-
Let’s talk about breath baby!
The Problem A student in your class has become extremely agitated. They show the typical symptoms leading to a melt down. Tightened fists, tense facial muscles, perhaps some tears and of course, shallow quick breathing. In this moment, our first words are “Take a deep breath”. Easier said than done. But, we persevere and break through the barrier that was put up by this tiny body and guide them through several deep breaths, with our own lungs modeling the activity, before reaching a conflict resolution. Now, let’s hold on a moment. This seems like a great moment! We were able to guide this student to a relaxed state and work…
-
Hey Grown Ups! We Need to Wiggle!
The Problem Children ages 3-8 receive approximately 15-25 minutes to move during their 6-8 hour school day. Imagine for a moment that you have to sit at your work desk for 6-8 hours without leaving your seat except for 20 minutes to move around (often times in an empty gymnasium) and about 30 minutes to eat your lunch. At the end of the day you’d be breaking down, exhausted, on the verge of tears and increasingly unmotivated to return the next day. Your job performance would suffer and I’m sure your coworkers would bear the brunt of your misery. Now imagine that you are not equipped with the analytical capacity…
-
Multicultural Inclusion in an Early Childhood Education Classroom
It is important that parents and early childhood educators are aware of how multicultural education–or lack of it–can impact a student’s social emotional development. Early childhood educators have many responsibilities throughout the school day and beyond to ensure the success of their students. These responsibilities include morning meeting, assessments, and curriculum planning, development, and changes. Another responsibility that teachers have is to provide students with a multicultural education and ensure that there is a representation of diverse cultures and ethnicities in the classroom. As teachers, one of our goals is to create a classroom environment in which all students feel welcome and valued. Studies show that students are able to…
-
Conscious Gardening with Children
As parents, guardians, and educators, teaching children about where the food we eat comes from is essential to ensuring the next generation’s ability to make ethical and healthy decisions in the short and long term. Communities continue to spend less time engaging with food systems in concurrence with technological evolution, and as a result, so grows the distance between ourselves and our food systems. Sadly, many children grow up lacking connection to the journey that food takes from seed to fork. It’s a bleak situation, but fortunately for all of us, gardening exists. Ideally people of all ages, of all socioeconomic backgrounds, and from all parts of the world would…
-
For the Love of Sensory
There comes a moment that every parent, daycare teacher, and early childhood educator encounters when feeding an infant. The bib is secured, the spoon stirring the mush is handled steadily to ensure it gets directly into his mouth, and the wet washcloth is ready in hand to instantly wipe away any spillage. As I place the first spoonful into his mouth, I have the same reaction every grown up innately does– the spoon swipe. You know the motion, wiping upward with the spoon pushing that extra little bit of mush back into the little one’s mouth. With all of these attempts to keep clean, it is a common response that…
-
The Fear of Failing
Teaching an Appreciation for Failure and Encouraging a Growth Mindset Many factors contribute to a child’s inner voice and mindset. Educators, parents and guardians have the ability to shape and reverse how a child reacts, feels and approaches academic and personal challenges. A child’s fixed mindset and fear of failure can hinder his desire to fully immerse himself in learning experiences. When a child has a fixed mindset, he believes that his intelligence is limited; he does not respond well to failure—associating failure with being unintelligent and unsuccessful; and he will seek out activities that are not challenging to validate his intelligence rather than work through an activity that he…
Fostering an Intrinsic Love for Learning and Inquiry