ONLINE YARD SALE!!

We are holding an online yard sale to help fund our way to the amazing annual Good Stuff For Kids Conference at the end of the month!  Please support us by shopping at our sale, contributing items to the sale, or making a donation to help cover our cost!  

You can view photos of our items for sale in an album on Facebook here!

THANKS!!

p.s.  If you can make a way to join us at the conference, please do!  We highly recommend it to ANYONE who has ANYTHING to do with caring for children in any capacity!

Can we step back and allow our children to think for themselves?

Every parent starts from a point of wanting the best for their child.  The problem is, reasoning often stops there.  Typically parents don't step back from that starting point and ask themselves, "If I want the best for my child, what truly IS the best thing?"

We just assume that if we want our child to be good at something, we just need to help them do more of that thing.  For example, if we want to have a literary genius on our hands, we need to get them started reading early in life...forcing academics.  We believe that this will give our child a head-start in literacy.  

WRONG!

Reality is...research has shown that this is just simply not how our brains function.  Our brains function optimally by learning to problem solve and think creatively ON THEIR OWN...a practice best learned through real-life exploration and experience.

I read a piece this morning that was absolutely EXCELLENT!  It's a Brittish article that discusses many areas in which we desire success for our children. It elaborates on how things often backfire in our effort to support our children in path toward success in those areas.

Please, please read

Slow parenting part three: let babies learn to think for themselves

Art- No Models Please!

As you may already know, we do not believe in creating models for children.  Today, a local colleague shared a great post on why it's important for us to allow children to use their OWN creativity in art.  Please read this great piece Why Not Draw For a Child by Janet Lansbury.

Lunch Ideas!

In our program, we provide snacks comprised of a fruit of vegetable along with a 100% whole wheat bread that we've baked ourselves (e.g. blueberry muffins, cheese bread, biscuits, applesauce bread).  However, we require that parents pack a lunch for their children.  The reasons for this are simple:

-we simply can not afford to feed 16 children as well/healthful as what the parents are able to provide

-we do not want our teachers' energy/attention/time to be spent on preparing the food...we want them to be able to focus on the children

Sometimes I receive comments from parents who feel stuck in a rut with packing lunches.  So, when I ran across the ideas (thanks to pinterest), I simply had to share!

Easy Lunchboxes Photo Gallery

School Lunch Roundup

Another Lunch

Play-based Education

I think sometimes we are fooled into thinking that play-based education is new, strange, and understood by few.

Teacher Tom has done it again, showing us how the concept of learning through play is something that many have valued throughout the ages in his post The Seriousness of Play!