Last year my daughter was in a minor car accident with my parents. The next day as my husband and I drove her to school we approached the spot where the fender bender occurred. Her stream of chatter stopped. I took a deep breath to pause and listen. In that moment all of my past experiences with car accidents came to mind, the surprise, the loud noise of metal crunching into metal, glass breaking…I was ready to reassure her and offer her the emotional support that I could.
Aidan and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Meal
Mom just announced we were going to a new school, Alphabet Academy. There were no more packed lunches of the ONLY three things I would eat: plain penne pasta, kalbi (bbq Korean beef), and kkim (korean roasted and salted seaweed). And, on top of all that, there was salmon lasagna and kale on the menu at school. And there weren’t even any substitutions! I could tell it was going to be a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad meal.
I think I’ll move to Cheshire.
Technology and Young Children: The Good and The Not So Good
I still remember the first time I felt the jolt from seeing what a computer could do. I was about nine or ten years old and my dad showed the MS-DOS text commands to make a “rocket ship” launch on the screen. Mind you, in the ‘80s this was cool stuff but any kid who saw it today would say, “Yeah, so?” We’ve certainly come a long way, baby.
Sleepytime Yoga For a Calmer Bedtime
Bedtime. Oh sweet bedtime. It sure can be the sweetest moment of the day. But. Have you ever met a 3 ½ year old that will do everything and anything to delay getting in bed? Ever seen one run around the house naked not wanting to get pajamas on? He wants that toy. She wants to get some milk. “Mommmmy, where are my bunny clouds?!” And now the boy child is hiding.
Moving Toward An Emotionally Responsive Classroom
Within my studies at Bank Street College of Education I was taught to think about the whole child. My education was rooted in the developmental-interaction approach. Development emphasizes shifts and change over time, which occurs at different rates for different individuals. Interaction refers to the child’s engagement with the world. Developmental-interaction refers to the ways in which cognition and emotion are interconnected in any teaching situation, while taking into account the relationships with others when co-constructing knowledge.