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School Readiness AND Developmentally Appropriate Practice? How to Get on the Same Page with Parents.

November 1, 2017 by notjustcute Filed Under: Building Readers, Child Development & DAP, Learning through Play and Experience, Uncategorized 1 Comment

When I do workshops and trainings with teachers, I often hear several variations of the same question.

“But what about at home?”

[Read more…]

Process Over Product — It’s not just about art.

September 27, 2017 by notjustcute Filed Under: Child Development & DAP, Learning through Play and Experience, Uncategorized 2 Comments

“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.

[Read more…]

A Patchwork Philosophy

September 20, 2017 by notjustcute Filed Under: Child Development & DAP, Uncategorized 8 Comments

“Are you a homeschooler?”

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Why Telling Kids What NOT to Do Tends to Backfire

June 27, 2017 by notjustcute Filed Under: Positive Guidance and Social Skills, Uncategorized 2 Comments

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.

[Read more…]

Language for Literacy – The Importance of Building Vocabulary in Preschool

June 13, 2017 by notjustcute Filed Under: Building Readers, Uncategorized 3 Comments

boys

“Does he ever stop talking?”

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The Serve and Return of Responsive Interactions

June 1, 2017 by notjustcute Filed Under: Child Development & DAP, Uncategorized 1 Comment

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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.

[Read more…]

12 Powerful Parenting Phrases that Make Talking to Kids Easier (Even When the Situation is Anything But Easy…)

May 3, 2017 by notjustcute Filed Under: Child Development & DAP, Positive Guidance and Social Skills, Uncategorized 23 Comments

family

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.”

[Read more…]

Friendship in the Culture of Childhood

April 26, 2017 by notjustcute Filed Under: Child Development & DAP, Positive Guidance and Social Skills, Uncategorized Leave a Comment

friends

 

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…]

Are We Wishing Away Time?

April 4, 2017 by notjustcute Filed Under: Uncategorized 2 Comments

Only Love Today

 

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The Podcast Has Arrived PLUS The Read Along Begins

March 23, 2017 by notjustcute Filed Under: Uncategorized Leave a Comment

Podcast image

In 2016 I set a goal to launch a podcast in the early part of 2017.  Hopefully, the tail end of March still counts as early in the year, because I have finally been able to launch the first (very imperfect) episodes of Not Just Cute, the Podcast.  The learning curve is steep when it comes to making podcasts.  There is so much going on behind the scenes between inception to streaming that I never realized.  But I’ve been lucky to have some wonderful experts to glean from, and after a lot of trial and error, I think I just might be getting the hang of this.

[Read more…]

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I’m Amanda Morgan. Here’s what I’m about…

In early education, there is too much distance between what we know and what we do. I bridge the gaps that exist between academia, decision-makers, educators, and parents so that together, we can improve the quality of early education while also respecting and protecting the childhood experience.

Content Copyrighted (2008-2025), Amanda Morgan, All Rights Reserved

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