Dot Painting (with liquid water color)

What Should a Four Year Old Know?

A friend and educator posted a link to this blog post this evening.

To the blogger...THANK YOU!

The holidays from the perspective of a preschooler

One of our staff's favorite educators is Dan Hodgins.  He provides excellent training on various aspects of working with children in early childhood.  He encourages adults to take a step back and evaluate our practices, formulating appropriate methods based on the early childhood developmental stages and processes.  Often his trainings require some effort on the adult's behalf to truly think outside the limitations we have learned and chosen to put ourselves in.  We have to consioiusly work at modifying our past habits and thought-processes.

As I've said before, I highly recommend his book Boys: Changing the Classroom, Not the Child to ANYONE (teachers and parents alike).  Something I love just as dearly as his book is the fact that Dan also puts out a newsletter each month.  I absolutely CHERISH the few minutes it takes each month to read his newsletter!  It serves as a monthly reminder of why I do what I do.

I'm posting below his December newsletter.  This is probably a bit on the late side, as you've likely all done all your holidy shopping (I truly haven't done any!), but let it serve as a reminder to you of what this crazy season can be like for a preschooler.  Please step back and view the holidays from their precious perspective!

Happy Holidays!

Dinosaur castle

Aparently this is where the dinosaurs live!

Well, we dropped a bowl of little bitty things..

So, we grabbed some tongs...

and turned it into an activity...

...an activity that lasted over 45 minutes!  Spontaneous curriculum!