Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow
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The traditions of school age care has supported thousands of children and families in the history of our practice. Why does school age care look the same as it was 100 years ago?
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The Greatest of Them All
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The children love to create with cardboard and recycled materials. The amount of creativity and concentration the children display when creating with cardboard continues to amaze me. When the material appears to have reached the limit of creative license, the children invent a new way to explore the possibilities of this wonderful material.
Read MoreBoundaries
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Children are always searching for the limit of their current potential and are motivated to push that potential to achieve a goal. Adults can learn a fresh perspective from children about risk and reward.
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Musically Speaking
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Children love music and it is an important part of the everyday experience in a program. Our children enjoy singing songs, dancing, and playing musical games. The songs and games we play today are not that much different than the music from the past.
Read MoreInteractions
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There are many types of adult/child relationships that occur over the course of a day in the classroom. In reflecting on interactions between adults and children, I see several types of interaction patterns emerge. These patterns are not inclusive of all interactions; they are just how I am starting to think about my practice.
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The Past is the Way to the Future
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Early childhood educators change positions multiple times during our working career. In addition to turnover, many more educators move between programs. A large percentage of the field finds themselves in new classrooms or new schools each year. All the transitions to new classrooms/schools require early childhood educators to establish new classroom cultures.
Read MoreA Play Life
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Children desire to experience a play life, a life of joy and exploration a time to grow up slowly and savor the magic and wonders of the world. Time to live mindful of what is happening around them without worrying about what happens next. The pressure of modern school expectations is stealing time that before belonged to children.
Read MorePlay In The Land of Academics
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Being an after school educator and observing children at play for many years, I noticed how the amount and emphasis on play has changed. Science states play and physical activity represent an important part of education and benefits the growing and active brain. What caused test scores and grades to become more important than the rest of life's activities?
Read MoreThe Playground of the Future
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Adventure playgrounds are a natural extension of the growing movement toward conservation. Adventure playgrounds promote a conscious use of resources. Instead of creating more landfills, children can use recycled materials to create, take risks, and seek adventure.
Read MoreDeeply Personal and Inherently Social
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Applied knowledge is the act of learning through hands-on experiences. It is a concept that takes education out from behind the desk creating classroom communities of practice. In communities of practice, individual and shared meaning moves beyond the school into community and society.
Read MoreThe Value of Not Knowing
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Children are always learning. Our role as an educator is to create environments, guide social skill acquisition and learn alongside children as they seek to answer the questions they have about life. But we must ask ourselves about when we share knowledge and when support children’s discovery to their own questions.
Read MoreThe Myth of Multi-Tasking
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Multi-tasking or the act of doing many things at once is a myth. What actually happens in the brain is that we develop the ability to go back and forth at a rapid rate between two or more tasks (toggling). But, is multi-tasking actually faster than completing one activity at a time?
Read MoreAll Children Play
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Recently, I was riding home and I noticed a large group of children playing at the end of the street. The sight of many children out in the middle of the day playing, with no adults around, was wonderful. The children were loud and busy having fun riding their bikes, running around and drawing with sidewalk chalk all over the street.
Read MoreWhat Comes First Professionalism or Compensation?
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As a labor force, early childhood educators are an important component of a thriving economy. We provide education and care for children as parents work to provide for their families and the needs of our community. Early childhood educators are valuable to the economy and our community. Why is compensation lacking in our field?
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