We had a question from a reader that I think most parents can relate to. Her children often talk over and interrupt each other in an effort to be heard. This dynamic can happen at home and at school, and there are a few approaches to dealing with the situation. We asked our blog Parenting Expert Bill Corbett to provide some advice. Here is the original
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When Tressa and I talked about starting a blog on our website, one of the main reasons we wanted to do this was to provide a way for parents and child care professionals to ask questions and receive ideas and support. One way that we planned to do this was by inviting professionals in the field of early childhood to become part of our
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Ready for some homemade musical fun for the holidays? Time to recycle those little bells you have around the house or pick up a small pack from a local store and make your own jingling bracelets, anklets, belts or jingle sticks for thrifty family fun. Although most folks think of jingling bells around Christmas time, you can hear them in a variety of folk
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The other day I read this wonderful idea in the paper in the “Ask Amy” column. It was about a literacy campaign that she launched with the Family Reading Partnership called “A Book on Every Bed.” The idea is to put a million books at the foot of a million beds for a million children on Christmas morning. What a WONDERFUL idea! It’s a
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We are humbled, honored and super excited to have been placed on the short-list of nominations for TWO Edublog Awards this year!! These types of awards are a way for educational bloggers (and those that follow them) to recognize and show their appreciation for the resources and knowledge that these bloggers take the time to share each and every day. When we started this blog back
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Today we brought in some seasonal items from nature along with some play dough … and just let the children have at it! We used winter nature items from our area, such as pinecones and pine branches. Since I still had some extra scented pinecones – we used those. Some of the pine branches also had a good pine scent – so this was definitely a
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Since I am new to blogging … I am just learning about the Edublog Awards this year. It is a way for educational bloggers (and those that follow them) to recognize and show their appreciation for the resources and knowledge that these bloggers take the time to share each and every day. I would like to show my appreciation for just a few of the educational bloggers that
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Lots of people have heard of phonics and indeed there has been a heavy focus on them in schools for years, and then not so much of a focus as we looked at whole language approaches, and then back again to a phonics-intensive focus (don’t you just love the education pendulum?). But before phonemic awareness can develop, or at least before it can develop
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I am excited to be participating in a new collaborative blog of preschool educators calledPreK + K Sharing! PreK + K Sharing was created by Debbie Clement from Rainbows Within Reach. It’s wonderful to have so many early childhood professionals sharing their expertise and perspectives! My introductory post focused on some activity ideas that are themed around BOOKS! In future posts, I plan to spotlight other literacy-based
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One of the most important parts of a child’s early literacy experience actually has nothing to do with books or print at all. Instead, it is all about their early language experiences centering around talk – both being talked to (not at!) and later, talking back. Researchers Betty M. Hart and Todd R. Risley focus on this idea in their book “Meaningful Differences in
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