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Let’s face it, we’ve all had “one of those days” where things seem to go from bad to worse to completely overwhelming in a matter of minutes. If you are a teacher, you definitely know what I’m talking about, especially now. What defines a day like this is different for everyone. There are so many […]
We’re hitting a strange anniversary this month. It’s been a year since the pandemic’s first reported deaths in the U.S., and this week, we crossed the dark threshold of a half-million deaths due to COVID-19. With the vaccinations available to more and more people, there’s a sense of light at the end of the tunnel. […]
Join our begin to ECSEL educator and coach, Emily, regarding 5 common child scenarios, and sentence examples and advice to get children back on track to learning! As a begin to ECSEL educator, I often find that the most teachable moments are not outlined in a science lesson or correcting a child’s pencil grasp, or even a Venn Diagram activity, but in identifying, […]
“Dramatic Play.” For my fellow early childhood educators, these words can hold many different meanings: imagination, creativity, a clean-up disaster, playing dress-up, tearful negotiations over who gets to be the “mommy,” “Welcome to our restaurant! What would you like to eat?” and so much more. That is the beauty of dramatic play– it is a […]
Hopeless. Overwhelmed. Anxious. Depressed. Exhausted. Those are just some of the emotions that educators report feeling in the past year since COVID-19 infiltrated our lives and schools. Teachers were tossed into the virtual world without tools or blueprints, using trial and error to figure out remote teaching for themselves, and remote learning for their kids, who […]
Sometimes it seems like a young child’s favorite words are “why” and “no.” Why do we have to go to the store, why do we have to leave the park, no I don’t want carrots for lunch, no I don’t want to wear pants. We can give them any variation of answers…because we need food […]
With the New Year on our doorstep, we look at all educators have been through and see how much attention and work needs to be focused on educators’ mental health and well-being. This will not happen with the flip of a switch. In fact, this will undoubtedly require a process of unlearning old habits and […]
We limit how much technology our kids use at home.” — Steve Jobs My feeling about technology in general is very Goldilocks and the Three Bears: Having too little exposure isn’t good, but too much – a few hours turns into six — is detrimental to their brain development and mental health. The temptation for […]
Children are born ready to learn and it is not only traditional skills that we need to teach from a young age, we also need to foster children’s understanding of their emotions and those of others from the very beginning.1 By reaching children in their earliest years we have the extraordinary opportunity to shape children’s […]
2020 has been quite a rollercoaster for us all! This year has tested the best of us and unfortunately meant great pain for so many while the relentless onslaught of troubling news does not seem to be letting up. With a global pandemic, racial injustice, economic hardships, storms, fires, political unrest, where do we look […]
“Is that your lunch? It looks kind of weird…” “Well, if your favorite color isn’t purple then I don’t want to be your friend.” “Girls can’t play this game, only boys.” “I don’t want to play with you, I only want to play with her. She’s my best friend.” As educators, our first reaction when […]
As educators and parents, we know how important routine is for the children we love and care for, but what about our own? The back-and-forth of school environments in 2020 have caused us all to lose our footing. Our new norm is a revolving door of in-person school, Zoom classes, and remote learning with no […]
All of our lives have been set adrift amidst the turmoil of these days and the upheaval of routine has left all children, caregivers, and educators with extraordinary levels of stress and anxiety. School days, which have often been thought of as the most rooted and predictable part of children’s lives, no longer provide the […]
A child’s relationship with their pet is a cherished one, filled with constant companionship and lifelong memories. Pets become part of the family – a comforting presence that provides affection, protection, and reassurance in times of need. For children especially, pets bring unconditional love along with the opportunity to share all of their feelings without […]
Despite making our time at home as fun and enriching as possible, our kids began flagging somewhere around the beginning of August. My 10-year-old seemed to be weathering the pandemic with as much grace as a 10-year-old could manage: he talked to his friends on Facebook Messenger Kids and even ran Dungeons and Dragons games. But my […]
This year has delivered us one unpredictable blow after the next. Parents, teachers and kids alike, have coped with school closings, travel cancellations, social and political unrest, isolation from friends and family, and an endless barrage of disruption and uncertainty. We all have been forced to pivot and get super creative during these unusual times […]
