Saturday, June 4, 2016

Fan Favorites - May 2016

I love to review the most popular posts that stream on the Preschool Engineering Facebook page. It helps me meet the needs and interests of my audience. Here are the most engaging posts from May 2016:

Simplifying Childhood May Protect Against Mental Health Issues

"Payne describes the four pillars of excess as having too much stuff, too many choices, too much information and too much speed."


After gorilla death, try empathy -- not blame

"The whole episode is sad -- a child is safe, but another living being has died. What's even more tragic is our insatiable need to find fault in everything that happens in life. In that regard, we are all at fault here.


What if instead of lawyering up and assigning blame like we always do, we take a step back in this instance and try a little empathy? The parents didn't throw the kid into the enclosure, the crowd didn't mean to agitate Harambe and the zoo didn't want to have to kill him."




Phew! It’s Normal. An Age by Age Guide for What to Expect From Kids & Teens – And What They Need From Us

The progression through the stages is more important than the age at which this happens. As long as kids are moving through the stages, it doesn’t matter if they get there slower than other kids.

Why Timeouts Fail and What to do Instead

"We successfully handle challenging behavior by following these steps:
Focus on helping our children when they can’t help themselves.
Set limits calmly and early, expect impulsivity.
Be ready to physically follow through with limits by preventing unsafe or inappropriate behavior, heroically removing children from situations when they’re clearly unraveling (which is “time-in” rather than timeout, akin to what my son’s British soccer coach calls “taking a breather”).
Accept and acknowledge feelings without judgment, so that children can trust us as their empathic leaders and themselves as good people."




Saying your house is a messy because you play with your kids is a privilege


"My neighbors in the nicer complexes that surround me might be the type who believe it’s a sign of a good mom to have a cluttered, messy house with craft projects covering the tables, fingerprints on the windows and walls, and laundry in piles.




I’ve never felt I had that privilege. Living in poverty doesn’t afford you the right to a messy house. A mess means trashy and neglectful, not a doting mother."




Please Don't Help My Kids


"I am not sitting here, 15 whole feet away from my kids, because I am too lazy to get up and help them climb the ladder. . .
...
It is not my job to keep them from falling. If I do, I have robbed them of the opportunity to learn that falling is possible but worth the risk, and that they can, in fact, get up again."


Why our children need to get outside and engage with nature

Free and unstructured play in the outdoors boosts problem-solving skills, focus and self-discipline. Socially, it improves cooperation, flexibility, and self-awareness. Emotional benefits include reduced aggression and increased happiness. "Children will be smarter, better able to get along with others, healthier and happier when they have regular opportunities for free and unstructured play in the out-of-doors," concluded one authoritative study published by the American Medical Association in 2005.
"Nature is a tool," says Moss, "to get children to experience not just the wider world, but themselves." So climbing a tree, he says, is about "learning how to take responsibility for yourself, and how – crucially – to measure risk for yourself. Falling out of a tree is a very good lesson in risk and reward."




"...as a parent and former teacher, I know that the teacher-child connection runs even deeper. Annalei’s relationship with her teacher has not only influenced what she has learned this year but how she feels about learning—and how she feels about herself. Great teachers can help shape who children want to be, how they trust, how they build friendships, enjoy a good book, or find the fun in mathematics. That’s the power of high-quality early childhood education. That’s the power of great teaching."



"And never in my wildest dreams could I have imagined that we would have to defend children’s right to play."



What it means to “hold space” for people, plus eight tips on how to do it well

"What does it mean to hold space for someone else? It means that we are willing to walk alongside another person in whatever journey they’re on without judging them, making them feel inadequate, trying to fix them, or trying to impact the outcome. When we hold space for other people, we open our hearts, offer unconditional support, and let go of judgement and control."





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