PREPARING YOUR HOME FOR HUMOUR

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1 I CAN BE FUN! There s little in life as satisfying as seeing a child laugh. Whether it s just a little chuckle, or a full-on booming belly-laugh, it brightens up your day. Children can grow in significant ways through opportunities to explore their own humour and laughter. The benefits of a good sense of humour are well documented and include better health, increased optimism, higher self-esteem, and greater emotional intelligence. Laughing together is a way to connect, and a good sense of humour also can make children smarter, healthier, and better able to cope with challenges. We tend to think of humour as part of our genetic makeup, like blue eyes or big feet. But a sense of humour actually is a learned quality that can be developed in children, not something they're born with. You can blow raspberries on a baby's belly, put on a silly hat and chase a 3- year-old, or pretend to fall into a pile of leaves to amuse a first-grader. Each of these will capture giggles as well as show that there is a time and place each day for some stress free fun. PREPARING YOUR HOME FOR HUMOUR Be a humour model. One of the best things you can do to develop a child's sense of humour is to use your own. Make jokes. Tell funny stories. Laugh out loud. Deal lightly with small catastrophes like spilt milk. Create a humour-rich environment. Surround children with funny books for toddlers and preschoolers these include picture books or nonsense rhymes; older kids will love joke books and comics. Also check out funny TV shows, movies, and websites for all age groups help your child make good choices and then enjoy them too. Read there are numerous funny stories that will surely get a few laughs Don t Let The Pigeon Drive the Bus by Mo Willems My Dog is as Smelly as Dirty Socks by Hanoch Pivens Don t be Silly, Mrs. Millie by Judy Cox The Silly Book by StooHample The Juggling Pug by Sean Bryan Big Bad Bunny by Franny Billingsley Monkey and Me by Emily Gravett The Gruffalo by Julia Donaldson It s Moving Day by Pamela Hickman

2 Different Ages Different Humor Wee Beginners Babies don't really understand humour but they do know when you're smiling and happy. When you make funny noises or faces and then laugh or smile, ababy is likely to sense your joy and imitate you. He or she is also highly responsive to physical stimuli, like tickling or raspberries. Sometime between 9 and 15 months, babies know enough about the world to understand that when you put a diaper on your head or quack like a duck, you are doing something unexpected and that it's funny. Peekaboo is an all time classic. Cover your head and face with a sheet or towel and say where are you?, then take it away and say peekaboo. Raspberry is another common favourite. Blow on a baby s tummy until your lips vibrate. Eat em up - Open your mouth wide and when they go to put their hand in, pretend to gobble it all up. Silly Walk - turn into a waddling, quacking duck for a few minutes Sneeze sneeze loudly and unexpectedly often produces a chuckle Wee Explorers Toddlers appreciate physical humour especially the kind with an element of surprise (like peekaboo or an unexpected tickle). As children develop language skills, they'll find rhymes and nonsense words funny and this will continue well into the preschool years. It's around this time that many children start trying to make adults laugh. A child might deliberately point to the wrong facial feature when asked "Where's your nose?" or put on your shoes and clomp around the house. Chasing - can be great fun. If you say something along the lines of I am going to get you then slowly run after them. Ring Around the Rosy. Play this the traditional way with everyone falling down or with substitutions like "all run around" or "all jump up and down."

3 This Little Piggy. Pull off a child's socks for this nursery rhyme, and conclude with a rousing bout of tickling. Row, Row, Row Your...Car! Try making up funny lyrics to familiar songs. Encourage a child by singing the song "incorrectly". Give a child an opportunity to think of another incorrect word. Visual Humour - You can make faces, put on a funny hat, or knock yourself on the head with a pillow and pretend to fall over any kind of broad slapstick will delight toddlers. Old McDonald Had a Farm sing the song but see if the children correct you when you say the cow says quack and the dog says moo. Wee Builders and Learners A preschooler is more likely to find humour in a picture with something out of whack (a car with square wheels, a pig wearing sunglasses) than a joke or pun. Language play is not the only thing preschoolers find funny. They have a sophisticated grasp of what objects "should" look like or how things "should" work. Change a characteristic, appearance or behaviour and you've got something that's funny to a child. Strange juxtapositions- cut pictures of animals in half and let children glue different bottoms to heads on a piece of paper. Exaggeration - Exaggerate drawing with big eyes or nose, wear extra-large glasses, talk with an accent for the day. Mix - putting mittens on feet, socks on hands, or pretending a toy car is a phone. Dress up games take pictures of funny costumes/get ups. Surprises - Marshmallow/cotton ball fights. Body parts Play Simon Says but when you say touch your tummy, instead touch your nose...see if the children notice your mistake. Continue messing up the body parts. Animal Antics Preschooler will also enjoy books that have people or animals engaging in unexpected behaviors a llama eating with a fork or cows who type. Children like images like this because they are silly and because they get the joke it's fun to be an insider, to understand how the world works. A child will especially enjoy it if you laugh along too.

4 Riddle my name use children s names in rhymes and riddles such as hey diddle, Sarah and the Fiddle, the cat jumped over the moon, etc. Silly Photographs If photo permission allows, take pictures of children wearing funny outfits, swim goggles with winter hats, make funny faces, crazy hairdos, etc. Backwards day Wear clothing backwards or wear pajamas all day. Eat dessert first before lunch. Wee Experts and Mentors As children move into kindergarten and beyond, basic wordplay, exaggeration, and slapstick will all be increasingly funny. They may discover the pleasure of telling simple jokes (it's fun to be the one who knows the punchline!) and will repeat the same jokes over and over. Children learn many creative life and problem-solving skills by studying jokes and making up their own. Joke Time: So did you hear about the colt with a cold? He's a little hoarse. How about the pig with a rash? He needed a little oinkment. What is smaller than an ant's mouth? Ant food Doctor, doctor, help me! I'm shrinking! Well, you will just have to be a little patient! Funny dances - put on some music, and get them to do a chicken dance or a penguin waddle - are you joining in too? Comedy Show watch a funny movie (Daddy Daycare, Little Rascals) Spoons try hanging a spoon from your nose Nonsensical Situation Books Amelia Bedelia books by Peggy Parish Knock Knock jokes try the template

5 Play a backwards day. Wear pajamas all day long, eat pizza for breakfast and pancakes for dinner. Play the "Make Me Laugh" game everyone takes a turn trying to make the group laugh doing whatever he or she thinks is funny. Drawings draw funny pictures, draw with your toes, draw with both hands at the same time, draw with eyes closed. Tape paper to the underside of a table. Let children make upside down drawings.