theinfamousmissbeth

Anna and Nana (me) doing a little "leaf crunching." ( 20009) This fall season has been extremely weird as well as unsettling . By weird, I'm talking about the weather and by unsettling, I think you know what I mean. Even though the temperature has not been "fall" like, the leaves are turning and falling in great numbers.  The pups and I have enjoyed many morning walks that involve one of my favorite activities "leaf crunching" and one of  their favorite activities, "squirrel stalking." Regarding the unsettling part, probably the biggest concern is the fear of the unknown. What will happen to the economy? What will happen to the environment? What will happen with funding for quality early childhood education programs? Who will win Dancing With the Stars?  Okay, not so much that one, but you can tell I've been a little anxious and frankly, a little scared lately. I had a friend whose granddaughter was having trouble learning to...

One of my favorite early education theorists has always been Jean Piaget. I have written about him in a previous post to talk about his views on the importance of play in children's development. Today, I would like to address his theories on emotional self regulation in young children. Let's start with a definition of emotional self regulation: it is the ability to respond to the ongoing demands of experience with the range of emotions in a manner that is socially tolerable and sufficiently flexible to permit spontaneous reactions as well as the ability to delay spontaneous reactions as needed.   Wikipedia In other words, it is helping children develop the tools they need to respond to situations in their life in an appropriate way.  This might include times of sadness, anger, frustration, anxiety, disappointment as well as excitement. Babies learn to soothe their upsets by being soothed by parents or care givers. Toddlers and preschoolers can learn to self regulate by b...

Word on the street is that children in kindergarten (age 5) should be reading. In fact, some people think that they should actually go to kindergarten reading. If you are a parent or grandparent of a preschool age child you may have been told this by a well-meaning teacher or other parent. If you have been told this, my first piece of advice is do not panic!   In order for children to learn to read there are some basic building blocks that must be in place. The building blocks necessary include: vocabulary, storytelling, and phonological awareness. I will talk about these in more detail in just a bit, but first I would like to share a story about two little girls who learned to read in two very different ways. Little Girl 1 was very verbal from a very young age. She developed a very large vocabulary, loved to listen to books and retell stories and learned the names of letters and the sounds that they made as well. Her well-meaning mother thought that she could speed up the ...

Before you begin reading this post, please take time to review the tag line. It states, the ramblings of a retired early childhood educator, beginning blogger, and lover of hound dogs. Please pay particular attention to the word "ramblings." This post will probably be all over the place with unrelated thoughts. Just have some things I am thinking about today. The first thing I have found "unusually" interesting since I have retired is my ability to actually walk for longer periods of time (more than 5  minutes)  and for longer distances (more than from my desk to the kitchen). In the past I would periodically go through "phases" when I would take early morning walks before work or walk on a treadmill at the gym after work all in the name of exercise. However, I have to admit that I rarely, if ever, actually enjoyed those times. I have to give credit for this new found ability to my wonder pups, Quincy and Gracie. The day I actually became aware that we...

I spent last Saturday attending the wedding of my brother's youngest daughter. The bride and groom are blending two families, with all girls , five altogether. Everything about the day was perfect! Katie and Adam It was also a chance to visit with my siblings and nieces and nephews. My sister's daughter is expecting a baby boy in January. Much excitement surrounds this occasion as it will be my sister's first grandchild. There was discussion on selecting the baby's name but let's face it, that is ultimately up to the parents. The other name selection up for discussion was what the grandparents want to be called. This actually generated more input and suggestions from others than the name for the baby! The Fam It seems like in today's times, monikers such as Grandmother, Granddad, Grandfather, Granny, and Grandpa have given way to more "hip" names like G-pa, Gigi, Nana, Bumpy,and Poppy.  All this family together time and talk about weddi...

One of my favorite authors is Rosemary Wells. She is an American writer and illustrator well known for her Max and Ruby series.  This series follows the everyday adventures of bunny siblings, curious 3 year old Max and bossy 7 year old Ruby. She also has several other series including, stories about Yoko, a Japanese kitten who faces many obstacles in her quest to fit in and Sophie, a 2 year old mouse.. With Sophie, Rosemary Wells captures a quintessential part of childhood--the terrible twos. Ms. Wells has stated that she uses animals as characters because it allows her to " address sophisticated , controversial topics in ways children can understand and adults can accept." The book YOKO tackles racism. It is about a young Japanese kitten who is ostracized when she brings sushi in her school lunch. She gains acceptance by hosting a school luncheon where everyone brings food native to their family. Everyone agrees that trying other foods has its advantages and learns ...

Not too long ago I had someone ask me, "if you were going back to the classroom this year, what would you take with you?"  In other words, what would I do differently? Or would I do anything differently? At first I answered, "I would be more intentional in my teaching." As the Early Years Learning Framework puts it, "intentional teaching involves educators being deliberate, purposeful and thoughtful in their decisions and action. Intentional teaching is the opposite of teaching by rote or continuing with tradition simply because things have.." During my visits in classrooms, I was somewhat surprised to see what is considered "old school" teaching still happening. For example, young children being kept in large groups doing the same activity, being asked to sit still for long periods of time, and being reminded time after time that they are "getting ready" for kindergarten and they need to act like it. When I spoke with teachers ab...