things in common with one another, but it’s even more important to remember how our greatest commonality is that we are all different. And these differences can and should be celebrated.

Enroll in Preschool

From the books we read at Growing Kids Learning Centers to the peer-to-peer interactions we help supervise, facilitate, and use as teaching moments, your child will confidently learn how to embrace others’ differences — as well as their own. Social-emotional growth and empathy are two of the greatest and most important skills for a child to learn. Preschool is the perfect place to work on these skills, especially when you enroll with Growing Kids Learning Centers. Tour one of our schools today!

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It can help get kids ready for school.

Daycare is the perfect place to spark a love of learning. With plenty of activities and learning opportunities, even our youngest daycare attendees have a chance to start exploring the world around them and seeking out opportunities where learning is fun.

There are more socialization opportunities.

Kids who attend daycare have a chance to socialize with children both older and younger than them. This can help them learn more about sharing, working with others, and how to make friends. Those are skills they’ll use their whole lives!

It can be good for a child’s mental health.

Some studies suggest that attending daycare can be good for a child’s mental health. That’s because a daycare provides a stable, safe environment with routine and structure. That can help kids who might not find that environment at home develop much-needed stability for later in life.

They have fewer colds later in life.

Being exposed to germs can be a good thing! It helps your child build up immunity to illnesses later on. Children who attend daycare and pass around those germs at a young age are less likely to battle them later on.

Kids learn structure and routine.

Daycare can be a place where kids learn about routine and structure to their daily lives, something that will be important both in their school lives and their career later on.

Want your child to experience the benefits of daycare for themselves? Sign up with Growing Kids today!

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Activities including art fairs, picnics, drama, team games, kite flying, messy art days, swimming, field trips, bowling, soccer, “Main Street” play, exercise, ooey-gooey day, pizza making, reading, puzzles, baking cookies and hiking are many (but not all) of the activities that your child will get to experience when you enroll them in Growing Kids Spring Camp in South Bend. We will also provide your kiddo with a healthy and filling breakfast and lunch with snacks in between meals.

These activities are great for kids to make new friends and bond with friends they already have. They will be able to discover new things everyday and get out of their shell in a comforting and safe environment. No matter if this is your child’s first, second or third time registering, we highly recommend that you do so sooner than later.

We welcome any school-aged children both currently enrolled in our Growing Kids school program and new-comers. Children who are not enrolled in classes may sign-up for Growing Kids Spring Camp in South Bend starting February 8, 2016. Note: all after school students are required to sign up. To register your kid(s), please call 574-220-6400.

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We are excited to share useful ways of learning and tools to give your child the ability to grow to their fullest potential while at Growing Kids Learning Centers. With that in mind, know that we make it a priority to provide a clean and safe environment that is always open to parents’ suggestions. Our focus of keeping your child on track when starting daycare or preschool is our number one priority.

Do you want to learn more about us here at Growing Kids Learning Center? We invite you to visit us online today and even check out some of the Growing Kids Advantages, Programs, and learn where our other locations are in the South Bend area. Have questions? Feel free to contact us online now!

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For younger children, this game is fun, entertaining and is a very easy concept to learn. It doesn’t take much prep work, all you need is a ball! This game can be played with a pair of children or a child and an adult.

• Have your child sit across from you on the ground with their legs apart.

• Roll the ball between the legs back and forth to each other.

• Let your child known that the purpose of the game is to stop the ball before it hits their tummy.

Doing this activity can promote a learning opportunity for your child, and it will only help them grow their hand eye coordination early on. This can help them in the future when it comes time for sports, writing, reading and many other daily life skills.

If you are still looking for a daycare or preschool for your growing child, visit one of our locations in Elkhart, Goshen or South Bend! Contact us online now to learn more ways we will help grow your child’s hand eye coordination.

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When it comes to finding the perfect dacare for your child, there are a lot of things to consider. You need to consider how far away the daycare center is, how much it will cost you, what your child will learn during their hours here and what different programs we offer. Luckily for you, we have a surplus of information that can answer all of these questions, including that there is a location near you in either South Bend, Elkhart or Goshen.

Are you ready to let your children play, grow and learn while you’re off at work during the week? If so, go ahead and learn all about our programs here at Growing Kids Learning Center. Contact us online with any questions about enrollment and take a peek at the 10 Factors To Consider When Choosing A Childcare Center for your child. Feel free to check out the parent resources that can keep both you and your child one step ahead of the game.

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1. If your child is old enough, make sure you get them a flu vaccine. Even though the flu season may be over, it’s always good to get them the flu vaccine when the time rolls around again. It can help about 62% of the population from suffering through the flu.

2. Make sure you teach your children appropriate cough etiquette and social distance, especially when they’re sick. Make sure they cover their mouth when they sneeze and cough, and to wash their hands afterwards.

3. Children will always share their toys, but try and keep their toys clean! Viruses can live on surfaces for up to 8 hours, so if you do what you can to remove these viruses from their toys, the less likelihood they’ll get sick.

4. Keep your child healthy by practicing a healthy lifestyle at home! Show your child that exercise is fun and that eating great food can taste great!

We hope that the above tips can help you to keep your child healthier when they start daycare at Growing Kids Learning Center in Elkhart. Learn more when you visit us online today!

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1. Power Struggles- It is normal for your child to act out in order to feel like they need to get their way. It could be because your child feels as though they have a lack of power compared to you. It could be that the daycare or caregiver that takes care of your child throughout the week will give your child more power than you do, making it difficult to get things to go your way when you are home with your child.

2. Predictability Problems- It is very important for your child to be consistent in their predictability. This includes their daily routines and daily chores that they do. It not only makes them feel safe and secure but it can also make them become more well-behaved for their teachers at school, daycare leaders and even caregivers. These important people in their life usually always have a schedule that they follow, which children love to take part in.

Here at Growing Kids Learning Centers, we want to make your life easier! We hope that the above list can help you connect on a deeper level with your child if you’re having troubles with them after you leave daycare!

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