Respecting the Child’s,Wonder and Joy in Learning

Children who are invested in their learning are also more interested in what s being taught. That is why play is such a strong force in learning.  If you are having fun, feel what you are doing is valued and learning through cause and affect the lessons become internalized and more impactful.  Sitting at a desk or table doing a worksheet is busy work but it is not true education. 

Producing a product is not as powerful as the process of creating the finished piece.

Let me give you two scenarios:

Scenario 1:
Tommy (33 months) and Tilda (4 yrs), are playing in the combined family room and kitchen. Mom takes out the mixer, opens the cupboard and pulls out a box cake mix. The noise of the mixer being set up catches the children’s attention. They both leave their toys and walk over to see what mom is doing? Tilda pulls out a stool and climbs up to perch on it. Tommy gives it a try, he moves the stool away from the counter and starts to climb it. He does not make it the first time. Mom watches out of the corner of her eye but keeps gathering items needed to make a cake.
Tommy tries again and gets his balance on the rung of a the stool. Tilda reaches out her hand to Tommy, he grasps it and uses it to balance as he settles himself on the stool. Once seated Tommy grabs for the beaters. He gets one and holds it in his clenched fist, his fingers play with he curved beater. “Tilda, can you hand me the beater on the counter?” Mom asks.
Tilda hands her the beater sitting on the counter using the end that attaches to the mixer. Tommy watches. “Tommy, can you give me the other beater.” He looks at his beater and passes it over, a smile on his face. Mom walks to the sink and says, “I will wash this up, so it is clean to mix our cake with.” Once done she inserts it into the mixer.
Turning the box over she points to the directions. “What do you see?”
Tilda responds, “Eggs and cups. Oh and a 3, 5 and 0!”
Tommy, “Eggs!” Clapping and smiling.
The cake box is set in front of Tommy. “Can you open the box and give the package inside to Tilda?”
Tommy rips the box open, pulls out the mix and hands it to Tilda. Mom hands her a scissors. Tilda please cut open the cake mix and dump it into this mixing bowl. 

Tilda cuts the bag open and quickly dumps the mix into the bowl. Some spills on the counter. “Tilda can you grab the dish rag and clean up that spill before we mix the cake, we want to keep counters clean when we cook so we keep all of our foods clean.”
Mom moves the eggs close to the kids. Let’s count. We need 1, 2, 3 eggs.  She takes one out. “Can you each get one? Her hand hovers over the bowl, “Do I just put it in?” She wonders out loud.
“No!” Giggles Tommy.
Mom takes a bowl and cracks her egg into the bowl while talking through the steps; “Gently tap the egg on the side, open it up with your thumbs at the crack and pour into this bowl. Now look to see if any shells fell in. Now we can put it in the mixing bowl, she says adding the egg to the mix. She passes the small bowl to Tilda. A hard tap is followed by Tilda separating the egg shell and pouring her egg in. She notices a piece of shell and mom fishes it out then Tilda adds her egg to the mix. Tommy, getting impatient for his turn squeezes his egg cracking it. Mom reaches over, helps him add his egg to the bowl and fishes out small pieces of shell, while sending both kids to wash their hands really good with soap. When Tommy returns she lets him dump his egg in with the others.
Mom now reads the other ingredients and helps each child pour out the right amounts and add it to the cake mix. She turns on the mixer and sends Tommy to get a spatula and Tilda to get a cake pan.
The batter is put in the pan and the oven set at 350 degrees with mom explaining that is the 3, 5, 0 that Tilda pointed out. As the oven warms mom has the children clean up the counter, help rinse the utensils and put them in the dishwasher.

Scenario 2:
The classroom of 20 preschoolers is in full swing, everyone engaged and happy. 

Suddenly the teacher announces clean up time. There are grunts, some block towers knocked over and many children not responding. 

“I said CLEAN UP Time.” Repeats the teacher rather firmly and a bit louder. Some children respond, others disrupt friends, thinking they are helping the teacher and others continue to do what they were doing before they were interrupted by an even louder order to clean up.

Once the room is cleaned 20 students are sent to wash their hands before gathering around the teacher. Items are laid on the table with cute, picture recipe cards for the children to read the directions. The teacher then opens the box and pours the cake mix in a bowl. She has the kids tell her the next step and ingredient to add then measures it out and pours it in the bowl. She mixes the batter while the students count the number of stirs. She then passes the bowl to her assistant teacher to take to the kitchen and bake. 

The students go to their seats and color a set of picture recipe cards like the one at the table. Then tell the teacher how to make the cake. The lesson finishes with a cute story about a dog baking a cake.

Both of these have potential for learning, but which makes the strongest impact?

Which one empowers the children?

Which one values the child?

Which one will probably be remembered years later?

This year as you do your holiday baking, wrap gifts, read stories or just have empty boxes available, be sure to watch the learning taking place. It is there in the wonder and discovery that happens naturally in the season.

Kid friendly recipes 

https://tasty.co/article/melissaharrison/cooking-with-kids

Grateful in 2020? Why Not?

Let’s face it when we rang 2020 in on December 31, 2019 none of us expected what we got.

No one cheers in a year knowing a pandemic is around the corner. 

That natural disasters will destroy towns, cities and countries; or that social unrest will lead to the violence and riots we have seen.

Who would have predicted that masks would become the height of fashion and necessary wear in public. I am pretty sure none of us would have stayed up late and partied in a new year we thought would be what we have experienced.

One Thing I Am Sure of is We Each have Something or Someone to be Grateful For.

Sometimes you have to really look at a situation and dig for the good. 

I had no idea in April, when we went downstairs to do the laundry, that stepping into a foot and a half of raw sewage would actually become a blessing. 

Nor the week before having my hours cut would be an amazing gift, allowing me time to clean the mess we had just discovered.

All I knew is I felt dirty, defeated and paralyzed. 

Two days later the out of state landlord who had not seen his property in over 20 years would announce he was not fixing, what was becoming an annual, and increasingly worse problem, but that he was selling and we needed to relocate. 

Try taking that all in on a tight budget, in a pandemic and in a house that smelled worse than an outhouse.

But now 7 months later, we have less stuff, to clutter our hearts and lives. We live on a tighter budget, in a very small space. But we have all we need, a clean safe home, a place to do laundry, a tub we can safely take a bath in and each other and all three of our cats.

Yes, that disaster in the basement was a blessing in disguise.

2020 is it  Blessing in Disguise?

A friend just told me, 

“2020 is not the year to get everything we want, but it is the year to be grateful for everything we have.”

So while you may have to dig deep.....what are you grateful for this year?

What does make you smile?

Where is the goodness you saw in 2020?

Take time to think on these things.

Links I Think Have Value 

https://fromfingerprintstomasterpieces.blogspot.com/2017/11/are-you-displaying-attitude-of-gratitude.html

https://escapeadulthood.com/blog/

https://hazon.org/gratitude-video/

https://www.facebook.com/escapeadulthood/videos/778120933024095/

https://www.ted.com/talks/jason_kotecki_escape_adulthood?

utm_campaign=tedspread&utm_medium=referral&utm_source=tedcomshare

https://youtu.be/Lm9BG712jdY

Teaching Preschool in a Pandemic is Not for The Faint of Heart

 I was not taught how to handle a pandemic while attending classes for Early Childhood Development. In fact, I bet no one even considered such a thing would be necessary. 

I have attended classes and meetings on Zoom, taken classes on trauma and how it affects children. I have studied how isolation is not healthy for a child’s development. I have had countless hours of training on infectious diseases and blood borne pathogens. Never did I think I would have to glean from them all I could to be an affective teacher in 2020.

So many countries, states, counties and school districts have rules regulating how best to protect others and still provide the essential care needed, that Early Childhood Educators provide. Yet once again, so little funding and support is being given to the Early Child Work Force. These COVID regulations do not promote best practices, nor are they developmentally appropriate.

We are essential, we help you have a safe, healthy place to feel secure in leaving your child while you head off to work, either in the comfort and safety of your home or out into the world full of an unseen virus and a myriad of response to how people behave based on what they believe to be true about this novel disease. I understand the concern Healthcare Workers, Grocery Store Employees and Fire and Police feel, over concern for their families. I have the same for my family, but a very tight budget to ensure I will make it financially if something were to affect my health, my husband’s health or cost me my place of employment. 

No one has increased my pay, offered me healthy insurance, paid for my life insurance or even given my center more money to cover the necessary expenses to keep our infection rates low and sterilize our environment. Rarely is the mental health of me or my colleagues discussed on the news, or in education circles. We worry about the school teachers and their students, but our little ones are being impacted very deeply.

Children need to socialize and play with other children. This can not be achieved in this solution of isolated play spaces, with individual sets of toys and limited physical contact. This method, some centers are using to stay open, seem harsher than the conditions in the penal system and our children have committed no crime. 

If this is our answer, is community child care safe? Should I be allowing myself and my children to be in an environment that leads to this type of reality? 

My students are tired, stressed and anxious. They feel the stress their families are feeling. They know their lives have changed. Their emotional, social and physical needs are greater than they should be at this young age. But if those of us who educate these young minds, and mold these future adults are not cared for what will happen to our youth?

I am the cream of the crop. Many educators I know are the cream of the crop. Yet it will be those of us who go above and beyond out of respect for the young child and their worth that will die in the trenches. If COVID doesn’t get us, than exhaustion, depression or poverty will eliminate us. What will be left behind will not be devoted to the education of young children. 

It’s time we realize we are not just essential so others can do their job. We are INDISPENSABLE, VITAL, and CRUCIAL to the overall well-being of our children. 

https://fromfingerprintstomasterpieces.blogspot.com/2018/03/i-am-more-than-just-preschool-teacher.html

Let’s Revisit Ways to Reduce Holiday Stress

 Below is a post I wrote in 2018 because I was concerned then, about the holidays and my students’ stress levels. 

Today stress and children are still a concern of mine. This year we are not only expecting the normal holiday stress, but we are in the middle of a World Wide Pandemic. 

Our children, and us have had 7 or more months of stress and there is no end insight. Reflect on my words from a few years ago. Put self-care for you and your family at the front of all plans the next few months.

We are fast approaching the busiest time in our lives as adults. 

The holidays come with unrealistic expectations put on us by others and by ourselves.  We plan our ideal holiday season and experience in our mind and judge our season by how we met those ideals. 
Children live in the now. They anticipate what is coming but rejoice in what is all around them.  Their excitement and anticipation weighs on our expectations and preconceived notions of what they need to experience the season. 
Then we loose control and spiral into frustration, stress and anger because we feel overwhelmed and as if we are accomplishing nothing with too much on our plate.
Too much we need not have dished up.

Let’s look at the wonder of childhood. 

Everything is in the now. Sights and sounds are distracting and intriguing, but they beckon “come explore me”.  Any decorations you put up are going to entice touch, handling, exploring and carrying.  All of these things are developmentally appropriate for children.  The smells of the season add to another area of excitement and overstimulation.  Anticipation of cookies warm from the oven, favorite foods and the arrival of special guests.

There is so much to be excited about and to do that little bodies can’t handle the rise of emotions and it comes tumbling out.  It erupts in squeals of joy, outbursts of tears, angry fits and tired yawns.  If you get worn out at your age and you have had how many years to practicing how to handle holiday stress, why are you surprised a child gets caught up in it as fast or faster than you.  They are not being bad, rude or naughty they are being an overwhelmed child.

So let’s take time to evaluate our lives and feelings about the holidays so we can make their holidays meaningful. 
How much do you really need to decorate?
Does it all need to go up at once?
Do you need to decorate every cranny of your classroom, your house, your wardrobe?

What is the most important to you?
Start there add slowly, like a Christmas count down add a little each day.

What part of the holidays do you love the most?
How can you add it into your day, your work environment, your lesson plan? Be sure to add it into your home.

Do you like Christmas music, play it when you can, choose what is appropriate for your work environment, totally not allowed Christmas music, pick classical music that reminds you of Christmas, The Nutcracker Suite, Mannheim Steamroller, etc...
Do you like to bake? Cook with your students, stone soup, cookies, bread, popcorn to string, be creative and remember allergies your students might have.

Keep their schedule on track.  As a teacher keep a routine, but pull back where you can.  Provide more exercise and outdoor time.  Add lots of sensory activities that are calming, like clay, play dough, slime. Teach them how to take deep relaxing breaths and do not loose your calm. They are going to take their cues from you and build off your stress.  Most of all find ways to enjoy the moments of the holidays with them.