Sunday, March 27, 2011

Laughter in the classroom

Finding ways to bring some joy into a classroom may take some planning but is well worth the effort.

Saturday, March 26, 2011

Quotes of Louise-Derman Sparks

"Children are not succeeding because they are not given the tools they need not because they don't have the intelligence."

“The passion was that all children were taught in an environment that truly nurtured their ability to develop and grow.”
                                                                               - Louise Derman- Sparks

Friday, March 25, 2011

Educator's Quotes

'Education must no longer be regarded only as a matter of teaching children, but as a social question of the highest importance, because it is the one question that concerns all mankind. The many other social questions have to do with one group or another of adults, with relatively small numbers of human beings; the social question of the child, however, has to do with all men everywhere'
Maria Montessori

"Each of us must come to care about everyone else's children. We must recognize that the welfare of our children is intimately linked to the welfare of all other people's children. After all, when one of our children needs life-saving surgery, someone else's child will perform it. If one of our children is harmed by violence, someone else's child will be responsible for the violent act. The good life for our own children can be secured only if a good life is also secured for all other people's children." 

' If formal instruction is introduced too early, too intensely and too abstractly, the children may indeed learn the instructed knowledge and skills, but they may do so at the expense of the disposition to use them'    
Lilian Katz,
Director of the ERIC Clearinghouse for Early Childhood Education and
Professor of Early Childhood Education at the University of Illinois (Champaign-Urbana)


Wednesday, March 23, 2011

Quote from Janet Gonzalea-Mena



"Part of being who you are has to do with feeling your feelings, which means you'll have a wide range of emotions--not just constant sunshiny happiness."
Janet Gonzalez-Mena (Child, Family, and Community: Family-Centered Early Care and Education)

Saturday, March 19, 2011

MY PERSONAL CHILDHOOD WEB

My mother died when I was four leaving no memories of her.  Except that she was a school teacher in a rural setting and everyone spoke highly of her.
My father became a very angry person after her death.  He left many scars that had to be healed. 
My Grandfather, my dad’s dad was the kindest man, gentle, hardworking and treated everyone as if they were special.  During harvest time, I would get up at 4 a.m. and go out with him to milk the cows.  That time was mine and I treasured it.  He taught me how to can food, how to garden and how to be a quiet gentle person.  He shielded my siblings and me from much of my father’s anger.
My Aunt Elsie, my dad’s sister became our primary care giver.  She, along with Grandpa, kept the household together. She read to us in the evening and played games.  She gave her whole life to raising all of us. In the household there was Grandpa, Elsie, my cousin Jay, two of her younger brothers and my dad and four of his children. She taught me that no matter what the circumstances are be happy and work hard. 
My cousin, Jay, was a young teenager living in the household because his mother had died at his birth.  Jay was my best friend, he laughed with us, and he took us for rides in an old Model T car that was at the farm.  He taught me to enjoy life.
My brothers who are 2 and 3 years older took on some of Dad’s anger.  Even to this day they do not show much caring.  Last year, when I had breast cancer surgery, neither one of them came to see me.
Aunt Bertha, my grandfather’s youngest brother’s wife was another aunt that was very encouraging.  She always had the family Christmas at her house.  That was such a fun time.  She had other dinners and parties for us.  She was a very correctly gentle woman.

Friday, March 11, 2011

Drawing by one of my children

Iris is my little artist.  She draws just about anything, today it was her friend Charlotte

Quotes about Children

Man is most nearly himself when he achieves the seriousness of a child at play. ~ Heraclitus

No commitment in the whole world demands quite as much as bringing up children. ~ Janene Wolsey Baadsgaard

Train up a child in the way he sould go and when he is old he will not depart from it. Proverbs 22:6

Rock Star

I did not say on my video I posted that is my youngest granddaughter.  She is four next week and already wants to be a rock star.

Monday, March 7, 2011

Breakfast

This morning at breakfast our new little boy would not eat his fruit cocktail.  I said to him, "your mommy said you like fruit."  He answered, "I do I just do not like it scrambled."
He did not eat it but ate his other food so we were both happy.

Saturday, March 5, 2011