On Subsequent Inspection...

 Friday afternoon, I walked back into my classroom to a scene that is not unusual in any group of young children. One child had just hit another (both three years old), attempting to get a coveted toy. I walked over to the two, and as I always do, I looked at the crying child who had been hit and said, "Wow, it looks like Y is really hurting." Then, I recognized that wasn't the whole picture, and looked at the child who had hit (this time), who was already averting their eyes, and said, "It looks like A is hurting too." A turned around, stunned at my ability to perceive what was obvious to them. This time, at least. "Yeah!" They exclaimed. Y stopped crying and looked at A. I offered hugs to both, and attempted to sportscast what I saw. "A wanted that toy, and Y had it! Y didn't want to be hit." A looked at Y, and said, "Yeah, and I really wanted the truck, but I didn't want to hurt you." Both children found a spot i...

I saw an interaction this morning that stopped me in my tracks. A child, newly three, was crying because he had lost a toy in the car. Then he began yelling. Then kicking. The upset kept intensifying as his caregiver watched, not wanting to stop him from getting through his feelings (as she told another adult who asked if she could assist). She's surely been told somewhere along the line that accepting children's feelings means not stopping them. Yay!...But she's missing some follow -up. Children need to know that it's okay to be angry or sad or excited or whatever else they feel. But they also sometimes need help getting through to the calm after. An adult standing by, mute, communicates a lack of interest, not acceptance. The child intensifies, needing guidance and reassurance. The adult, so good - heartedly eager to accept the child as they are, remains unphased. The child cries out more for the centering that occurs when an adult they're attached to can initia...

At a site today, I overheard a well-meaning teacher of two-year-olds tell a child at a water table, "Don't put those bubbles on your face, you might get them in your eyes or mouth!" I resisted asking the teacher whether or not she had ever had bubbles in her eyes or mouth, as my presence there was not in a capacity that allowed for much input from me. However, her insistence that it hurt, coupled with the presence of both her eyes, implied that she had in fact gotten soap in her eyes and successfully recovered. Meanwhile, the child was exploring the sensation of bubbles on his face. Minutes before, we had been discussing how he looked like daddy shaving, and how those same dangerous bubbles tickled his cheeks. While I'm not disputing that there a few things I'd prefer in my eyes to bubble bath, the fact is that this teacher shut down some great sensorial and language learning opportunities for the fear of... temporary discomfort? Needing a towel? The molecules...

There is a lovely and well-meaning article that has been making the social media rounds recently entitled To My Baby's Day Care Teacher , found on the Oklahoma City Mom's Blog. My first reaction was in line with most childcare providers; we are seen! We are appreciated! Working 9 to 12 hour days for minimum wage is worthwhile! Then I realized that as a field, early childhood educators could be both emotionally appreciated and appropriately compensated. As a (former) family child care home operator, I was open from 7 AM to 5:30 PM, with about 30-45 minutes on each side for preparation and tear-down. I planned my weeks on Saturdays and Sundays, typically grocery and supply shopping for 3-4 hours and planning for an additional 3-4 hours. My personal time off was limited to one week per calendar year and three sick days. This was more generous to myself than many providers, who don't take vacations or sick days. For this, I was compensated about $4/hour (depending on the numb...

A while back, a friend asked if I wrote all of the content on here. I responded, "yes, and any inconsistencies should be attributed to professional growth and not confusion". This post is a testament to that, as I review what I wrote  here, in the post "The Kid You Have" . While I maintain that the core theme is critical; loving children means honoring all of their gooey-nosed glory; I must make a public correction regarding the content. I've recently been reading  Threads of Thinking: Schemas and Young Children's Learning by Cathy Nutbrown , and it has made me realize that I missed something HUGE in the "undesirable" behavior detailed in that old entry. The child throwing balls (and shovels and everything else) outside the fence was exploring the "enclosure" schema, and I missed it because all I could see was the toys leaving the yard for the street! Of course I'm not suggesting that childcare providers or parents should consider...

In the last several years, I’ve made a radical shift in philosophy. Rather than seeing children as people who need to learn a checklist of skills by a certain time, I’ve begun seeing children as self-motivated learners, capable of taking in information as they need it to make sense of their world. This is mostly because I am a terrible student in traditional means. If I have a question about why a plant in my garden is growing poorly, or how to make my home computer network work together better, or how to conjugate an irregular verb in Spanish, I’ll read heaps of books and credible websites until my initial question is answered. Why would I be so egotistical as to assume that my brain is somehow special? Why would anyone expect that brains suddenly develop this capability at age eighteen or whenever compulsory education ends? People don’t stop learning because they’re not in school; people don’t stop learning, period. When was the last time someone sat down a three-year-old and intent...

If our nation's interest in early childhood STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) education were a genuine push for scientific thinking and literacy, it would probably look a lot less like this:                                                                 And a lot more like this: If we want to teach and encourage scientific thinking, we need to start with the classic: this scientific method. For those of us who haven't been in a science class for a while, this is the scientific method: 1. Observe or describe a phenomenon/Ask a question. 2. Do your research. 3. Create a hypothesis. 4. Test that hypothesis. 5. Did it work? If it did, go to step 6. If not, return to steps 2-4. 6. Draw your conclusions. For those of us who haven't been around infants for a while, people are bor...

Imagine you're in bed, about to fall asleep. Your significant other is cuddled up to you (or on the other side of the bed, maybe you prefer a little space), your blankets are right where you need them, and you can barely keep your eyes open; not that you want to. Suddenly, your neighbor walks in. You're on good terms with your neighbor, but they're not your best friend or anything. Why are they in your room? Even more to the point, why are they stroking your hair and telling you how old and fat you're getting? This is rapidly encroaching on illegal, right? Why is this socially acceptable to do to people who can't speak up to protest? Why are there people who feel the need to pick up, pat the head, or tickle the feet of every small child they encounter? Why are strangers more willing to touch a strange baby than a strange dog? It seems to come back to the image of the child, and the idea that they are less human and more ornamental. It takes a perspective shi...

As I've grown in my own understanding of what play is, I've been working on acknowledging that everything young children do of their own volition has value to them. I was reminded today of the value of watching and biting my tongue. One preschooler began squealing unhappily. Another had taken a dish from her and was running away. They began chasing each other across the house, both yelling now. I looked at the first child's (Henceforth referred to as A) face to decide if I needed to intervene. I looked at the other child's face (henceforth referred to as E). To my utter surprise, they were both smiling. A moment later, A exclaimed, "Shiver me timbers! Give back my ponies!" What would I have done if I hadn't paused for that moment? I would have intervened, thinking I was helping model problem-solving but instead ending their game abruptly. They would have lost their game entirely, as I ended it with a "teachable moment". Their developing social ...

African-American 3 year old brings me a copy of The Magic School Bus On The Ocean Floor to read to her. She opens the book to find Keesha on the third page with her hair in cornrows. She smiles, and pulls down the hood on her sweater to expose her own cornrows.

As an advocate for viewing children as competent, whole humans, I spend a lot of time reflecting on how to ensure the children get that message from what I say and do with them. It turns out the best way I've found so far to convey this is to sit on my hands and bite my tongue. Now, of course, those hands have plenty of uses, turning pages, fetching necessary supplies, providing endless hugs and "uppy"s, but when a child is engaged in a project, it is my job to keep those same hands as far away as possible. When the Duplo block is not pushed all the way onto the one below it, would it be simple and nearly unnoticeable to push it the rest of the way while the child was searching for the next piece? Of course. But if I did that, the child would miss out on the chance to notice it themself, and either correct it or not. By not correcting, that child will learn One way that structure is susceptible to outside forces like gravity.  To notice where the structure broke, wh...