English is a funny language. It is hard to learn and nothing spells the way it sounds. We have more exceptions to rules than we have rules themselves. Our adjectives come before our nouns and our tenses are a hot mess. That is why I thought I should mention the trouble with the English counting […]
The Project Approach to early childhood learning is a specific method of curriculum delivery that allows children to explore a subject deeply, rather than exploring many topics superficially. It is not unlike theme-based learning, where the content areas connect, but different because the Project Approach allows the children to decide what they want to study. […]
I spent a lot of time this summer organizing (or trying to anyway) different areas of my house in an attempt to clean and minimize the accumulations that have built up over the past 20 years. In some ways, I was successful. I finally got rid of clothes from the 80’s (even if they do […]
I’d like to claim that I read every newspaper, magazine, or journal that comes across my desk, but the truth is that I just don’t have the time. I do however, clip our articles, store old magazines with turned down pages, and keep a working list of “stuff I need to read.” Now that we […]
I have personnally watched almost one million hours of little league baseball over the past 16 years. Every summer, I have sat and tried to feign interest in what may be the longest sports commitments of any childhood choice. Some games went on for well over 2 hours, only to end in a 1-1 tie . Those […]
This comes from a site called A Magical Childhood. It is brilliant. What should a 4 year old know? I was on a parenting bulletin board recently and read a post by a mother who was worried that her 4 1/2 year old did not know enough. “What should a 4 year old know?” she asked. […]
Although I have been focusing this blog on “all things math and young children” for the past 2 years, this time of the summer reminds me of the years when I was getting ready to go back to school. I have such vivid memories of the late summer when I was growing up. There were feelings […]
Yesterday, while walking my pugs I saw these chalk drawings. I love how you can see what the adult has drawn and what the child has drawn. The bottom picture is a “mandala” – the first symbolic representation children draw. They are often circular with lines intersecting the edges, looking like rudimentary suns. Sometimes, children’s mandalas are triangular, […]
Before you get worried, this is a spoof, a satire. However as funny as it is, it forces us to think, doesn’t it? Thoughts?
I was doing some research about new and exciting ways that educators are getting parents more involved in their children’s math education and I came across Project EQUALS from the University of California at Berkeley. Project EQUALS provides workshops (not really helpful unless you live in the Bay Area) and curriculum materials for teachers, parents, […]