Whole Child Development
Think about Jean Piaget, Maria Montessori, and Nate Berkus. How do these three fit in a group? Each has taught the strong impact of a thoughtfully prepared environment. Attractive and organized, of course, but it’s not just about aesthetics, it’s also about purpose.
This week, I’ve written about the Importance of a Good Foundation and introduced you to Literacy Beginnings — A Prekindergarten Handbook, a resource I truly believe will become a new standard resource for early literacy. After Wednesday’s post outlining the wealth of information in this great book, you might be surprised to know there’s even MORE!
I had orginally planned on including the Time Timer in the First Friday Q&A, but it just didn’t seem to jive with the hot topic I ended up with for the Q&A feature, so I’m giving it a post of its own.
This is one of my favorite time management tools for kids. It’s a great way to help children grasp the concept of time. Check it out in this video:
Carol Kranowitz and Joye Newman had me interested before I even opened their new book, Growing an In-Sync Child. I was already familiar with the Out-of-Sync Child books, written by Kranowitz as a toolbox for helping kids with Sensory Processing Disorder. I had actually just picked up one of the resources to use with some of the consulting work I do when I was given a copy of this newer book.
The premise of the new book really struck me, and yet seemed so obvious. The work that Carol and Joye had devoted more than 70 combined years to, has been life-changing for children with SPD. But children with SPD are not the only ones who become out-of-sync. We all have our out-of-sync moments. In fact, today’s pace and culture seems often to perpetuate this out-of-sync state. As Joye and Carol question in their book, “Is it the child that is out of sync – or is it the world?”
It’s a sunny Monday morning, and time for a giveaway! Thank you to all of you for your comments, and a huge thanks to Sarah Baldwin of Bella Luna Toys and to Sarah Lee of Sarah’s Silks! Please check out their beautiful, high-quality products for children!
So many great ideas for using the Time Timer! Thank you all for your suggestions! According to my highly sophisticated system for generating random numbers, the winner is Andrea, who said,
“Well, I have a rather impatient little boy, especially when it comes to food. I would love to be able to show him visually that when I say lunch will be ready in 5 minutes, he can have a better understanding of his wait time. Less abstract.”
As I’ve been writing about routines and transitions, I’ve thought back to an interesting product I discovered not long ago. This product, called the Time Timer, displays time visually with a red segment that gets smaller as time progresses. This is a great way to help children understand the concept of time. Instead of verbal reminders, which often sound arbitrary to young children who can’t tell if 20 minutes is longer than 5 minutes, time becomes a visual concept.
It’s a gorgeous day today! The sun is shining, the sky is clear, and the air could almost be called warm. A beautiful day like today makes this weekend’s winter storm warning so hard to believe. But living in the present, today gives me hope that spring is on its way! So in honor of a sunny day, and because I’m high on the sunshine-induced endorphins, I’m giving away two of these sunny yellow books! Doreen Cronin’s Click, Clack, Quackity-Quack is a cleverly alliterated barnyard alphabet book. I have two paperback copies I want to share with you! Just comment here and let me know about your favorite things to do with children in the spring. Two winners will be chosen at random on Monday morning. Maybe reading your ideas will keep me warm when I’m back in the snow this weekend!
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