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  • Home
  • About Us
    • The Owners
    • Our Ethos
    • Fees
    • Healthy Eating
    • Careers
  • Quality Childcare
    • Our Playrooms
    • Our Garden
    • Extracurriculars
    • Reviews
    • Inspections, Awards & Partnerships
  • Zones
    • Learning Journals
    • ParentZone
  • Contact

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How to Encourage Positive Behaviour

18/7/2018

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At Flying Colours, our experience tells us that routine, clear rules and clear boundaries ensures children have a distinct understanding of what is expected of them, which in turn leads to positive experiences whilst in the setting.

When staff at nursery observe children displaying especially kind and positive behaviour, or when they have achieved something of personal significance, they are encouraged by the team and by their peers. This positive approach is by far the most effective way of encouraging good behaviour, and in a nursery, good behaviour spreads!

So, what are our top tips for encouraging good behaviour?

  • When planning rewards as an incentive for positive behaviour, it’s important to consider the interest of the child, and agree targets together, so that the child understands the targets. They must be achievable.
  • Play down negative behaviours where you can unless a child has physically hurt somebody. If you give the child attention (even negative attention) then this can be rewarding the negative behaviour with what they want - a reaction. Use terms such as “that makes me very sad” and walk away.
  • Include other adults in targets so they know what to expect from the child and what they are working towards. “If Jack has to tidy his room so does daddy!”
  • Make the reward special. It doesn’t have to cost money: quality play time with adults is far more rewarding and beneficial to children than expensive gifts. It also has an increased success rate for promoting positive behaviour in the long run! Ideas could include: a bike ride; baking together; making a den under the table; a movie night or a games night.
  • Try not to use food as an incentive, as there is a lot of research to suggest that using this as a reward can lead to unhealthy relationships with that food in the future.

Top tips for at home

  1. Have clear and realistic expectations.
  2. Where possible, play down negative behaviour and praise positive.
  3. Don’t do anything for an easy life e.g. bribe - “stop that and you can have a sweet...”
  4. Get everyone involved and take part.​​
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Laura Perry PGCE
Nursery Manager
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Why All The Fuss? How To Support Children Who Are Fussy Eaters

14/2/2018

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Why are some children so fussy about food? Well, there are a number of reasons your child may turn up their nose at mealtimes, but it’s important to remember that picky eating is normal in young children.

This lovely article by NBC News lays out some of the key research and provides some suggestions on how best to approach fussy eating habits. Don't have the time to read the article? Here's the abridged version:

Why all the fuss?

Most of the time, it's not about the last two bites of green beans. A more likely option is that your child is trying to maintain control of the situation, and when a child rejects a certain food and we put pressure on them to eat that food, it becomes a negative experience.

Tips for defusing the power struggle: 

1. Set realistic expectations
More often, if you’re giving a child a food for the first time, they’re probably going to be a little bit unsure at first.

2. Change up the menu
Lots of parents fall into the “peas is the only vegetable my child eats” trap — and then that parents serves peas every night. 

3. Don't make separate meals
Catering to children's’ picky preferences drives the pickiness and never gives them a reason to try new foods.

4. Give children options you want them to eat
Don't stop providing healthy options regardless of the response. Eventually after seeing everyone else eat it, they’ll try it, maybe they’ll like it, and eventually it won’t be a problem

5. Separate behaviour issues from picky eating
If a child is screaming or throwing a tantrum at the dinner table, that’s a behaviour issue, not a picky eating issue. Try and separate the two and deal with them appropriately. 

6. Involve kids in meal prep
Involving kids in meal prep makes them active participants and gives them a sense of control, and children like control, remember!

7. Don’t ban sweets, help kids manage when and how they eat them
You don't need to ban sweets, but you do need to provide some control. Give children guidelines about what that means — one dessert per day, three meals a day, one afterschool snack, or whatever the eating schedule is​

8. Relax, enjoy it and make mealtimes the positive experience they should be
Not every meal is going to turn out perfect — and even the healthiest eater is going to have a day of eating that’s not as balanced as it could be
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Christine
Deputy Manager
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5 Ways to Make Your Home More Stimulating For a Toddler

24/10/2017

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Children spend a significant amount of their early years in the family home making it an important space to promote early development. There are hundreds of ways you can adapt your home and routine to provide better learning opportunities for all ages. Here are our top 5 for toddlers.

1. Label everything
Despite the fact that your little one can't read yet, education aptitudes begin growing at an early stage. The first three years are of high importance when it comes to the basic building blocks of reading and writing. Labeling household items, such as the toy bin or desk introduces your child to letters and helps them understand that words have actual meaning. Include a picture of the item along with the word to give more context.

2. Set Up a Weather Window
Get a set of sticky velcro dots and stick one to the inside of a visible window. Take a piece of blank white card and have your child draw a picture of the day's weather by using any art medium (crayons, markers, watercolours). Add a word below the drawing that describes the weather (cold, snowy, sunny). Stick another piece of velcro to the back of the drawing and help your child stick it to the window. Repeat every day until you have a set of weather drawings for every condition and update each day.

3. Introduce Organisation
Now that everything is labeled (see point 1) you can better promote tidying by keeping toys, clothes, dishes, and household items in specific places. As you put things in their labeled bins and drawers, turn the process into a guessing game. Ask your child where certain items belong and encourage them to find the right place themselves. As your child becomes more familiar with the process, place items in the wrong locations and challenge your toddler to find your mistakes. These tasks give you a way to begin teaching your young children about responsibilities, helping others, and being part of a family.

4. Make sensory bags
Throw together sensory bags or bottles that let your little one explore with all their senses. Cut up scrap fabric and make a texture-rich feely bag, use a few different scents or add jingle bells to make a “listening bag.” Adding rice or pasta to a bottle makes a fantastic shaker too!
​

5. Talk
The more words your child hears, the richer their vocabulary will become. Not only are they learning new things to say, but also starting to understand how communication works. You talk, they listen. They talk, you listen. Practice this over and over again every day. There’s no need to make special “talk time.” Instead, keep the conversation up throughout the day.
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Laura Perry PGCE
Nursery Manager
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Three Best Rated®: Best Nursery in Edinburgh 2017

14/10/2017

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We have been shortlisted as one of the top three businesses in Edinburgh by Three Best Rated®. We were reviewed using a 50-pointInspection including everything from reputation, history, local reviews, satisfaction, trust and cost.

Three Best Rated® was created with a simple goal to find the top 3 local businesses, professionals, restaurants and health care providers in any city.

You can find full details on ThreeBestRated.co.uk

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Our Lending Library

28/8/2017

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Located to the side of our entrance path, our new Lending Library is open for use when ever the nursery is open. Parents can choose from a constantly changing selection of books and  can change as many times as they want during the week.

Choice is a great thing, but always remember, children often have favourite books and they benefit from the repetition of hearing familiar stories read to them. It helps them to join in.
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