baumhaus_kinder_encinitas

Punishment-based discipline is a way many parents before us raised their children. Most of the time it is a very effective approach, but unfortunately, it only works in the moment. We want our children to learn how to cope with their overwhelming feelings, how to self-regulate and redirect, and this is not possible by making them feel bad about their feelings by punishing them.
As Daniel J. Siegel mentions in his book „The Whole Brain Child“…

„As children develop, their brains "mirror" their parent's brain. In other words, the parent's own growth and development, or lack of those, impact the child's brain. As parents become more aware and emotionally healthy, their children reap the rewards and move toward health as well.“

The same goes for educators, teachers, and other individuals working with children. It is so important that you find a school, preschool, nanny etc. that you trust and believe, that will set a good example for your child. After all, your child spends a good amount of time of a day/week at school/childcare, and you want to make sure, that he or she is in good hands!

It is our priority at Baumhaus Kinder, to ensure that we always talk to our children about their feelings and emotions, and let them know how we feel about certain things. With being emotionally open and receptive, we will support our children’s emotional development, and strengthen their emotional and social intelligence❤️🧠💪

On my early childhood education journey in the US, I noticed that more and more preschools are very focused on academics. The idea seems to be that the children are struggling academically, so the answer to that must be pushing more, and at earlier age, which is the exact opposite what we should be doing!

A brand new comprehensive study of preschool finds significant drawbacks to pushing academics too early. Researchers found that any initial academic gains were quickly erased, and children who attended academic focused pre-k were actually behind their peers in elementary and middle school. Another study found that the students who experienced early academic pressure showed dramatic increases in behavioral issues later on.

We are a play-based program that primarily focuses on social-emotional development. Which doesn’t mean that we don’t learn numbers, letters, shapes etc., because we do, but only if the children are ready, in a playful way, and without pressure and expectations.
We do not believe in teaching children reading and writing before Kindergarten, because the developmental levels are very different from child to child. Expecting the same outcome from each individual, is not only unrealistic but can have negative impacts on their future academic success.
We do strongly believe that every young child has the right to learn when they are ready to do so, and our job is then, to provide them with the tools and opportunities to succeed!

It is not always easy to allow children to make their own choices and test their own limits, but it is crucial for developing important decision making skills!

How can we support children to make kind and safe decisions and encourage independent thinking:

1️⃣Be a good role model and teach your child problem solving strategies
2️⃣Teach your child how to identify and address their own needs, strengths, limits, and emotions. Knowing themselves will help them make better decisions based on their abilities. It is important that children try many wonderful things, but be able to realize that they will not excel in them all.
3️⃣Allow your child to take risks. Don’t micro manage every single aspect of their life, but allow for opportunities for your child to learn their own limits and practice critical thinking!
4️⃣Surround yourself with people that are a good influence on your children. This will hopefully lead to them developing a good sense of character, and choosing the right friends in life too.

Simply, you are not a bad parent if you let your child make mistakes. If you carefully let your child learn a hard lesson from their own mistake and then talk to them about it after the fact , it will give them great insight.
Remember, sometimes, by doing less for our children, we allow for them to learn more!

It sounds so simple, but parenting and teaching is so much easier, when keeping this in mind; blaming and making a child feel bad about themselves, will not lead to them behaving better.
There is ALWAYS a reason, your child is expressing challenging behaviors.
Finding out what the reason is, is the key to success. By knowing what triggers your child, you can connect better with them throughout challenging moments and model effective strategies to cope with big feelings.

Here are some tips for the challenging times of the day:

👩‍👦ATTENTION: Whenever my kids show more challenging behaviors, it is very likely due to me not giving them enough undivided attention. Most of the time, we think that we just spent the entire day with our kids, but how much of that time did we actually REALLY pay attention to them, without doing the dishes, writing an email, cleaning, cooking or anything else. If your child’s behavior is more challenging, try to dedicate 15,20,25min, or however long you want, JUST TO THEM. You will see how much that can change the rest of the day!

😴TIRED/ OVER STIMULATED: Especially after a long day at school, children can be exhausted, and it is important to allow them to rest. It doesn’t have to be sleeping, but their little bodies should take a break, physically and mentally. Ideally, you let your child play with something they enjoy playing with, something more quiet, like Play Dough, beads, coloring etc.
Also, if they had a busy day at school or you went on a field trip all morning, limit afternoon activities and keep the rest of the day more mellow.

🎶MOVEMENT: Is your kid climbing on furniture and being restless, offer opportunities to move. Dancing, trampoline, playground structure, nature walk, and whatever else active you can think of.

Whatever you do, always make sure to talk to your child about their feelings. That way, they will at some point be able to identify their feelings on their own, and know what strategies help them to cope and fulfill their needs.

For this reason, we are currently creating a calming corner at Baumhaus Kinder, with „Feeling“, cards, posters, and tools, that can be used to cope and calm down.

It’s been quite here, but there is A LOT happening behind the scenes!
We are still working on finishing up our indoor space and making our outdoor area safe for our little friends.
Next week is our Family Day, where all families that are enrolled at Baumhaus Kinder will get together. So looking forward for everyone to meet and for the children to have their first little play date before the official first day of school👧🏻👦🏼

We do have 2 more open spots for the upcoming school year. Feel free to contact us if you have any questions if you want to schedule a tour😊🌈📚

Happy 4th of July everyone🇺🇸

We are back from our short visit to Austria, and July will be a busy month for us!
We will be getting everything ready for our final licensing visit and the plan is to offer tours, starting July 25th.
Everyone who is signed up on our waitlist, will be contacted per email in the next couple week.

Jennifer and I are so excited to finally meet you all and welcome you at Baumhaus Kinder😊

Now let’s celebrate this beautiful country🇺🇸

Yoga is an amazing practice and lifestyle for all ages, and a major component of our approach. Jennifer is a certified yoga instructor and we incorporate a 20min yoga session into our daily routine.

Here are some of the benefits of yoga:
* Sensory input
* Improves balance
* Release of excess energy
* Helps with anxiety/depression
* Enhances concentration
* Provides relaxation
* Reduces stress
* Improves alignment of the body/posture
* Increases body strength and flexibility which reduces chances of injury
* Improves emotional regulation
* Increases body awareness and mindfulness
* Teaches discipline and reduces impulsivity

Children at Baumhaus Kinder can practice yoga at any time throughout the day, and can use the beautiful yoga cards from Sarah’s Silks to do so. We have cards available they can use with the natural, eco-friendly play silks or yoga cards, specifically for the use with our wooden balance boards. The silks are such a nice sensory addition, and we have them in all colors and sizes. The wooden balance boards are great to add a challenge to the regular yoga poses and improve balance.

Liebe Grüße,
Klaudia & Jennifer