Starting this Fall, we will be offering a Mini School for children aged 3 and 4. The school will be one afternoon a week for 1.5 hours and is for children with excellent academic abilities who are ready for advanced developmental instruction and sensory exploration that will enhance and refine learning skills. There will be a 3's and a 4's class, each with a maximum of 10 students.
Cursive is rarely taught in schools now and as a result children have to rely on manuscript to get them through written work. Cursive handwriting increases writing speed, fluency, increases validity of ownership, and reduces energy for the task of writing. I am stunned by the number of children that not only cannot write in cursive but cannot read cursive. The neurological process of handwriting is very sophisticated. Several academic studies report that consistent handwriting instruction doubled children' writing output. In addition, recent literature says that only 15% of kids wrote SAT essays in cursive. Those 15% of cursive writing children scored slightly higher than those who used manuscript. Read the article here. If your child wants help learning cursive in a fun way, please reach out to us! Thank you for the calls about summer camps this year. I have decided not to do summer camps this year due to needing the space for our current OT, Speech, and Mommy and Me clients. For those that are looking for handwriting camps, I have added weekly group handwriting classes. These classes are for preschoolers all the way to 3rd and 4th graders wanting to learn cursive. Thank you to all of my past campers! I'll miss you!  I am very excited to announce our partnership with Toys & Co! As you know, Toys & Co. has two great stores in Charlotte (both within 2-3 miles to Learning Charms). My kids absolutely LOVE going to the stores and playing with the demos, riding the plasma cars and making birthday wish lists. As a therapist, I am always testing out new toys and games to see which ones are the best for boosting specific developmental skills. Toys & Co. will be assisting Learning Charms in a few ways: 1) they will be graciously letting us demo new toys each week in our Mommy & Me
To encourage fine motor, pincer grasp, motor control, scissor skills, and even pinch strength, try this: Use a block of Styrofoam. Have child measure and cut construction paper to cover one side. Snap toothpicks in half (child can attempt), and then mark pattern on the construction paper with dots. Child should then push toothpick into marked areas to make a design, letter, number, etc. Then, add small beads to toothpicks and top with dot of glue to hold in place.
Our Mommy and Me classes are enrolling now for January's start date. Thank you to the many parents who have patiently waited to me to start these classes! Our Mommy and Me classes focus on sensory development and fine motor and pre-handwriting development. All classes get to enjoy time in our gym as well as small group time in our studio. The classes will be led by me, and are for any parent wanting to enrich their child's development. I'll give you lots of ideas, and tricks of the trade to help you to boost your child's development. In addition, I'll be glad to answer questions too! Classes are for babies through 4 year olds. Check out our class schedule. Tuition starts at only $65.00 a month!  Functional Grasp I recently completed kindergarten screenings for a few private schools. I look for age appropriate copying skills, pencil grasp, sensory motor, fine motor and self help skills. One of the most "flagged" areas is pencil grasp. Yes, about 50-70% of our kindergarten kids are not using a functional pencil grasp. Why is holding your pencil correctly so important? The way we hold a pencil determines how much pencil control we have as well as which muscles are being utilized during handwriting. Holding a pencil ineffectively changes handwriting/coloring from a task using finger muscles to a task using the large muscles of the hand, arm and shoulder. The latter causes muscle fatigue, especially as they reach 2nd grade. How can you help?
Have you seen our new rock wall? Each child that comes for OT or handwriting tutoring gets the opportunity to climb our rock wall. Traversing a rock wall helps to increase upper and lower body (including finger) strength, core strength, planning, and bilateral use. You may find pirates, frogs or lizards "hiding" on the rocks. Fine them and find a spot for them in our tree! Say "yea" is O.T. is fun!!   Make a "sensory salad" activity with your child. Hunt for scrap pieces of foam and paper that can be torn into small pieces. Ripping and tearing is perfect to strengthen little fingers. This dinosaur has a mixed salad with raspberries and blueberries! He also has a big strawberry (milk lid) on top! The variety of textures allows hands to experience and work with work unusual mediums. | Stephanie's
|
RSS Feed