Benefits & Supports in Preschool and Pre-K Imagine two children wrestling. Each child is trying to stay upright and to destabilize the other by using their hands to grab the other person’s waist or ankles. Is your first instinct to separate them? What if we told you that those kids were playfully engaging in…
“It is a happy talent to know how to play.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson For little learners, play is part of their everyday world. It helps them learn. And as a grown-up in their lives, joining in their play is a big part of that process! Much like when a child takes a tumble…
What you need to know about the new Early Learning Foundations Guidance documents. By now, you probably know Indiana’s Early Learning Foundations by heart. You know how to identify when a little learner is on their way to great communication skills, when reading is just around the corner and when numeracy skills are developing right…
“One of the most highly effective preventative measures a mother can take to protect the health of her infant and herself is to breastfeed.” — The Surgeon General’s Call to Action to Support Breastfeeding, 2011 As early childhood education professionals, we play an important role with families and their children. And as new…
What new research says about children and screen time. Do a Google search for kids and screen time, and you will find headlines that say everything from “screens are toxic for kids” to “kids can watch Winnie the Pooh all day if they want to.” Most recently, a new study claims there is no…
Easy ideas for demystifying and incorporating science, technology, engineering and math with little learners Science and technology and engineering and math! OH MY! For many of us, “STEM” (short for all those fun topics above) can be a new and overwhelming topic to tackle in the classroom. I don’t know about you, but when someone…
Three Key Questions to Help Young Learners See Pictures in a New Light Do you find yourself asking the same kinds of questions with children during reading time? “What did the dog do?” “What color is the car?” “What will she do next?” During observation and reading activities, we can move beyond basic comprehension questions to…
For early childhood professionals, family engagement is not just a buzz word. It is a rich and complex series of events that can create better outcomes for children. The research is clear: when providers see families as partners everyone wins. Investing time and taking a serious look at how we support parents and value their strengths…
Twenty years ago, I didn’t know what I was doing was called “family engagement.” Working in a cooperative preschool, I got to spend time with parents and their young children in the classroom in what was, for me at least, an ideal learning environment. Families assisted each day in the classroom. One or two family…
Early Learning Indiana increases statewide supports with expanded partnership with Indiana’s Office of Early Childhood and Out-of-School Learning. There are over 500,000 children under age five in Indiana, and nearly two-thirds of them have both parents in the workforce. Indiana families and communities rely upon child care and early learning programs to help their children thrive…