Fundamental Thursday - Companies We Love and Support

1. Name of company and starting date: Child Edu Enterprises – Started 1 March 2013
2. Motivation for starting: We realized the gap for unique affordable baby products in South Africa, and wanted to help working parents manage their time spent with their children better.
3. Explanation/ Mission Statement of Company: Our role is not only to alleviate the stress working parents might have, but also to help bridge that gap for stay-at-home moms or dads after the baby starts to crawl by offering reliable and customized solutions to help ease the frustration at times you just need an extra hand.
4. Products/Services offered and pricing: We manufacture wooden products. This includes but aren’t limited to the following: Playpens, play yards, door barriers, co-sleepers, wooden mobiles and wooden swings. We also sell other products from other companies, to make shopping for parents easy and convenient.

 Playpens  / Play yards

·        Door safety barriers

·        Co-sleeper 4-in-1

·        Wooden mobiles

·        Wooden swings

·        Sand trays and trolley

We also sell the following:

·        Amber teething necklaces

·        Baby teething pearls

·        Eco-friendly nappies

·        Foam puzzles

·        Kneepals

·        Nursing covers

·        Safety gates

·        Nappy bags

·        Beach bags

·        Hooded swimming towels

·        Sun glasses

·        Sun hats

·        Puzzles

·        Books

·        Soft shaped puzzles

·        Scratch and sniff stickers

·        Muslin blankets

·        Musical instruments

·        Caps and beanies

·        Wellington boots

5 .Biggest accomplishment to date—something you are most proud of : Designing and hand-manufacturing all of the above wooden products and having a couple of resellers for our products already, and this only after a few months.

6. What can we expect from your company in the future? More unique developmental products.

Head on Over to Their Facebook Page : https://www.facebook.com/childeduenterprises

Love xxx

Fundamental Thursday - Companies We Support and Love

Kaboutjie

 I came across this company a few weeks ago - through a friend's facebook page (isn't Facebook genius for new companies?) 

At first glance you would think Kaboutjie is just a forum for Moms and Moms to be. Every Question or Query has endless amounts of support and love from Moms and most importantly Admin of Kaboutjie!

When you delve further into the Website you discover an E-Commerce Baby and toddler Store with Products every Mom needs! 

"We supply excellent quality baby & toddler goods at very reasonable prices, we supply wholesale and retail"

Launched in 2012, this Business has almost reached 7000 likes on Facebook!! A Big Hoorah for this team! I am pretty sure that after this Blog they will reach even further and beyond! 

"Our biggest accomplishment is that we have now been running for just over a year and we have a large fan base on facebook, our company has a good reputation and we have managed to offer great customer service."

Kaboutjie was started with the passion and freedom to work from home, where flexibility is key when spending time with your family! I have felt such support and loyalty from all those involved at Kaboutjie! I love their advice, questions, and the Kaboutjie Cares Project!

What can we look forward to it the future :

We will be bringing out a much wider product range in the future, original products made in South Africa and we hope to be able to be a one stop store for everything baby & toddler. We are also planning on branching out to include products for children as well as maternity items.

If you would like to hear more about Kaboutjie - Head on over to My Facebook Page : https://www.facebook.com/DramaDoodle

Or :

https://www.facebook.com/Kaboutjie

I hope everyone has a super Thursday!

Doodle Love,

Nathali

Benefits of Speech and Drama Class

Dear Parent,

Your child has recently joined us in one of our fun and exciting new speech and drama classes, which they enjoyed thoroughly. This class was only a demonstration of what will happen during the course of the year. If you should be interested in having your child attend these classes please fill in the attached reply slips and we will get back to you as soon as possible.

As Drama Specialists, with qualifications which are positively seen around the globe, we feel the need to help and let each of our students make the progress and reach their best potential. We tend to work in small amounts of classes, if allowed, and take special care of working with the individual as well as improving their group work skills. Each and every child is unique, so we tend to focus on their needs by specifically working on their improvement in speech or co-ordination or whatever it is they may be struggling with. We use poetry and fun group activities to help out students excel in their own way. For kids lacking confidence, we help them by slowly giving them enough courage and motivation to communicate with other kids. We build their relationships and make them feel safe and secure, and that they can openly and freely expect their desires and feelings.

Children with speech problems or where we focus on voice, we use poetry and stories to fuel and enrich their mind, allowing them to be creative and come to an agreement of which ways will help them improve their speech.

Our main focus is English, as this is the language that the whole world communicates in. We are aware that in South Africa there are many different cultural influences and dialects that we come across every day. We do not want to change the way your child speaks, we only want them to be able to communicate and be able to express their thoughts and feelings in an easy way.

Our drama classes can also help young aspiring actors and help lead them and improve their acting abilities, this is however not our main priority or concern

I hope that I have opened your eyes about the positive effects and attributes we can give your child.

Feel free to contact the school for more details,

Drama Doodle Director

Writing Their Own Name

Tips and Techniques for Teaching your Child to Write their own name!

Writing their own name - Drama Doodle

This week's Task is to Teach Miss Boo how to write her own name!
Some Background Details:
She's 3 years and 3 months old - She recognizes her Own name when I write it down - as well as Mom, Dad and Nat! She knows the letters from all the Letter Recognition activities I have done with her, and can sell her name when we ask her to!

Here are some of my ideas about how to 'inspire' Miss Boo to write her own name :

1)Tracing Letters :
 I have printed out some letter example tracing pages from homeschooling.com (I definitely recommend this website for ideas!!) Great stuff! I plan to sit down with Miss Boo, at our School-like Elmo desk - She loves pretending to work like Mommy and Daddy, start tracing the letters, and just leaving the pages for her on her desk! Many times during nap hours or before we wake her in the morning, she sits by the desk and draws or colors-in! The main focus is for her to get use to tracing and being creative in a more constructive manner!

2) Letter Collages :
Using Magazines/Newspapers/Or printing letters, we are going to cut out her letters and make a Collage with her name on it! You can also Outline the name - and paste the letters in the matching letters! This is also a wonderful activity to improve other Fine Motor Skills - cutting and pasting!

3) Practicing :
To help her get use to the writing skills, I plan on sitting down with her for a few minutes every day (as long as I have her full attention and concentration span) with lined paper, and a pen for each of us - I will write out her name, ask her to go-over (trace) them with her own pen - and when she feels ready, she can write it on her own! I believe in giving treats, or acknowledging achievement! We have a star chart - so I will add that to her 'chores-list' .

4) Painting Techniques : 
Using all different types of painting-styles (Finger, brush, sponge, household-objects, nature-things etc) make her more aware of her name! Paint around it, over it, with alphabetical magnets, etc! The more they see their name, the more they will comprehend and copy it!

5) Alphabet Cookies :
This might take a little longer - but Make Alphabet Cookies! Forget the Cookie-cutters and roll-the letters yourself! I'm not sure what recipe I will use yet, but I will post that when I get to this part! Bake their name in cookies and then decorate it! Fun!

6) Alphabet Clay:
Using a salt-dough recipe (will post it when I find it) spell out their name, pop it in the oven and decorate it as an Arts and Crafts Activity! This is a great keepsake, as well as an example to work from when they feel inspired to write on their own! Glue it up, or leave it on their school table!

7) Magic Letters :
Although this activity has more to do with Letter Recognition, it can be used to write and trace letters as well! Write the letters, or have your child write them, with white crayon on normal paper - using water-color paint have your child discover the magic letters! Then ask them to think of other words starting with the same letter!

That is all for now!
Will keep you informed about how the activities turned out and what new inventions we came up with!

Topic Tuesday - Letter Recognition

Letter Recognition

As soon as Children start to mumble a few phonics, we bombard them with Letters and Numbers and Colours! Sometimes we don't even know how overwhelmed they get - And when this happens they shut us out! So, instead of taking in the endless and amazing information we are throwing at them, they lose interest!
To keep the focused and make it more enjoyable, We work on different games that will help them learn all the things we want them to learn, but in a fun and interesting way!

1) Chalk!
Chalk might be the greatest gift! Go outside (Outside! Yay!) And Draw! Start off by just exploring with shapes and letters and pictures! This could go on for hours!
One of my favourite things to do is to Write out her name (or whichever word you are working on)

We then play a game of Tag-the-letter ... Run to I ... Skip to S ... Bounce to B ...

Now to make it more complicated I get her to run to letters following each other! She loves this - She calls it Isa's Hopscotch!

You can also do it with Upper and Lower Case Letters! Write them out, space them desperately and ask her to help find! As soon as you invent a game, and throw in words like explore or find, they love it! 

You can use this method for Number, Shapes and Colours too! 

If you like what you see - Get Involved! Contact us and Like us on Facebook!

Music and Movement Monday

Potty in the USA

While watching the movie Pitch Perfect, little Miss Boo got stuck on the song 'Party in the USA'. She was just about to turn the wonderful age of 3, and we were , as many of you are now, trying to Potty Train her.

A mission in itself we try to make it as entertaining, fun and enjoyable as possible!

Miss Boo and I then created this song : (used every time we go Potty!)

So, I put my hands up

and playing my song

Poopy goes away!

Nodding my head like yeah,

wiping my bum like yeah.

So, I put my hands,

I know I'm gonna be okay

Yeah, Yeah, Yeah,

It's a Potty in the USA!

She loves singing the song, and automatically relates to it when we Potty! Her word-association skills are improving every day! 

Music and Movement Monday

Music and Movement Lesson Benefits

In Music and Movement, we use our bodies and musical instruments to explore rhythm and music! We use props and costumes to dance and create beautiful movement pieces! These classes are perfect for Grown-Up and me, even if the child can't sit-up by itself - feeling the movement and rhythm from their adult-caregiver can be very educational!

In every Music and Movement class :
  Stimulates the Imagination Is creative and engaging Is Challenging and Fun Use Musical Instruments to express and create Use our bodies and props to dance and explore We learn by singing, playing and sharing

The Wonderful Benefits of Music and Movement:Provides a means of communicationServes as an Emotional releaseDevelops and Promotes Creative ThinkingAssists in the development of physical coordination and body awarenessEnhances the Ability to differentiate SoundsHelps develop Fine Motor skillsStimulates the Part of the Brain that learns.

Like Us on Facebook for More information!

Barnyard Music and Movement Party

For our Very First Music and Movement Birthday, we got a Barnyard Theme Birthday for a 4-year Old Boy!This is what we presented on the day:

Farmer Nathali has sent you a very special message that involves your very special birthday.

Here is what we have in store for you!

1) We will firstly hand out Name Tags for all your Students (Names and ages to please be provided 2 days before the Party)

2) Then Comes the 'Hello, Everybody! ' Welcome Song!

3) After the Welcome Song we do a little Physical Warm-up Poem Called the Barnyard Dance.

It is super special, Farmer Nathali will teach it to you while we are doing all the actions! How quickly can we do it??

The Barnyard Dance for Devan

The Barnyard dance is about to begin.

So hitch up your pants and jump right in.

Pick the Apples! Husk the Corn!

Crow with the rooster in the early Morn!

Bow to your partner! Wave Hello!

Clap your hands and tap your toe!

Feed the Chickens! Milk the cow!

Hoe the weeds and push the plow!

The Barnyard dance has come to an end,

So kick up your heels and start again!

4)We then go on a Journey with our Magical Tractor! (Each Child gets a Hula Hoop, that will be used as a prop for the rest of the activities!)

We start off with our Imaginary Tractor Steering Wheel! And we will make stops at every animal on the Farm! First is Mother Duck!

5) Here we will Make and Decorate Duck Masks! (Paper Plates, Feathers, Wooden Sticks, and Boogly Eyes -Included in Price)

After we are done with our Masks we will play a special 'Follow the leader' Game called: 'Follow Mother Duck'

6)It's time to pick up our Tractor Steering Wheels again and move on over to the Horses and Donkeys! 

Here we will play a 'Musical Chairs' Game with Donkey and Horse Pictures! On the floor there will be 9 Horses and 1 Donkey Picture! Every time the Music Stops the person who is on the Donkey Picture is out! We only Take out Horse Pictures as the contestants get fewer!

7)Our Last Animal Visit is for Mrs Hen! She has lay-ed so many eggs that she said we can play with them! The Hula Hoops will be put into 3 different targets! Lets see how many eggs we can get into our Target Areas! (Not real Eggs!)

8) All the Tractor Steering Wheels go Back into the Bag, Now its time to enjoy some Music and Play with the Drama Doodle Parachute!

9) For winding down time we all sit around our Hula Hoops,playing with Musical instruments! Every now and then we will swop our instruments with the person next to us! All we want to do is make a lot of noise!

We will then hand out special party-packs for all the participants! Please let us know about any sort of Food-allergy! 

This lesson could be around an hour to an hour and a half!

Drumming to your own Beat

Last Thursday I attended a Free Drumming Workshop in Newport,RI. Library!

I am a super early-riser, very organized and tend to show up at events about 15minutes before its starting time! Even though I'm early I'm never one of those impatient, tapping-my-feet, annoyingly chewing gum with an open mouth, sorts of person. However ...

I don't know if it was the 32degree Temperature outside, or the fact that I knew I could be on the beach right now sipping cocktails that got to me, OR (This is most likely It!) The 35 minute wait period for the Teacher of the drumming workshop! We were all cramped into a small area in the always-quiet library! All the old-Presidents and Poets staring down at us, as moms try to entertain their children and make nice with their neighbours! Finally ....

They arrive! With One Large Drum and heaps of Loew's Buckets. (for all those not in America - Loew's is a Hardware Shop - Love them!) We go through all the introductory yah-yah and eventually start DRUMMING! Finally! Even without my much-needed caffeine fix in the morning, I enjoyed beating my own - Bucket! .... 

Here is what he basically did:

-He explained the different tempos, rhythms and volumes used in music! And how we can use our body and the elements to make music:

 * Clapping (Softly Clapping vs. Banging Clapping)

 *Snapping Fingers ( I can't do that)

 *Stomping Feet (The poor librarian)

 *Jumping Up and Down

 *Clapping Hands onto Lap

Then he started with a Rhythm Clap: Basically, clap hands together while swishing palms and rubbing them! You know that movement when you are holding a stick between your hands and you are trying to light a fire - rub,rub,rub! Yes! That move, but bigger so that it makes a sliding-clap sound!

The lesson went on, and on, and it was just like jamming with a rock-solid drum band! Some of his examples were really awesome, so I'm going to include and try t explain them!

- Clap Around the World: Very Simple, Clap Hands while forming a circle with arms!

-Rock Back and Forth:Arms over head for back, bringing forward with a clap! 

-As Quick as a Rabbit : Tapping Index Finger on Drum in rapid Motion

-As Quiet as a Mouse: Obviously as quiet as possible!

-As Loud as Elephants: Drum as Hard as possible

He then gave them a few sentences and had them clap-out the syllables! Much like learning Shakespeare's Iambic Pentameter and clapping out the syllables! (I'm using '/' to show syllables)

1) /Tick/-/Tock  /goes/  the  /clock/

2)/Rock/ing/  all/  /night/  long/

3) /Boun/cing/ /on/  /knees/  /at/  /the/  /beach/

4) /Plea/se/  /pass/  the/ peas/

5) /But/  /I/  /want/  /pizza/

The Class had an abrupt ending, but I suppose having a library full of kids and already running late had the 'lesson-plan' off schedule ... Sure! 

A Little Girl Named Boo

Drama Doodle and Dee

I am currently in the Process of Marketing and Advertising my New Company! At a tender 21 years of age, I came up with the idea of starting my own Drama-Academy! With a Speech and Drama background, it seemed fitting to take this route! However, 4 days after I Graduated from a Private College in Observatory, Cape Town, I took a big jet plane to New York City! 

I was an Au Pair to one of the best families I have ever met, and now lucky enough to be a part of! I cared for, played along with and tried to inspire a beautiful little girl named Boo! She was a mere 18 months old when I arrived, and will be 3 and a half when I leave to go back home to South Africa!

She is the main reason behind Drama Doodle. I noticed this growth and exponential development when I introduced Yoga and my easy Speech Exercises to her! Within a few days of doing the tongue-rolls, drills and warm-ups, she started to repeat words and sounds! It was magnificent to watch!

I then decided to do a few courses on Yoga in the Preschool - I was already a Yoga Practitioner, and thought this would even be for personal gain!

Thus, Drama Doodle was born! It is now a Traveling School Set to Open in Johannesburg, South Africa in October 2013! We specialize in classes for Babies, Toddlers and Children Younger than 5 years old!

Our Subjects are: Yoga, Speech and Drama, Music and Movement!
For more Information : www.dramadoodle.com 

Drama Doodle