KGlearning

I’m excited to welcome guest speaker Emma in Early Childhood for our next pop-up webinar.

In this session she’ll touch on where our expectations come from, how they influence the way we interpret behaviour and why reflecting on and gently questioning our own beliefs is just as important as understanding children’s behaviour.

Emma has such a beautiful knowledge coupled with her exceptional image of the child, we could and can talk for hours 😂 so I know this will be a 45min you won’t want to miss!
See you there!

https://www.kglearning.com.au/event-details/guiding-behaviour-are-we-expecting-too-much

So much intention can be captured through the thoughtful curation of materials - the types, the colour, the companions, the shape - when light, reflection and depth are included in design it speaks to children’s natural curiosity to explore beyond the singular or fixed.

I often think about the intrigue that colour blocking can create - it draw’s attention to questions that might otherwise be invisible, like is white a colour? Does it have shades and tones. These two examples from .pascoevale caught my attention today for so many reasons ….

But most importantly the time to be prepared was so evident 🙌

The environment always speaks.

Let’s take this image with 4 hot glue guns, prepared with intention. Hot glue guns are ‘real’ and hold stuff together that sometimes PVA glue or sticky tape can’t, yet so often hot glue guns get labelled in the high risk category.

When the environment becomes a ‘teacher’ it affords time with materials and resources in a way that is not only safe but also speaks to the possibility. How much time do you spend putting in some thought around environment design (not activities) so that children’s encounters with new tools and materials is successful as possible?

Moving beyond activities requires this sort of design thinking so we are not always ‘packing things up’ and as a result turning some experiences or tools into a novelty. It strikes me at times how often a team might plan curriculum experiences in their documentation but can we say the same time is afforded to preparing and designing the actual physical context?

Food for thought…
(image credit: Stokes Valley Kindergarten, NZ)

When Caleb was 4 he eagerly held onto the monkey bars and said ‘I can’t let go yet’, indicating a possible goal he had in mind to master.

Over several months he faced that challenge with determination, unique strategies that spoke to his level of comfort AND courage.

He always continued to try. It might have 6-9 months down the track when he showed me one day that he could ‘let go’ - yelling across the playground to his friend to come and hold his legs, he finally found his courage to ‘let go’.

This has always reminded me of the importance of listening to children and what matters to them and how this must be part of the way we construct learning goals - in relation.

What are your thoughts?