Whole Child Development
Water is everywhere in our lives. Without much thought, we bathe in it, drink it, cook with it, and wash our hands over and over on a daily basis. And in spite of its everyday status, there’s still something mesmorizing about it, especially for children. They’ll scoop, pour, and explore, over and over and over again.
Christie Burnett is an accomplished Aussie blogger who specializes in early education and child development. Sometime between running her exceptional blog, Childhood 101, and writing a fantastic ebook, she’s also just produced the first issue of a wonderful e-zine, Play. Grow. Learn. Read on to get to know more about Christie and this new resource for parents and educators. (I only wish you could hear her delightful Aussie accent as well. Go ahead and add your own if you like.) [Read more…]
Think about how many fonts you have access to on your computer. Between books, magazines, posters, and signs, how many more fonts do you see in one day? While these types all look different, there is enough of a similarity between them to make it possible to recognize one letter across multiple fonts (at least until you get to Wingdings — does anyone really use those?).
In order to be capable readers in the world around them, children eventually need to be able to recognize letters across a variety of fonts as well. While I would always recommend first introducing letters in a simple font, as a child becomes familiar she can examine a variety of fonts to find what salient qualities makes a “T” a “T” and a “B” a “B”, no matter how many extra curls are attached. [Read more…]
A trip to Ikea is a fun adventure for me! I go in with a list, but there are just so many ideas that start swirling once I step past those sliding doors. Their children’s section is exciting on its own, but I’ve recently come across some different uses for items in their other sections that can be put to great use in kids’ spaces as well.
I hear it a lot. “They’ll do X later, so we might as we’ll have them start now.”
Standardized testing starts in third grade, so we’ll start “practicing” in kindergarten.
Children rotate through teachers in junior high, so we don’t need to worry about issues like continuity of care in the early years. They’re just getting ready.
We need proficient readers by the end of second grade, so let’s start using flashcards with babies.
I was sitting in a meeting recently where early childhood professionals were discussing this trend to push down curriculum, expectations, and standards and these were the types of answers they would get when they questioned practices that weren’t developmentally appropriate.
They’ll need to do it later, so let’s start now.
The backwards logic was striking to me. They’ll do it later because that’s when it’s appropriate. So I made this suggestion,“How about this. The next time someone offers that as their reasoning, ask them if they want one of their preschoolers to give them a ride home. They’ll probably need to drive later anyway, so we might as well start now.” [Read more…]
We all know about Jack and Jill and their unfortunate experience. Wouldn’t it have been nice if they’d just had running water?
First Friday Q & A for September…Where did summer go?
(You can also find the video here.)
I’m so excited for Nicole (who said: “Thanks for the giveaway! I am so impressed by the blog tour and look forward to following Not Just Cute going forward!“). She’s the winner of the Playful Learning giveaway! Don’t worry, the rest of you can pick up Playful Learning at Amazon (it’s absolutely worth it). And you can still register for the fabulous Playful Learning ecourse, which starts September 14th, by clicking here.
I also wanted to share with you a few more resources available now. You could take advantage of all four of these for just $10 total! (In fact, one offers the possibility of actually making money!)
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