I wanted baby bookworm to know what she could expect at the dentist, so we read The Berenstain Bears Visit the Dentist. In this story brother bear visits the dentist to get a cavity filled, and sister bear goes along to get her loose tooth pulled.
With kid-friendly language and pictures that show exactly what a child will encounter on his first visit to the dentist, it is the perfect book to read to help a child feel at ease with this new experience.
Baby bookworm did amazing while in the dentist's chair, and I actually learned a lot from the dentist about what she should be eating and drinking and what she should not (I didn't know raisins were worse than chocolate for your teeth!). I am a firm believer that reading books before (or after) various life events helps a child to feel more at ease. Children can easily identify with their favorite characters, and will make the connection back to the book! Unfortunately I forgot to take pictures at this first appointment so I don't have any to share, but will hopefully remember to bring my camera in 6 months at the next visit.
As a follow-up to our trip to the dentist, we did two learning activities based around a dental theme. Here they are:
Count Your Teeth
One of the things that the dentist did while he was examining baby bookworm was count her teeth. She learned that she had 10 on the top, and 10 on the bottom.
Repetition is an easy learning technique, so to reinforce (and repeat) what she had learned at the dentist, we did a counting and sequencing activity with baby bookworm where she had to put 20 teeth in order in a mouth.
"Good" Food or "Bad" Food
The dentist also talked to us a great deal about the foods that will help to build healthy teeth and those that will hurt teeth. To repeat this idea, we did a sorting task and categorized different foods as to whether they were healthy for our teeth or bad for our teeth.
Even if you don't have a trip to the dentist coming up, I hope you have fun with these learning activities! And if you do, "Good Luck".
