WHAT
DOES PRACTICA CONSIST OF ?
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1.1 THE PRACTICA
PARENTS' MANUAL:
This user-friendly parents' guide can be used from birth
right up to 7 years old. It is the heart of the Practica
programme and contains thousands of ready-to-play games.
All you need do is page to the age of your child and start
playing! Games are described practically and easily, informing
parents which skill is being developed or practiced in each
game.
1.2
TWENTY-EIGHT SETS OF SPECIALISED EDUCATIONAL APPARATUS:
The whole programme is packed in an attractive, durable
wooden toy box (Approx 81x32x44cm - size of old army trunks).
Apparatus are of a high quality and most are packed in durable
wooden boxes with sliding lids and plastic bottles. Many
of the items and all of the cards are unique to Practica
and not available elsewhere. Cards are all laminated and
will not tear or become dirty. The activities in the Parents'
Manual make use of all the apparatus over the whole 7-year
period that Practica is used, ensuring maximum value for
money and overall balance in development which is not achieved
by buying 'loose' toys.
1.3 THE PRACTICA ADVISORY SERVICE:
The Head of the Practica Advisory Service is Dr Arina Lanser.
The Advisory Service is a free service and consists of:
* Telephonic assistance
by an Educational Psychologist
* Personal assistance
by an Educational Psychologist
Evaluation and School-Readiness tests are available. Click
here to see what else Dr. Lanser says about PRACTICA.
1.4
THE PRACTICA NEWSLETTER:
A monthly newsletter is sent out to parents via e-mail to
keep them informed of any new developments in the field
of education in the formative years.
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THE SETS OF APPARATUS INCLUDED IN THE PRACTICA TOY
BOX
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Animal
Set
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Balancing
Beam
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Blackboard
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Card
Holders
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Construction
Set
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EQ
Game
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KwikPick
Books
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Math
Set :
Dice
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Math
Set :
Dominoes
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Math
Set:
Hex Counters
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Math
Set:
Number Indicators
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Movement
Cards
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Multi
Mast Set
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Music
CD
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Pegboard
Set
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Picture
Book
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Picture
Set
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Pre-Writing
Cards
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Scale
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Shape
Set
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Step
and Catch
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Wooden
Block Set
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Xylophone
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2. WHY DO WE NEED A BRAIN STIMULATION PROGRAMME?
Times have changed from the days when children grew up in
a naturally stimulating environment and were free to explore
and satisfy their natural hunger for stimulating activities.
The demands of our modern education systems are also much
different than those parents faced when they went to school.
A human being develops plus minus up to 50 basic skills from
birth to seven years of age. These skills are interdependent
and a weakness in any area will negatively affect other areas,
e.g. underdeveloped visual perception will lead to reading
difficulties and other major learning problems even though
a child may be highly intelligent. This means that parents
must consciously and deliberately provide the opportunities
for their children to develop all the skills they will need
when they go to school. Although the developmental milestones
of a child are reasonably well documented, parents are often
at a loss to know how to ensure that all these milestones
are reached at the right time and in the correct sequence.
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3. WHY DO WE NEED PRACTICA?
Practica also offers many games in areas in which the child
will be stronger, placing success and achievement within his
reach.
Practica develops all the areas of development simultaneously
from birth to 7 years.
These areas include:
· Motor Development
· Perceptual Development
· Language Development
· Intellectual Development
· Artistic Development
· Social Development
· Emotional Development
· Mathematical Development. Practica achieves these
goals through thousands of age-appropriate games, which can
easily be referenced in the Parents' Manual. The games are
based on one-on- one activities used by therapists. Practica
is of great value to working parents who have little time
to spend with their child, as it only requires a few minutes
per day. By using the easy cross-reference system, more challenging
or less demanding games can be selected to suit the child's
individual pace when necessary. Having the entire programme
available at once enables parents to accommodate the child's
individual potential by moving on to activities prescribed
for older children in areas where he is talented and moving
back to previous age-groups in problem areas. In this way
talents are spotted early and weaknesses overcome before they
become problems. Practica allows parents to monitor their
child's overall development, making sure that no areas are
inadvertently lagging behind. This is particularly valuable
to parents who themselves have struggled with certain underdeveloped
skills, e.g. maths, reading or sporting activities.
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4. MY CHILD IS VERY ADVANCED. DOES HE NEED PRACTICA?
Although many children are extremely advanced in certain areas,
they are very seldom advanced in all areas and therefore in
danger of developing discrepancies between their apparent
abilities and their actual abilities. For example, a child
with a strongly developed auditory sequential memory will
continuously be praised for his ability to recite rhymes and
sing songs. This skill will develop even more due to the positive
reinforcement, but in the meantime visual skills are being
overlooked and when the child is in Grade 5 or 6 and the workload
becomes too much to memorise (as he has been doing) a reading
problem suddenly becomes apparent. The negative spiral that
follows is every parent's worst nightmare. Practica enables
the parents of the advanced child to make sure that all areas
are being stimulated to ensure a balanced advanced child.
5. MY CHILD HAS SPECIAL NEEDS. WILL
PRACTICA HELP HIM?
A child with special needs particularly needs the balanced
stimulation and wide variety of fun activities offered by
Practica. Too often these children are bombarded with 'remedial'
activities, which emphasise their 'problem' at all times.
With Practica remediation can be dressed up as fun in many
different ways and parents can monitor the child's progress
by measuring it against achievements of the previous day,
week or month, notwithstanding the age level at which the
child is performing in any area.
6. WHAT ARE THE LONG-TERM BENEFITS
OF USING PRACTICA?
Most children today are exposed to group activities from a
relatively early age. In any group the competent child (the
one with the best-developed skills to do what is called for)
will naturally step into a leadership position. The not so
competent child will hold back to see what the others are
doing. This child becomes a follower. These positions are
strengthened by repetition and the child who is a follower
eventually is at risk of falling under the influence of a
negative leader.
Parents need to ensure that their children are equipped with
confidence and competence to shrug off any negative influence
they might encounter as pre-teens or teenagers - and the time
to do this is in the first 7 years of life. And remember,
you don't get a second chance! Practica enhances parent-child
relationships because the child experiences the parents as
the providers of fun and stimulation and his home as the place
where fun and stimulation is provided. A child who experiences
his parents and his home as boring and unstimulating will
seek his pleasure outside the family boundaries, as he grows
older.
7. HOW CAN I BE SURE PRACTICA IS
A GOOD INVESTMENT?
Practica offers exceptional value for money. Market research
has shown that the average parent spends between R30 000 and
R45 000 on toys in the first 7 years of their child's life
- and many of these toys are not even played with for any
length of time.
With Practica the parents receive all the toys they need to
develop their child’s skills for school readiness PLUS all
the knowledge to make sure that the skills are developed PLUS
thousands of ideas for fun activities which make use of ordinary
household items PLUS many more that do not need any apparatus
at all! In actual fact, Practica SAVES parents from spending
money on unused toys. It also SAVES parents from the expense
of having to address problems later because it prevents problems
from developing. So, whatever you pay for it, Practica is
going to save you money and not cost you anything that you
would not have spent in any case!
8. WILL YOU COME AND SHOW US HOW
PRACTICA CAN BENEFIT OUR CHILD?
Yes, of course we will - we would like you to see for yourself
that Practica is the absolute best investment you can make
in your child's future. What is the use of a financial investment
to enable him to go to university if he does not have the
ability to go to university? On the other hand, a competent
child becomes a competent young adult who will be wooed by
prospective employers to accept their bursaries.
Because when you give your child competence, you give him
the power of choice.
Click
here to e-mail us for a FREE DEMONSTRATION !
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