Text4Baby A Guide for Parents FREE daily parenting tips texted to your phone! www.Text4Baby.org Books from Birth Receive a FREE book in 10 Things Ready for the mail every month! Every Child in Memphis Should www.booksfrombirth.org Experience Before Kindergarten Kindergarten? Kindergarten Teachers and Child 1. Play at the Children’s 7. Tour Memphis Museums Museum of Memphis Pink Palace (901) 320-6320 Development Experts Suggest That More resources for parents of young children FREE for children under 1. Lichterman Nature Center Children’s Museum (901) 767-7322 A New Kindergartener Should: Early Learning Guides ZeroToThree.org (901) 458-2678 Brooks Museum of Art Tennessee Curriculum www.zerotothree.org/ (901) 544-6200 • Know her first and last names and Standards child-development/ 2. See Animals Ornamental Metal Museum www.tn.gov/education/ci/ school-readiness at the Memphis Zoo (901) 774-6380 her parents’ first and last names. earlychildhood FREE on Tuesday afternoons Stax Museum Potty Training Guide Memphis Zoo (901) 576-4100 (901) 942-7685 • Recognize letters (lowercase and Smart from the Start www.babycenter.com/ Dixon Gallery and Garden uppercase) and numbers (up to 10). www.tn.gov/education/smart toddler-potty-training-advice 3. Watch the (901) 761-5250 Getting Ready Peabody Ducks • Know basic colors and shapes. NYC Project Launch Touch, Talk, Read, Play. FREE 8. Walk the Mississippi River www.nyc.gov/html/doh/html/ www.theurbanchildinstitute. The ducks march from the at Mud Island River Park • Use the bathroom and wash her dc/child-wellness.shtml org/key-initiatives/touch- hands all by herself. for Kindergarten roof top to the lobby foun- FREE talk-read-play tain daily 11am and 5pm Mud Island River Park Raising Children Network Peabody Hotel (901) 576-7241 • Solve problems without www.raisingchildren.net.au (901) 529-4000 hitting, biting, or yelling. Begins at Birth 9. Get a Library Card 4. Ride the Main FREE • Follow instructions from Street Trolley Memphis Public Library teachers and parents. FREE for children under 5. (901) 415-2700 Main Street Trolley • Communicate wants and needs (901) 577-2640 10. Visit Your Child’s (like hunger, pain, and confusion) Elementary School through words. 5. Explore My Big Backyard Memphis City Schools at Memphis Botanic Gardens (901) 416-5300 • Be comfortable being apart from The Urban Child Institute FREE for children under 2. Shelby County Schools her parents during the school day. 600 Jefferson Avenue My Big Backyard (901) 321-2500 Memphis, TN 38105 (901) 636-4100 • Sit quietly for short periods of time. Phone 901.523.9199 www.theurbanchildinstitute.org 6. Enjoy the Outdoors • Be curious and interested in at Shelby Farms, Wolf River activities like story and art time. THE URBAN CHILD INSTITUTE IS A NON-PROFIT Trails, and the Green Line ORGANIZATION DEDICATED TO THE HEALTH AND Shelby Farms (901) 767-7275 WELL-BEING OF CHILDREN FROM CONCEPTION TO Wolf River (901) 452-6500 AGE THREE IN MEMPHIS AND SHELBY COUNTY, TN. 1–12 Months 25 – 36 Months You are Your child Your child • Has a healthy appetite • Can play with smaller toys your child’s • Responds to familiar faces • Understands and uses more and more words • Starts to babble and make different sounds and forms longer sentences first teacher • Regularly looks into your face and mimics your expressions • Wants more freedom to play and explore • Is interested in other people, especially children 13 – 24 Months During the first months of life, your baby’s brain is devel- Your child oping the foundation for lifelong learning. When parents • Wants to move around and explore touch, talk, read, and play with their infants and • Becomes interested in other children and play toddlers, they help to strengthen early • Loves to be the center of attention brain development... • Uses both words and gestures to express wants and needs A kindergarten-ready child has a strong foun- Talk softly to your Comfort your baby Ask him about pictures Baby-proof cabinets, Share songs, stories, Allow her to help dation in Language & Literacy, Thinking Skills, baby in a calm and when she cries and in storybooks. “Who is wall-sockets, and and rhymes. Encourage with small tasks. Self-Control, and Self-Confidence. Positive early soothing voice using respond to her needs. this?” “What is that?” sharp corners to your developing poet! Praise her for solving experiences, beginning at birth, strengthen normal speech and have your home Establish regular nap- Relate events in a Play counting, sort- problems without safe for exploring. these four kindergarten readiness skills. words. times, diaper changes book to personal ing and board games. yelling or hitting. When babies hear words, to your and feedings. Babies experiences. “Does Be patient. As she counts off her Language & Literacy: Respond Allow extra time for thrive on routine. our cat act like the they learn about language. A growing vocabu- baby’s sounds. Help him explore how move, and hunts for her to do things all by lary strengthens a child’s readiness for reading. cat in this story?” shapes and colors Stay calm. Make her feel loved by things work by stack- herself to encourage around the house, Thinking Skills: Children are natural scientists. holding her close and Encourage him to ing cups and building her developing self- Play along with her Their first experiments teach them about the world speaking softly to her. talk about the stories. with blocks. she is strengthening confidence. Gently to encourage her to and help them get ready for math and science. her thinking skills. redirect her when she explore and learn. Cheer for her and Praise him. Allow him to do simple the alphabet song, grows frustrated and Self-Control: A child who is socialized to solve smile at her as often as things, like choose his Sing Soothe her. Children Walk him through you help her master problems through words, take turns, and pay possible. Let her know outfit, all by himself. and play with magnet- outgrow tantrums the entire bathroom self-control. attention is ready to be a good classroom citizen. that she is adored. He will not be the first ic letters and numbers. as they learn to use process: from undoing child to wear a cape her how to Self-Confidence: Confident children are ready words. Comforting clothes to washing Show to childcare. express her feelings to learn. They follow their curiosity and are quick her helps to build hands properly. Cel- in words. to recover from mistakes. self-confidence ebrate his successes! and self-control. As a parent, you can help By 25 to 36 months, your toddler Your baby’s brain will double in By 24 months, most children are foster these skills every day will better understand cause and size during the first year of life. able to use close to 200 words. in both big and small ways. effect and right and wrong. Did you know …? Did you know …? Did you know …?.