New research has found that one in ten children will be obese in the next five years - what a staggering statistic!  Research carried out at the University of London studied statistics between 1995 and 2007.   The health survey for England provided the data which takes a sample of UK households.

If the trend continues, then researchers predicted that 1 in 10 boys aged between 2-10 will be obese by 2015, and approximately 1 in 9 girls.  In lower income families the statistic was slightly worse. They said  'these increases will affect the lower social classes to a larger extent'.

The research was published in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health - let's hope the predictions don't become reality.  It's so important to get kids up and moving from an early age.

Children who are overweight at a young age risk greater likelihood of health problems in later life, including diabetes and heart disease.  Children who are more active in their first few years are statistically more likely to maintain an active lifestyle when they are older.

There is so much that parents and carers can do and its one area where you don't need to spend much money.  Going to the local play park, setting off on nature walks round your neighbourhood, heading off the woods and climbing on fallen tree trunks, even walking or scooting to school instead of driving.  Enjoy an active lifestyle with your children and they will benefit for years to come.  Premium Members of ToucanLearn can search for 'Physical Development' activities 'Outdoor' and find lots of fun games and activities to do outside, specifically aimed at the capabilities of their children!

The EYFS (Early Years Foundation Stage) is a set of guidelines provided by the government to set the standards for the learning, development and care of children. It covers babies, toddlers and pre-schoolers from birth to age 5.

It gives childminders, carers and nurseries guidelines within which they can care for and guide the children. It provides targets for children and a means by which to measure a child's progress.

There are six Areas of Learning and Development defined in the Early Years Foundation Stage. These are as follows:

1. Personal, Social and Emotional Development: This includes among other things how to make a maintain relationships, self-confidence and self-esteem; behaviour and self care and children's sense of community.
2. Communication, Language and Literacy: How children use and develop language to speak, how they think, how they learn letters and soundsm how they learn to read and write.
3. Problem Solving, Reasoning and Numeracy: This includes numbers, counting, shapes and calculating.
4. Knowledge and Understanding of the World: How children explore new places and objects; how they design and make things. How they use information and technology to learn; also, time, history and other people's cultures.
5. Physical Development: How children move and use space and equipment, their health and bodily awareness.
6. Creative Development: How children respond to what they see, hear, feel smell and touch; how they use new materials and make new things; dance, music and imaginative play.

Since 2008 all childminders registered in England who look after children must deliver the EYFS and be inspected by OFSTED.  Although childminders are trained professionals, its not restricted to them alone and parents can also learn a great deal from the EYFS and the guidelines it offers.

All of ToucanLearn's activities are linked to the EYFS Areas of Learning and Development which means premium members can search for activities within each area and encourage and entertain their children with appropriate crafts, games and activities.

The EYFS makes it easy for childminders and parents to see what each child should be doing. ToucanLearn gives a practical implementation and a whole lot of fun!

At ToucanLearn we promote a 'learning programme' for children from birth to 5 years, and although we hint at how this is derived in our FAQ, we don't offer an in depth description of the processes we took to devise at our 'programme'  - we'd like to offer that detail here.

At the outset, we examined a number of key texts in child development theory.  Although these are based on science and academic rigour, they propose differences in the understanding of how children learn and develop.  We don't favour a single theory of child development, but instead looked at the practical components and created our own 'scale' based on what different proponents offer.  ToucanLearn is built on many different sources but some of the key sources include work published by The American Academy of Pediatrics, we borrow from the unique longitudanal study still ongoing as Child of Our Time and presented by Professor Robert Winston, and the work of eminent child psychologts such as Dr. Richard Woolfson, Professor Tanya Byron, Professor Linda Pound, Jennie Lindon and other less well known, but no less important, individuals.

Common to most of the developmental literature and sources was the way that they break down 'development' into a number of key areas.  These aren't static, but there are key skill areas examined by child psychologists and practitioners.  We concentrated on four particular areas that were largely common to developmental analyses, and devised our own scale unique to ToucanLearn, but based on the experiences of different proponents.  These areas of development are:-

• Fine motor skills
• Gross motor skills
• Cognitive skills
• Language development

In order to offer this to a broad audience rather than the scientific community, we refer to these as 'Making', 'Moving', 'Thinking' and 'Speaking'.

We created a scale of milestones for each of these four broad areas of development.  We took the first five years of development and created a chart based on age, from day 0 when a baby is born, to day 2,190 when our programme ends (when a child turns 6).  For example, our scale pinpoints the day when a child should be able to pick up an object, when they should be able to clap, when they should be able to understand instructions, tell a story and so on.  Our chart, which we don't publish, has hundreds of milestones across these four broad areas.   Some of these achievements are trivial, others siginifcant, but to a parent or childminder, all of these are significant in the context of their own children.

We then created hundreds of activities aimed at encouraging each developmental milestone, no matter how significant.  We categorised each activity against our derived scale.  Every activity is categorised across all four areas, with a score relating to the age of a child in days, pinpointing the day on which a child should be able to complete the activity.  Each activity has a single overriding focus, and this is the focus that we state for each activity, offering each as a making, moving, learning or language based activity.

Unfortunately for us, not all children develop at the same rate and although many of these milestones are linear in that they will be acquired in a certain order (for example, a child learns to stand before they can walk, and jump before they can hop), our 'programme' has to offer deviation to account for differences in development.  There is also a potential disjoint between developmental theory and real children!  This is where 'feedback' comes in.  We offer the option for every adult participating in ToucanLearn to 'feed back' in our blog area as to whether each activity was too difficult, too easy or just right.  This is a positive feedback mechanism that does two things.

First, we track the progress of each ToucanLearn child along four axes, one for each key development area, and depending on the feedback, we move them up or down each scale.  The scales relate to age, so if an activity aimed at teaching a child to clap is found to be too easy, we increase their 'fine motor' or 'making' score so that we take account of their ability; if it's too hard, we decrease their score.  This ensures that the activities offered to them are appropriate to their capabilities.  At the outset, we offer activities appropriate to their age in days across each of the four skill areas.  Over time and with feedback they are awarded a 'handicap' for each skill area that may be positive or negative.  This accounts for differences in the development of our different children across different skill acquisition.

The second feature of 'feedback' improves the placement of every individual activity.  Our scale derived from developmental literature might have walking or talking in the wrong place, but the collated feedback of each participant pushes the activity backwards or forwards depending on the response.  Over time this will have an averaging effect that refines the position of every activity thus feedback for each individual improves the experience for everyone.

Because our scales are based on age, if a parent registers their children at birth and participates intensively in our programme for a few months, but then goes away for two years and then comes back, the activities presented will still be relevant to the child.  If a childminder registers one child in order to access activities for several children of a similar age, then our programme falls down, because the benefit of individual tracking is lost.  That's not to say that activities won't be broadly relevant, but it won't be possible to drive each child according to their unique abilities.

Our feedback mechanism also allows for our programme to be used for children with special needs or different learning disabilities.  Although it can't be completely accurate for every situation, we believe that the core experience remains relevant for such children.  Their initial participation in our programme needs to adjusted according to their capabilities, and progress may be different to other children, but the linear nature of development across our key areas remains relevant and we can work with parents and carers to ensure that they remain on a suitable path.

Every activity is also rated according to the UK government's Early Years Foundation Stage Areas (EYFS) of Learning and Development.  This information is offered only to Premium Members as an enticement for people to subscribe.  We have to derive enough revenue to continue offering our service because we don't currently receive any governmental or other sponsorship!  EYFS is very much the 'icing' on a programme based on child developmental psychology, anyone participating in ToucanLearn will benefit from the underlying science whilst also being able to fulfil and track their progress through EYFS.

If you're still reading at this stage, then clearly you are interested in the route that we took to bring ToucanLearn to market and we hope that you have understood and agree with the path we have taken.  We conceived our initial ideas early in 2007 and spent over two years researching and developing the service before our formal launch in June 2009.  Every child is different, but we hope that our programme will remain broadly relevent to the majority of participants and whether the science is important to you or not, we hope that we can stimulate an interest in learning and development and foster a strong one to one relationship between every child and their parents and carers regardless!

Observing children forms a fundamental part of the Early Years Foundation Stage, childminders are required to observe children and make notes.  This helps to record each child's progress through EYFS and also helps you to plan ahead and work out what areas of learning to focus on for the medium term.  Key to observing children is simply that - watching what they do without offering any external direction, or offering only minimal interaction.  Childminders are so used to interacting with their wards that it can feel a little strange just stepping away and watching!

Make notes of what you observe; you might choose to do this straight into a diary, or you might prefer to take notes whilst you watch and later write them up more formally.  A written record creates an invaluable resource both for you and to share with parents, or indeed to carers in other settings.

When you undertake your planning, go back though your diaries of observations and work out what areas of learning you need to concentrate on over the coming weeks.  Compare your notes over time to ensure that your children are progressing.  Although keeping a diary seems a big chore, if you write it regularly you will quickly find that it takes very little time and becomes part of your routine.  A number of ToucanLearn members are using their private blog spaces to record their observations and this is an area that we intend to improve to facilitate better records for professional childminders and diligent parents alike!

In the first few months following birth, your baby is experiencing the world through its senses, and it is those experiences that help form connections inside the brain and these connections that shape the individual mind of your baby.  At birth, a baby is barely able to see but they have an acute sense of smell.  At three days old they can recognise the smell of their mother's breast milk and the odour of their parents, yet they can still see only centimetres in front of them.  They have an innate ability to recognise faces and are attracted to faces close by.

By three months their brains have developed considerably and they are able to control themselves better - they can choose where to look rather than being fixated on moving objects nearby.  They might move their arms and legs seemingly randomly, but this is helping them to build up muscles, an essential component on the way to being able to roll, crawl and later walk.  This movement allows them to interact with their physical surroundings and this intensifies the rate at which the brain develops as it is exposed to new experiences.  Research shows that babies who are denied the opportunity to interact physically with their surroundings develop at a slower rate so it is particularly important to work with babies suffering physical or mental disability to ensure that they can develop as best they can.

Interacting with your baby is especially important even during these early months - try to spend time with your newborn baby stimulating them.  Stimulate their vision by exposing them to high contrast patterns and making movement in front of them; stimulate their hearing by playing background sounds and music, and rattling toys in front of them.  Stimulate their sense of feel by touching stroking them and letting them hold your fingers and baby toys.

It would be easy to ignore your newborn baby and leave them lying in another room for their first few months while you get on with the chores you have to do, but the more time you can spend with your baby, the more rewarding for both you and your little one!

Don't forget that here at ToucanLearn we have activities suitable from birth onwards.  Our early activities are simple and aimed at helping to stimulate early development in your child.  All our activities link into the Early Years Foundation Stage Areas of Learning and Development, so you can monitor that you are giving your baby a broad range of activities even at this early stage.

Most parenting books tell you about the "terrible twos" - those crazy, unpredictable days of unannounced tantrums, yelling and screaming in the shopping queue for no apparent reason and the sensational throwing oneself to the floor in an anguished rage!  Fast forward three years as your child has just started school and you may discover some of those dreadful memories coming back to haunt you.  Five year olds with "attitude", answering back, rolling their eyes in despair.  It is probably more frustrating for parents: a two year old is just a baby; a five year old should know better.  But, it seems common.

The reasons behind this strange character change could be numerous. Your five year old has just started school and is discovering their own independence.  They want to act grown-up in front of their friends and are being exposed to more grown up behaviour from school friends.  They are realising that they have an opinion and that they can make themselves heard.

What can be done to ease the tension?  Give them the chance to feel in control of some situations.  Let them make a few decisions: dinner menu, which park to go to, where to shop.  This will make them feel empowered.

Reward them when they are good.  Positive enforcement is very valuable and has great results.  Even get them a reward chart and make sure you stick on a sticker each time good behaviour is spotted.  For free customised sticker charts log in to ToucanLearn.com and go to Fun Stuff!  Get your child to choose the picture to illustrate the chart and even go with you to buy the stickers.

Use avoidance tactics to avert a problem before it happens!  Try and distract a potential bad mood with something fun or constructive to do together.

Children and babies at nursery or pre-school, or children looked after by a childminder, are usually "observed" by their carer or teacher.  Parents may be familiar with an "Observation sheet" that comes home or is available to look at in the childcare setting.  However, as parents we are often too busy to sit back and observe our little ones and yet it can be a fascinating exercise.

In order to understand and consider a child's current interests, stage of development and their learning, observation is essential.  It allows us to see the child's responses in different situations, see what they choose to do or which toys they prefer to play with.  It's a means to plan appropriate games and activities based on what you see.

How do you undertake an observation?

• Solo: Prepare a few different toys or activities for your child.  Try not to guide or lead them, and watch to see what they do.  Record what they do, how they manage the tasks and their movements.  Use your ToucanLearn Blog so you can compare week on week.
• Together: prepare an activity or craft that you do together.  Record how your child manages, how you interact, what is said, how instructions are followed etc.  Try to be honest though - its only for your own benefit - and your child's!
• Photograph: Take a couple of photos to record what they do.  Don't get them to pose - try to do it without them seeing; just snap them at play!
• Moving pictures: Take some video or digital movies of your child playing.  Again, don't bother when they are performing to the camera or doing things on purpose.  Just catch them when they are restful and playing without thinking about you.
• Notes: It's a good idea to have a little notepad to hand to scribble down anything your child does or says that's funny or interesting. Record these observations in your ToucanLearn blog at the end of each day or week so you can look back at them without losing the little bits of paper in the meantime!

Observation is a great way to get to know your child even better, see exactly where they are in their development and identify any area that may be weak and need extra help.

Growing up is full of minor achievements but none make a parent more proud than those early defining moments when baby first rolls over, learns to crawl, walk, talk and one day, to write!  The first few years of life are filled with milestones when your child achieves something that you've not seen them do before.

There are four main developmental areas, learning control of the body with fine and gross motor skills; personal and social development and language.  Here are a few milestones to look out for in your baby's first year:-

0 - 3 Months

• Spontaneous smiling
• Turns towards source of sound
• Tracks an object waved in front of face
• Learns to roll over

3 - 6 Months

• Starts chewing
• Learns to squeal and gurgle
• Looks at own hands
  

6 - 9 Months

• Feeds themselves with their fingers
• Pulls up to a standing position
• Passes an object from hand to hand
• Starts uttering 'dada' and 'mama'

9 - 12 Months

• Drinks from a cup
• Starts 'cruising' - uses furniture as a support and moves around room
• Begins to use recognisable words

Of course, babies develop at different rates and reaching milestones late may not have any bearing on wider development.  They may even skip milestones, for example starting to crawl without managing to roll over, or taking first steps unaided without cruising.

Every child registered in ToucanLearn has a private blog space.  Log milestones for each of your children and in time you'll have an invaluable record of their early lives that not only will you look back on fondly, but one day your children might thank you for too!

Here at ToucanLearn we offer a lot of art and craft based activities, besides keeping children occupied, there are very practical reasons why art and craft is important to learning children.

Before they can talk, art offers young children a way to express themselves and communicate ideas.  Just as their sounds may not make much sense, so their splodges and scribbles may not mean an awful lot to you, but they are communicating ideas and this gives children a sense of freedom that develops further with language.  They are also using their imagination and expressing what they see and experience in an abstract form.

Craft offers a way to explore the physical world.  Art is tactile, you are experiencing different materials and textures, and interacting with objects to understand how they 'work'.  There are malleable materials such as plasticine, sticky tack and dough; there are items that bend into shape and stay that way such as pipe cleaners, wire, even paper when folded and tucked into shapes.  There are runny substances like paints and glue, they can be poured and spread.  The variety of craft materials that a toddler experiences helps them explore the physical world and teaches the how different materials act.

Craft is about making decisions, not important ones, but decisions all the same.  The thought processes that go on whilst your little ones are being creative inform their approach to problem solving.  What are the options to make a googly eye stick to a piece of paper?  Which one is best in this situation?  How do I apply glue to the back of a small googly eye?  As adults these 'problems' are second nature, but to a young child, these have to be learned and the lessons learned at this stage of their lives will inform all sorts of practical needs throughout the rest of their lives.

Of course, craft is also about developing fine motor skills, the ability to colour in within the lines; to stick glitter to parts of the page; to roll a piece of card into a tube and stick it into place.  All of these and so much more rely on the ability to control hands and fingers in ways that are easy for adults but for children form an important part of learning.  How can they learn to write when they get to school if they still haven't mastered fine control of their hands?

In addition to being graded according to the Early Years Foundation Stage areas of learning and development, all the activities we offer at ToucanLearn are classified by one of four overriding key development areas: making, moving, learning and speaking (relating to communication more generally).  Most craft activities are classified as 'Making' activities with the focus on development of fine motor skills, but as you can see, art and craft activities help to promote development in all four of these key development areas!

Toddlers enjoy being helpful and you should nurture their enthusiasm, even if you don't honestly welcome their help!  Getting young toddlers helping out with chores will give them a great sense of satisfaction, even if the quality of their work may not quite be up to scratch.  Having them help out around the house will grow self-esteem and a sense of responsibility.

Don't worry if they don't complete tasks to the standard, or even in the manner, that you hope for and expect, it's simply good that they are doing what they can.  They will also need reminding to do their chores, but after a while they will fall into a routine.  Heap on the praise as they complete their tasks.

Here are ten ideas for chores that you can have toddlers do for you:-

1. Dusting around the house with a duster, feather duster or even an old sock on their hand
2. Picking up their toys and tidying their bedroom
3. Helping to clear up fallen leaves in the garden
4. Putting dirty clothes in the laundry basket
5. Sorting light and dark clothes before they are washed
6. Pairing up cleaned socks
7. Putting shoes away neatly
8. Setting the table
9. Feeding your pets
10. Putting away clean cutlery from the dishwasher

Why don't you create a sticker chart at ToucanLearn and reward with a sticker every time your little one helps out around the home?

Since announcing our tie-in to the Early Years Foundation Stage areas of learning and activity, we've had lots of really positive feedback and more great ideas from a number of our members.  We'd like to thank everyone who's dropped us a line, and we'd like ro encourage anyone with thoughts or ideas about ToucanLearn to drop us a line!

To prevent spam, and to help us manage enquiries, we encourage everyone to use the 'Contact Us' form linked at the bottom of every page of ToucanLearn.  If you prefer to email us, then you can do so, send an email to 'enquiries at toucanlearn.com', replacing the word 'at' with the traditional email 'at' symbol!

We enjoy hearing from you because it shows how many people are using our service.  We appreciate negative feedback as much as positive because it's those points that help us to improve our service.  So, whether you like ToucanLearn or not, please do contact us whenever you wish, for whatever reason; we're genuinely pleased to be able to help!

Children certainly know which buttons to press to annoy us.  But, shouting and losing control (however tempting) is not the way to deal with a child who is misbehaving.  There is one technique that can bring excellent results: the humble sticker chart!

The sticker chart is a great way to give positive attention to a child when they have been especially good.  Simply add a new sticker to a chart each time you see good behaviour and remove one if you see bad behaviour. Display the chart somewhere your child will see it: on the fridge or a wardrobe door.

Firstly, explain to your child what the chart is about.  Children love stickers: they are colourful, easy for them to use, and when they are awarded a sticker they always feel special.  Perhaps allow your child to choose which stickers they can use for their chart.  Write their name clearly on the chart or add a photo.  Make sure they understand how it will work!

Sticker charts work for all sorts of occasions: potty training, eating well, doing school homework or just being good!  In the run up to Christmas sticker charts are especially popular!  Will Father Christmas see a chart full of good stickers and leave lots of presents?

Sign up at ToucanLearn and log in for some great sticker charts that you can customize yourself and a super sticker chart ready for Christmas.  The kids will love them!

Here are some tips:

1. Be consistent with the awarding of stickers.
2. Don't forget to add a sticker and don't put-off adding a sticker because you are too busy... make sure its done straight after you see the good behaviour.
3. Be really enthusiastic about the chart and the good behaviour.
4. Take stickers out with you so you can still award them when you are away from home.  They could wear the stickers on their clothes until you get home.
5. Don't forget the big treat/outing when the sticker chart is complete.  It needn't be a huge, expensive gift... just a little something as a reminder of your child's achievement.
6. Do make sure you still hug, encourage and chat to your child along the way... the sticker chart is just one part of the reward for being well behaved.

Good luck!

ToucanLearn has just got better - all our activities now link to the Early Year Foundation Stage (EYFS) areas of learning! Over the last few months we've been working to tie in our activities to the government's curriculum for preschool children (from birth to 5 years).  There are six areas of learning, each broken down into different focal points, click here to read more specific information on each of the areas and their constituent parts.

Our EYFS information is only available to PREMIUM Members - but annual PREMIUM membership costs less than a pizza! PREMIUM Members are able to search for activities with a focus on each of the six areas of learning, making planning really easy.  Record your activitiy in your blog and over time you will see which areas you have covered and in how much depth.

Whilst EYFS is of primary interest for childminders, carers and nannies, the easy way in which ToucanLearn presents this information makes it easy for parents to follow a government led learning path without having to invest time in understanding the wider EYFS programme.

This is the first in a series of new features coming over the next few months, so watch out for our further announcements!!

Following yesterdays expose of the most popular names given to girls by ToucanLearn parents, today we look at the most popular boys names registered in ToucanLearn to date!

1. Jacob
2. Jack
3. Ethan
4. Andrew
5. Max
6. William
7. Riley
8. Daniel
9. Matthew
10. George

Here's some more interesting information about ToucanLearn babies; we have almost the same number of girls and boys registered (very slightly more boys but only by a whisker!) but between our baby girls there is more variety of names with 630 unique names, whilst between all our boys there are only 534 unique names!

If you're looking for inspiration for what to name your new baby girl, what better source than other ToucanLearn parents!  You'll find lists of popular names all over the place, both in print and online.  Names come in and out of fashion so lists change markedly over time.  Here is our list of the most popular girls names registered in ToucanLearn to date:-

1. Madison
2. Emily
3. Isabella
4. Chloe
5. Emma
6. Ella
7. Katie
8. Ava
9. Hannah
10. Sophia