Monday 23 December 2013

Kids just wanna have fun

Apparently children love to help. 

On the last day of work we were working like maniacs to clean every inch of our room, toys, furniture, walls, yard etc. There was no point feeling guilty about the lack of attention we were giving the children because there are only so many hours in a day and what has to be done, has to be done. In the process of cleaning we made a lot of mess, so the children were left to fend for themselves amongst a sprawling display of Duplo, instruments, and random plastic toys laid out on the floor. The Duplo was left because they insisted on us leaving it, the instruments because despite my loathing of noise they continue to bash away at them at all hours of the day, and the random toys because who knew what to do with them. It was easier to just tip them out onto the floor. 

I asked the children if they'd like to wash some toys, thinking they'd love it. Water is involved, and when you don't want them to play with it (like in the middle of winter) they always find a way to sneak away and do it. We had small success with several children who managed to wash some toys for a matter of minutes, but most remained uninterested. "You can get wet!" I said, hoping the others would like to help. "You can get as wet as you want, it's hot!", I said to no avail. So we continued to clean like maniacs while they continued to play happily with the sprawling mess on the floor. 

At one point I looked over and saw about eight children sitting in groups of twos or threes completely involved in constructing with Duplo. "Look how engaged they are!" I said to someone. It never ceases to amaze me how they can engage themselves with so little, so I'm constantly annoying people by mentioning it. Afterall children aren't supposed to be able to do that these days. And Duplo? I would have thought they'd be beyond that at four years old. With the exception of one particular helper who was washing toys for me at 5.30 that afternoon, most of the children continued to play, making as much mess as they could get away with until their parents took them home and left us to clean more. 

Kids just wanna have fun, and who can blame them? They'll be working for the rest of their lives. And how cute are they when they're engaged in play and oblivious to everything around them? And who says they should be playing with something more complex then Duplo at four years old? Maybe they loved being able to play on the floor and not being told to keep the toys on the table. And what if they bash away at instruments with big grins on their faces when we want peace and quiet and get all wet in the middle of winter? We can only attempt to control their instincts to do whatever it is they want. Kids just wanna have fun, (and remember) it's only kindergarten. 


Saturday 7 December 2013

Vive la difference

The world turns on the fact that we are all different. 

So why are we trying to fix children? I understand the reason. We want to set our children up to meet every challenge and achieve every success in life. We want to make sure that every trait that could potentially hinder a child from sailing through life is stopped in its tracks, boosted, scaffolded, curbed, hidden or fixed. It puts us under a lot of pressure as educators. On a personal level having someone even suggest that the children I care for are anything less than beautiful and perfect exactly how they are affects me deeply. What's worse it places their parents in positions of self-doubt, worry and blame that are probably unnecessary and unfounded.

How do we know that these differences are liabilities? They are traits. They are what makes us who we are. Every trait exists on a continuum which I like to imagine as being a set of scales, with the positive benefits of a particular trait on one side and the potential liabilities on the other. An artist may be overly sensitive which may sometimes be a liability, but this same trait enables him to create art. An engineer may be seen as slightly lacking in empathy, but this same objectivity is vital to her job. The road to self improvement is paved with good intentions, but are we trying to improve ourselves into a society of clones?

Children develop at different rates in different areas. As long as they are developing within a range that is considered normal there shouldn't be cause for concern. We should be giving them all the love we can, the opportunities we can, and the experiences we can. We should be giving them the support, respect and boundaries that they need to feel secure, independent and strong, then we should be able to sit back and watch them flourish. They have been born with all the internal motivations, drives and tools that they need. Our job is to provide them with an environment that enables them to confidently access them.

Celebrate the difference! Happiness may not come from success, but may come from being able to be who we truly are, to be able to use our traits to fully express ourselves, to make our own choices, and to make a difference in people's lives. Every child is beautiful and perfect and shouldn't be under any pressure to compete with others or perfect themselves. Early childhood is a time for children to learn, explore, innocently express themselves without self-consciousness, and to give and receive love without limits. Let's let this happen.

Friday 1 November 2013

'Ethical lntelligence'

I was introduced to this term today for the first time.

My study at the moment has been around the AusVELS Curriculum and its Cross-curricular Priorities. The Early Years Learning Framework also covers these broad areas which we believe should underpin children's learning, so we talk a lot in the industry about reflecting diversity and embedding sustainability. I feel that I'm lagging behind in the area of reflecting cultural diversity in my program. I've been hesitant because of a fear of being seen as tokenistic or culturally insensitive and so I've been confused about how to proceed in this area. At the same time personal ethics and integrity is central to how I see myself and how I want to be seen, so I really want to learn how to improve in this.

I watched a documentary during the week called 'The Celluloid Closet', which talked about Hollywood depictions of gay and lesbian people from the earliest films until today. I wasn't prepared for the shocking negativity in the earlier films, so I was quite confronted by what I saw. Some well known people spoke about the way that as children we look to movies to provide us with a view of what the world should be like. As a result when we feel that we are not represented, or are represented negatively, we come to believe that there's no place for us in society. It goes to the depths of our need for belonging and our sense of worth as people. This struck a real chord with me.

Interestingly, it was reinforced by our conversation today about how the cross-curricular priorities can be embedded into less receptive curriculum areas such as English, maths and science. This is where we have to be more creative. It's not so much a call to create entire units of work around these areas, but a reminder not to neglect the less-mainstream aspects of Australian culture when we create our programs. We need to see minority groups as integral to Australian culture rather than as separate from it. Some ideas that were suggested were to use a book about science written by a well-known Aboriginal scientist, to incorporate Japanese style poetry into a poetry unit, to explore traditional Indigenous perspectives on astronomy, and to look at the mathematical symbols in Aboriginal bark painting.

The way to assimilate minority populations into our culture is to view them as already having been assimilated. All cultures are changing, evolving, adapting things, which are continually being enriched by diversity. We can't control or own how our culture evolves, but we can have agency in improving peoples perceptions and perspectives. Naturally, as usual, children are our answer. Open-minded, accepting and having strong senses of justice, they also have the tendency to assimilate our view-points. Let's take up the challenge to question our own prejudices so we can avoid having them continue on to the next generation.

Saturday 26 October 2013

In the zone

Nothing compares to being totally immersed in the process of creating

At least, this is how I feel. Czikszentmihalyi called this process 'flow'. Sometimes when I'm at my keyboard singing, time ceases to exist and I don't want to stop, or if I'm writing poetry or songs, or decorating my room, or writing my blog. The adult world leaves so little time for total immersion. We're usually aware of the limits of time and the pressing obligations of adult life. Not so with children. They have the benefit of living mostly in the present. This is our opportunity to allow them to fully experience 'flow', wonder, joy and full immersion in the creative process.

This is what early childhood education should be all about. Timetables, routines and curriculum documents hinder 'flow'. The Reggio educators know this. Abundant materials are provided for children to explore. A variety of rooms are allocated to craft, music and movement, which means that children have uncluttered space for creativity and the opportunity to revisit and extend their work over a period of time. Packing away and sharing stifle creativity too.

The question is, what are we going to do about this? Just remember it. Keep it in mind. Allow yourself to experience 'flow' sometimes. Creativity is good for the soul. The process can be satisfying and the product can be satisfying. Don't think it has to be about one or the other. Try to remember to let the children go sometimes. Let them create whatever they want without hovering over them asking them what they're creating. It's so easy to want to control the outcome and document it.

Allowing children to experience 'flow' will enable them to develop self-images as creators. It will provide them with the motivation to keep creating, just because, just for their own joy and satisfaction. When this becomes a need in them, they will have the possibility of progressing as adult creators. Being in the zone means that their minds will stay alive with the possibilities that creative thinking and imagining produce.

This is so important for their future. Knowing the answers won't be enough in the workplaces of the future. Being able to create new questions will be the key. We want our children to succeed in the workplace and experience wellbeing in their personal lives. Enabling them to exist in the moment now, immersing their senses, developing their own theories, honouring their own perspectives, and creating their own outcomes will give them the skills that they will need to proceed through a challenging, changing future.

Aesthetics

What role do aesthetics have in children's creativity and learning?

I read something yesterday that I've never heard before and I found it fascinating. Vea Vecchi worked for years as an atelierista at one of the Reggio schools in Italy. I was reading a book she recently wrote in which she tells her stories about the Reggio arteliers and the practices that were founded on Magaluzzi's theories of early childhood education.

Vecchi speaks about her concern with the lack of attention that modern teachers pay to aesthetics in their learning environments. I've found that aesthetics is something people seem to either have acquired or not have acquired. It seems impossible to fake it. I've always been concerned with the way things look. I like to look at pretty things and feel a lot of satisfaction when I create them, so this is something that's always interested me.

The Reggio centres are constructed very differently to the centres here. Photos show large, white rooms with big, glass windows and doors, wide tables for producing artwork, and lots of plants and mirrors. They're not the typical children's spaces we're used to but they've been set-up specifically to cater for children's learning and creativity.

Vecchi said that aesthetic awareness is the ability to experience empathy with materials and objects, which results in the ability to arrange them together in seemingly unrelated ways. The interesting thing is, she believes aesthetic awareness not only enables children to create beautiful art, architecture and design, but it also enhances their learning in general.

Vecchi uses an example of children's exploration of leaves. The children will be given leaves to hold. They will examine them with magnifying glasses. They will observe the colours, textures and elements. They will represent their leaves in drawings, paintings and sculpture. The children will now have built intimate relationships with the leaves based on their appreciation of their beauty. This could in turn result in them developing a fascination with the entire plant world.

This is a subject worthy of a lot more thought. In the meantime it wouldn't hurt to create beautiful spaces for children to work in, arrange art materials in visually appealing ways, give children the opportunity to engage with the natural world, and surround them with shades of coloured paint, fabric, lights, shadows, images, photographs and pieces of music. I believe that I model aesthetics and creativity for my children at work, and I'm so proud of the artistic creations that they're developing on their own. There is always more to be done and now I'm inspired to construct more of my environment and learning experiences with this in mind.

Vecchi, V. (2010). Art and creativity in Reggio Emilia: Exploring the role and potential of ateliers in early childhood education.

Friday 4 October 2013

Flow: The path of least resistance

I think we're misunderstanding children's need for structure.

You've probably heard people say that children need structure. Unless you're a child psychologist and know something I don't know, I'll put up a good fight to convince you that you're wrong. I think we're using this statement to justify our need for structure. The children are being used as pawns in our need to control all aspects of our environments that are difficult to control. Children are the uncontrollable force (that is they're human). The population is in fact pretty well evenly split into those who prefer more structure and those who prefer less structure. Neither is to be ashamed of. And your workplace is not all about the children. You have an equal right to have your needs met.

Managing a group of children does not have to be about 'Hands on heads!', 'Everyone on the mat!', 'One, two, three', 'Line up!' This is about our fear that we won't be in control. Anyone who believes that another educator is more effective on the grounds that he or she displays this need for control is ignorant and wrong. That's not what we do now. Children shouldn't need to be controlled. Just take the path of least resistance. In early childhood education we look after the whole child. Child care is not only about preparation for school, it's also a substitute home environment for children whose parents need or choose to work. Because of this, I believe that it should be an education and care environment which is similar to the home, but has the added benefit of taking place in a social and community context.

Children's need for security and belonging doesn't require this type of structure. Security comes from knowing that the adults who care for you are always kind and fair, in knowing that you can count on them to meet your needs, in knowing that the environment is safe and well cared for, and in being part of a community that is built on expectations of respect. Being part of a community means we all matter, we all have ideas, we all contribute, and we all have some agency in determining how our day will flow. Yes, flow. The children know the routine, and yes it is generally consistent. They know that when they arrive in the morning they can choose the direction of their own learning. They know that when morning tea is over we can get ready to go outside. They know that when the trolley comes it will soon be lunchtime. They know that when I start to close the blinds, it means that they can decide whether they will move to the sleep side or the play side. If you think that children need to be ordered or transitioned into these routine activities during the day you are giving them far too little credit.

The way to maximise children's learning and overall wellbeing is to allow them to take some ownership of their environment, to fully exist, to be able to be in it. They should be able to fully engage with the environment and the materials in it without being suddenly yanked out of their play by hearing a bell ringing or 'Everyone on the mat!' How is deep sensory engagement, critical and creative thinking, problem-solving or self-expression going to happen with these constant interruptions? Children are intelligent. They will choose not to engage with meaningful, time-consuming learning experiences if they know that they will soon be interrupted. The result - behaviour management issues.

Being told that raising your voice more often, or being stricter with behaviour means that you are more effective is insulting. I would take it as a sign that my priorities need adjusting and that I need to be more conscious of providing a better quality learning environment. If your environment and your program are meeting the needs of everyone in your learning community these measures should almost become obsolete. You are the key factor here. You are the leader of your learning community in modelling the qualities of respect, of inquiry, and of engagement. You set up the environment and the children watch you re-set it with care. You expect that they will do the same. You model kindness and empathy. You listen. You learn with the children. You engage, you question, you show enthusiasm for the children's ideas. You share your ideas.

The path of least resistance means everyone can enjoy their day. It means you won't go home feeling guilty because you raised your voice, or forced a child to do something that upset him or her, or rushed the children into an activity that made them feel stressed and insecure. It doesn't mean that you're too easy going or relaxed. It means that you're a quality educator who has a deep understanding of children's needs on a holistic level, that you see them as individuals and essential contributors to your learning environment, and that your foremost concern is with providing them with the opportunity and support to maximise their learning, their wellbeing and their potential in all areas of their development.

Saturday 28 September 2013

Learning through play

If almost every centre's philosophy states that children 'learn through play', why are we still undervaluing it?

It seems that we keep forgetting that children learn through play, and continue to look for other ways of teaching that seem more impressive. The result is that all we're doing is succeeding in impressing people who have very limited understanding of educational theory. The question is, are we here to impress, or are we here to make a real difference to children's lives? I'm constantly hearing people advise others to have conversations with children on the mat about this or that. I've been puzzling over this for some time now, wondering if this is something I should do more of, or whether there's some vital aspect of early children education that I'm missing or misunderstanding.

I recently read somewhere that children forget 90% of what we say to them within 30 days. If this is true then it says a lot, doesn't it? I happen to be an auditory learner. I was born with a natural connection to music, a sensitivity to noise in my environment, an inability to ever forget verbal criticism, and the ability to sit in a lecture theatre for hours without taking notes and retain a significant quantity of knowledge and understanding. Is this you? Probably not. Everybody has a different learning style. Auditory learners are a distinct minority. My understanding from talking to others is that the majority of people learn best through engaging with information visually or kinaesthetically. Children are even more grounded in their bodies, connected to the immediate reality of their environments, and still having the freedom and the ability to exist in the present moment.

The foundation of children's learning is play! Deep, sustained, concentrated, repeated, shared, facilitated, scaffolded engagement with concrete materials in the man-made world, the natural world and the social world. I was taught that the early childhood teacher is the facilitator who enables this quality engagement to happen, and that this is an important job that takes advanced skills of observation, knowledge, thinking, creativity and reflection. We have to understand the importance of this foundation of knowledge and understanding. Lack of foundation leads to scattered knowledge and superficial understanding. We don't want children to enter school teetering on this precarious ground because gaps in understanding lead to further gaps when they become unable to catch up.

Our bodies are powerful, intelligent instruments which carry memory. The time to have those conversations with children is when they are holding concrete objects in their hands, or at an appropriate moment while they are engaging in imaginative play with their peers. Children are then better able to connect the new information to the experience that they're engaging in. Their ability to transfer knowledge, grasp more abstract concepts, and transform reality will develop in time as they gain, consolidate and transcend this foundation.

I asked a parent (who is a secondary teacher) the other day if there was anything in particular that she wanted to see in our program. She said, "Well I'm from a country where children don't go to school until they're seven or eight (Finland). I'm all for play-based learning". I said, "Yes, and Finland has one of the best education systems in the world". She said that it's typical for child care centres in Finland to have a Masters qualified teacher in every room. Wow, you're probably shocked. I was. This shows how vastly far behind we are in recognising the value of young children's education and how important it is in setting them up for their future.

If we want to be where Finland is, we are the answer! We can't be led by every under-researched idea that every person who sets foot in a child care centre offers up to us. We have to be the advocates for play-based learning. We shouldn't feel that we need to change to fit in with school. We have to be the example that shows schools that they need to change. Societal, political and economic factors influence school constructs and curriculum. When society develops the understanding of how a change in the education system will benefit it as a whole, then the education system will change. Change takes time, but we don't have to wait for it. We have the understanding now. Let's use it, share it and fight for it.

Critical and creative thinking

How important are critical and creative thinking?

The answer: Hugely important! It's my need to question everything that drives this blog. It's like a feast set before me from which I can taste and reject at will. Critical and creative thinking allow the opportunity for endless possibilities to come into view and to be made real.

Critical and creative thinking feature prominently in the new Australian Curriculum where they are seen as different, but inseparable. School is gearing up to face the future and it's not only going to be about technology, and collaborative learning and working environments, it's also going to be about critical and creative thinking. I think critical and creative thinking are so important that I want them to underpin my program for the rest of the year.

The great thing is that young children are naturals at this. This is the time for them to start developing these habits of mind that will equip them for a challenging future in their education and in their work. Critical and creative thinking are about open-mindedness. They're about logical reasoning. They're about problem-solving, assessing, evaluating and charting new ways forward. They're about more than just answering questions. We want children to invent new questions that beg for answers. That's what critical and creative thinking are all about. What have we not yet thought about? What does the world need that it doesn't yet have?

Young children have this capacity, which makes this very exciting. They absorb facts like sponges, they process them, they question them. They constantly question, question, question. Maybe it drives you crazy. The thing is, if we can grab onto this and nurture it and keep it as part of their everyday thinking, then we are halfway there. Children will carry it with them going forward.

I've seen a strong musical interest with my four year olds, so I've decided to use this as the beginning of our journey to becoming more effective critical and creative thinkers. I'm going to encourage them to make their own instruments. The instruments are available all the time now. It's all about hands-on engagement and experimentation first. Then we start asking the children to think about the sounds that are made (what is happening), how they are made (how is it happening), and whether they like those sounds that are made (personal / emotional reflection). These conversations have already been happening and we've been documenting them.

When we have a really good grounding in this knowledge we will start to invent, create and problem-solve. We will experiment, we will bounce ideas off each other, we will transfer our knowledge to make decisions about which materials we will need to achieve our desired outcomes. Hopefully many new ideas for extending critical and creative thinking will emerge as we progress through the next three months. Children, are you ready to ask the 'ungoogleable questions'? There are so many out there, I can't wait!

Sunday 22 September 2013

Invisible teaching and learning

Can what is unseen be quality?

The eyes of the world stare outward, applauding the extravagant, the entertaining, the flashy or even the vulgar, seeing only what is precociously displayed in their immediate view. The thing about me though, is that I'm not that person. If only a quarter of the population value introspection and outer calm, it's easy to understand why I sometimes feel discouraged, and that I'm in the wrong profession, and that my more quiet style of interacting and facilitating learning is going unnoticed. There is however, a stronger part of me that delights in the fact that early childhood is the only time in children's lives when they can truly follow their own passions without the constraints of an enforced curriculum. It's also the only type of teaching that allows me to find the essence of what I believe is truly important and valuable in a young child's experience and education, and attempt to provide this for the children in my care.

I have said before that teaching can be intentional without being clearly visible as teaching. Interactions can seem spontaneous, but also be intentional. If I choose to spend some one-on-one time with a child, listening to what is really happening in his mind in order to attempt to assess whether his parents' concerns about his social skills are truly valid and this is not noticed, does it mean that it's not valuable? If I choose to read a book about sharks to a small group of interested children rather than to stage a whole-group performance, does this make the learning experience of lesser quality? Maybe the rest of the children have no interest in sharks, and why should they? One of them is at the construction table remembering the conversation he had with his dad while he was fixing the car. He has been waiting for days to come to kinder and test out his theories with the mobilo. Another is lost in his created world, moving his body to the Star Wars theme song, in blissful ignorance of those around him. A group of three are negotiating roles in an imaginative play scenario, discovering their own ways to compromise and resolve conflicts. Why should I force them to come and learn about sharks?

Maybe the teacher you remember is not the one who wanted to entertain herself or be the centre of attention. Maybe the one who had the most lasting impact on who you became was the one who really listened to you, who validated who you were, who allowed you the time to discover who you were, who gave you the opportunity to explore all the possibilities that were open to you. Maybe you don't remember her but she had a part in creating who you are now. Maybe you still don't know who you really are. Maybe you were always told who you needed to be and what you needed to learn. The great thing is, we don't have to be these kinds of teachers. We don't have to do anything because it's how it's always been done. As early childhood teachers we are at the head of the game, developing and refining our own learning framework through our practice, being given licence to innovate, to reflect, and to draw on the best examples from around the world.

The difficulty is making this thinking visible to those who are still looking for bells and whistles. Documentation, conversations and photos all help. Ultimately though you have to do what you believe is right whether anyone notices or not. It's a lesson I'm still struggling to learn, but I believe that the benefits to me and to the children will be worth it in the long term.

Saturday 24 August 2013

Embedding Sustainability

Can we teach children to protect the environment?

There was much talk at our staff meeting the other day about what it means to embed sustainability in our practice. I saw the similarities to my last blog post about teaching children to have a social conscience. In no way can modelling sustainability and teaching children about recycling etc. be a bad thing. Making these practices part of our everyday lives and routines is probably one of the best ways to encourage children to make these habits part of their lives. Once again however, there is a difference between learning and caring.

It was mentioned that children of two to five years old have the capacity to understand why we should protect the environment and the practices that enable this to take place. I agree that children may be able to gain a certain level of understanding of these concepts. It occurred to me, however, that the long-term commitment of any person to the conservation of the environment is the result of true respect and caring, rather than a sense of guilt or obligation. Children have a natural curiosity about the natural world, but also a natural tendency to accept everything in their world as existing outside of themselves. The concept of themselves as people having an impact on the world is a little abstract for them at this stage.

So how do we foster children's respect and love for the natural world while their lives in cities involve concrete footpaths and trips to the supermarket to buy processed food? Let them play! Our children at work are spending hours playing in the mud, pretending to cook with bark and sand, picking flowers, planting seeds, watering, and digging for worms. They love it. We were always camping, bushwalking and making gardens as children. We always had plants and animals at home. When children develop a deep appreciation and love of nature, its beauty and the gifts it gives to us, they will want to give back. By providing children with these opportunities we'll be creating proactive, responsible adults who will bring our world through the 21st Century.

Saturday 10 August 2013

'You may say that I'm a dreamer'

Do we need to teach children to have a social conscience?

The other night I was privileged to be at Hamer Hall in the presence of the legendary Joan Baez. This is a woman who despite being an incredible singer, sees herself first and foremost as an activist. Now even as someone for whom singing is almost as necessary as breathing I can say, "Joan Baez, I get it". Although I'm not the slightest bit brave and you'll never see me venturing into a war zone, when it comes to caring about things and people I have sometimes wished I had an off switch.

Now I know that 'intentional teaching' is the new big buzz word, but surely our actions can be intentional without being obviously visible as teaching. Social conscience is all about empathy, and can empathy be taught? Sure we can talk about it, but can you make someone feel something? I think children act what they know. This sounds cliché and so does 'children do as you do and not as you say', but both are probably true. I think this is the answer. Children will develop empathy by experiencing it from others.

So at the risk of repeating myself  I will say that it's about being present, about really listening to what children are telling us, about noticing when they want to tell us but aren't able to, about seeing the subtle changes in behaviour that indicate that they're feeling hurt in some way, and about responding with concern and caring when they are suffering. Once again we have to look through their eyes so we don't brush off their feelings because through adult eyes they might seem insignificant.

On the other end of the scale we must allow children to be hurt in order for them to be able to develop empathy. If we over protect them they won't understand others' suffering. They need to be exposed to a wide range of human emotions in safe environments, and to be allowed to express a wide range of emotions. We can intentionally teach children about emotions by giving names to them, and we can expand their awareness of their feelings by talking about how they are connected to their own actions and the actions of others.

I will be controversial here by saying that I think we should minimize children's exposure to violence or representations of violence. I also believe that we should restrict toys such as weapons, as they encourage children to play-out the representations of violence that they've seen. I understand that children use this type of play to come to terms with their world, but we should consider the prevalence of violent cartoons and TV shows, action figures, superheroes etc. Are we providing a subtext that this is a world permeated with threat and danger, when the reality is that in this country most people try to do the right thing and in my experience are capable of being kind and caring?

Under no circumstance is violence okay. If we ever want to experience a more peaceful world the solution lies with our children. They will create a world that reflects who they are and what they believe the world is like. What would John Lennon have said? What would Bob Dylan or Joan Baez say? What are we saying, modelling and showing to our children? Are we representing and being what we want them to become?

Tuesday 6 August 2013

Just Read

There is nothing more important than reading when it comes to the education of young children.

Yesterday one of my co-workers told me that she'd read my planning and noticed that I'd been focussing on literacy experiences. She said she'd been trying to think of ways to incorporate literacy into the program. I said something like, "you know what? Just read to them". Maybe this sounds overly simplistic, but I believe it 100%. I know it's not always easy to fit into the program. When I read to children I like to be able to give them my full attention. Children become frustrated when you have to stop halfway through a story. Sometimes I have to tell them that I can't read to them because I have to watch the other children or because I have to talk to a parent. I wish that I had more time to spend on uninterrupted reading with the children.

The plots and characters that children encounter through stories pop up all over the place in their play, even if we don't intentionally plan literacy experiences for them. They represent them in their artwork. They create dramatic games around them. Through their play they are working through the themes, issues and questions that concern or interest them. As well as gaining large quantities of content and theoretical knowledge, they are receiving the benefits of understanding and coming to terms with their own complex emotions and the potentially confusing social worlds in which they are existing. The fact that very young children can't read to themselves means that as well as working through these ideas in their play, we are always there to respond to their comments and questions and support their understandings.

Reading helps children to become writers. Children learn language through hearing spoken language. When children hear their siblings or other children speak they learn simple language. When they hear adults speak they hear more complex language. When they listen to books being read to them they absorb even more formal language. They are hearing complex sentence structures, unusual vocabulary and descriptive phrases. Our ability to write and the quality of our writing throughout life reflects the language that we absorb as children. The more we read and the better quality writing that we are exposed to the more chance we will have of becoming competent and effective writers and verbal communicators.

Children have been known to learn to read on their own simply by being read to. By the time they start school they will have come to understand many concepts that we haven't intentionally taught them. Yesterday I was reading 'The cat in the hat' to a group of 3-5 year olds. We had to keep stopping the story as they kept reeling off strings of rhyming words. They don't need to be taught rhyming because they have heard it over and over again through their stories. They enjoy the sound of rhyming words and the challenge of finding them. They have learned shapes, colours and counting. They have learned all about animals, countries, the weather, people's occupations and so many other things. Children will love reading because they love to learn.

We just have to remember to keep this enthusiasm going as they enter school. Let children take ownership of their reading by choosing stories. Let them use the internet. Take them to the bookshop or the library. Don't let reading become about success or failure. Don't let it become a competition. Try not to let reading become a source of stress. Let children reach their own educational milestones in their own time. If you think a child has a learning difficulty definitely seek professional support for them. If not, maybe you're just not reading enough. Just read.

Saturday 3 August 2013

Group Time

Why are we so stuck on group time?

You do know don't you that when you put a group of 15 children on a carpet and talk at them you may have half of them hanging off your every word, but the other half will be thinking about Peppa Pig or staring at their toes and wondering why they have so many?

Why is there still so much pressure to provide group time while at the same time the experts are advocating small, optional, spontaneous group experiences? Furthermore, why do we justify the need for group time by saying that children have to be prepared for school, while at the same time school is changing to become more and more hands-on, as it should be? Educational theorists have known for decades that children learn best through hands-on experiences, so why are we insisting that we know better?

Piaget believed that children learn through interacting with objects and people in the environment. Vygotsky believed in practical activity in a social setting. Froebel believed in group singing, but thought that most of the time children should be interacting with nature and with educational toys which he called 'gifts'. Montessori was all about manipulative materials. Steiner advocated body exercises which could be done as a group, but his focus was on real life experiences.

I challenge anyone to find me an early childhood theorist who believes that whole group discussions, activities or flash cards are necessary. And why are we preparing children for school at 2, 3 or 4 years old? School is a lifetime away in their world. If you love the sense of power and the sound of your own voice too much maybe you should become a high school teacher. If you do, however, please remember - the best high school teachers use lots of hands-on learning.

The art of making art

The world of art has infinite possibilities for the classroom.

A couple of weeks ago I saw the Victorian Opera's production of 'Sunday in the park with George', which dramatizes the life of French impressionist painter Georges Seurat and contemplates the life of dedication and detail which necessitates a life devoted to creating art. I started thinking about how I can teach children to see the details in the world around them and bring them to life through their artistic creations. Art is as much about seeing as it is about creating.

Fortunately children are naturally good at seeing. They exist mainly in the present and are able to connect with nature on an instinctive level. They notice tiny details that we may miss. Our job is to try to exist on their plane. To see and to really listen to what they're telling us about the world which they're observing, and to help them to reflect on what they're seeing. We need to document and discuss. We need to wonder with them and to ponder possibilities. We need to talk about colours, shades, textures and shapes. We need to provide the scaffolding that will ignite the type of passion that insists that input bursts forth and becomes creative output.

My mind is jumping with ideas at the moment and I want to do everything at once. There's a big Monet exhibition on in Melbourne and as Monet happens to be one of my top five favourite painters I'm going to start with him. Monet's waterlily paintings were about light and layering. What a fantastic way to experience the softness of pastels, to learn about colour-mixing through noticing how the shades blur into each other on the canvas, to discover light and reflection, and to explore the texture and depth that's provided by layering. This will overlap perfectly with the work we're currently doing on shapes and geometry in nature, and on planting, gardening and caring for the natural world.

Some art is spontaneous and sensory, and some is more purposefully constructed. I want to make a creative art space for the children where they can develop group visual arts projects inspired by the stimulus images and materials provided. I want them to have the opportunity to build on these works over a period of time, to jump in, to stand back, to extend and to evaluate. I want them to experience the wellbeing that is provided by engaging with beautiful, sensory materials, and to feel the satisfaction of presenting a finished piece of art which can be then be experienced and appreciated by themselves and others.

Saturday 27 July 2013

School readiness and retention

I've been feeling a bit inadequate when faced with questions about children's readiness to transition to various age-groups or to school.

Studies have shown that retaining children once they have started school is detrimental to their wellbeing and has no positive benefit for their learning. This makes the decision of whether or not to retain children before school age all the more important. As most early childhood teachers working in pre-school settings have not worked in the early years of primary school I wonder how they can be qualified to advise parents in this regard.

The general consensus seems to be that children must be confident communicators and able to follow more than one instruction at a time. They must have the desire to learn, the ability to focus on a task and the ability to regulate their behaviour while doing so. They must have the emotional regulation to be able to separate from their parents and to conform to the expectations of the setting, and the social development to be able to fit in with their peers. They must also have the physical and emotional stamina to cope with five full days in an educational setting.

I have seen children in early primary school who have difficulty focussing on learning, but more typically I have seen five year olds in pre-school settings who have outgrown the informal learning environment and are therefore under-stimulated and disruptive. Recent studies are showing that quality teaching has more impact on children's successful learning than previously thought, so it's possible that children might receive benefit in either situation if quality teaching is occurring and learning is tailored to meet children's needs.

What concerns me is that some teachers seem overly zealous in diagnosing deficiencies in normal, healthy children of pre-school age and suggesting the need to retain them in three or four year old kindergarten. It seems that they feel more valid as educators if they can be seen to discover problems and fix them. The concern is that this may be particularly hurtful to parents who begin to see their children as less than perfect and start to blame themselves or their parenting.

Children vary in the temperaments that they're born with, and in their personalities that develop over time due to external experiences. Children will draw on a variety of skills in order to succeed in school depending on these innate abilities. I'd suggest looking at children's ages and cognitive abilities, encouraging a love of learning and children's positive identities as learners, and building their confidence in knowing that they can take care of their physical, social and emotional needs independently. Also, if you don't feel like an expert, refrain from passing yourself off as an expert. Encourage parents to get a second opinion. They will appreciate your honesty.

Saturday 13 July 2013

'I thought you did it for me, Mamma'

Are we allowing children enough space for their interests to unfold naturally?

Wow, wow, wow! Beg, borrow or buy a ticket to see Caroline O'Connor as Mamma Rose in Gypsy because she is incredible! (and I've seen Patti Lupone on Broadway. She was fabulous too). The whole show is incredible. I didn't realize row EE was the front row, so I had the view of a lifetime. I saw sweat, tears, and other unmentionable body parts in g-strings. Amazing! The message in Gypsy, however, is loud and clear. If you choose your children's paths in life there's a high likelihood that they will resent you or even leave you in their struggle to find who they really are.

I think children should have the opportunity to experience as much as your time and money affords. I think they should also be expected to develop a certain discipline, the ability to delay gratification, to experience success and failure, and to set and achieve goals. We need to be aware, however, that there's a difference between teaching children to develop these skills and enforcing them from outside. Internal motivation, self-belief and self-regulation are the tools that will help children to become highly-functioning adults. Internal motivation comes from love, from passion, from joy in the process of whatever it is that we're doing, building, crafting or creating. Self-belief comes from knowing that we are building on the talents and abilities that come most naturally to us, that we feel we were born to do. When we tap into these abilities we become focussed, as we feel a sense of purpose and see our skills improve in concrete ways.

Most hobbies that we encourage children to explore have positive benefits for their physical wellbeing, social skills or self-expression. Encouraging children to develop skills at a high level is okay. I had a piano exam every year for eight years. It didn't hurt me and I'm really grateful for it, but I was never forced and I can't think of any long-term negative effects that come from playing the piano. I'm more concerned when parents push children too hard in areas such as ballet, beauty pagents or modelling from a young age. Now not many people love ballet more than I do. For years I read every book I could get my hands on. I'd sit by myself watching videos of Margot Fonteyn dancing Swan Lake or Ondine, and who knows how many times I read Anna Pavlova's biography. Despite this I always knew that ballet and piano lessons were for fun. My level of natural ability in either was never going to be at a professional level.

This is where we need to be realistic with ourselves and with our children. There are natural, physical attributes required for ballet and for modelling that belong to a tiny few. Maintaining a painfully thin body without seriously compromising physical and emotional health is impossible for almost everyone. Fulltime dancing on feet that are not born for it leads to a lifetime of hobbling around in pain. Let's not project our own unrealised dreams onto our children. Let's give them every experience that we can. I can't think of anything more exciting than standing back a little, and seeing children's true selves emerge and unfold before our eyes. This is the surprise, the wonder, the magic of it. Let's enjoy it (and not forget to live out our own dreams. There's still time).

Saturday 6 July 2013

Warhol? Well I said create creativity.

A couple of weeks ago I went to an Andy Warhol exhibition in Wellington. There were kindergarten children there with their teachers. Now for me Andy Warhol brings to mind Bianca Jagger riding a horse into Studio 54 and people openly snorting cocaine off tables (and this is from someone who has never had the slightest desire to set foot inside a club). I wouldn't have considered taking 5 year olds to an Andy Warhol exhibition, but New Zealand is cutting edge when it comes to early childhood education. A lot of what's in our framework comes from there. I pretended not to eavesdrop and prepared to learn.

This is what I heard:

Teacher:
This is called screen printing. We could do this when we get back to work.
5 year old:
You mean kindy?
Teacher:
It's my work. It's your kindy.

5 year old:
Look. The queen.
Teacher:
It's our queen. Look at the colours. Do you like the pink and yellow one? How do those colours make you feel? Do they make you feel happy?

Not sure what I think about this one. I don't think the benefits would outweigh the cost involved. There was quite explicit nudity in one painting and the self portraits are pretty terrifying. The rest of the museum was fantastic for children though and all free. There were heaps of dead, stuffed animals, the only giant squid in the world that's in a museum, and Phar Lap's skeleton (and you thought he was in Melbourne didn't you? Some of him is).

Saturday 8 June 2013

Behaviour Guidance

These are my strategies for managing normal behavour in kindergarten:

-          Take the focus off behaviour and spend time planning engaging experiences for the children. A lot of the behaviour should take care of itself. Follow their interests and create new, exciting interests that they don’t expect.

-          Put some of the toys away. Toys are more exciting if they are rotated so that they become new again.
 
-      Suggest to the children that they separate for a few minutes so that they can calm down and re-focus. They will be less tempted to react to each other’s behaviour.

-          Allow the children to help you with jobs and routines so that they feel grown-up and begin to see themselves as having an important role in the setting. Ask them to help other children.

-          Have zero tolerance for “silly” or disrespectful behaviour that goes too far. Turn your attention to the other children until they choose to self-monitor and stop the behaviour.

-          Spend as much time as possible outside so that they can burn off their excess energy and won’t be tempted to do this inside. Before going outside ask the children what they intend to do there. Help them prepare the materials they will need. This will decrease the likelihood that they will engage in unfocussed or rough play.

-          Make sure experiences are re-set and attractively presented. Insist that the children are involved in this so that they learn to respect the effort that you put in to provide these experiences.

-          Always give children at least one warning before moving onto the next routine during the day. They can then wrap up their play and won’t resent the sudden change. I usually give a 10 minute, 5 minute then 2 minute warning and make sure they have heard me and accepted what I've said.
 
-      Have realistic expectations. Don't expect children to participate in group time for longer than 30 minutes. Telling children off for failing to live up to unrealistic expectations is unfair.

-          Let some of the little things go. It will save frustration for you and the children.

-          Give lots of positive attention and reinforcement when the children are behaving and engaging well. Build trusting relationships and help them develop more empathy so that they begin to respond to you and their peers with more consideration and care.

-          Have a sense of humour. Children love to share a joke with us. If they feel comfortable and happy they are more likely to be calm and engaged.
 

Saturday 1 June 2013

Interpretations

It seems like the EYLF is hindering us in producing quality interpretations.

Before the framework came along we would write an observation of a child or group of children. We would peer into it, looking closely for evidence of learning and current developmental ability and then document it in our own words. Now what we're seeing is this:

Link to framework:

Outcome 1: Children have a strong sense of identity.

Outcome 5: Children are effective communicators.

Is this a quality interpretation? I understand that people are going all out to understand the framework and show that they're linking it to their program, but this is not telling us much about the child's learning. The framework provides us with a common language to articulate our professional practice. It reminds us of the importance of Belonging, Being and Becoming. It gives us principles and practices to use to underpin our practice and it provides lots of outcomes that give us a guide as to what to cover when providing educational programs for young children.

An interpretation should specifically relate to the observation. These are some of my examples:


The children are showing that they have a strong sense of wellbeing, that they’re connected to their world, and that they are confident and involved learners through this play. We are allowing them to experience ‘learning through play’ and to explore their ‘learning environments’ in their own ways. We are giving the chance to just ‘be’ in the outdoor space. The children are learning about the natural world and exploring science concepts through nature play. They are also exploring maths concepts such as weight and volume.
The children all produced books that included drawings and a variety of types of mark-making, including scribbles, dots and small circles. They are showing that they are emerging as writers and developing the awareness that letter symbols create text, which has meaning. They are showing the awareness that books contain both text and illustrations, both of which convey meaning to the reader.

It was wonderful to see the girls’ level of creativity and their ability to play cooperatively together for such a long time during their morning outside. Their imaginative games kept flowing and changing without the need for any props other than the play equipment in the yard. The girls are showing their strong sense of identity and abilities as effective communicators who are confident to express themselves and keen to help and include each other in their play. They are showing their prior knowledge and their ability to transfer knowledge from one context to another.
H is showing that he’s a confident and involved learner, taking the initiative to select paint colours and fill the palette himself. The children are showing their interest in painting and colour-mixing, and demonstrating their ability to work as a team while constructing their own learning. They’re communicating with each other throughout the experience, and with me, showing that they’re effective communicators with the skills to give directions and to describe processes.

Saturday 20 April 2013

Children need to read

Children's success in school and in learning absolutely relies on reading.

Written text is still the most widely used method for distributing information, and children's ability to decode, comprehend and critically analyse written text is key to their ability to achieve in every subject area. The difficulty is that some children's lack of interest and pleasure in reading is closing the door to a world of information and imagination that they could be experiencing.

Last weekend I went to the library and searched through the shelves for stories that I thought would appeal to my 3-4 year olds. I read a very simple book called 'The Tiger Who Came to Tea' for three little boys, who sat with their hands on my knees and eyes glued to the pages. When one of boys' mums arrived he jumped up and said, "Mummy, there's a tiger who came to tea and ate all the food and drank all the drink". He ran back and sat down to listen to the rest of the story.

I was surprised by the boys' level of engagement with this story and it brought home to me how important it is to choose texts for children that are right for their age and interests. This story captured the boys' imagination. It was enjoyed for its own sake and purely for pleasure. If reading is not pleasureable children will be turned off. Studies show that engagement trumps socio-economic background and home influences when it comes to children's involvement in reading.

We had a discussion yesterday in our tute group about books that we'd enjoyed as a child. It brought back memories of a time when we were never without a book in our hands, and made me aware of how much of who I am now was shaped by the books that I read and re-read as a child and teenager. I also know that my skills with language are a direct result of my having absorbed huge quantities of well-written children's literature over the years.

Children love being read to by adults, but when choosing books to read to children we should be aware of two things. Sometimes children need to have their lives reflected back at them through stories which help them to understand their worlds and have their experiences validated, but sometimes the world is too serious and children need to escape and be taken to other worlds. Imagination and the ability to create is becoming increasingly important in our rapidly changing world.

If we want children to love reading we have to read to children, purely for enjoyment. We have to be aware that as they grow older children will need to have a strong grounding in the technical skills required for reading so that they will continue to engage. We have to give them choice and we have to give them time to read. We also have to remember not to turn every reading experience into an opportunity for a learning activity. Children will anticipate this and it will affect their ability to relax and enjoy the story. Lots to think about...

Friday 12 April 2013

Behaviour vs. Learning

The number one reason that teachers leave the profession is students' behaviour.

The number one antidote to challenging behaviour is engagement. Remember this word! Engagement, engagement, engagement! There are so many reasons that children exhibit challenging behaviours. Some are not really within their control. There's one thing that I've noticed with children of all ages. When they are happily engaged behaviour becomes a non-issue. So what should we do? We should remember that we are teachers, and a teacher's focus should be on learning rather than on behaviour. Is learning taking place? What learning is taking place? How can we facilitate further learning?

Children love to learn. Learning is fun. Learning is empowering. Learning stimulates us to want to learn more. Why not experiment and shift our focus? Providing learning experiences for children is time consuming and takes planning and imagination. We need to observe children's interests, stimulate their curiosity, create new interests, and unblock pathways to new learning journeys. As challenging as this sounds, managing difficult behaviour every day is far more frustrating. What's even more important is that it can be damaging to children. Giving children the opportunity to identify as learners is far more powerful than having them identify as people who behave badly.

Instead of teaching children how to behave, let's teach them how to learn. The benefits for children will be lifelong, and if we engage in shared learning experiences with them we are sure to learn a lot too. At the end of the day, instead of reflecting on how we could have managed challenging behaviour differently, we can feel proud knowing that we have empowered a child to take ownership of his or her learning, to become a person who is confident and involved, and who is connected to his or her social and physical worlds.

Saturday 16 March 2013

Creating Creativity

Are we waiting for creativity to happen on its own?

'A gentle breeze from Hushabye Mountain
Softly blows o'er lullaby bay.
It fills the sails of boats that are waiting-
Waiting to sail your worries away.
It isn't far to Hushabye Mountain
And your boat waits down by the quay.
The winds of night so softly are sighing--
Soon they will fly your troubles to sea.
So close your eyes on Hushabye Mountain.
Wave good-bye to cares of the day.
And watch your boat from Hushabye Mountain
Sail far away from lullaby bay.'

Some children are naturally creative. They will instigate imaginative play situations without outside stimulus. Most, however, will need to be inspired. It's our job to help children to find their creative selves. Nothing is more important for the soul, for calmness, for wellbeing. Creativity allows us to leave our inprint on the world and give joy to others.

Imagination is stimulated through exposure to outside influences like words, images or even people. Children will tap into these sources to create dramatic play situations, play spaces, artworks, and even their own stories, songs or dances. Children will want to dress up and experience different roles.

We don't only want to teach children to reproduce reality in their dramatic play and artwork, we also want to teach them to be able to suspend reality. Children need to understand the difference between the real and the unreal so that they can have perspective in their lives and so that they can evolve into adult creators.

We want to give the world fiction writers, poets, painters, musicians, playwrights, architects, landscapers, children's book authors and designers. We also want to make creativity come naturally to children so that they can enjoy it for its own sake.

We need input to allow output to happen. We need to expose children to beautiful words and beautiful images. Children's books are fantastic for stimulating the imagination. We need to follow children's interests but we can also create their interests. We can construct play experiences from children's literature. We can tell stories, sing songs, expose children to music, theatre, poetry, paintings and sculpture. We can provide a learning environment filled with interesting objects.

This is fun for the children and fun for us. We can model creativity then we can stand back and watch creativity happen. Creativity means anything can happen. Children may seize on an experience and take it in a completely different direction. They may surpass our creative vision or our expectations. This is when the excitement begins. Be available to provide resources and be ready to document.

Thursday 28 February 2013

Being Present

Just under two years ago I told a four year old girl in my kinder room that I was going back to the staffroom to do some paperwork. She started chanting,

"Bye beautiful singing Penny,
Ponytail wearing Penny,
Always smiling Penny,"

It was the 'always smiling' bit that stuck in my mind. While for months I had been staring down at my heart broken in pieces on the floor, these beautiful children had been looking up and seeing me smiling down at them. That's something that I have to be proud of now. When I'm on the job the children and their needs are all that matters. I've learned to be in the moment with them and that's why they love me so much.

Everyone wants to be seen. Everyone wants to feel that they matter. Nobody wants to feel that when they talk to you your attention is elsewhere. I strongly believe that this is the foundation for managing almost any situation while working with children or people of any age. Children will let you know when they're not happy. I had one of my toddlers from last year bite one of my new babies because she felt that she'd been replaced. A toddler scratched my face a couple of days ago because I was talking to another adult rather than paying him attention. Older children will react by being clingy or behaving in oppositional ways.

It's not always easy to have time to spend with every child in a large group or to give them your full attention while you're supervising chaos, but it's something to aim for. It's certainly something I'm going to be more aware of in the future. If you gain children's trust they will respond positively to you. If they respond positively to you their parents will trust you. If the parents trust you your employers are more likely to trust you. If you can get to know and appreciate the special qualities of all the children in your care you are well on your way to helping them to reach their potential. You will also feel happy knowing that what you're doing is making a valuable contribution to children's lives and happiness.

Saturday 23 February 2013

Burn the Framework?

Yesterday Uni of Melbourne had a high profile Early Childhood academic, Bridie Raban flown in especially for our lecture on Literacy in Early Childhood. She was very reluctant to read the definition of literacy in the national framework as she said it was completely wrong. She even suggested that she'd love to burn the framework.

I saw a fellow early childhood teacher in the lift afterwards and said, "well, what did you think about what she said about burning the framework?" She said that that was our bible. I laughed and said that people at work always ask me, "Can I borrow your bible?" We're taught to base all our practices on the two frameworks.

What we need to remember is that we don't need to take everything in the frameworks as gospel. The concepts and terminology in the frameworks have partially been chosen with political and economic motivations in mind. They were not solely written by academics and professionals in the field. Read widely, test your ideas and theories and look at what other countries are doing and why. Our education system is not the top in the world, so there is still room for improvement.

Being an innovator rather than a follower won't always win you brownie points in a competitive or lethargic environment, but it's the only way to go if you want to be a truly great teacher and leader in your field.

Saturday 9 February 2013

Concepts of Literacy in Pre-school Education

Are we providing the best quality literacy education for our children in the pre-school years?

It's so easy to feel that we need to bow to pressure from parents who are pushing us to focus on the mechanics of reading and writing, but literacy involves much more. I read something today that caught my eye, which was that we should be focussing on reading to learn, rather than on learning to read.

Children are capable of gathering meaning well before they are capable of de-coding written language. Literacy is learned within the socio-cultural context in which the child lives. The child develops his/her identity through his/her exposure to the literacies which exist in the context in which he/she lives. He/she acquires values and an understanding of what is considered normal or acceptable behaviour, or acceptable views about the world.

I believe that the focus in the years before school should be on developing understanding and meaning, and acquiring a love of learning. We are providing opportunities for children to gather information and meaning and develop as literate individuals through conversations, modelling, story-telling, reading to them, and exposing them to text and images in books, in the environment and within technologies.

Leave reading and writing for school. Instead think about how to make literacy fun. Read, read, read! Choose books from the best children's authors and that are related to the children's interests at the time. Challenge them with discussions about the characters and the plots. Ask them to predict the outcomes or suggest alternative outcomes. Use props, puppets, costumes, dramatization and story-boards. Encourage the children to create dramatic play situations, props or environments related to the stories that they hear. Help them to invent original stories and make their own books.

Children will develop a love of literacy and the imaginative and creative possibilities that it involves. They will be excited to be able to delve into the world of literacy on their own. By the time they are old enough for prep they won't be able to wait to learn to read and write!

Friday 8 February 2013

Music for Babies and Toddlers

Are we aware of the importance of music in young children's learning?

The other day I bought a new keyboard for my babies and toddlers. We had one last year and the children and parents loved it.  The children are free to go to the keyboard at any time of the day and press the keys or the buttons. The keyboard produces a huge range of sounds, particularly the sounds of various instruments and also has several tunes that the children can listen to and move to. They are loving it. I've nicknamed one toddler 'Beethoven' because he uses both hands and goes for it! We move to the tunes together. Sometimes the children will press one key and listen to the sound. I will sing the note, matching the pitch so that they can hear it. Sometime I will hum along to the tunes. One of my friends at work said that the keyboard was the most valuable piece of equipment in the room. I told her that that was why I bought it. I think some people underestimate the importance of music in young children's learning.

Children are exposed to, and develop an understanding of sound, pitch, rhythm, tempo and dynamics through musical play and learning experiences. This gives them the ability to later play and enjoy music and singing (which is fantastic for health and wellbeing). Developing musical awareness is only one part of the story though. In order to learn to communicate verbally babies and young toddlers have to learn to differentiate between different sounds. Becoming familiar with the patterning and pitch of musical phrases and sequences supports children in recognising and understanding the natural phrases and patterns of speech. This will assist them later in speaking, reading and writing.

Music is one of the art forms that enables us to connect with, and channel our emotions in a positive way. It can make us feel calm and focussed, or joyful and uninhibited. It encourages us to move our bodies, promoting physical skills such as coordination, balance and strength.  The keyboard is one way of facilitating musical learning. Singing, dancing, musical games, playing instruments and listening to music are other ways. This is something we should embrace on a daily basis with our children. Let's just go for it - and have fun!

Reggio Emilia

Why Reggio Emilia?

My favourite lecturer at uni nine years ago ignited the first spark of my now passion for early childhood teaching. She showed us her photos of her trip to Reggio and tour of the early childhood centres there. I'm kicking myself that I haven't been to any of the centres as I'm sure I've travelled past the town by train two or three times over the years. One of my friends at work told me the other day that when she came to the centre for her interview she asked about the centre's philosophy. They told her it was based on Reggio Emilia. Interestingly, although the centre does promote many of the practices of the Reggio Emilia philosophy, many members of staff probably aren't aware of this or what it involves. Good idea for training, I might suggest it!

Reggio Emilia philosophy has several main principles:

- That the environment is considered to be the third teacher
- That parent partnerships and involvement should be encouraged
- That the teacher is seen as a co-learner and facilitator
- That plants, natural light and a shared, open learning space is used (called the piazza)
- That community involvement is encouraged
- That there are a hundered languages of children (ways that children express creativity and learning)
- That long-term projects are encouraged
- That children's conversations are recorded as evidence of learning

These principles fit in nicely with the framework, which encourages us to create learning environments, involve parents and the community, engage in shared learning with children, enable children to develop as effective communicators by expressing themselves in myriad ways, support children in extending and building on their learning, and assess children's learning by documenting and analysing it. I believe that we should be open to all philosophies and evaluate them through the lens of our own understanding and experience, but based on the similarities between Reggio Emilia and the EYLF we probably should develop a greater understanding of the philosphy. I'm sure the Italians knew what they were on about!

Intentional Teaching for 4 - 5s

Are we mistaking the concept of intentional teaching for teacher-directed learning?

In the last few years, particularly since the implementation of the EYLF there seems to have been a swing back to having a curriculum with a greater emphasis on intentional teaching, rather than having a curriculum based mainly on child-directed learning. I feel that some educators are misunderstanding intentional teaching, seeing it as teacher-imparted knowledge or pen and paper learning. The framework states that intentional teaching 'involves educators being deliberate, purposeful and thoughtful in their decisions and action'. Intentional teaching is intended to be used mainly through guided play, where the educator uses interactions, conversations, modelling, open questioning, speculating, explaining and engaging in shared thinking and problem solving to extend children's thinking and learning.

I believe the empasis for 4-5 year olds should not be in preparing them for school by imparting knowledge that we've selected, but on supporting them in taking more ownership of their learning. Up until the age of 4 children have been learning through play. In the year before school children start to become aware that they are learning as well as playing. We can start encouraging them to articulate what they are learning and they can start to choose the direction of their own learning.

My aim in working with this age-group is to provide an environment that stimulates curiosity and creativity. Children are naturally curious and they want to learn. From there I aim to be as present as I can with each individual child, to really listen to what he/she is telling me so that he/she develops the confidence to show me what he/she is interested in and enjoys. Only then can I ensure that every child is an engaged and willing participant in his/her own learning journey and also feels that he/she can be a valued contributor to collective learning projects.

Friday 1 February 2013

21st Century Skills

Are we thinking more broadly than promoting the use of technology in the learning and teaching of 21st Century Skills?

This question came up because I was thinking about the necessity of providing a computer for the children's use in the kindergarten / preschool classroom. I was reading up on Steiner philosophy recently and discovered that Steiner didn't advocate the use of technology in early years learning. The acquisition and use of creativity and real life skills were prized instead. Some kindergarten children will gather excitedly around the computer and spend all day there if we allow them to. Chances are they are also exposed to technology at home. It made me wonder whether we are hindering them in developing other skills and in experiencing more hands-on learning journeys.

An American national organisation 'The Partnership for 21st Century Skills' has nominated 21st Century Skills as being Critical Thinking and Problem Solving, Communication, Collaboration, and Creativity and Innovation. This covers a much broader spectrum of skills that can be developed through play-based and inquiry-based curriculum, through dramatic and socio-dramatic play, small group or individual creative or investigative projects, and through literacy, numeracy and the creative and performing arts.

The 21st century will require young people to develop skills that are transversal (transferable to multiple contexts), multidimensional, and that are associated with higher order thinking. Work life is less predictable than it was in the past and children will be preparing for professions that don't yet exist. We can no longer prepare them for specific job roles. They will need to apply their skills in multiple contexts during their working lives.

Maybe we should re-think our use of technology in preschool and focus on developing resilient, innovative young people who are experts at working in collaborative environments.

Saturday 19 January 2013

Transitions

Please don't tell me that children will settle more quickly if they aren't comforted!

This issue is topical at the moment, as we're all probably settling children into new rooms for the new year. The children I've been looking after are at the peak of separation anxiety, which comes between 10 and 18 months. Attachment to primary caregivers has been strong during the first year and now they're having to abruptly adapt to new circumstances and new carers.

I've often heard carers explain with conviction that children will settle more quickly if they are expected to comfort themselves. Experience has taught them that if a child is held too much or given too much attention he/she will come to expect this all the time. They have noticed that if a child is not comforted, he/she will eventually stop crying and it appears that peace has been restored. They put the child down and expect him/her to play with toys, or sit beside him/her and attempt to distract him/her with toys. At worst, they tell the child to stop crying because he/she is fine. They begin to lose more patience until the child is repeatedly told to stop. The child is being told off for feeling unhappy and insecure. I wonder if we would expect the same resilience from ourselves.

The child has not stopped crying because he/she is now settled and ready to engage with, and thrive in the new environment. He/she has stopped because he/she knows his/her needs will not be met. The child holds his/her emotion inside and feels even more insecure. When we experience a distressing or unpleasant emotion we hold the memory of that emotion inside for a long time. Later, when we encounter a new, similar situation, the degree of fear or insecurity that we feel is related more to the memory of that distressing emotion than to the reality of the new situation itself. Allowing children to feel this distressed will lead to difficulties during future transitions.

I don't believe that children want to sit on your lap and cry all day. They want to play. They crave independence and fun. Let them decide when they are ready to enjoy the new environment. Their feelings are real. They need to be acknowledged. In my experience the more comfort and loving attention you give to children, the more quickly they will settle and adapt. Children need to know that you are there as a safety net to catch them when they fall, when they're feeling vulnerable or sad or scared. Some children find adapting to change more difficult than others. They will take longer to settle.

You as the carer have the ability and the responsibility to help children successfully navigate transitions. All you need to do is to provide a caring, comforting and attractive environment and interact with children in a responsive way. Parents will sense their children's feelings of security in the environment and feel comfortable leaving them in your care. One of my parents cried at the end of the year because we had helped her cope with this most difficult time of separation with her child during his first year of childcare. This was the best feeling ever! It made me feel that all the hard work through the year had been worthwhile.

Saturday 12 January 2013

Learning Experiences

Have had a little break because there wasn't much going on in my life as far as early childhood goes over Christmas. Back in the swing of it at work now and busy applying for kindergarten jobs. Just want to remind everyone to keep records of the experiences you provide for children. Take lots of photos (of the experiences, not of the children) and keep them on a memory stick. You never know when they'll come in handy. I've forgotten a lot of the things I've done in the past and wish I had a lot more photos, especially of all the little temporary and casual jobs I did where I came up with on-the-spot ideas, but wasn't able to photograph them. Mostly I just didn't think ahead.

Things are coming back to me now as I'm compiling a huge list of categorized ideas for 4-5s. I'm up to about 20 pages now, so I think this will keep me going for a while. I'm happy to share these ideas with anyone who is working with this age-group, or who thinks they may be in the future. Write me an email at pennyrmuller@gmail.com and I'll send you a copy.