Ice castles and redirection of childrens behaviour.

. Coloured salt and ice castles, to colour salt simply use a small amount of water, food colouring and mix thoroughly into the salt. Then simply leave over night to dry, at the same time fill some small sandcastle buckets with water to freeze overnight. This is about ten minutes prep, for a great exploration of how different materials interact with one another. Children are natural born scientists, what we find as frustrating behaviour is often them developing their understanding of the world experimenting with mixing substances, gravity and force. By providing constructive outlets for this need to explore we often negate the need for the behaviour we don't desire too. For example if your child is really enjoying throwing things from their table, we can remove them from there and provide an alternative like playing catch or throwing teddies down stairs etc. Behind what we consider bad behaviour is often a need to explore that needs to be met. We often consider the 'bad' behaviour something that needs to be corrected with a time out etc but children cannot regulate their behaviour and stop the overwhelming feelings to do something. It is our job to look at the situation, and understand that it is not children trying to frustrate us or make a mess, but a burning desire to explore.