Last month I gave you some helpful hints for “getting to know” the children at the beginning of the school year. But I hear over and over again that it’s even more challenging to get to know their families. (I usually write about “parents,” but there are so many grandparents or other relatives raising young children today that I think...
Read MoreA teacher once told me that September has always been a challenging month for her. It’s a few weeks into the beginning of the school year, and she’s just starting to get to know the children and their families, and they’re starting to get to know her. She told me that while she’s excited to work with her new group of...
Read MoreHere we are in mid-August, and I wonder if you’re asking, as a lot of people are, “Where did the summer go?!” I also wonder if you’re asking, as a lot of people are, “Where did my budget go?!” especially now when you’re planning for the year and looking for a variety of materials to provide the children with engaging...
Read MoreFor many of my friends in early childhood, this is the time of year they love most. It’s summertime. Some programs take a break. Other programs have a slower pace, more like summer camp. Professors’ schedules are often lighter. Whatever it’s like for your work, I hope you can take a bit of a breather to appreciate the summer. When...
Read MoreI was walking down the hall in a child care center when I heard one of the best sounds in the world -- the sound of children laughing. The teacher told me that now and then she likes to add something silly when they’re singing. That morning she changed the “Old MacDonald” E-I-E-I-O to “Oinky, boinky, doinky” -- and the...
Read MoreI don’t know what this spring has been like in your neighborhood, but it’s been raining a lot around here. I even caught myself singing, “Rain, rain go away. Come again another day,” hoping the rain would go away. Then I remembered a teacher who had a very different way to think about rainy days – Carla turned them into...
Read MoreEarth Day is Saturday, April 22, and I’ve been thinking about ways to talk with children about caring for the environment. That can be a real challenge because concepts like scarcity, recycling and conservation can be hard to explain. Young children take our resources for granted, and that’s understandable. They see that we turn on a switch, and the light...
Read MoreI’ve always felt good about calling this newsletter “What we can continue to learn from Fred Rogers.” And it’s been especially heartwarming to hear from so many of our readers that you, too, appreciate learning from the way Fred approached children, families, the world, and life in general. I was thinking of that because March 20th would have been Fred’s 89th...
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I recently talked with a teacher who was excited about a new learning center that she set up for the children. She called it the “Creation Station” and stocked it with donations from families of recyclable “stuff,” like boxes, egg cartons, packing material, plastic containers, and paper towel tubes. With the addition of things like tape and markers, all the...
Read MoreThis newsletter is going out on Friday the 13th, a date that somehow became known as an “unlucky” day. But in our Neighborhood, it was always a “lucky” day…a “happy” day…because it was the day we celebrated the birthday of the puppet King Friday XIII! Fred always focused on the positives, and it was important to him to counter the negative...
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