How Coloring Can Help Your Child’s Development

Posted on May 8, 2018 | by KD Novelties

Benefits of Coloring

There are many benefits of coloring that can help your child’s development in more ways than you can think. For many parents, a set of coloring books and crayons is a great go-to for any rainy day or time you want your kids to stay occupied. While coloring can be a good option for keeping kids quiet, they can be extremely advantageous for their overall mental and even physical development.

Handwriting and Hand-Eye Coordination

In order to improve handwriting, children need to build up certain strength and familiarity with holding objects like pens or pencils. A child’s first set of crayons is a great way to introduce them to writing utensils and their use. It can also help with the motor skills needed to execute good penmanship. As kids use crayons effectively to color within the lines, they are building up the dexterity needed to move a pen or pencil on paper.

Patience and Relaxation

For many kids, making it through a coloring page takes a great deal of patience. However, doing so can help them exercise this skill in other areas of their life, too. For many kids, and now adults, calmly coloring can prove to be an effective stress reliever and provides relaxation.

Focus

Linked closely with patience, coloring can help kids develop their ability to focus on a single task. The goal of finishing a picture provides them with the motivation to completely color the image. It has been proven that children who spend their time coloring have better concentration and focus skills.

Visual and Spatial Knowledge

Coloring a picture can help your children to recognize lines, perspective, color, hue, shape and form. Visually it helps them select colors for the image and begin to see the picture as a whole even before it is completely colored. Depending on the images they are coloring, kids can also become more familiar with and better able to recognize patterns.

Creativity and Imagination

Coloring sparks a child’s ability to make and create things. Coloring inside the lines and using the proper colors can demonstrate an understanding of the world around them. Even kids who use untraditional colors or go outside the lines are expressing themselves and unleashing their imagination in unique ways.

Color Recognition

Coloring is often a child’s first active experience with identifying and using color. It can help introduce them to different shades and hues, as well as other complexities of the color wheel. By deciding on what color to use next, kids are exercising their creative or critical thinking skills.

Language and Vocabulary Development

Whether your kids are actively coloring or just talking about it, coloring will give your kids an opportunity to learn new words and sentences. Using descriptive words to convey different styles of coloring sheets or variations of color, can help with language and vocabulary development.

Personalized Coloring Books

KD Novelties can take coloring a step further by providing personalized coloring and activity books. Starring the child’s name throughout these custom-made coloring books, can make coloring an even more immersive and interactive experience. Visually exciting, personalized activity books are full of funny characters, educational fun and has an emphasis on creativity. These amazingly awesome activity and coloring books are great for developing basic problem solving skills and entertaining children.

Make Book Reading a Sensory Experience

Posted on April 25, 2018 | by KD Novelties

Ways to Make Book Reading a Sensory Experience

Making book reading a sensory experience can be fun when you involve the kids. We all use our senses to engage with and understand the world around us. The way that people interact with the world is different from person to person, and it can be especially particular for those on the spectrum. When it comes to special needs children, sometimes one or more senses are either over- or under-reactive to stimulation. Understanding how your child operates, what they respond to, and what they like can help make learning much more tangible for them. Reading a picture book aloud can be an active and engaging activity for children. It can be even more effective with the use of some simple strategies. Here are some ways how you can make reading a book aloud to your child more of a sensory experience.

Texture

Many children’s books might already have this ingredient, especially baby books. However, for children on the spectrum, the addition of texture, fabrics, materials other than paper, and even props can help them engage with the story. If you have picture books, you can add your own textures with materials from any arts and craft stores such as felt, cotton balls, fur etc. where appropriate. You can customize books to be more interactive and encourage your child to interact with the book and the story even more.

Props and Visual Aids

Props and visual aids can be useful in many ways. It can help kids understand the story and recreate scenes and retell the story on their own. Thus, helping them retain information and develop a closer understanding of the story. Items like stuffed animals, toys resembling characters, felt board sets, sequencing cards, miniature objects and more can all be helpful and enriching.

Sounds

Adding sounds while reading can do a lot for kids, too. You can ask your child to imitate farm animal sounds or any other actions that are included in the story like trains and cars. For kids who are minimally verbal or non-verbal, you can consider augmentative and alternative communication in place of sounds. This can include actions, miming, or pointing to certain things as they happen in the story.

Smell and Taste

Creating a more engaging atmosphere can be fun for reading, too. Adding candle scents or going outside to recreate the setting of the story can help your child with their imagination. They can get a better grip on the characters are and what they are doing. If food or candy is mentioned, having some of the same on hand can be fun, and tasty, too.

Moving Around

This is a great way to not only add some exercise to your day but can make reading a far more active experience. You can get up and engage in the same activities as the characters in the story. You can also reenact entire scenes straight from the book. This encourages children to think about what the characters would do or what the story is about. By approaching stories in different ways, you may find the one that reaches and affects your child the most.

Teaching Kids About Money

Posted on April 24, 2018 | by KD Novelties

Teaching Kids About Money

Teaching kids about money can be a strange concept for children. Many kids eventually develop an understanding that things cost money and money is needed for certain goods and services. However, they may not know where that money comes from or what its value really is. Teaching your kids even just the basics about money can help them with simple math. This knowledge will also help mold them into young savvy savers.

First Thing’s First: Money Doesn’t Grow on Trees

Many kids might think that in order to get money, all you have to do is go to the bank and ask for some. Take the time to explain where and how money comes from. You need to work hard to make money and the types of jobs they can obtain. This will help them better understand that there is more to money than it simply being at a bank. Depending on how old your children are, you can provide them money or other forms of payment. This can be such as snacks in exchange for completing chores or helping around the house.

Giving Them the Goods

Whether you decide to give your children money in exchange for chores or as an allowance, you can use this as an opportunity to teach them budgeting. The best way to teach kids how to manage their money is to give them some. If they decide to spend their allowance on a new toy, then they won’t have enough left over for when the ice cream truck rolls around. This may sound like a hassle to deal with at first. However, first-hand experience is a great teacher and it is more likely to be a lesson they will remember.

Spending vs. Saving

This can be a family activity that you do together, whether your child is helping you go grocery shopping or you are helping them look for the best deal on a toy they want. Looking at coupons, comparing prices, and making a budget together can be really helpful for forging good spending habits in the future. Plus, it can help teach them valuable, and thrifty, saving and spending skills.

Incorporating Fun Activities

There are many activities out there that can teach kids about money while at the same time helping with their math skills. These activities can be based around basic financial principles, including charitable giving, delayed gratification, budgeting, saving money, and compounding interest. For more in-depth reading on how these fun activities can be implemented read here.