I’ve written before about the need for early childhood professionals to advocate for the right of children to be children (see here and here). And, as you would imagine, I’m not alone in this battle. For one, research professor and play advocate Dr. Peter Gray is a fierce defender of childhood; and that puts me…
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Here are some of the tasks teachers have told me today’s children are unable to do: Poke straws into juice boxes Zip up backpacks Put a foot in a shoe Open water bottles Pull up their pants or skirts Put on their own jackets Granted, some of the difficulties with these tasks arise from the…
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The other day I read an article that literally made me cry. I thought I’d heard it all when it came to the lack of movement in children’s lives, but this piece alerted me to something I hadn’t come across before: children are falling out of their chairs because they’re not moving enough. Is this…
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Buzzwords and goals come and go in every field. In the early childhood field, self-regulation has been both a buzzword and a very big goal for children for a couple of years now. I suspect that’s because, as I’ve written previously, challenging behaviors are on the rise in early childhood settings. If only every child…
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How many of these scenarios are familiar to you? A child creates something, and a teacher or parent rattles off a quick “Good job!” without really acknowledging the child’s work. The children in a family have so many activities, many of which are scheduled during the dinner hour, that the family rarely, if ever, sits…
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Do you often hear yourself saying “Good job!” to the children? I used to – a lot. I hear parents saying it all the time – for everything. And when I taught my university course back in the day, during every single class in which young children were present, my students said it at least…
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There’s no doubt that veteran early childhood professionals are seeing more challenging behavior in their settings these days. And new teachers are feeling quite unprepared – with good reason – to handle the behavior challenges they’re experiencing. Both groups struggle with the amount of time wasted on classroom management. Why is challenging behavior more of…
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A couple of weeks ago I mentioned that, due to bad weather in the middle of the country, it looked like I was going to be stranded in California — more than 2600 miles from home — for three days longer than I’d planned. The thought horrified me. If I was going to take a…
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This morning as I listened to yet another report about the university cheating scandal, I wondered for possibly the thousandth time when parenting changed. Sure, it’s likely there have always been parents who’ve paved the way for their children, despite the legal or moral implications involved. But in one way or another, it seems this…
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What’s wrong with this picture? This is a tweet sent to me by a colleague who wasn’t sure if it should make her scream or cry. I’m not sure either. Maybe both. It certainly makes my blood pressure rise. The tweet proudly calls attention to kindergarten children using some sort of app – on computers…
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A lot of what I read about education saddens/frustrates/infuriates me. I felt all of that when I read a piece in Valerie Strauss’s column in the Washington Post, titled “Kindergarten show canceled so kids can keep studying to become ‘college and career ready.’ Really.” I’m certain she added that last word to the headline because such…
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In a previous post, I wrote that according to many, many teachers, today’s children seriously lack fine motor skills. Teachers tell me that kids can’t grip a crayon or paintbrush, manipulate a pair of scissors, or properly hold a pencil. And I’m not talking about three-year-olds, who shouldn’t be expected to handle these things well;…
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A couple of weeks ago, I read an article in Chalkbeat titled “Kindergarten classes are getting more academic. New research says the kids are all right.” My knee-jerk reaction was to consider it a whole lot of bull. Bull that was going to give school reformers and policymakers more ammunition with which to ignore child…
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It snowed here in the DC Metro area recently. I wasn’t happy about it – because escaping “winter” was one of the reasons I moved here from New England. What did make me happy was driving past two hills and seeing kids with sleds! Chances are good that, like me, you seldom see children playing…
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This week’s post is from Cindy Eckard, who, much to her surprise, is spending a lot of her time these days working to decrease the risks of screen time for children. —– The schools’ demands for ever more digital device use has parents worried, and for good reason. Many moms ask me, “How much screen…
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