What happens next?

First few weeks of college is over. I was completely overwhelmed by meeting new people, getting assignments and reading lists, finding where my classes are, navigating the library. But now I'm feeling more settled, moving around the campus with purpose and recognising people from classes. It's a very small Bible college which is nice. Not as anonymous as university was.

It's lovely to be in such an open, evangelical Christian environment. Conversations at the lunch table are amazing. Everyone has a reason they are here, many are completing their study for a purpose; they are hoping to become a minister or a missionary. Some already have appointments all around the globe that they will go to when they finish their study. I feel a bit of a minority; I don't have any real plans for when I finish my study.

image on my pintrest board - couldn't find original source

When I tell people I am going to Bible college they ask if I am going to be a minister (this is usually from people outside my church, those inside my church share my beliefs about women ministers). But going into full time ministry isn't on my agenda at the moment. Mission has always interested me (I recently read that Missionary kids are more likely than other Christians to be involved in cross cultural mission when they are adults; interesting), but at the moment I don't have immediate plans.

Rather the opportunity to study came up unexpectantly. God used situations in my life to give me the push I needed to study now, not just think 'I'll do that someday'.

At this stage I am planning to stay as an early childhood teacher. As far as 'professions' go, I can't imagine anything else. I love working with children and helping them learn. Most of my life I never thought I would have a career. I thought I would be married and having children before I finished uni, so work never really entered my consciousness. But obviously that wasn't God's plan :). He has decided this is the best place for me now.

Image from Story Of My Life on my pintrest board

When I finish this degree I'll still be me; a bubble-blowing, dancing, communication-modelling, singing, story book reading, block building, relationship-negotiating, behaviour guiding, fine motor strengthening, confidence building, tear-soothing, (insert 100 other roles), early childhood teacher - with a deeper understanding of my God and my Faith.

Until God decides to give me a push in another direction. Because I've stopped trying to work out what God's plan is for me until it happens. I'll love Him, and follow His word and wait to see what He has in store.

ReWiggled

My flatmates didn't know who The Wiggles were until they moved in with me. Being an early childhood teacher I decided this would not do and so tried to introduce them to The Wiggles by singing Hot Potato one night when I was over tired and hyped up on caffine. Surprisingly this did not pursuade them The Wiggles was something they were missing out on :).

What I should have done is play them ReWiggled.

I believe that children should be exposed to a range of musical styles, not just the hoppy-boppy kiddie pop that is excruciatingly popular. However it can be difficult to find ‘non-kid’/popular music that has lyrics that are appropriate (Not just swearing, I’ve mentioned before about having issues with young children singing about romantic love). I feel The Wiggles do this better than most kids bands, writing songs from a range of different cultural backgrounds and also different styles of music.
When I heard that several Australian artist had done covers of Wiggles songs to celebrate The Wiggles 20th anniversary I was intrigued. I listened to a few of the songs before I bought the album, because covers can go badly and I had doubts about people treating it as a joke album rather than an actual music album.

Instead I was pleasantly surprised. While some songs I think are alot better in their original form (i.e. when The Wiggles sing them), many take on new and exciting lives when done by different artists. Sarah Blasko’s reworking of ‘I love it when it rains’ is a beautiful lullaby. Hot Potato (by The Living End) and Shaky Shaky (Sons Of Rico) are two of my favourites.



When I play this CD for kids I get different reactions, but mostly they love it. Sometimes they look confused, as if you say “I know this song, but something’s not right”, some little boys love to rock out and play air guitar, while others will happily dance along to all of them.

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An interesting side note, one of my flat mates happened to meet Anthony from The Wiggles but didn't recognise him. Once Anthony told him what he did Colin asked if they could take a photo to send to me becasue his "flatmate loves you guys" (I hope he told Anthony I was an Early Childhood teacher not just some random 20 year old who listened to kids music all day! :) ). When Colin sent me the message I screamed and did a happy dance, cos, you know, I am an early childhood teacher ;).

What's happening to our kids?

I went to a talk given by Maggie Hamilton about a week ago. Maggie is a writer who has done alot of research with children and teenagers. She has written a number of books, in particular Whats happening to our Girls? and Whats happening to our Boys?

I read Whats happening to our girls? a while ago and bought the boys book at the talk to read. The books can be quite confronting, reading in black and white what is happening in children's lives in the 21st century. And even from my limited, rather sheltered experience I saw and experiecned many of the things Maggie writes about so I know alot of this is correct. But what I appreciate about Maggie Hamilton's books is that she doesn't just try to just present information, but uses the 100's of interviews she conducted with normal children/teens to illustrate the facts.

I could go into all the things children are faced with, but really I encourage you to read the books.

Instead I wanted to share some of the tips Maggie gave to help counteract what the world is teaching our kids and help them cope with a range of situations they may not be ready for yet. (the talk was aimed at parents so the tips are more family focused)

• Have a family meal every day (without the TV on) and just chat about the day, the plans all of you have, what things are coming up in the nest few days, whats on the news, something you read during the day.
• Spend some time alone with each child each week - this could be as simple as taking a child with you when you go grocery shopping, walk the dog
• Involve children in a useful physical activities that have a purpose. Getting them to help with the renovations, volunteer to look after animals at the RSPCA, create a small business on Etsy (this one made me smile), cook dinner for the family - or for another family.
• Involve them in a multi-generational community so they are not only interacting with peers their own age. For Christians we have a multi-generational community on our doorstep - the church! (I've written about my love of my multi-generational community before)

Each of the books also has lots more ways to help young people. This is one of the things I appreciate about Maggie Hamilton is that she doesn't just tell you all the things that kids are exposed to and leave you feeling hopeless. She gives you ideas and strategies to counteract.

Church Camp

I am

a little bit unsettled

by how content I feel

with a baby on my hip.

(image source)

The best investment

One of the best investments that I made at the beginning of the year was an inexpensive self-inking date stamper. All good early childhood teachers know the importance of dating absolutely everything children produce - but I got sick of writing the date on 50 art works everyday.

Now I just change the date every morning, and it's ready to quickly stamp any drawing, painting, scribble. Even my littlest ones who can't hold a pencil steady are able to date their own work.

More than once sometimes, just for the fun of it :)


I got mine from Office Works for about $18. I got the idea from a blog I read ages ago, but have no memory of which blog it was - sorry I can't give credit where it is due!

Intentional Teaching

"I like that everything you do has a purpose, it's never just to pass time." A friend told me, on the first week she started to work in my class.

I was excited to hear that they are aware of this- it's something that I work hard on every day. I aim to have everything I do, every activity I set up, every toy the children play with, every transition I  run to have a reason and purpose behind it. Of course sometimes it runs better than others but mostly I think about each and every aspect of our room and day.

Designs for Living and Learning is a great book for anyone wanting inspiration about

setting up an early child hood environment intentionally.

This, I think, is the essence of a play based curriculum. To the untrained eye it can look chaotic, but I know that each piece in the home corner is there for a reason. I know that even lunch time can be a learning opportunity. I know every conversation I have can be used to learn more about my children and in turn encourage them to learn more about their world. It's all about how you set up the room, how you interact with children and how you build on what they know.

Disney

As a child I loved Disney. I had the Aladdin and Beauty and the Beast soundtracks and knew all the words off by heart. I would play act being Pocahontas. My brother and I would quote parts of The Lion King to each other.

As an adult I looked back on those movies with a fondness, but if I watched them again I was a little unsettled by the violence in 'kids' movies.

And then one day a little girl I was looking after was drawing and began to sing a song from Snow White. "One day my prince will come".

I know that at this point, she doesn't really understand what she is saying. But I didn't like it.

I'm not saying Disney is bad, or that children shouldn't watch them. But I felt incredibly uncomfortable sitting with a child as she sang about wanting to find 'love anew', when 'wedding bells will [make] . . . my dreams come true'.

Thoughts?

Let the rain fall down

It has been pouring here for the last few days.

The rain is steady, and constant. It lightens enough for the sun to peek through, but then thunders down even heavier.

The playground flooded. We stood at the window and watched the puddle grow bigger and bigger. Split, splat.

I use to love rain like this. I use to ADORE it. I would long for it to come and wish it would stay longer. And then I became a teacher. And I am tired of wet clothes, and slippery surfaces and boys who need to be able to run each day but can't.

May the sun come out soon!
(photo credit)

Babies

After a few false attempts I went to see the Babies movie.

It was so beautiful - I know not everyone would love 1 1/2 hours of watching babies move, think, interact but I was entranced from the beginning to the end.

Babies is a documentary that follows 4 babies around the world for the first year of their life.

It is a celebration of babies - how inquisitive they are, how much they see and understand. We watch as they explore their world and grow into little people. There is no commentry, just the babies from each country - you don't understand everything said but thats ok becasue the language of babies is universal.

I was fascinated to see the differences of each culture in their child rearing practises, but honestly what I came away with was the similarities all the cultures shared. All mothers love their babies and kiss and cuddle them, want the best for them. All babies put things in their mouth, babble, get frustrated, cry, laugh, are curious, get into mischief.

Watch the trailer, then try to go and see it (it's on very limted release). Or wait until it's in DVD and be captivated.

Play Based Learning

Sometimes I get a bit frustrated. I find it so hard to help people who aren't in the early childhood field understand that play based learning is beneficial for children. Even when I explain all the things children are learning through our experience's, it seems all that people are interested in are if children are learning their colours, numbers and can write letters - and why aren't we doing worksheets?

(Image Credit)

A lot of what I do is document the learning that children experience during play. It's a lot of extra work, but I believe my children deserve the best, which I believe is learning through play. And as I need to prove to that learning is occurring I need to document the learning. 
Hopefully one day the whole world will understand the importance, the necessity of play in early childhood.

Music Wall

Inspired by different music walls I've seen on the web, I've started to make one of my own.
It's pretty simple, a colander, patty cake tin and dish rack screwed onto a wooden board. I added a whisk and a massager as 'bashing' implements so children can experiment with different sounds.

Feast or Famine

I believe that art should be a way of exploring a concept through a tactile experience, rather than creating a predetermined finished product (e.g. If I was doing a project on transport I would provide toy cars to paint with rather than tell children to colour in a photo copy of a car).

But what about art with a theme around food. This is where I got to a road block of sorts. What is the ethical considerations about using food in art?

I always feel a little uncomfortable using food in art - I feel like we are wasting food and I want to teach my class about limiting waste and being careful with the resources we have been blessed with. We live in a society that has an abundance of food - but many children around the world do not have as much as we do.

When we made lemonade I was happy to 'recycle' the juiced lemon halves by making prints with them.

But when I see people cut up apples for the sole purpose of making prints with children I feel uneasy.

I liked the concept of these prints from The Imagination Tree using broccoli - but instead I would set out the broccoli stalk (after I cut off the florents to eat) to paint with.

One prac I did was at a centre that didn't make play dough for the kids because it used flour (a food) but I think that that is taking the idea too far.

But am I having double standards? Or am I over thinking it?

What do you think? Is there are limit to how you can use food in early childhood education? or does the fact we live in an affluent society mean we can use food freely (as long as it has a purpose)?

Inner Sydney Montessori School

I found out from Wendy’s blog that Inner Sydney Montessori School was having an open day. Lately I’ve become interested in exploring different types of educational philosophies so I decided to head along and see what Montessori looks like in practise.
I had a look at the 3-6 rooms and the older classrooms, but my main interest was in the room where the Parent-Toddler-Program was run. I spent a while talking with the teacher there about how things are run. Parents come with their toddlers for a 2-hour session once a week, to interact with the materials and the teacher and learn about using the Montessori principles at home.

I loved how beautiful everything was, how everything was set out for children to easily reach and children are offered real things to interact with.

(image credit)

 

I was fascinated by the matching cards that I saw (similar to the ones below). During the tour a little boy who hadn’t been there before went up to a set of sorting cards and naturally began to sort. I made up a few card sets of my own to use in my room, to see what my kids do with them.

(image credit)

I realised I could never be fully Montessori because I was a bit concerned about how individual everything seemed to be. I’m a big believer in relationships being key to learning, and that most (if not every) activity should be able to be used by several children at once, as appose to each child having their own individual work area.

I also would like both adults and children to feel welcome in my environment – where as this school seemed so child focused that there seemed to be no real place for adults. I believe there should be a mix of both child and adult sized furniture and materials.



Sitting or Standing

I have been wondering if it is better to set up activities on tables with chairs or not.
I seem to remember hearing in one of my lectures that children engage for longer at tables where they can stand at an activity rather than sit at an activity. This would make sense because young children engage with activities in a physical way.

A lack of chairs also means that as many children who want to can engage at an activity.

But the logistics of leaving the chairs away from the tables can be tricky, especially if tables are used for a variety of activities.
Chairs can also help manage the number of children at an activity - if I only have enough material for (say) 5 children to play at once then I put five chairs out and ask other children to wait until a chair is free to play at  that table.

What do you think? Chairs or no chairs? A mix of both?

(photo credit)

Finding Resources

If you're not careful being a teacher can get expensive. And the fact I teach in many places; work, Sunday School etc. means I try to find several different types of resources.
I've found myself getting very good at finding things as cheaply as possible - or even for free (even better!).

I went to the local salvo's store (I have found a new one right near me!) and found this great little table and chair set for $15. I was so excited, telling the shop assistant exactly what I had planned for it - she very politely pretended to be interested :).

(This is a photo from the car park of the salvo store, please excuse the poor quality)

Also ages ago I was driving around and came across a pile of logs that had obviously been cut down from a tree lying on the side of the road for council clean up. I felt a little weird filling up the boot of the car from the side of the road - but not enough to stop doing it :)

Good girl?

When I first was told not to say ‘good boy’ or ‘good girl’ I thought people were being too politically correct as I was told that those types of comments gender stereotyped children.


I didn’t fully agree with that reasoning, but I began to be more conscious of the words I said to the children. And so instead of the simple praises that I say easily without thinking about, I would say the child’s name and make an effort to let them know what I’m praising them for.

So instead of ‘good girl’ I can say “Thanks for listening and getting your hat, Clare” or instead of ‘good boy’ I could say “That’s great putting the blocks away Charlie!”

Whether saying good boy or girl is stereotyping or not, I agree that we should try not to say it much. It’s easy to just say things without thinking about what you are saying. I believe that everything we do in the room is important. By actually thinking about what I say to the children I can turn a meaningless phrase into a positive interaction between myself and the child.

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Re-think

I was reading an text book from uni days for some ideas (turns out I use a lot of my text books in my teaching!) and came across this fact;

Children learn best and are most comfortable in small groups "with one more member than

they have had birthdays - in other words four children per group for 3 year olds and five

children per group for 4 year olds"

Young Children's Behaviour by Louise Porter, p. 148

How often would you see that kind of group in early childhood settings? All 'group' times I've witnessed are normally 10 or more children. Yet when I gather a few children spontaneously I find it naturally becomes about 4 children.

Should we be rethinking what we see as group time? Should we be rethinking how we create group experiences throughout the day?

Toddler Tales

These are some of the books that toddlers will happily listen to me read again and again.

Shhh! Little Mouse by Pamela Allen

There is a mouse in the house, looking for something - but he needs to watch out! We love to hold our fingers to our lips and say "Shhh! little mouse!"

Painter Bear by Vivian French

I got this book as part of a book pack, and this is the one that kids seem to latch onto. A simple book about a bear who gets paint all over his clothes. "Oh painter bear, what a mess!" I'm pretty sure I know this book off by heart.

One Woolly Wombat by Kerry Argent

This book is a classic for a reason. I love reading this book, simply because of the way the words flow. The rhythm is beautiful and the rhymes add to the rhythm. And it's Australian which is always a plus :)

This book illustrates a fact I am a big believer in; if you love a book and you read it in a way that shows you love it, children will love it too.

What makes a good toddler book?

Finding a book that toddlers will love is tricky. In particular the books we read aloud in a group. While toddlers will happily leaf through almost any book, when we gather as a group suddenly the book has to meet specific criteria. Toddlers need a book that is more in-depth than the books with a picture and one word on each page, but they disengage quickly with longer books with a  paragraph on each page.


Over the last 6 months or so I’ve been learning from my kids what makes a good toddler book.

It must have pictures. Toddlers are visual; they love to point at the pictures and comment on what they see. The pictures can be simple or complex, colourful or black and white. They must relate to the story being told.

The subject should be relatable. Young children are drawn to things they understand and know. They love stories about animals, other children, things they see in their day to day life.

There should only be one sentence per page. Toddlers want to get on with the action. If you don’t turn the page quickly enough, they’ll turn it for you even if you haven’t finished what you’re reading.
The words need to be easy to read out loud. The best toddler books have a rhythm as you read them; the words seem to sing as you tell the story. Extra points if there is some rhyme as well.

Tune in tomorrow for a couple of my kids favourites.
 
(photo credit)

Feeling Hot, Hot, Hot!

What to do when it's so hot outside you can barely breathe?


Ice play! I filled my freezer with different sized containers full of water to make ice. Then I piled them into a trough to play with. I found that 2L ice cream container sized blocks of ice lasted the longest/best.

It was so cooling on hot skin, and is a great jumping board for discussions.
And even when the ice melted ("But, Erin, where did the ice go???") we still had ice cold water to splash in.

(photo credit)