Summer is winding down

Driving to work this morning I could tell that summer is on the downhill side; the cool morning air has just a little sharper edge to it, telling us that fall is just around the corner. I don't know about you but I really enjoyed the weather this summer... enough rain to keep things green and growing, just a few really hot, humid days and lots of days that it was just perfect!
It was a very busy summer to be sure. I spent 1 week in June in California and 1 week in July in Florida taking the Program for Infant and Toddler Care training. It was 2 weeks of very intense work in PITC content as well as adult education strategies. When I complete my papers on each content area then I will be a certified PITC trainer. I have 1 paper completed and 3 to go.
Check out the PITC link and the Zero to Three link to find out more about these 2 important resources in infant and toddler care.

KinderArt Resources

This is a great site for all kinds of art projects and crafts.
http://www.kinderart.com/sitemap.shtml

Here is the link for August special days and craft projects
http://www.kinderart.com/seasons/aug.shtml

and for those who plan ahead and are really organzied here is the link for September crafts http://www.kinderart.com/seasons/sept.shtml

"Teaching in the Key of Life"

I'm reading "Teaching in the Key of Life". Some colleagues were raving about this author (who has been around for quite awhile but had escaped my radar somehow). I'm raving now too. It's always a boost to find an educator who really understands education! (and agrees with your long help principles to boot!) Enjoy this except and then go check out her books at the library or the book store. The link by her name under "My Child Development Heroes" will take you to her books sold online by Red Leaf Press. "Take it away, Mimi!"

Excerpt from an essay titles “I’m Worried About Our Children” by Mimi Brodsky Chenfeld in her book “Teaching in the Key of Life”

When teachers and parents discuss ways of enriching the lives of young children- ways of helping them to learn to love learning- the best suggestions are the oldest, most natural, most obvious, most simple. They are so easy that we forget that we already know them:

Hang loose and relax.
Talk with your children. Share and compare observations, questions, experiences, wishes, wondering. Laugh together.
List to music of all kinds. Enjoy the music. Let it inspire movement, art, stories, quiet times.
Read to and with your children. Surround them with stories, poems, riddles, plays. Read to yourself. (What books to you love? If you want children to love reading, show them by your example.) Discover the delight of creating your own stories, your own writings. Children already know about this. Keep the flame burning.
Walk with the children. Walk with awareness. Stop! Look! Listen! Be a person on whom nothing is lost. Martin Buber believed that everything is waiting to be hallowed by you. What do you hallow? A walk around the street with an aware, responsive, sensitive, involved adult is more enjoyable and valuable to a child than a trip around the world with a rigid, closed-minded, authoritarian tour leader.
Encourage imaginative responses, original thinking, freedom of expression, new experiences. Don’t be a critic or a judge. Be a person who rejoices in your own works and the works of others.
Use the resources at your doorstep: libraries, museums, art galleries, parks, playgrounds, construction sites, gardens, zoos, bakeries, fruit stands, orchards, street signs, parking lots. The word boring should not belong in the vocabulary of any child.

Our kids don’t need expensive gimmicks, shiny educational tools, designer jigsaw puzzles, video games, and heavy-handed adult intervention in their daily education. Let’s not just rely on machines, no matter how great is their potential in the learning process.
Our children need an environment sweetened with tender loving care, encouragement, inspiration, role models, and time-time to play, pretend, explore, experiment, and wonder; time to develop at their own pace and in their own special rhythms. When children learn in such save, supportive settings under the gentle, constant guidance of loving adults, they prove over and over again that they are among the most creative members of this gifted and talented human family of ours.
Be ready for astonishment. Those of us who have spent most of our lives working with children know that, when we let them, they teach us about looking at everyday, ordinary miracles with fresh eyesight and insight. Children take us on a journey to our own beginning when the world was new and waiting to be discovered again.
We have a lot to learn.

Great Expectations

"Cherish your children for what they are, not for what you'd like them to be." unknown

As I was paying for my gas at the Kum & Go the other day, the clerk noticed that I was wearing my name badge from work. She catches her co-worker's eye and says, "Look, this is an "Infant-Toddler Specialist". The co-worker raises her eyebrows and says "Boy, I need one, I have a three year old that is a demon." So I went into my spiel about how 3 is a hard age because it's the transition from being a baby to being a kid and it's hard for the child to know from moment to moment which one he wants to be. She nodded in agreement and the proceeded to tell me what an angel her 6 yr.old is ;has always been and will always be and what a little hellion her 3 yr. old is and how she can't do anything with him. I told her that we get what we expect from kids and that she would do well to begin accentuating his positive qualitites or he'll would be out roaming the streets raising cain when he's 18. She admitted that he was doing better since he has been attending Headstart. And hopefully I started her thinking about how she talks about that child.

You know she probably tells lots of people what a "demon" he is and some of the time it is probably within the child's hearing. She might even say it to him directly. It doesn't take too many times of hearing us say it for a child to believe that what we say about them is the absolute truth. So soon Mikey "the little demon" is behaving like the best "little demon" he can be; reinforcing (proving) that you are indeed correct in your assessment that he is a "little demon". That's why it is soon important to never discuss a child's faults or bad behavior where they can hear you. Every young child has some good qualities; things that they are good at, even early evidence of future talents can be noticed. Be sure to let them know that you notice when they are kind, loving, helpful, cheerful, courteous, honest, any behavior or quality that you want to see more of and I guarantee that you will begin to see more of those qualities and less of that "demon" child.

Digging Holes and other Spring Activites

These ideas came to me in the "What Do You Do With the Mad that You Feel?" newsletter sent out by Family Communications Inc. You can use this link to sign up for the newsletter to be delivered to your inbox. http://www.fci.org/madfeelings/signup.asp . Also check out the article "What Else Can You Do?" It makes the point that kids aren't born with anger management skills. They need us to help them find alternatives to hitting and other aggressive anger responses.

Activity Ideas for Child Care
Digging a Hole From the Mad Feelings Activity Book Stage 3 Finding Release through Physical Outlets
Here’s a springtime outdoor activity that gives children a constructive, physical way to release their feelings.
Materials:
old spoons or plastic shovels
small metal shovels or garden tools
plastic containers or pails
Is there a place in the yard where the children could dig a hole? Or is there a park nearby with a sandbox? The children can use plastic shovels and metal spoons if the ground is loose, or they could use small metal hand tools and a small shovel to dig in earth that is hard. Many children may want to dig just for the fun of it, or the digging could have a purpose such as:
digging a garden in the spring or early summer;
pretending to dig for hidden treasure;
digging a home for a pretend animal.
If you’re comfortable with mud play (and if extra clothes are available), you could let them use water to mix with the earth to make mud pies or mud sculptures. You could point out that shoveling earth or digging in a sandbox or snow is one thing people could do when they feel angry…something that doesn’t hurt them or anyone else.
All Kinds of Exercise From the Mad Feelings Activity Book Stage 3 Finding Release through Physical Outlets
Just as some adults walk, jog, or swim to release their stress or anger through all kinds of exercise, this activity can help children find a physical way to release energy that can be caught up in angry feelings.
Materials
none
music (optional)
See if the children can tell you about ways they exercise. Can they pantomime how they:
ride a bike;
push a wagon;
run hard and fast;
climb;
throw or catch a ball?
Then you could do some exercises with the children:
stretch your hands and arms high in the air, stand on your toes and reach for the sky;
jump up and down on two feet;
hop on one foot;
Repeat each exercise three or four times. If you can go outdoors, you’ll have lots of fresh air and room to move. When you have to stay inside, try exercising to music. It can help to calm the children at the end of this activity if you give them slower movements to do as you’re finishing.
Sometimes physical exercise can make people feel better when they’re frustrated. See if the children can show you some exercises they could do at times like that.
©2009 Family Communications, Inc.

Unit Studies for Preschool

Unit Studies is a hot topic among "homeschoolers" and I just learned at a recent child care conference the the term in early childhood circles is "project curriculum". In the "old days" we called them "themes". The teacher introduces information and materials related to the subject and then child(ren) lead they way in how the topic will be explored. (The teacher selects the theme based on interests of the children that have been observed in the children's play or questions the children have asked. There are some great FREE online resources to help you get started with unit studies. I'm getting "spring fever" and I bet some kids are too... so wouldn't this be the perfect time for a unit study on Plants . I'm sure that you will be talking to the kids about the grass turning green and the tulips coming up and the trees starting to bud....now just expand those conversations into the whole specturm of your learning activities. (That's unit studies!)

Go deeper by documenting your unit studies with photos and drawings and stories by the kids (dictated) and make it into a class book....(Essentially a scrapbook made with a 3 ring binder and page protectors). The kids will love looking at and reading about things that they participated in. And what a great tool to share with parents and others who support your program!

I'd love to hear about your ideas for "unit studies".

A couple more links to help you with unit study resources:

http://www.squidoo.com/takehomebags#module5969132

http://www.easyfunschool.com/

My Considered Opinion

Thought I might start adding my "considered opinion" to the information that I share with you.

Many of you may know that I'm somewhat of an "educational renagade" and I'm sure some of my opinions will be controversial and hopefully make for stimulating conversations.

In my considered opinion early childhood education programs should be more like "home school" than like public school. However, if you meet a homeschooler who is trying to do "public school" at home (and there are many) know that they have missed the point!

Some Learning Resources that you can use.

Nature Education: http://kindernature.storycounty.com This is really cool.

http://www.highscope.org/ A developmentally appropriate curriculum

http://www.rie.org/ infant & toddler resources
http://www.zerotothree.org/ more infant toddler resources