dentist visit

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Creativity basket tip for the week: keep a small mirror close to your Butterfly School area so a child can easily see his or her teeth! Have a toothbrush & toothpaste ready for discussion.

Butterfly School Visits the Dentist! Get Sheets

This week join a young caterpillar who is visiting the dentist for the first time. It is important to help young people learn to take care of their teeth. With practice, children will gain confidence in brushing and flossing and they can feel proud to share responsibility for keeping their teeth in great shape!

As always, special thanks to my children. My son's first visit to the dentist is this week. This week's materials are just the kind that helped prepare my daughter for a great first check-up when it was her turn.

If you would like us to deliver the next set of Butterfly School materials to you by e-mail, click here, send us a quick e-mail & we will subscribe you for our free weekly links!

Here are some creative ideas from my kitchen table to yours -- just to make it more fun to discuss tooth care!

	Design a very special & fancy paper "art" toothbrush. Use bright paper, glue & glitter & bright markers to decorate the handle.
	Use your creative toothbrush to practice brushing "teeth" on a favorite stuffed animal puppet! Tape paper teeth to the puppet's mouth if it doesn't have teeth. If you don't have a puppet, make a simple sock puppet or draw a simple picture with a big mouth open very wide!
	Use a puppet to demonstrate opening your mouth very wide & holding it open long enough to count teeth.

Having trouble keeping your child still in order to brush teeth? Try these ideas for creative toothbrushing times:

Pretend you are a dentist doing a check up.

Count teeth as you brush.

Sing a cheerful song! Take requests!

For more autumn ideas, check out the activities at our parent site www.shininghours.com.

Many doctors & dentists recommend a first dental check up for children at age 3! Usually, this visit is a very positive and a totally pain free time for your dentist to count your child's teeth and introduce your child to good cleaning habits.

Your child might be shy or nervous about visiting a a new place, even if he has no special fears about dentistry.... Try to prepare your child in a positive way to explore & enjoy the first visit. Here are a few things to practice or explain before you go:

The chair in a dentist's office is designed to be very comfortable and to let the dentist easily see all of your teeth.

It is important to open your mouth very wide when the dentist asks for your help.

Practice keeping your mouth open long enough for someone to count all of your teeth!

Lots of fun surprises will follow at our new home for Butterfly School! Please tell friends about our all-new, ad-free www.butterflyschool.net. And, don't forget to enjoy the resources posted at www.shininghours.com!

You are ready for the Activity Sheets now; you can print them from here (go to Activity Sheets), or go back to the Butterfly School home page.

We enjoyed our stay at drkoop.com & we are so pleased that you are joining us here to share the growing excitement as we strive to inspire young children to learn, be creative and and feel confident!

From Butterfly Central,

-- Jessica Steigerwald

E-mail ideas and comments to: butterflycentral@shininghours.com

Visit our Butterfly School archives.

"T" is for Teeth!

Teacher Tips
from Corinne Steigerwald

Try focusing your child's attention on the letter "t" this week! Our materials feature a butterfly dentist named Dr. Tooth and two friendly caterpillars: Tippy and Tinker! With many "t" words, from teeth to toothbrush, you will have great things to discuss each day.

Introduce a letter and then spend special time working with the letter. We've got a great game & print-outs for you! Simple activities will help your child become familiar with the letter, the letter's sound and some words that begin with the letter.

First, introduce the letter t. Try our undated Activity Sheet: Letter T. Write the letter "T" for your child. First the capital letter T and then the lower case t. Say the sound "tuh". Ask your child to repeat the letter name and the sounds after you.

Next, try our special word list game. It is fun for you & your child. You can play this game every day this week. Focus on the letter "t" each day or try different letters each day.

Sharing learning time each day, and making it fun, gives your child special memories, good feelings and helps build confidence!