Whole Child Development
“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.
What does “teaching reading” look like in a developmentally appropriate early childhood classroom?
One of my favorite stories from my parents’ early experiences as a young married couple at law school ends with my mom opening her front door to find a friendly neighbor standing there next to my sister (a young preschooler at the time), who had stripped down to her nothings and was covered in mud.
My sister was elated.
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.
Talking to kids can come so easily. They have thoughts about everything and stories for miles. They see the world in a completely different light, and could ask enough questions to fill an afternoon. I, for example, could ask my second oldest son to tell me what he thinks about Star Wars, and I’ll have to schedule out the next four days to listen to his stories, conjectures, questions, analyses, and highlights. My contribution will be simply to say, “Yes!”, “Wow!”, and “I hadn’t thought of that.”
I have really been enjoying my podcast conversations with Emily Plank, author of Discovering the Culture of Childhood. Because her book is the NJC Read Along Book this year, we’ve had the chance to have several in-depth discussions about the observations she writes about.
(If you’re new to the Read Along, read more about it here. Catch up on the podcasts here.)
I wasn’t surprised by how much I’ve enjoyed talking with Emily, but I was surprised by some of the feedback I got about our conversation in Episode 5, specifically about friendships in early childhood. Listeners mentioned that they had several light-bulb moments as Emily flipped their perspectives of childhood friendships, so I wanted to address that topic here on the blog as well. [Read more…]
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.”
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