This post has an audio and video recorded version for those who prefer to learn by hearing rather than by reading. Scroll to the bottom for the video of me reading it. I have a memory from very young in my childhood, that I can’t remember whether it was all just a thought process I … Read more
Yesterday I finally finished writing 84 cards to all the children in four classes at one of the schools where I work. I’m expanding my mailbox program this year to give it a try. I got one fourth-grade, two third-grade, and one first-grade classes to do it with me! (For those who aren’t familiar with … Read more
Yesterday, my kids (age 5 and 4) found a stack of papers that my son had brought home from school. The speech therapist sent home a bunch of picture cards that he could use at home if he wanted to, on full sheets of multiple pictures per sheet. At home, my son feels comfortable speaking … Read more
“You can learn something new every day …if you listen”? I saw this in a kindergarten classroom and I thought about what it was saying. That doesn’t sound true to me. I mean, you can certainly learn something new every day, but I don’t know that “listening” necessarily has anything to do with it. You … Read more
Yesterday, my kids (age 5 and 4) found a stack of papers that my son had brought home from school. The speech therapist sent home a bunch of picture cards that he could use at home if he wanted to, on full sheets of multiple pictures per sheet. At home, my son feels comfortable speaking … Read more
In “Double Babysitter” (s2 e39), Bluey is skeptical about having a babysitter put her to bed. The reason that she’s able to give right away is that it’s just “different” from when Mum and Dad do it. Mum and Dad reassure her, and confidently leave them with the babysitters anyway. At first, the babysitters try … Read more
Kids learn through play. Left to themselves, almost everything a child will do is playing, and all of it is learning. If you watched a lot of parents and teachers, though, you might come to the mistaken conclusion that kids learn primarily through being lectured. 😉 Why is that? Why is it so hard to … Read more
In the infamous “Duck Cake” episode of Bluey (season 2, ep 44), it’s little sister Bingo’s birthday and she is looking through a cake book for which cake she would like to have for her birthday. She chooses a duck cake because, when she looks at it, her tail starts wagging, which she knows means … Read more
There are probably a hundred things I love about the sisterly relationship between Bluey and Bingo. The show does such an incredible job at honoring their different personalities as well as their different stages of development (since they’re supposed to be 4 and 6 years old). The one I’m thinking about today, though, is the … Read more
Something that I desperately wish that we saw more of in the US is letting kids learn literacy on their own terms, without the intense pressure that it often carries. (I know that this is rampant outside the US, too. I just can speak the most authoritatively from within my own window of experience.) Children … Read more