I have, at last, written up some of the Dr Seuss school I have been doing with my littlest two, based on the books from Dr Seuss’ Learning Library.
We read ‘Oh, the Things you can Do that are Good for you!’
There were lots of learning opportunities in this book and it must have been pitched at just the right level for A6 because she really got into this whole week. I narrowed down the activities to focus on two areas: hand washing/germs and oral hygiene. I chose these two areas because they are areas where the younger two are becoming more and more independent in.
- Oral Hygiene
The girls are in a fairly good routine of brushing their teeth, but it can always be improved upon. So I set up a tray of activities to show them the ideal way to look after their teeth. At the moment they brush their teeth twice a day for three minutes (they have an egg timer) using an electric toothbrush. They don’t use a flosser or a mouth wash. We have just bought a water flosser for T13 to use with his braces and I thought this would probably be gentle enough for the girls to use. I have also discovered the wonders of a mouth wash for keeping my mouth fresh overnight (I had always thought they were a bit of a con, but turns out they work really well!). I use a pharmaceutical brand which has alcohol in it, and whilst I don’t actually drink it (of course) I don’t want my little ones to use it. I searched high and low for a children’s brand but no where I went sold one. I eventually found a herbal, non alcoholic brand which I felt would be safe enough to use. I set out everything and began to teach them how to achieve optimum oral hygiene:
A few weeks later and I can testify that although the flosser is not used on a regular basis the mouth wash is used daily. We just went to the dentist and the children have perfect teeth. No cavities at all.
This was a great lesson for both girls and these books are just perfect for this age range.
- Germs
I wanted to teach the girls more about washing their hands after going to the bathroom and before they eat. I’d like to say that they already know this and are very good at always doing it. This would not be the truth. They are fairly good, but it definitely hasn’t become a habit yet for B4 as I had noticed that if she is preoccupied with something else she will forget.
I set out some glitter in some hand cream, and some soap:
I asked them to smother their hands in glittery cream:
They then washed them in just cold water without any agitation (ie rubbing together), and then cold water with agitation:
As you can see, most of the glitter remains on the hand. Then we switched to warm water, first without agitation and then with:
After rubbing their hands together in the warm water you can see the glitter beginning to wash off but not very effectively as there was still some glittery hand lotion left on their hands.
Finally they washed their hands with soap, which by its very nature requires a certain amount of agitation to spread it:
This did the trick nicely and they came away with sparkly clean glitter free hands. I explained that the glitter was a way of demonstrating the germs stuck to the hands. I asked what they had learnt. To which they answered that more germs would be cleaned away using soap and warm water with some agitation. Bingo. Hopefully this would help both of them become more mindful of their washing habits
A few weeks later and I can see this lesson has worked very well with B4. She now insists on using warm water, with soap every time. You can’t really ask for more than that from a lesson, can you?
