Connections and Empowerment – Preschool – Brushing Teeth

Children are born ready to learn. They learn best through their everyday experiences with the people they love, trust and when the learning is fun.

Today's blog post is about something you do every day – brushing your teeth. Brushing teeth is a daily event. I remembered my mum used to sing while brushing our teeth, i.e. the Cinderella song – Bippity Boppity Boo! (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IvcTI3ctK8o). She would change the rhythm, i.e. faster or slower or stop completely, so we would brush according to the rhythm.

I did that with my kids and introduced other fun stuff in between. For instance, my children each would have an opportunity to pick a song for that night's brushing. If they could not decide, it would be the Cinderella song – Bippity Boppity Boo! even though we did not know the words. We just hummed the tune and added our own words.

They would stand on their stools at the basin. When the song started, they would brush first and I would attempt to sing the song varying the rhythm. After repeating it twice, it was my turn to clean their teeth for them while still sing the song.

So you see, teeth brushing time was always fun in our household. Give it a go and use music/songs to make it fun.

Through this nightly ritual, what would your preschoolers learn?

• Language and Literacy – learning to sing the song
• Thinking Skills – Decision Making – deciding on the song and associating variation in rhythm with counting and timing.
• Bonding and connections – connecting with children is about sharing fun experiences together, i.e. brushing teeth, singing and laughing together.
• Fun – play and fun is how children learn as well as distress – fun and laughter helps to fill your child's love cup and reduces their anxiety and fear, which works wonderfully well before bedtime.
• Fine motor skills – learning how to hold the tooth brush and brushing his or her own teeth.

Connections and bonding with children is about sharing fun experiences together, therefore make every opportunity you have with your children a memorable one.

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