MUM-e-Mail

- a newsletter to enthuse, educate, and entertain
mothers of pre-schoolers and their supporters

January 2006

MUM-e-Mail is considering What Every Child Needs – based on a book by Elisa Morgan & Carol Kuykendall. Here are the nine needs:

1.        Security: a hold-me-close love

2.       Affirmation: a crazy-about-me love

3.      Belonging: a fit-me-into-the-family love

4.      Discipline: a give-me-limits love

5.      Guidance: show-me-and-tell-me love

6.      Respect: a let-me-be love

7.       Play: a play-with-me love - today

8.      Independence: a let-me-grow-up love

9.      Hope: a give-me-hope love

 

Mothering Maxim – Play, Wonder, & Curiosity

 

You can teach a student a lesson for a day; but if you can teach him to learn by creating curiosity, he will continue the learning process as long as he lives.   – Clay P. Bedford 

 

Mum Moment – Child’s Play

 

The household of a pre-schooler requires a lot of upkeep. Sometimes, though, it needs to yield to Child’s Play.

Getting down on the floor for playtime might seem frivolous to a busy, tired mother. Isn’t play a need that children can meet on their own? But, as mothers, we must recognise the importance of play for a child, and our role as facilitators.

As mums, we need to remember that...

Play is child’s 'work'. From the time they wake in the morning until they lay their heads down at night, a child works through play. It teaches them about life and helps their growth and development.

Play creates creativity and stimulates imagination. Two words uniquely spark creativity: “Let’s pretend…” During the early years of life, we can stimulate intelligence and capacity for later learning by encouraging children to use imagination and creative play.

Play allows children to be children. Sometimes we subtly encourage children to act “grown up” by pushing them to learn or behave beyond their years. Play allows a child to embrace the things of childhood.

Play lets children grow up to be healthier adults. Knowing how and when to play is a skill adults need. A mum who believes she must finish her work before she can go for a bike ride or play a game is a mum who will feel stress in her life. If we nurture the childlikeness in our children when they are children, we help them develop a habit they need to grow up.

- from MOMSense Radio, June 2002

From A Mother’s Heart

May I never be too busy to sit at eye level with my child/ren. Play is good for Mother’s heart and mind too.

 

 

Mum's Mail*

(Letters are encouraged from you – on this or any mothering topic.)

Enjoy your child/ren. Enjoy being a mother and a friend.

 

Yours faithfully,

 

Johanna Whittaker

mumemail@...  - *letters*, feedback, questions, mother’s tips*, ideas welcome

on behalf of MOPS (NZ) Inc. www.MOPSNZ.bravehost.com
© 2006 by MOPS New Zealand Inc and MOPS International.