Ms. Amy's Blog @Child Central Station

We try very hard to pay attention to the interests of the children in our care. One of the children has been very interested in dinosaurs. He loves to read dinosaur books and to play with the toy dinosaurs that we have. I am not, nor do I claim to be a dinosaur expert. Although, with all of the hype about dinos at various points in my early childhood career, I know a bit about some of them. I do know, that many companies who make the dinosaurs often label them with the name on their stomachs or undersides. Today, one of the children ran up to me.... "What kind of dinosaur is this?" "I don't know, let me look to see. Hmmmn... It doesn't say" and I handed the toy back to the child. His prompt response was, "It is right here!" pointing to the letters on the dinosaur. I looked again and smiled. "That's not the dinosaur's name. It says MADE IN CHINA." With quick wit, and a smile..... He replied: "It's a Made

The research is out there.... If learning is not real and relevant to the child, it is pruned... almost immediately.    This means that efforts to drive children's learning with predetermined themes and teacher/societal driven ideas is futile. Our brains don't keep that information... so keeping weekly lesson plans or hooking onto monthly themes and teacher driven lessons is pointless and in most cases not developmentally appropriate. You can hear more about this from Dan Hodgins and I in the 7th episode of the Shakin' Bones podcast. Dan and I are not saying that planning goes completely out the window. What we are saying is that planning needs to happen daily, and careful observation of the learning that is taking place and conversations with the children will yield more developmentally appropriate planning and encourage classrooms to thrive based upon the needs of the children right now.

Every spring, out outdoor space needs to be evaluated. After the winter, many of our learning spaces need a bit of maintenance. Sometimes this is in the form of sanding or repairing... and sometimes they just need a little sprucing up with a fresh coat of paint! Some of the spaces in our outdoor classroom need regular upkeep do to the effects of the weather. The children are happy to jump in and assist with giving everything a fresh look with a coat of paint! If you are looking for the instructions or more information about our outdoor space and the various elements there, you may be interested in these posts: A Sand and Water Wall Making Music in the Yard (This is one of many posts on our outdoor music area) Our outdoor music area has evolved a bit from the beginning . The posts from our banging post station started to rot, so the post was removed and we attached some of the items to our fence instead. As nice as the post was, the fence works just as well an

BUT, I SAID I WAS SORRY!!" after yelling this at me, she dashed off. Moments before, she pushed a child over and I was helping that child speak with her.  Was she sorry??? Of course not. Maybe she was sorry she got caught... but she definitely wasn't sorry that she knocked over the other child. She was too busy and too egocentric (which is clearly understandable and developmentally appropriate at 2 1/2 years old). She did learn quickly though... that if you say you're sorry then it is okay.... but really it is not okay.  But, for her saying sorry was like a "get out of jail free card." I have heard a lot of different people talk about the importance of teaching young children empathy. Although I highly agree that empathy is important and is something we strive to assist in developing. I find it highly discouraging that the idea is out there that empathy can be taught. In my experience and observation, empathy is a characteristic that is developed over time a

I have been on the road a lot lately. Most often, I am either flying or the passenger in the van. (Mr Allan prefers to drive rather than be a passenger). When we travel for work, I am usually presenting and we have an opportunity to meet with and learn from other early childhood professionals. I know a lot of people have moved toward online versions of training and some people only attend conferences close to home, but I have found the greatest value to my professional development in traveling outside of my local area. Coming from a smaller area, local trainings tend to consist of the same people. Even if a different trainer is brought in, the audience tends to be similar. As a trainer, I know that even though the trainer coming in can be an important piece of the puzzle, the opportunity to meet and network with other early childhood professionals far outweighs anything I have to "teach." (I honestly prefer to consider myself a facilitator rather than a teacher, but t

  Swinging on your belly! Flying like superman! Everyone wants to be a superhero! Here, at Child Central Station we embrace super hero play, and we define it broadly: Any powerful play where children pretend to be someone or something else. Heroes are everywhere, not just on the big screen or from television shows. Moms and dads are prime examples of powerful heroes and many of the children engage in playing house and taking care of the babies. Additionally, children often dress up and pretend to be doctors or fire fighters. These heroes are prevalent in our program as well, as children are often doing their best to "save the day!" Some of the powerful make believe play also revolves around "bad guys" and "super villians" and most often "monsters" and "witches." Children work through their world via play, so it only makes sense that they also bring the "bad guys" into the picture. It gives them an opportunity t

We have been on a journey to provide more real experiences for children. More opportunities to do real work.  More access and use of real tools.  Lately, one of the tools of choice have been loppers! The children have spent hours chopping up the various Christmas trees we "planted" in the play area this winter. The trees have been used as loose parts and made a small forest for the children to play in. Now that the snow has melted and the trees have begun to brown, some of the children have decided that it is time to chop them up. I love to watch their facial expressions while they work.  The looks of determination as they struggle to push the handles together and the triumph of a successful chop. For some children, a turn with the loppers takes a very long time and for others, the activity is short lived. We don't force "sharing" here, so a child can take as long as a turn as they would like before allowing the next child who waits to ha

Why are we spending so much time focusing on Kindergarten Readiness? Why are we rushing childhood and trying to get children ready for the "next" instead of being present and accepting children where they are? Why are we not trusting play when the research clearly states young children learn and thrive through play? I guess I can understand to a point, parents want the best for their children and they want them to be successful. However, I am really concerned in regard to the focus on "readiness" and the push down of academics that keeps happening for young children. The research keeps reiterating that children learn through play, and that earlier pushes for academics have long term negative consequences, yet we continue to have unrealistic academic expectations for young children. ( There is an article in Psychology Today that discusses the harmful effects of early academics you can access by clicking here).  The system is broken, but you have a choice. &quo

The snow appears to have vacated the yard. (At least for the time being!) The children were quite excited to find the pile of Sticks that was covered by the snow and have been spending time making a house of sticks!  The story of the 3 little pigs has been popular for quite some time. It has been a daily request, often multiple times a day, so upon discovering our giant pile of sticks it made perfect sense that the children "piggies" decided to build their house of sticks. The children found it easy to push some of the sticks into the dirt. At other times they dug holes and then buried the bottom of the sticks. It has been an ongoing project for a couple of days. I am not sure what the next step will be, or if the house is now complete. We will have to wait and see! Oh, and I almost forgot!! All of that digging in the dirt lead to some worm discoveries too!!!

"Five little monkeys jumping on the bed. One fell off and bumped his head. Momma called the doctor, and the doctor said.... Ma'am your monkey's dead!" The children were singing five little monkeys a few weeks back and one of them decided to create their own version. The new lyrics were finished with some giggles, and sparked a matter of fact conversation.  Many of the children in our program have experienced a death in their family (grandparent or great grandparent) or a death of a pet in the last year.  Death is one of those topics that can be hard to talk about, but like all things, children tend to work through those tough topics with play! During this particular conversation, the children stopped playing and had a serious talk. One child said... "Well, maybe the monkey broke his hip like my Nana." Another child chimed in with "maybe the monkey was just really, really sick." Children are very observant, they know more than we often give th

You're probably confused as to how I have a post with all kinds of snow and then days later have a post with mud... and grass... and then have a post with more snow... Well, welcome to Upper Michigan! This time of year can be super unpredictable with the weather. This year in particular we had an early thaw.. and much of the sandbox and grass has been showing! However.. that doesn't stop the snowflakes from falling! Each morning/day is a new surprise as we are uncertain what mother nature has in store! The other day, it was "warm" (in the mid to upper 40s Farenheit), with a chilly breeze, but we had a lovely patch of mud on the hill! As you can see, there are various patches of mud among the various patches of  snow :). This was a lovely patch of mud for oozing between your fingers, but it was still a little chilly on your fingers... So most of the children decided to explore it with their mittens. It wasn't long before some of the children decided that our

It is no secret that we like to spend a lot of time outside. This winter the children have really enjoyed painting the snow. I know I have shared numerous posts in the past in regard to the various ways that we like to paint this snow . This year paint seemed to be requested far more frequently and the paint of choice has been watered down tempera. The beauty of this paint versus some of the other choices we have used in the past is how vivid it is, and how long the snow holds the color, even when it is covered up by inches of fresh snow! The children found the "gems" by accident after a fresh snowfall..... We have lots of shovels in various sizes and a small "yooper scoop." After one child stumbled across a colored chunk of hardened snow, the "gem rush" was on. Where could we find more gems? How did they get there? Why were some big, and some small? and How did we get so many different colored gems in the yard? Without any prompting... th