That time of year again, or all year?

 

Back in July, of course, I noticed the plethora of school supplies that began to show up in  stores again. In my area, schools often post the required items right in the store to help parents get everything needed for the new school year. This year since I have had the pleasure of teaching young children, I mumbled to myself,

“I wish that’s all they will need to get them ready for a successful school year.”

And, then I remembered a young boy I will call Adam. Adam like many children needed help understanding some basic things.

Like,  “What does it mean to share?”

Realizing that the first day in a Pre-K class can be intimidating to a young child when you must get used to new teachers, a new classroom arrangement, and perhaps new classmates I decided it would be great fun to pull out our big box of dinosaurs. My experience taught me that dinosaurs were a big hit with many four and five-year-old children. And, I knew this box contained, at least, 30 or so dinos. Some were small and others were three or four inches high but certainly we had enough for everyone who was interested in playing with them.

Until Adam came over to the box. A few other children were already playing with 10-15 dinosaurs they had pulled out of the box, when Adam started grabbing some for himself.

Then I heard it. He began jumping up and down while crying wildly, even though he was holding eight to ten dinos in his arms. Yes, this was a crazy loud temper tantrum. Of course, no one understood a word of what he was trying to say until we heard it plainly, “They are not sharing!”

Being the kind soul that I am, I went over and explained that he already had quite a few dinosaurs and that some children had only a few. That was as effective as trying to train my cat to play fetch with her toy mouse. In fact, it took him about 20-30 minutes to completely calm down. This poor little guy was inconsolable because he thought sharing meant the children were to give him as many dinosaurs as he wanted. And, this scenario played itself out many times that year with Adam. We often needed to have him removed from our room just so he could settle down.

Why am I sharing this story?

I just wanted to remind everyone that you can provide pencils, pens, notebooks, glue sticks, and even tissues for the classroom but in order to for children to be successful in school they need something else.

As in the case with my little friend, Adam, children need help with social and emotional skills. When children are so upset they just cannot focus on, and benefit from, the educational concepts and skills being taught.

As I was thinking about writing this post, I was also finishing a class on dealing with “Challenging Behaviors” for those of us working in early childhood education and I had just played a new game.

Have you heard of the game Catan? I played this game with my family for the first time about a month ago. Although I’m always up to playing new games, this was a tad confusing to understand. I mean the idea is get points by creating as many roads, settlements, and cities as you can on the island of Catan, and you win when you are the one who gets to 10 points first. But there is a lot to remember from knowing which area yields which resource to which resources combine to create roads, settlements or other things. And, that’s before even coming up with a strategy.

For me it was a lot to digest at once, and I wished I had more and more opportunities to play so I could get better and better at it. Now that I’ve played it three times I feel a tad more confident about how to play.

Isn’t it true that whatever new skills we desire to learn we all need all to practice? As an old school gal, I’m learning the more I play around with tweaking my website, or writing blog posts, or using social media the better I get at them. This was the concept that struck me as I completed my class.

I believe young children must feel as intimidated about learning social skills as I was about learning the game of Catan. Some might not even see the need for such skills. As I took my class, the refrain I read over and over again was that, “Children need a lot of practice and constant reminders, again and again, as they learn social skills.”

Give children opportunities to play together so they can learn how to share, take turns, and work together. Teach them the vocabulary to use manners and help them learn how to talk to each other to solve problems. Teach them basic emotion words so they can express themselves clearly.

And remember it takes time, and repetition, and lots of patient support from the adults in their lives. I’d say it’s probably like taking a class in learning to draw or paint with watercolors. It is a process and occurs within good relationships with adults, and amid all the other things they are learning. Patience, nurturance and understanding will go a long way too!

 

 

 

Let’s scramble up some eggs … not our kids!

I saw familiar truck in traffic recently, and a had a good giggle. Every time I see a UPS truck it reminds me of  a precious four year old boy in one of my Pre-K classes.

Each time we would go outside to play he LOVED watching (and hoping) the driver of that truck would pull up near our school. He may very well become a driver himself, or become CEO of that company someday!
He’d yell, “Miss Barb, look the P-U-S truck is here!”   You realize he’d say each letter because he wasn’t reading words yet. Busted us up each time!!

It sure demonstrates the importance of teaching about the correct sequence of letters in words, right?

The little guy got the thrill of his life when I ordered something that was delivered to our school, a few months later, and he actually met the UPS driver!!

It is an important lesson because as children learn to read they will learn the correct order of letters in words when they see them often. However, when they are expected to write words, and sentences, the spelling sometimes comes out a tad all scrambled up.

I can see it clearly (Okay, I remember it clearly) after going to the zoo with second graders years ago.

I was a big hippopotamus.  No dear you should have written it this way:

I saw a big hippopotamus.

Obviously, there is a BIG difference in what those sentences mean.

Do you see the problem won? I mean ….

Do you see the problem now?

One day driving home from work, a laughed again as I saw another UPS truck. And, then I saw a license plate that got the creative juices of ‘my former teacher self’ all excited. The license plate looked like this one, with numerals on either side of a letter.

However, the same three digits in each numeral are in a different order. So I said to my self, “Hey Self, why don’t you write a post to encourage parents, and teachers, with an easy way for kids to learn and use numbers, and maybe letters?”

Generally, before children are able to write numbers, and letters, they begin by correctly identifying, and matching them. As an educator it is second nature for me to develop meaningful lessons from everyday life. If the digits are in a different order that car might belong to someone else!

As I saw that license plate, I thought, “What a fun way to have children identify digits (individual numbers) and numerals, and then recreate what they see.”

I started by asking the children to identify the digits to the left (of the letter K) and then the digits on the right. (And, of course, encouraging them to identify from left to right is  a good way to remind them that we read from left to right as well.) It also helps them to say those numerals aloud so they can hear the difference.

Once they have read them correctly, then I would ask if they look exactly the same.

“Does 356 look like 536?”

Then, I would give them cards, and ask if they could rearrange the digits so they would look like the numeral circled in red. (See photo below)

You could give an example like this, and ask if these are arranged correctly to match what is inside the red circle. Which one matches?

         

I decided to use cards from the Set game because they are nice and large but you can use whatever you have available.

Find a variety of ways to practice this with lots of repetition. In November, we would do this with a fire truck because fire fighters are so exciting for kids. Holy Smokes!

(Get it? I couldn’t resist, sorry.)

Kids love the fire fighter unit! Let them correctly arrange the digits, and the words, on the trucks.

While you teach about community workers or transportation, it’s good to include road signs. And, all kids seem to recognize the famous S-T-O-P sign.

Encourage them to place the letters in the correct sequence

Oops, read that word to them so they understand the problem. Give them another chance now.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As children learn the letters in their name, it is important that they learn the sequence of those letters too. I mean Tom is not Mot, and Brian shouldn’t be spelled Brain.

And on a personal note, although, I prefer to go by Barb I do occasionally sign my full name on certain documents. But, I promise you I do not spell it like some Barbra’s. I know many folks use that spelling but I’m a much happier camper without BRA in my name, thank you very much. Talk about embarrassing! Well, for me it is.

Whether you help children with the correct order of digits, numerals, or letters, it is all worth it because we wouldn’t want anything like this to happen to our kids, right? Hopefully, no one turns in a book report with such a mistake.

With children so into electronic screens these days, encouraging them to read and write has become my passion. Maybe this is true because I struggled in school, and I believe it is important to encourage this generation of students to become thinkers and excellent communicators.

Click here for more information on Barb’s Author Visits and Book Making classes

 

Daycare Dilemma

Recently, a mom contacted me and wanted some advice in choosing childcare for her children. Both her 3 ½ year old daughter and her younger son, have been receiving care in a home daycare setting. Since this mom is from Uzbekistan, it has also been important to her that the childcare provider speaks Russian. This recent concern, though, related to her daughter.

This is how the mom phrased her dilemma:

Hi Barb, We just found out that next year our daughter will be the only child who is 3.5 years old and the majority of the kids are younger. Most of them will be under 2, or 2.5 years old. She goes there with her brother who is 1.5.  I am concerned that my daughter will be the only child of her age group and since she is shy I am not sure how much attention she will be given by the provider. We were planning to sign her up in a preschool next year, but it is almost double the price of the daycare.

Here’s how I responded to this mom:

On the one hand, it sounds like it would be an ideal situation if you could keep her there, since your younger child is there as well. That sounds logistically easiest, and if you like the relationship she has with that provider that is an important consideration.

However, I would be curious to also know how the daycare provider would respond if you asked her to offer “developmentally appropriate instruction,” for your daughter, on a daily basis. Since she will soon be four, I would hope instruction would be provided to get her ready for kindergarten.

Getting ready for kindergarten, involves so much more than learning about numbers, how to count, and identifying alphabet letters. Professionals in the Early Childhood Education field, for example, know children who engage in finger painting, create with Playdough, or paint on an easel  are developing the fine motor skills necessary to cut with scissors, or hold crayons (and pencils) correctly in order to draw, and write. This section of the Ready at Five  website offers a quick overview of skills children need as they enter Kindergarten.

At the same time, I would encourage you to begin to shop around for another (nurturing) setting that provides that kind of instruction and offers it within groups of kids her age.

That way you have other options if you aren’t satisfied with how the home daycare setting plays out. I’m sure many fall programs (preschools) get full pretty quickly over the summer, so you may want to start investigating that now. (*)

You may already know about this, but in case you don’t, it might be worth it to contact Maryland Family Network this resource so you can speak to someone more directly about the kinds of programs you seek. (**)

Then, the mom sent me this follow up email:

Hi Barb, Thanks so much for your feedback. I’ve asked the daycare provider about how and what program/instructions will be given to my daughter since she will be the only child of her age group. In short, she told me that the program for 2 years olds is the same as for my daughter. It is hard to understand her plus she doesn’t articulate her thoughts very well.  She gets very offended if you ask her any questions and express a concern.

And there are the red flags. Since child development is vastly different between the ages of infancy to 5 years of age, children at 3 ½ or 4 years old, need very different instruction than younger children. Putting general schedules aside, two year old programs should be very different than 4 year programs. Also, since the woman was offended and not able to hear and address the mother’s concerns that indicates a lack of professionalism, and eagerness to address her needs.

In licensed daycare programs, child care providers are required to continue to take child care classes. I’m guessing this woman isn’t a licensed provider, or that there are some cultural differences in communicating, or understanding child development. Child care settings that are accredited can be even better programs, because of the ‘behind the scenes requirements’ they need to satisfy to be awarded that credential.  

Excellent child care is a balance of high standards for health and safety, staff members that are all committed to develop positive relationships with children (and families), and professionals, who don’t consider themselves babysitters, but provide age appropriate instruction. I was fortunate to work with administrators, faculty and staff, who welcomed opportunities to address issues, and who interacted warmly with families, and children, daily. Hopefully, families who seek those programs will have new insights, as they search for them.

(*) Eco Tots just opened their doors, a month or so ago, and offer childcare in the Columbia area, with a environmentally safe mindset.

(**) If you live outside of MD, check out Child Care Aware.