photo: Spin Master Entertainment
Have a preschooler with a problem or two to solve? Luckily, Nickelodeon’s Abby Hatcher (created and produced by Spin Master Entertainment) has arrived just in time. With Abby’s surefire mix of empathy for her Fuzzly friends and motivation to help them through any mishap, preschoolers can catch cute Fuzzlies along with Abby and catch on to inspiring ways to work through common challenges. Read on for five “fuzztacular” ways you and Abby Hatcher can help your preschooler build a critical life skill like problem solving, empathy and determination!
1. Help Them Understand Others
In this new show, a lot of focus is put on helping preschoolers manage their emotions (like many Fuzzlies learn to do), but empathy—one of Abby Hatcher’s strongest qualities—is all about understanding somebody else’s feelings, too.
•How Abby will help teach your kids empathy: She is determined to find out what each Fuzzly needs to feel included and useful around her family’s hotel. Abby’s mission isn’t always easy, as she first has to learn how each Fuzzly communicates. After all, we don’t all turn different colors depending on our emotions, like Bozzly! Throughout her adventures Abby consistently reveals how empathetic she truly is.
• What you can do: While kids need to understand right from wrong, that binary thinking can also cause conflict. Try redirecting that energy to better understanding another person’s point of view, as Abby does, and give your preschoolers the language to ask how a friend feels about something.
2. Help Them Be Motivated to Take Risks
As parents, we’re used to coming to the rescue when little ones need a hand learning how to walk or sharing a toy with a friend. Now that preschoolers have reached many self-care milestones (and likely have major opinions about them—hello, threenager!), stepping back so your kiddo can take the lead is a new, important step for any parent.
• How Abby will help teach your kids motivation and to take risks: At the first hint of a Fuzzly problem, Abby and her best pal Bozzly “GEAR UP” into Fuzzly Catcher mode. They’re ready for anything, and that’s a great feeling to give kids who might be intimidated to try something new.
• What you can do: Designate a “problem solving” cape like Bozzly’s your preschooler can don for a confidence boost, or special shoes like Abby’s Pogo-Springs that help her hop to it. If your little one is already eager to dive in, wait before offering a helping hand. If they do turn to you for help, show them how to regroup and jump back in.
photo: Spin Master Entertainment
3. Help Them Try and Try Again
If a Fuzzly is in need of her help, Abby Hatcher isn’t one to give up the first time her plan doesn’t quite work—or even the third.
• How Abby will help teach your kids persistence and determination: What’s useful for preschoolers to see is the way Abby adjusts her plan each time, which shows different approaches to one situation. Everyone might learn a little differently, too, and still arrive at the same result. Similarly, Abby is accepting of all Fuzzlies and their unique abilities.
• What you can do: Emphasize to your kiddo that Abby’s type of determination and critical thinking can serve them well as they learn things that take practice, like reading or riding a bike.
4. Help Them Team Up
From the get-go, Abby and Bozzly make a great team. Abby is quick to rescue Bozzly when he runs into trouble and Bozzly pulls a helpful gadget or gizmo from his pouch when Abby is in a bind. The buddy system is also a great approach for preschoolers, whose attention spans are expanding.
• How Abby will help teach your kids to team up: Abby’s loyalty to Bozzly is admirable and he reciprocates that allegiance. This dynamic duo exemplify the buddy system, which can be a great approach for preschoolers, whose attention spans and ideas of friendship are expanding and developing.
• What you can do: Teamwork opportunities abound with classmates, siblings, playgroups, as well as us parents when it comes to solving cool problems, too, like how to build the biggest fort! Make believe, after all, might be the most magical part of these preschool years. Help them use their big imaginations and team up like Abby does with Bozzly and her Fuzzly friends!
photo: Spin Master Entertainment
5. Help Them Find the Fun in Everything
While great role models like Abby are vital, we as parents remain a powerful presence for years to come.
• How Abby will help teach your kids to find the fun: Let kids in on your secrets to success, whether that’s sharing a problem you faced at work and how you resolved it or getting your partner on board to model best communication practices around the kids. And all of this should include an awesome attitude like Abby’s. She is all about finding the adventure with enthusiasm and optimism, no matter how tricky things get.
• What you can do: So, if you and your preschooler are having fun even when challenges arise, or “catching a hug” like Fuzzlies do when needed, then you are teaching another critical life skill: coping. And coping mechanisms help preschoolers and parents alike set out to solve problems, big or small.
BONUS:
Check out the trailer to this new show below:
photo: Spin Master Entertainment
Tune in weekdays to Nickelodeon to catch fun-filled original content your kids will love. Catch clips of Abby Hatcher here anytime!
—Jennifer Massoni Pardini
all photos courtesy of Spin Master Entertainment
