Advanced Content Coverage at Kindergarten: What Can We Really Learn from this Controversial New Study?
The debate over the roles of play and academics in kindergarten is not new. While my first response to this tired argument is always that it is a false dichotomy, a more specific challenge has recently entered the arena and therefore deserves a more specific response.
Can the Wrong Metrics Kill Learning?
This year didn’t quite start out the way I had hoped. BUT, I did manage to cross off a goal millions of people set at the beginning of the year, and after only a few weeks in.
Communicating the Importance of Early Childhood Education to Parents
It’s easy to feel like early childhood educators have enough on their plates as they educate young children. It’s a big job, with little downtime in the daily schedule, and no hazard pay (though there are plenty of hazards…especially during flu season…)
Process Over Product — It’s not just about art.
“Process over product”. We hear that phrase frequently in early childhood, most often referring to the perspective that the process of participating in the creative process is more important to a child’s development than the craft-factory product we may be tempted to focus on.
The Serve and Return of Responsive Interactions
I loved playing volleyball in high school. I took pride in being a scrappy player. “Ball first, body second” was the motto that led me to be colorfully adorned with bruises all over my elbows and hips during each season. It’s also the reason I wound up in the ER (twice) for stitches in my chin. In my view, the ball wasn’t unplayable until the second it hit the ground. Up until that point, I did everything I physically could to get my body to the ball.
Maybe We Should Teach the Way They Learn
In America, we currently have this idea that our children are struggling academically so the answer lies in pushing them more and more, at earlier and earlier ages… If our children are struggling academically, it does not make sense to make them do more of the same things that are failing them and from a younger age.”
What I’m NOT Saying When I Speak About Developmentally Appropriate Practice
When I get the chance to speak to groups about DAP I cover a lot of ground.
I talk about things like: [Read more…]
Teaching Children the Way They’re Meant to Learn: Read Along Section One –What if Everybody Understood Child Development?
Spinach and Easter Grass: Revisiting a First Friday Q&A
In last month’s First Friday Q&A, I talked about why quality preschool is so valuable, with the caveat that hanging a shingle that says PRESCHOOL and congregating with children, is not enough to qualify for the benefits early education has shown in established studies.