EXPERTS

Speed and not-so-dangerous situations

nina — Thu, 27 Oct 2011 11:34:21 +0000

Professionally the most successful experiences to me are those teaching and learning situations where the whole group is working enthusiastically and the spirit is good. I can also feel the flow with small pupils and that flow strengthens also the teacher in an amazing way!

I work as a Finnish school teacher and I have ten eager pupils at the age of 3 to 5 years. There are speed and happening with them! To get everybody to concentrate to the same thing at the same time, there has to be speed and changing situations on the lessons. You can´t stay at one thing too long time, or otherwise you notice that the kids are drawing their workbooks full, scramble on the floor or hanging on teacher´s neck… What can be done during the lessons? A small teaching moment and straight after that some play to prevent getting bored. And between that moments, songs, jokes, fairy tales, theater, foolishness. And to every suitable situations “heavy” staff, connected to the kids own life. Only the sky is the limit what can be done at school or kindergarten! And what is the best, you get instant feedback how successful the lessons are! If they are having fun, the eyes sparkle and they can´t sit on their places. If it is boring, they tell that honestly straight to you also. This honesty and genuinity is the best working with kids that age!

A trip

nina — Thu, 27 Oct 2011 11:25:37 +0000

This autumn we made a trip with group of children to the farm which is nearby to our kindergarten. There is a café on that farm, they set up riding courses there and all kinds of different events. We prepaired the trip in advance with the kids, discussed what animals we will see there and drew pictures of the animals and sang songs which suited to the theme. On that trip day the kids were thrilled and walked breedzily in double line to the farm. Luckily the weather was sunny. On the farm we saw chickens, horses, dogs and lambs, and the kids were facinated especially to the little ponies. We were allowed also to touch those. We ate our picnic lunch at the yard and walked back to the kindergarten. After that the kids rested a while. Kids talked about the trip for a long time afterwards. Everybody draw something which they remembered best from the trip. These kinds of trips refresh children´s and kindergarten workers daily routines.

A white mohair dress

nina — Thu, 27 Oct 2011 11:21:59 +0000

In our school are more than before parents, who are very helpless and completely off their children´s everyday life. A child comes to school dressed up in a white mohair dress and she must to be so careful with the dress that she can´t play or do almost anything. Parents expect to get information in advance from every crafts sessions, so that they can dress their children with dresses which can be washed. I don´t know if it is just a coincident that there are so many such cases, or is child´s (messy) reality too far from that…

A secret

nina — Thu, 27 Oct 2011 11:16:03 +0000

A memory from my childhood: every time I pass a snack bar I remember when my dad used to take me to the movies to watch Goofy and Uuno Turhapuro (a Finnish comedy character) on Sunday afternoons. I didn´t care so much of the Turhapuro films and either the sausages which were eaten after the movie, secretly from my mother. It was just so nice to go to the movies and keep a big secret (eating the sausages).

I think also my godfather was a great friend of the hot dogs, because after the congregation´s daycare he bought us a hot dog to split up and that wasn´t allowed to tell her wife, my godmother. My godmother was expecting us to get back and the food was ready, and we were terrible hungry after that hot dog…

GIFTED CHILDREN

begona — Thu, 27 Oct 2011 09:05:55 +0000

Hello to all the European colleagues. I am leaving here my story even though more than a story, what i am leaving are my doubts and hesitation. HAVE YOU EVER HAD A GIFTED CHILD IN YOUR CLASS?. I have been reading a lot and i know they use to have a a very fluid language for their age, learn to read very quickly, have lots of insights for their age, are sensitive, loving and they have something difficult to explain. 2 years ago I had one child in 4 years which I believe was gifted, but his parents changed him in primary school and I have lost track.
My chief of studies told me that it was a very sensitive issue and that with such small children, it was better to let it go, she more or less told me that I should leave others to deal with “that problem”: let primary school teachers take care of it. I was worried about the fact that the sooner it is detected, the better for the child. I also know that it has to be diagnosed by qualified staff, it is very important to count on a clinic diagnose of specialised proffesionals.
My reflection is the following: we are hearing a lot about funding cuts, which it is true we have them, but it is not all about money. I believe that many times we teachers do not get involved as much as we should. I am not sure if Juan was gifted or less, but the attitude of “letting it go” is very common, it si not about money but of getting involved a bit more. I am not sure if when I was a child our teachers got more involved than nowadays, i do not remember (could it be child amnesia?) but i have the feeling that they did.
I WOULD REALLY LIKE TO GET BACK FROM SOMEONE WHO HAS HAD A GIFTED CHILD IN CLASS COULD SHARE HIS/HER EXPERIENCE, when and how it was diagnosed, how did they work in class, how t affected the other children... Thanks in advance.

Long tracks of school bullying

nina — Thu, 27 Oct 2011 08:55:06 +0000

School bullying is a very common phenomenon these days and media talks lot of it. Will it ever end? Who knows. Hopefully, in our time of increasing knowledge and awareness, the problem is taking seriously, not just as project –thinking. Bullying leads to considerable suffering with those who become targets of it.

I became bullied at school, mostly during the elementary school years, but also during the secondary school years. Bullying meant discrimination, laughing (at my appearance), sometimes pushing or kicking. I can´t say why I was different. Was it the length or bigger size compared to others? Or was it shyness, the rich world of imagination or the other feature of me which irritated others? I don´t know. But nowadays, it doesn´t hardly matter at all. I´m still different compared to others, that´s a fact. Gradually, I have learned to see that being different is a value and all people those close to me are different as well. I´m not an exception - I´m good the way I am. But how hard it has been to believe that!

In the beginning when working with children my past was a problem. Practically that meant I couldn´t work among children even though I wanted. That was before I sorted things out in a therapy and before I was able to unleash my childhood traumas behind. The most difficult things for me at work have been 1) being an authority, 2) building up my self-confidence, 3) handling children´s laugh (because I felt children were laughing at me), 4) understanding children´s needs, 5) receiving critic and confessing my own mistakes at work. Surrounded by these problems it´s practically impossible to guide a group of children or to be an adult member of education community. Everyone who works the similar job can understand that. I can say that I´m proud of myself, and those problems has mostly gone and I can work among children. And I can claim that nowadays my experiences are my strengths which I wouldn´t change away. The soggy ground turned into personal/intellectual capacity, from where to get strength.

Orange juice

nina — Thu, 27 Oct 2011 08:51:35 +0000

In my childhood my grandparents often took care of me, as well as my aunt did. That time kindergartens were not so common, every child couldn`t get a place from the public day care. Although it isn´t always easy to get a day care place nowadays either because there are so many children who need a place. But I have wonderful memories of those easygoing days at my granny´s. In the morning I was taken to the granny´s and we ate breakfast together with my grandparents. Morning news came from the radio and grandmum made juice from fresh oranges. The breakfast followed always the same pattern and that gave me feeling of security. Even though my grandparents died decades ago, I can still remember how granny´s kitchen looked and smelt like.

A young nanny

nina — Thu, 27 Oct 2011 08:48:35 +0000

I still remember vividly when I first started as a young nanny in the kindergarten. How I enjoyed being and playing with children, and how quickly the children got used to me and came confidently close to me and to my lap. Childrens`s emotional reactions were so clearly seen that it was a little bit confusing to a young nanny. I didn´t have any younger siblings and I wasn´t very used to take care of children. However, I felt I was intented to that profession. In particular, I remember one unpleasant situation when we were dining with the little ones. One child didn´t want to eat the food, he said it was bad. One older nanny had the opinion that the child has to eat everything from the plate and it is forbidden to say the food is bad. Poor child sat at the table for a long time and was unable to eat the food. In fact the older nanny forced the child to eat and the result was that the child throwed up. I was so unexperienced that time that I was unable to intervene that situation. Fortunately today the attitude towards children´s eating has changed.

Challenges in my work

nina — Thu, 27 Oct 2011 08:45:30 +0000

Recently I have been thinking a lot how important it is that the co-operation with parents goes well. Extreme-parents are emphasized/highlighted in my current job, even though there are not so many of them. With extreme-parents I mean parents who don´t care how their children´s day has gone, or on the other hand those parents who ask very carefully all the smallest details and who don´t trust our professionalism. Most of the parents are ordinary, nice, easy to co-operate with, interested in their children´s welfare. Another important theme in my work is nowadays multiculturalism. How to deal with a child and parents who are coming from another culture. I mean the communication difficulties, how to be sure that the parents have understood what I´m talking to them.

THE THREE KINGS

begona — Thu, 27 Oct 2011 08:44:56 +0000

I guess this could have happened to anyone but, one year, explaining the unity in Christmas, I asked who were the Three Kings and a girl told me that they were Juan Carlos, Queen Sofia and Leticia. Because they are kings. I told them I was referring to those from the East, the Three Wise Men of Christmas, and she told me that his father said they live in the Kings Palace of Orient and the King goes out only at Christmas. I was speechless.

INDISCRETION

begona — Thu, 27 Oct 2011 08:43:32 +0000

Children are very indiscreet. This is a story a mother told me. She says that her daughter is starting to be a "bigmouth." The other day they were in the elevator with a neighbor they don’t like or something like that. They were waiting to go up the three of them and the girl said "Mom, are we going up with this dumb?"

WE HAD A PET IN CLASS

begona — Thu, 27 Oct 2011 08:42:31 +0000

We had a class pet, a little hamster called Pon. When I arrived to school he was already there so they explained me that when he died, they bought another just like him because the children became very sad every time he died. It seemed to be a good idea but, hey, stranger things have happened.
One day Joaquín, a 5 years old child, came to school very sad and her mother warned me that his dog had died. From time to time he cried and told me that if Lala (his dog) had eaten the same as Pon the hamster she wouldn’t have died.
So I am not in favor of "reviving" the hamster, that means to deceive children and that's not good.
Here I leave my opinion.

COLORS

begona — Thu, 27 Oct 2011 08:41:38 +0000

One day I was walking down the street with my daughter and we passed a man of color. My daughter started screaming, "look, mom, a black man!!!" I was embarrassed and the more I tried to make her be quiet, the more she screamed. This made me think that we talked about multicultural education but there are children who are really far from the topic. So I prepared an activity I found on the internet about values education at AMEI, particularly on Tolerance and told my kids in class about the different races with pictures from internet. I hope no mother will feel as embarrased as I did.

I’VE BEEN WORKING FOR MORE THAN 40 YEARS…

begona — Thu, 27 Oct 2011 08:39:47 +0000

I have been working as teacher for more than 40 years, but I could say that I have been a teacher all my life because when I was young I looked after my neighbors’ children for some coins. I did it by vocation, something that is disappearing. I’m retired now, and when I look back I think everything has deteriorated significantly because new generations have lost precisely what made me take care of my neighbors while my friends went to the park to hang out: the vocation.
Government employees have lost it: steady job, good pay, tedium, vacations, good timetable and above all the safety of having a secure job. Children will change, but the public teacher remains. In private education it’s different, working conditions are not as good and stability either. Deep down it doesn’t matter, they have lost their vocation.
As a professional in primary education, I reflect by telling my story. I remember my teacher Maruja who sang songs for us. The children nowadays will remember something called Sony, who plays the music in DVD. Technology can not replace us.
I'm not one of those who think that any past time was better, and I’m in favor of the logical evolution of society, but we lost the values along the way, values such as respect and admiration for teachers who have helped us to learn and become what we are today.

PUBLISHING COMPANIES METHODS???

begona — Thu, 27 Oct 2011 08:37:16 +0000

I have a concern I would like to share with you. We are working in class with a method (I prefer not to say its publishing company); in every school I've been are also working with a publishing company method, but I get the feeling that these methods require too much from the children, especially in the primary school, from which children are frequently absent and do not have the necessary psychomotor development. I have asked my colleagues if they have the same feeling as me, and they do.
I can’t remember having used activity books or notebooks when I was a child, like children nowadays. Can you help me with your experience? Which one have you worked with? Do they use methods like these in other countries?

MANIA

begona — Thu, 27 Oct 2011 08:35:17 +0000

This week I’ve been asked by a father if it is true that we have it in for his child. If we have it in for his child?!!! But how can he ask that? Well, how can he even think that?

I ALSO USE VIDEOS

begona — Thu, 27 Oct 2011 08:34:25 +0000

We also use videos in class, especially when it rains and we can’t go out into the yard. I have read on the website of AMEI that another study has revealed that when the TV is on the parent speaks less. The study shows that the less talk time a child has, the poorer his/her language develops.
The American Association of Pediatrics (AAP) warns that the media have negative; and no positive effects are known for children under two years, and encourage pediatricians to talk with parents about how to prevent and limit video time to NO MORE THAN TWO hours a day for children under two years old.
I understand that everything is good or bad depending on the use of it, but I do not think they will become "dumb" kids for being in front of the TV for a while a day, far from it, it entertains them and they can also see things they can’t see in everyday life. I don’t know, if any pediatrician reads this, he/she may guide us. Thanks for reading this!

THE USE OF VIDEOS AS AN EDUCATIONAL RESOURCE

begona — Thu, 27 Oct 2011 08:33:19 +0000

Hi everyone, I read on the Internet that, according to one study, DVDs for babies may delay early language acquisition. Every hour of daily exposure to DVD / videos for babies was associated with a reduction of 17 points in the results of a test of language development called Communicative Development Inventory.
I use DVDs, we put them on TV in the common activity room and they entertain them very much, but after reading this study I don’t know what to do. It seems to me that having a child all day in front of the TV can’t be good but two days a week in class is something different, I believe it stimulate the imagination, it stimulate the senses for colored images, sounds, songs, children's voices, etc. We put the Cantajuegos, children's series such as The Little Mermaid and SpongeBob, for the youngest we put the Teletubbies or Mickey’s house in English. You should see their eyes, the way they try to move and dance.
DVDs are used in every nursery I've been but now I doubt. Do they use videos as a teaching resource in other countries?

PROGRAMMING

begona — Thu, 27 Oct 2011 08:31:50 +0000

Hello everyone, every year the same thing happens to me, we start on September the 1st, and we are told to program the 1st quarter. How I can program the 1st quarter if I still don’t know the children in the class?! They say: use the last year planning and adapt it to the new project... What project?!

Amnesia Infantil

JaviMartin — Mon, 24 Oct 2011 08:55:23 +0000

Amigos, comparto con ustedes una noticia que he leido en internet muy curiosa "Los motivos de la amnesia infantil". Estaba intentando acordarme de mi primera infancia para poder compararla con el tipo de educación que estamos dando a esta generación, y este artículo me parece muy enriquecedor. Es de la Revista Quo, sacado de su web (quo.es/index.php/ciencia/salud/memoria_infantil). Les hago un resumen.

“La mayoría de la gente no recuerda nada hasta los dos o tres años, y lo que tienen hasta los cinco años son, como mucho, bosquejos. ¿Por qué? Dos grandes estructuras están implicadas en la creación y almacenamiento de la memoria autobiográfica: el córtex prefrontal y el hipocampo. Se cree que el hipocampo es el lugar en el que los detalles de una experiencia se consolidan en la memoria a largo plazo. Y aquí es donde radica el problema. “Solíamos pensar que el hipocampo y los córtices que lo rodean se desarrollaban a una edad muy temprana”, dice Patricia Bauer, quien estudia el desarrollo de la memoria durante la infancia en la Universidad Emory, en Atlanta. Pero las últimas investigaciones han dejado claro que una pequeña parte de esta región, el giro dentado, no madura hasta los 4 o 5 años. Este área actúa como puente para que las señales procedentes de las estructuras circundantes alcancen el resto del hipocampo, de modo que hasta que el giro dentado no está preparado, las experiencias tempranas no se asentarán en el almacén a largo plazo, según Bauer.”

Espero que les haya resultado tan interesante como a mi. Ahora entiendo porqué no soy capaz de recordar historias de la más tierna infancia.

An happy ending story

francesca — Fri, 23 Sep 2011 12:53:10 +0000

Antonella was 2 years old when entered the nursery school. In the preparatory interview, her mother, recently divorced, told to the teachers about some difficulties she was having at mealtimes, because Antonella was obstinately refusing food. She hoped the school could help them. The insertion of Antonella in the school went well, she was interested in the activities and available to learn and to relate with classmates and adults. At lunch time, nevertheless, she kept refusing food. Antonella was sitting sedately, waiting for her turn. When the food arrived she simply moved the dish away in the middle of the table. She was simply waiting the end of the lunch. I suggested to the educator to start asking her – everyday – why she doesn’t eat, even if of course she could never reply. One day, annoyed, Antonella replied: “I don’t eat because mum doesn’t want”. During the periodical staff meeting, I suggested to the teachers to meet the mother: we agreed on a list of questions and decided to keep a friendly tone of conversation, trying to be encouraging and communicative and not judging. Questions should focus on the description of the lunch and dinner at home, the preparation, the persons involved, the mood, the words used, etc. The questions had a strong effect on the mother: in fact while answering and telling to the teachers, she became aware of the mistakes made... Antonella’s mother described the situation with tears in her eyes: they were not used to eat together, because she was too busy to convince Antonella to eat… the child run away and the mother got anxious and angry and started saying things like: “it’s useless to lay the table, because you don’t eat…instead of preparing for you I would run away, I’m angry…”. Anger, frustration, disappointment: these feelings were accompanying their unfinished meals. By describing the situation, the mother was becoming aware of the mistakes made. Teachers explained that probably Antonella had formed a negative idea of the meal, due to the tensions and pain caused to the mother – and being a child unable to understand the complex situation- she was convinced that the mum didn’t want she eats. This was a simplified explanation, of course, but it could be accepted by the mother. In the next days the mother followed teachers suggestions and the situation rapidly changed at school and at home. Antonella started eating. She also started playing with food in the kitchen corner of the class: preparing and cooking food for the dolls. When playing with dolls – to convince her to eat – she said them they were “good” when they eat, similarly to what the teachers and the mother said to her. At the end of the school year the mother thanked a lot the teachers who supported her in a difficult moment of life and helped Antonella and her to experience the joy to eat together.

A teachers clash

francesca — Fri, 23 Sep 2011 12:51:42 +0000

In my working life as responsible of the pedagogical service, I’ve conducted many meetings. I remember one meeting aimed at reconciling two teachers who clashed with each other causing problems and tensions in the classroom and embarrassing colleagues and parents. Grazia was more experienced than Elena. The reason of the conflict was in the different attitudes towards parents: Grazia, thanks to her experience and competence, had good professional relationship with parents based on respect, empathy, availability, and used a clear, coherent and simply language with them. Elena was insecure, frail, isolated in the school and was incline to have personal rather than professional relationship with parents, treating them with indulgence, e.g. when they arrived late at school, or didn’t respect the rules. The two teachers had a quarrel about that and – since they were not able to understand each other – they found themselves in a situation with no escape. Because I couldn’t assign them to different classes, I decided to help them, by organising a series of meetings. I opened the first meeting with an introductory speech on the objectives of the meeting and on the role of the nursery school teacher, especially with regards to the relationship with parents. I underlined that each teacher has his/her own personality but should refer to a set of common principles, based on coherence, pertinence and correctness. I asked to each teacher and educator of the school to express his / her point of view and to suggest a way to solve the situation. There was a long and close debate that took three meetings. During these meetings I paid particular attention to the group dynamics, listening things said and unsaid, observing behaviours, absences and ill-concealed embarrassments. Elena and Grazia had really different outlooks of life, but after 3 meetings we found a common definition of how teachers should relate with parents, we even made some little jokes – in between a quarrel and another. I asked Grazia to look at Elena with new eyes, and to recognize her qualities. I encouraged Elena to ask help and accept the support from Grazia, as she was reliable and experienced – at least till the end of the school year…I don’t know exactly what happened, but they decided to organize 2 events with parents on pedagogical and education issues. By this way the focus was shifted from the relationship with parents to the contents to be discussed with them. Grazia spoke at the first event, while Elena was taking notes and vice-versa: Elena spoke at the second event, while Grazia was taking notes. Each of them has his own space and could feel to be protagonist of the event. This had positive effects and the teachers burden themselves again. At the end of the school year, they wanted to keep working together, because they were learning how to complement each others, looking at their work from a new point of view. They were just asking an hand to professionally grow. .. and this was my job. (Luciana Torricelli).

A dog at school: an educational project

francesca — Fri, 23 Sep 2011 12:50:27 +0000

This project has been carried out in a nursery school with the aim of stimulating children’s emotional and rational development. The dog, carefully chosen and trained, was brought to the school once at week for a while by its owner. When the dog arrived, children - really excited from the day before - were waiting on doorstep for it. The dog toddled in the big room, f1ollowed and imitated by the older children, while the younger preferred to enter the classroom; some of them dared to move near to the dog, but suddenly took refuge behind the educator when the dog reacted dearly. Among the considerations done by the school staff on this experience, the most interesting one is about the imitation of the dog by the children: children automatically imitated the dog: its way to move, to run, to sniff, to eat and drink. The dog became the “leader” of the game and the children started to move on all fours, to sniff, to lie down, to roll, etc. So far, the experience showed that 2 years old children like imitating and playing whatever they see, and especially things that strike them. Problems arose at lunch time: the dog ate in a dish on the floor, in the middle of the dining hall. The plan was to eat all together, with the dog eating in a dish on the floor of the dining hall. But suddenly children- imitating the dog – wanted to put their dishes on the floor too…The dog was causing a sort of „regression“ ? What should the educators do? What might the parents think about this experience? An educator find the right words. She told to children that were eating on the floor: „ Stop to play the dog, now we play the children!“. This was a revealing sentence: children were entered into a symbolic play, but they were also able to stop as they want. It was not a sort of regression, it was an „ill-timed imitation game“. Task of the educators was to bring children back into the real situation: dogs eat on the floor, children on the table. Children stay sit down while eating, use forks ….dogs not. Children recognised the difference between dogs and children. A possible development of this experience could have been to propose children a new game in the kitchen corner of the classroom: children prepare the dog food, they prepare the dish and invite the dog to eat. In such a moment they could even imitate the dog. Play is free: it should not have rules and binds, play is amusement and pleasure.

Barabara’s world

francesca — Wed, 21 Sep 2011 14:27:05 +0000

Barbara was 3 years old when she arrived in the nursery school. After 2 months the teacher called me – as responsible of the pedagogical service – to carry out an observation. In fact the teacher had noticed that Barbara didn’t relate to persons but only to objects. She was a beautiful child, taller than her classmates. During the preparatory interview with parents, Barbara was described as an obstinate child who never listens and looks you in the face. When I entered the class, all children came around me and asked who I am, except Barbara. When I asked their names – only Barbara didn’t look at me and didn’t answer to my question. She stayed alone, looking at an object she held in her hands. Some children told me her name, as they are used to speak on her behalf. After a while I asked Barbara If I could lace up her shoes, but she neither answered nor looked at me, so I started talking with some other children in the classroom, without losing sight of her. Then she came close to me, and without looking at me or speaking, she put her foot with the untied shoe in front of me, to be laced up. I would have given her a big hug, but I was afraid to break the spell and to invade her space. I kept observing Barbara at distance for the whole morning. What I saw confirmed the impression of the teacher. In the afternoon I convened all the nursery teachers and educators in order to prepare a meeting, a few days later, with Barbara parents and invite them to get into contact with a psychologist linked to the health public service. It grieved parents to hear our words, they felt confused but demonstrated to be available to follow the path we showed them and accepted the support of our team. In the meantime I invited a psychologist to observe Barbara: and the diagnosis he made confirmed that Barbara was autistic. One week later Barbara and her parents started a common pathway, with the support of the nursery team. 7 months later Barbara entered the pre-primary school. In the last meeting her parents thanked the nursery teacher who noticed the problem in time and supported them in facing obstacles. 20 years have passed: I still remember Barbara and her “away glance”, I remember her foot with the untied shoe in front of me. I hope that Barbara, now young woman, is able to open her world to all persons who love and value her.

A different world

francesca — Wed, 21 Sep 2011 14:20:13 +0000

M. is 4 years old. He’s a child confined in his own world, very different from the world outside. This is something difficult to be told to his young parents, who every morning place M. in our care. They prefer to think that’s everything is OK and to not see. “ …Yes, but…other children too do the same” they say talking about their nephews, cousins and other M.’s little friends. But they know that it’s not true, that there is something “strange”, and their child is “not like the others”. M. doesn’t feel things as we do, he lives in a different world. A world made of light and shadows we can’t see. A world of soft and strong sounds we can’t perceive. Light, floating, soft, strong …sensations we can’t catch, sometime so intense that he can’t even bear the smell, the sight, the weight… But if you are able to understand his world, M. receives you, follows you and gives you his hand, because the world outside is too difficult for him. What’s my role? How can I take his hands and bring him with me, and tell him that world outside is better that his own. But is it true?

Justifiable doubts of a little boy

francesca — Wed, 21 Sep 2011 10:58:50 +0000

I usually enjoy working in nursery schools: children are curious, funny and interesting. Once, during a meeting with the staff of a nursery school, we were discussing about hygienic procedures, and in particular about the role these procedures play in the acquisition of autonomy by children, as well as in the language, body and gender-difference knowledge development. We were discussing about the way children interpreter episodes that happens at home, how they tell that episodes at school…One of the member of the team told us– embarrassed and amused at once- the following episode. A 2 years old child just had a little surgery to its penis, that caused him pain for a little while. Now everything was ok – but for a little irritation to be treated with a specific pomade. The child was lying down on the changing table waiting she dried off his genitals after washing... To make shorter the wait, she was saying with a soft voice: “ you went red – now I dry you well and rub the pomade …”. He raised his head to see his penis and asked really worried: “ but…but.. is it still there?”. “Yes -she answered- it’s there, it’s there don’t worry, it is still there”

Grasping water with all senses

rh — Tue, 20 Sep 2011 15:54:35 +0000

In the day nursery group where I was on placement this year, I carried out a project as part of my course work, on the topic of “grasping water with all senses”, with four children aged two.
My goal was to get the children to deal more intensively with the element of water. It was important to me that the children's actions would take centre stage. They were to be able to act independently and experience this way that one's own actions produce an effect.
First the children had the opportunity to occupy themselves with water without any time pressure (sink and tap). Then I prepared a large tub with different materials for the next units (for example sponges, materials to pour into and out of etc.)
In good weather the units took place in the garden.
I could notice how appealing and exciting the element of water was to the children. It was difficult to conclude the project, as ever new opportunities to play presented themselves.
I also realised how important it is not to give any concrete instructions and to be available instead as a companion and a source of inspiration.

The travelling dog

rh — Tue, 20 Sep 2011 15:52:06 +0000

One morning Leon came to kindergarten really distraught. Usually he had a little stuffed dog with him that he called Wuffel, but on that day he started to cry immediately when I asked him where he'd left him. “I lost him yesterday at the playground. My mum and I went looking for him, but he was just gone”.
Kathrin, my colleague, tried to comfort him and handed him a teddy bear, but Leon threw him on the floor and went on sulking. Then she started with “maybe Wuffel's gone on a trip?” Leon looked at her in disbelief. - “Yes, I think that he felt like seeing something else for a while and so he went on a trip to Italy!” And she began to tell him about everything that Wuffel was going to see and experience there. Leon listened to her attentively.
In the following days, I watched again and again how Leon and Kathrin were talking about Wuffel. In these conversations, Wuffel went through exciting adventures in Italy and Spain, he was doing well, and Leon couldn't get enough of the stories. One morning Kathrin brought out a postcard that had a picture of southern Spain on the front. Leon read out the scrawly written text: “dear Leon, I am travelling and have seen and experienced a lot of things. I'm doing very well, but I have to think of you lot and I miss you. Kindest regards, your Wuffel.” Leon beamed.
Marianne, nursery nurse

Working abroad?

rh — Tue, 20 Sep 2011 12:56:35 +0000

Hello you all,
I want to go abroad to an English-speaking country in the not too far future in order to live there for a while, just to get to know another culture. If it's possible, I'd like to practice my profession there (nursery nurse). Has anyone had any experience with this? I'd be particularly interested in England or the USA (although I know that my chances are rather weak there...) Are there maybe some organisations that can support you with that sort of project?
I'd be very thankful if anyone could help me further and/or tell me about their own experiences.
Thanks in advance already, Tinchen

The sad girl

rh — Tue, 20 Sep 2011 12:51:40 +0000

A few weeks ago our group welcomed a new addition. A four year-old girl joined us. She was brought by an elegantly dressed lady who told us that the girl, Alice, had come from southern Italy, that she'd lost both her parents and come to Germany via a help organisation for orphans.
Alice sat down quietly in a corner, did not look around and remained unresponsive for the rest of the day. I tried to communicate with her with the help of my rudimentary Italian. She looked at me with her large black eyes, but showed no reaction. She didn't play with the other children either. Only sometimes, when the children were painting, she diffidently took a black pencil and drew something that looked like black clouds of smoke.
It went on like this for a while and my colleagues and I deliberated on how we could help Alice. I also spoke to the lady who brought her and picked her up at our kindergarten, but she thought that we'd simply have to give her time to adjust.
At one point we went on an excursion to a pond with the children, and in the afternoon we lit a camp fire and grilled sausages. All the children had a lot of fun. I only noticed after a while that Alice had disappeared. I went looking for her in the adjoining wood and found her there, too. She was lying on the ground, head pressed to the surface, totally quiet. She wasn't crying.
I learned later that Alice's parents and also her little brother had perished in a fire in the village where the family had been living.
Marianne, nursery nurse

My grandmother

rh — Tue, 20 Sep 2011 12:47:02 +0000

A friend of mine told me of this project about stories from childhood. Now that I've read a couple of the stories I've come to think about my own childhood. My grandmother lived in our house – we had a big house in the countryside – and after my grandfather had died, she moved into a room on the first floor. There she often sat in the evening, listening to the radio, knitting or reading. I often went to see her after dinner because I enjoyed being in her room. Mostly she'd start telling me about her life, and she'd had a long life, with much to tell. She had lived through two world wars, flight and expulsion, and two of her children had died really young. But still my grandmother didn't seem embittered. Instead she seemed kind, and she often smiled to herself when brushing up one of her memories. This is how I learned a lot about earlier times and these stories made a tremendous impression on me as a child.
Now I've been a nursery nurse at a large kindergarten for a few years and I've suggested having a story telling hour once a week, when we nurses and the children sit together, and whoever wants to can tell a story about something that has happened to them. The children, even the lively ones, are really quiet during these hours and listen attentively – and I always have to think of my grandmother, of how we used to sit together in her room in the evenings.
Marianne, 48, nursery nurse

Ladies first!

Maja — Wed, 14 Sep 2011 08:54:18 +0000

The age difference between me and my brother is only one year and a few days. As children, my mother had big problems with us, because we both wanted to be the first in everything – when bathing, eating, getting dressed... There was always a battle for the first place. One day, when my mother tried to calm us down, she said to my brother: “Let her be the first, ladies always go first.” Since then there was peace at home – I was always the first and my brother kept saying: “Ladies first.”

Donkey

vojko — Wed, 14 Sep 2011 08:53:30 +0000

When my daughter was six years old, she began telling stories about a donkey. Her donkey. Children usually tell stories, but it was just amazing how precise her descriptions were (how the donkey looks like, where it is, how she feeds him, watches over him, how she cleans him…). This lasted for a couple of months. She spoke of her donkey all of the time and it started to irritate us. We could not persuade her that the donkey is not real. One day a cousin came to visit us. She is six years older than my daughter. They had a fight because of the donkey. From this day she never mentioned her donkey again.

Use as needed

vojko — Wed, 14 Sep 2011 08:50:55 +0000

In elementary school I had a classmate who was very smart, lazy, but very resourceful. We had to write an essay so the teacher could check whether we know how to use comers correctly. He decided not to bother with comas. He wrote an entire essay without using any comas. After the text he drew some 20 comas and added (“Use as needed.”). The teacher scolded him in front of the class, but still she couldn’t hide her smile. Children can be resourceful.

Dealing with a loss

vojko — Wed, 14 Sep 2011 08:49:34 +0000

In my neighbourhood a tragedy occurred. A very young dad died and his 5- year old son was left alone. This boy was something special – beautiful like an angel, very bright and chatty. I saw him many times with his father. They were really close. After father’s funeral I haven’t seen this boy for a few months.

When I first met him after the tragedy, he was alone. He waited for his mummy. Like usually, we talked to each other, even though it was really hard for me. I didn’t know how to act- like nothing happened, or should I ask him about his father. I chose the first option. In the middle of conversation the boy stopped speaking and asked me out of the blue: “Do you know my father died?” I went quiet for a moment. It took me by surprise. I asked him, if he misses him, but he pretended like he didn’t hear me and chatted on about his friends, his birthday… all of a sudden he quietly said:”Yes, I miss him. A lot.”

Then his mother came and our conversation ended. It is necessary to talk to children about the loss, dying and pain.

Visit

vojko — Wed, 14 Sep 2011 08:48:24 +0000

In the framework of our education for pre-school educators, we visited a kindergarten. They introduced to us a group of kids aged 3 to 6. We were acquainted with their work-programme. Afterwards the children got the role of guides and showed us how they spend their days in the group. They took their role very seriously; they tried to show us as much as possible. They tried to explain how serious their work is and how they learn a lot.
They looked like small and serious adults. I was particularly impressed with a girl Larisa. She was only three years old. She stood out from the group because of her skills. I was pleasantly surprised by the fact that although the room was small, they divided their place into different areas and in addition the children did not bother each other while playing. Larisa showed me how she can put together a fairly large jigsaw. She didn’t allow me to help. She raised her head high with pride and showed me how she can do it on her own. I discovered that even though she is a small girl, she can do a lot, if only she is allowed.

LaLa!

vojko — Wed, 14 Sep 2011 08:47:38 +0000

Three years ago a three year old boy introduced a younger girl Lara to the children at the playground: “This is Lala”! The girl looks at him angrily and replies: “I am not Lala, I’m Lala!” He said to her kindly: “I told them you are Lala.”
The talk continued for a while and they both thought they were right.

KIDS SAY THE DARNDEST THINGS

vojko — Wed, 14 Sep 2011 08:46:25 +0000

After almost all of the kids went home from the kindergarten, a five year old boy stated that there were only five children left. I gave him a few math questions – e. g. how many children remain, if two go home. We continue the game with toys, for each child we picked an appropriate toy. Than we added toys also for those children that had already left, or were not in the kindergarten. We practiced a bit of addition and subtraction until a three year old joined in the game. I added a toy for myself and I told the children to also pick a toy for another educator. The boy took out a male toy. A five year old said:” This cannot be our educator, the toy is human! (He later corrected himself, saying that the toy is male and that our educator is female).

Sister

vojko — Wed, 14 Sep 2011 08:42:06 +0000

As the oldest daughter I had to watch out for my younger sister that was a bit naughty. Sometimes she acted a bit weird. She was a very tiny girl with blonde hair. We all took care of her. She took advantage of that and was therefore a bit spoiled. For example, she liked to play on her own and hide in some corner. As we went looking for her and called out her name, she would not answer, even though she was nearby. When I told her that I was worried because she did not answer, she would simply say that she wasn’t in the mood for talking. She loved to climb trees in our fruit plantation. My parents warned me that I should pay particular attention to this and make sure she doesn’t fall of a tree. One day it happened. My sister climbed on a top of a tree and the more that I pleaded her to come down, the higher she climbed. I was scared as there were no adults in the vicinity. All of the sudden, like the universe answered my prayers, a chopper came. It flew so low that the branches of the tree swayed almost to the ground. My sister barely managed to stay on the tree. Since then my naughty sister doesn’t like heights.

NEW SCHOOL

vojko — Wed, 14 Sep 2011 08:40:21 +0000

When I was nine years old we moved to another part of town and I had to change my school. Each morning, before I went to school, I had a stomach ache and I could not eat breakfast in the morning. My mother discovered that my pain is a direct result of my fear of the new environment. She encouraged me that I will soon make new friends and that the grades I get in school are not that important. Just after few days my stomach was OK.

Mittens

vojko — Wed, 14 Sep 2011 08:38:58 +0000

One day, I had a conversation with a boy (he was almost three years old) about the cold. We were looking through the window onto a snowy atrium. We were discussing what we decided to wear this morning. I told him I have black mittens, he told me that he had blue. I continued with telling him, that my mittens have five fingers. He paused for a moment and then replied: “My mittens have six fingers!”

Our voices!

nina — Wed, 16 Mar 2011 16:23:22 +0000

An auditorium in an elementary school many many years ago… one afternoon in the 60’s. The head teacher, strict, big, dark male teacher gives the third graders permission to sing in the empty auditorium. I sing with my best friend Tuula. I can´t remember what song it was. Before we started to sing the head teacher had switched the recorder on. The singing stops and after a while the auditorium fills up with bright girls’ voices. What a wonder and joy. Our voices!

Memories about media education from my own childhood

nina — Tue, 15 Mar 2011 13:57:39 +0000

In 1960’s, when I was a child, the most important media tool was the television. It defined the home arrival times, bathing times in the evenings, the Saturday´s sauna times and the sleeping times. It also connected family and friends, because at first there was only one channel and so we all watched the same channel simultaneously.
My most important memories are linked with specific tv-programmes like “The Sandman”. I have also warm memories about “Peyton Place”. On Wednesday evenings father and mom allowed me to watch that adult´s program, to fell asleep on their bed and then father carried me to my own bed (I used to pretend that I´m asleep so that I could enjoy that every time). Also, Eurovision Song Contest with that boring vote system interested me over and over again.
Radio was at my father´s use. When the news started we had to calm down and stop noisy playing. But then, after the news, Music Radio for the young started, and then was the girl´s time to enjoy the radio. In the 70’s we got a record player and we were allowed to listen to our favourite music.
Father used to film our family´s most important travellings and events. We watched those films many times and remembered those happenings. We have rerecorded those films to VHS-videos and now to a digital form.

Teaching films

nina — Tue, 15 Mar 2011 13:52:37 +0000

I started my school in a Central Elementary School in 1968. From those first few years I can´t remember almost anything. I think that´s because we had a very severe teacher who had strict discipline, was unpredictable and who often embarrassed small pupils with his sarcastic comments.
On the third grade I got a new teacher. That teacher had graduated from the Teacher Seminar the year before and was full of enthusiasm, and treated us kids very well. My teacher conveyed to me a lifelong love to art and culture. I hope his teaching style had some impact to my own professional identity.
At school, once a month, we used to watch teaching films. I remember one specific film about volcanic eruption in Iceland. After that film we draw pictures where the magma was flowing down on the mountainside. My teacher praised my drawing.
Last spring there was another volcanic eruption in Iceland. Our pre-school boys were very interested in that event. We watched an educational film about volcanoes and drew fabulous pictures about volcanoes. We also wrote stories, where the president was threatened to stay under the magma, but the Hornets rescued him. We read the stories in the spring festivity.
I had a Dejá-vu feeling!

From summer photos to a movie

nina — Tue, 15 Mar 2011 13:42:53 +0000

At school´s spring festivity we agreed that children will take photos on their summer holidays. At autumn when school started we agreed when they bring the photos (attached to memory sticks) to school. We started to make our own movie. Making the movie with MovieMaker program went really well and the kids were excited. Then we started to publish the movies… and also the problems started right away! We couldn´t get those movies to cd / dvd discs. We considered and discussed, and tried to do that in many ways! A functional solution was that we downloaded them to own computer and then copy the movies from folders and pasted them to discs. It went well, and the joy was at its highest when the children saw their movies.

Change in concepts of teaching, learning and information

nina — Tue, 15 Mar 2011 13:38:20 +0000

The most important challenge in media education is changing the concepts of teaching, learning and information. Nowadays we can´t think that teacher knows and teaches. We have to question the reality of information, the perspective of information and the meaning of information to different individuals and communities. Teaching is therefore other than just transferring “the truth” to pupils heads.
Also the concept of learning has changed. When learning, pupil creates relationships to his environment and to another people in a way that helps him to cope with challenges. Learning is individual and unique to everybody.
It is challenging to understand those issues as a teacher and an educator, as a parent and as a member of different communities, especially when curriculums and learning goals are the same for each pupil in elementary school.

My challenge at work today

nina — Tue, 15 Mar 2011 13:24:52 +0000

I teach preschool pupils. Many of them know how to use Habbo Hotel, Panfu and so on. In few years they probably will log in Facebook with false birth times… I would like to prepare my pupils to the future and social media, how to surf the web happy and satisfied. But I don´t have any tools to do that! That´s my challenge today, not before it´s too late. Being media critical doesn´t help any more, I need more firm tools!

Today´s media education is challenging!

nina — Tue, 15 Mar 2011 13:20:33 +0000

I think that nowadays media education is very important, and there should put more resources to it. With a large group of children it is challenging and difficult to operate. There should be peaceful time when you can get to know new equipments and media tools. One hour isn´t enough! It would also be great to be able to organize peaceful teaching moments to the children.

Respect for other people

nina — Tue, 15 Mar 2011 13:16:58 +0000

Certain routines have always been very very important in kindergartens and in schools. I think those routines are nowadays even more important to the children. But why those routines can be so difficult to learn? With those routines I mean: 1. in a group raise your hand up when you want to talk. 2. Listen to, when another wants to talk. 3. Speak loudly and clearly, when it's your turn to speak. 4. Sit still and listen. Children need to learn those 4 rules and sometimes they succeed and sometimes fail to obey the rules. It´s a pity that everybody can´t remember those rules!

The telly!

nina — Tue, 15 Mar 2011 13:13:27 +0000

A little girl's life changing experience was the colour television. It was so wonderful and exciting, when I could watch “Black stallion” and “Clown Hermanni” in colours. The Clown had a red nose and the black stallion was really black. I watched that miracle with my brother and friends. We also organized childrens’ movie nights. The telly was the center in our living room, and it was like celebration watching that. Those were the days! Today, television no longer wakes up such a passion due to the Internet and the information explosion. The media comes from doors and windows, so that you can get tired of it!

Preschool teacher and the wonders of technique

nina — Tue, 15 Mar 2011 12:57:50 +0000

Once upon a time there was a preschool teacher, who tried and tried to get a video projector on. Children with red cheeks sat and wait eagerly something exciting and wonderful to do. Whiteboard invated small eager hands to draw letters to it. Teacher pat and press the buttons, tried to touch here and there. The children waited and waited. Small butts began to spin, legs began to swing impatiently. Are we starting?! They gave good advice to the teacher, but no, the video projector didn´t want to work. Teacher's cheeks went more red. The atmosphere began to fall flat… The teacher was forced to give up. Maybe tomorrow she will succeed. Wonderful kids encouraged the teacher: "Don´t worry, some day you will know how to do it!"

THE LEGEND OF A CHILD CALLED “THE UNIVERSE”

begona — Tue, 01 Mar 2011 19:36:56 +0000

Well, the truth is that with 22 years of experience in early childhood education, I have a plenty of anecdotes…
But if you don’t mind, I’ll start my participation with a story, invented and very vivid at the same time. A short extract from my latest book…
- ... I’ll tell you a story, a story that here we love telling… “Once upon a time, there was a boy called Universe. At birth his mother and his father thought that he was so fragile that they embraced him strongly, protected and loved him, pampered and fed him, while waiting him to grow up. Universe was growing this way, in a love nest retained, that allowed the growing number of stars to form different and potentially incredible galaxies inside that let him develop in harmony.

The boy lit, gave life and existential warmth to each new burst of being, knowledge and power, with six stars, six enormous suns which drew the skies of knowledge not only in lines, but designed and reinforced them through six dimensions: sight, hearing, sense of touch, smell, taste and… Yes, the emotional experience. So, while his parents thought that Universe was just growing and maturing, he was structuring millions and millions of constellations with infinite connections that prepared him for something very simple but excitingly complex at the same time: to live. Live, live, are you following me, life?
- You have amazed me…
- As he grew older, his development evolved more and more, and his potentials were getting constructed, built strongly and skillfully, without architectural barriers or external breaks. In the immensity of space and time, besides turning the universal satellite which painted a rainbow of a thousand, two thousands, …, of infinite colors. Beyond any atmospheric logic, the spaces were getting filled with beautiful shades of hope, formed always exceptionally by a wild and untameable sun called imagination… His spectacular growth was such immense that his father and mother began to worry. How could they help him? How could they teach him? How will they educate him? In their affection and love the need to give started to blend with the blindfold of concern of not knowing what to give… They didn’t realize that they had long been giving Universe what he needed: tenderness, peace, support, experience and air… Air, a great element when you feel free, right? It doesn’t need corners, doesn’t want limits, doesn’t demand roads, neither requires bridges… But everything was too simple to be understood, and the parents of Universe decided to entrust his progress to the Wise, those who in their society were considered to be scholars of knowledge, the responsibles for forming the future of children like Universe… They were called “teachers”, sounds familiar?
- More and more…
- The “teachers” worked in laboratories called “schools”, and Universe went there. There they locked him in… Oh God, never said better, they locked him in… And with him, they confined the air, squeezed into different containers which they called areas of learning, and said to him: every day we will give you a teaspoon from here and there. And as not being content with that, the “teachers” decided that Universe could only have one sun, perhaps at most two: sight and hearing… They were more than enough!
- How sad! How foolish we were all!
- But Universe couldn’t go on like this… Perhaps he didn’t want to… Through the window he looked for the air, in his few leisure hours he tried to recover his suns, tried to escape constantly to travel, to continue soaking up and being dyed with the dreams of his creative rainbow… Bad! The scholars decided that it was bad… And they took him to the Doctor, yes, they called him “psychologist” … “Universe has a lack of attention, probably coming from the hyperactivity that he shows with his rebelliousness and…”
- Oh, don’t tell me… And they gave him medication?
- The story is long and it would take a while… It is in the Library of Goig, I’ll let you read it… What I’ll do know is summarizing and concluding… Yes, sometimes they finally even give them medication… Others, the majority, get to tame them, others, when that Universe is really rich, make him wait to go from the “laboratory” to become a genius…
- Yes, I once made a work about “universal geniuses” and you wouldn’t believe that they used to express of their education…
- Mark Twain said, that “I’ve never let school interfere with my education“… If you want I could tell you some more quotes…
- And then? The School in Goig doesn’t look like the one of Never Ever at all, right?
- It’s obvious. To get started, in Goig we don’t have the absurd claim to consider the child a project of men. It has to be reverse: the men will be the consequence of the child. If we consider the first, we’ll take an extremely contaminated classification as a model. If we take the latter, we’ll make it easier to design a work of art, always special and different from the others. Then we understand the magnitude of that universe, constructible and wild at the same time, we understand the need for the air, the spontaneity and originality of most processes, the need for the six suns… On the matter I’ll tell you that in the last decade we have decided to add a seventh: the pleasure, the enjoyment… It is essential to illuminate the majority of learning processes, right? Then there is this incredible rainbow… How can we forget or underestimate the power of imagination? If it is the source of all creativity!
- An essential creativity in life for all…
- Sure! And then, I would say that to conclude this introduction, we have to understand that there are certain vital energies for the construction of each Universe that have to be stimulated and planned, beyond that in some cases they are given implicitly: I’d speak about emotional education, the structuring of supportive and civic values, the assimilation of habits and attitudes, the development of intellectual skills, the recreational and pleasant capacity, about… About and about… This Universe is so magnificent that trying to reduce it to eight or nine fields is offensive…
- In fact, it is like a Police Court that we have been cheering for so many years in Never Ever… Why? Who do you think it concerns?
- You know the answer. As usual, those who have the upper hand… A balanced society, just and supportive, varied and rich in welfare in mind… Interesting, isn’t it? It would change many things, don’t you think? The day when we go to the Library I’ll tell you something… Now it would be better to go… Are you coming?

MY CHILDHOOD

begona — Tue, 01 Mar 2011 19:36:08 +0000

I’m a preschool education teacher, and I remember that my childhood games were always in the courtyard of our house, with my two sisters and our neighbours. We were 10 girls altogether, we played in the kitchen, cooked real rice and after we ate it, we made soups and we put green guava in it. Another game with my sisters was the sewing machine of our mother, this was the car in which we travelled around the world, we sat on the pedal of the machine and the steering wheel was the big wheel of the machine, we grew up within some values and in a loving way, even if we could never go to the house of our neighbours to play inside, just on the terraces of their houses.

THE CLASSROOM…

begona — Tue, 01 Mar 2011 19:35:30 +0000

I’m a kindergarten teacher and I share this story because being a teacher is the best thing that has happened in my life…
We all know that a teacher is devoted to teach his/her pupils, but often the pupils are those who show us, the teachers the true value of life…
One day I was overwhelmed and worried about personal problems, which didn’t allow me to be 100% with my pupils, a little girl came to me and asked: “Miss, what are you sad about?”, and I told her that I was sad because I had lost a little star that my grandmother had given me a long time ago, obviously I didn’t want her to be worried about things of adults, that’s why I told her that.
The girl hugged me tenderly and said: “Oh Miss, don’t worry, there are many stars in the sky, I’ll tell my mom to send you one.”

Her comment left me shocked and completely stunned, because I was worrying about daily things of life, and the little girl was to ask her mom to send me a star…
The point here is that her mom was not with her, she had died one year ago and the little girl said to me that “don’t worry” when for her not having her mom was a very difficult thing…
Now I appreciate everything that happens every day in my life, good situations, bad situations, and I try to learn something out of it all. In my years of experience nobody had ever said to me something so deep, it should be emphasized that the little girl was 5 years old.
To me, the classroom is not a place with four walls, it is a paradise in which knowledge and emotions are free as angels…
Thank you Ximena, because you made me see that life goes beyond that is in front of you.

CHILD DEVELOPMENT CENTER

begona — Tue, 01 Mar 2011 19:34:28 +0000

Hello, I’m an early childhood educator and my first experience with children was when I started my degree in the second term, the number of children was six altogether. With them I learned how much the comments made to them could hurt, either in a positive or negative way. I remember that there was a child with a visual problem and a teacher who was visiting this classroom noticed the child’s problem and commented it in front of him, so the boy started to cry with a lot of feeling. It made me very sad that there are a lot of early childhood educators who call themselves so, but they don’t really know what that means. I’m delighted with my work, but I’d love to do more for the improvement of early childhood education in my country, so I’ll take the advantage of places like these to share and learn.
Greetings from Monterrey, Mexico.

MARI C. CANTO

begona — Tue, 01 Mar 2011 19:33:39 +0000

Though my professional history is very short, I find it very interesting to share it with you. I’m a teacher of special education and educational psychologist, and currently I’m part of that group of teachers who work from the non-formal education, although that’s another story that I’ll tell you little by little.
My first experience with children was being part of a volunteering in an association for autistic children, and the fact is that it was an enriching experience in every sense. It was a great test, with 19 years, in which I discovered my true vocation and that how gratifying it is to be a teacher day by day. With this group of children, I lived through the first experience of sharing, teaching and being taught and the wonderful experience of the relationship that begins in the classroom.
From this first experience, many experiences started to happen in different areas, both in the formal area with the university practices, and in the education non-formal; researching and learning from each child, and, above all, appreciating their differences and individualities to be able to allow of their development as unique and unrepeatable persons.

Greetings to all from Cádiz (Spain).

EDUCATING WITH THE HEART

begona — Tue, 01 Mar 2011 19:32:45 +0000

I’ve always lived the education, and even more early childhood education as a tremendously vocational and emotional work. Without these two elements my work would never have made sense.

Educating is a thing which comes from the heart and the children remember it from second to second, they ask for it and they pervade you with lots of love and sensitivity…

Replacing an inconsolable weeping with a smile and a hug, holding out a hand and keeping it until they feel safe, a kind word before the bitter separation from mom and dad, a look through the eyes of the soul…

I’m a teacher, and my heart beats strong…

STORIES OF CHILDREN, THINGS OF ADULTS

begona — Tue, 01 Mar 2011 19:31:41 +0000

My name is Alejandra and I’m a kindergarten teacher. Nowadays, I’m worried about the level of children’s violence, that doesn’t escape what we see in the whole society. As I’m qualified in arts… I started to use this language as an alternative way to express negative feelings and aggressive behaviors.
A 4 years old child, who manifests himself by beating and assaulting the others physically and verbally, told me: when I hit, I feel better.
Then I involved in the class other alternatives: by searching pleasurable activities for them, such as drawing, and I allowed them to express their anger, but in another way, without hurting others or themselves: “You can be angry, and if you are and you like painting, take colours and draw forcefully…”
Other children chose jumping, or modeling though and expressed in this way what happens to them.

FROM THE REFLECTION

begona — Tue, 01 Mar 2011 19:30:53 +0000

Hello everybody! My name is Mariela Parma and I’m a preschool teacher for already 25 years. So many years, aren’t they? From the beginning, I have prioritized my family, in parallel with my career.
Since the belief that an educator should be ambitious, organized in his/her professional training, an active and participative individual who favors the daily reflection and analysis, involved in and committed to the Institutional project, I consider the idea that educational questions need to be thought-out and rethought constantly, without stimulating child animism, but reflecting on their knowledge and practices.
We also must be open to contributions of non-formal education, i.e. to contributions from “outside”, “previous organizers”, using the experiences that the children bring and turn them into meaningful learning situations.

Systematically reflecting on the practices helps to understand what is done, correct the mistakes, learn new things, as well as being able to make decisions to understand and improve the own daily tasks, optimizing the performance in the classroom.
We must be aware of the importance of being part of the early childhood education, and exceed the vision of early education as an area of keeping and entertainment or which is destined to fulfil only a preparatory function, to support its specific educational and irreplaceable intention and its status as a learning area, as a supporter and promoter of personal and social development of the children.
The task of teaching… a question to be reflected!!
Greetings from Bialet Massé, Córdoba, Argentina.

Beatriz Elena Zapata

begona — Tue, 01 Mar 2011 19:29:59 +0000

My name is Beatriz Elena Zapata, I teach at a university in Colombia where there’s a training for teachers about early education, and currently I’m the coordinator of the line of research on Childhood, which focuses its actions on the understanding of educational, social and cultural phenomenons, related to early childhood education, from the perspective of rights and comprehensive care to be able to contribute to the improvement of learning and development possibilities of children from gestation until the age of 7.

The research on childhood becomes a strategy in which teachers and students who are connected to the line, use their educational and pedagogical work to promote the construction of knowledge in this area; likewise, they contribute to the scientific, social and educational development of the region and the country about topics that are focusing on the improvement of living conditions and the welfare of children at this stage of life cycle. It is an opportunity to stop giving destructive criticism regarding the provided care and education and become an active partner who, from research projects and networking, raises educational and pedagogical proposals which enable the improvement of the structure, the quality of the early education system, the training and qualification of teachers, early childhood educators and educational agents, the monitoring of public policies in the implementation of comprehensive care systems for children, and the educational methods, the evaluation of pedagogical processes in teaching and support for the development of competences (life skills) in childhood, the organization of actions carried out by different people and sectors from the viewpoint of co-responsibility, in local, regional, national and international fields.

CHALLENGES IN THE TRAINING OF EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATORS

begona — Tue, 01 Mar 2011 19:28:55 +0000

My name is Beatriz Elena Zapata from Colombia, and I would like to share a short reflection about the training of educators. The Hemispheric Commitment to Early Childhood Education, among the Ministers of Education of OAS Member States (2007), recognizes “the primary importance of early childhood education in the integral development process of the child from birth until the age of eight, which has to include the joint effort of the family, the school and the community for the development of effective public policies, as well as the contribution of different sectors of the society”; emphasizing the “importance for the States to promote and develop research and evaluation on early childhood education, and disseminate the results to generate new knowledge and indicators which will allow to make better decisions based on the empirical evidence”.

From this point of view, it becomes essential that both governmental entities and individuals that are part of the educational system assume a new position towards the processes of training and attention about early childhood; the educators are expected to act as mediators, guides and companion, as reference points and models in the learning process, starting from the premise that the center of the process is the child, supported by an expert guide, the family, the community and a stimulating environment.
The conception of today’s childhood becomes a call of attention to rethink the role that early childhood educators have assumed so far, as this conception aims to recognize the rights of children, the diversity, and raises the need of a greater commitment for its application. The absence of management, leadership, commitment and non-participative strategies, in many cases have resulted that the projects and programs developed for children only deal with the satisfaction of basic needs (health, protection, food, education); the child is assumed to be a social individual, therefore they look like actions that have just a little impact, in which paternalism and social assistance appear again, inhibiting the participation, the potential of children, and the diversity and the responsibility of the whole society is unknown.
To fulfil this commitment, the processes of education and training of educators should be aimed at the development of competencies related to the being, being with others, the knowledge and the action that enable them to achieve the established purposes from their pedagogical practices and emotional support. The practices and actions need to be contextualized in the light of a training Model, which recognizes the children as social individual; which articulates knowledge in the context of cultural diversity from the beginning; which is based on the values of equity, participation, responsibility, cooperation and solidarity; which favors the establishment of relationships between people and nature, which promotes participation, which stimulates logical thinking, autonomy, independence, happiness, creativity and problem solving, by integrating and involving the family, as the basic and irreplaceable instance of education and care for the children.

Doggie visit

rh — Mon, 28 Feb 2011 13:46:04 +0000

Many animals have been to our kindergarten: ladybirds, a little cat that sometimes pays us a visit in the garden, a few sparrows, a few earthworms and also quite a lot of flies, bees and sadly also wasps, during summer. Last week, however, we had a very special visitor at our place: we had a visit from a little dog!
All the children at our kindergarten gathered around the dog in record time and they were very excited.

The dog could actually do some tricks! Each child was allowed to do a trick with the dog: The dog hopped onto one's back, ran through between one's legs, gave the paw, put a cent coin into a purse, and he could even hold an umbrella. The children were thrilled.
Petting was also on the programme later on, of course. The thing I was glad about was that even the more fearful children ended up carefully petting his fur. The children had to say goodbye at some stage, of course, but they continued to talk about all the tricks they'd done for a long time, and also how the dog had sometimes briefly touched them with his tongue.
I've been a nursery nurse at a kindergarten for 5 years.

Deficits in children: how do I tell the parents?

rh — Mon, 28 Feb 2011 13:42:45 +0000

The performance pressure in our society, which determines very much the atmosphere and the way parents and children think and act in school life, can often be perceivable as early as in everyday kindergarten life. Parents wish for their children that they should learn and be supported as much and as intensively as possible. Many of them react with panic, or are at least anxious and filled with worry when their child doesn't correspond to the norm or doesn't manage what other children already can do at the same age.

On the other hand, it is one of our tasks as nursery nurses to observe and recognize strengths and weaknesses or lags in development/deficits in the children and to communicate this to the parents, so as to give them the necessary information to be able to support their children adequately. My problem during contacts with the parents can sometimes be that information on “deficits” often lead to exaggerated worry and panic. Time and again, our feeling while dealing with parents is that this “worries attitude” also is perceivable to the child and that the child is weakened rather than strengthened by it, because the parents have too little faith in the children's strengths and development potential.
Have you experiences anything like this? How do you deal with it?
Nursery nurse, “in the business” for 9 years

Natural learning with potatoes

rh — Mon, 28 Feb 2011 13:40:37 +0000

We had planted potatoes in our little kindergarten garden. Now it was time to harvest. Digging them up was like a treasure hunt to the children. Every single potato turned into a coveted treasure! Each one was marvelled at and acclaimed. When we had gathered all of them, we counted them together. 1...2...3... - 88! We had exactly 88! One child goggled a lot and asked: "What? You can just find potatoes in the ground? You don't actually need to buy them?" Then the children were keen to sort the potatoes by size and to examine their different shapes. Some were sooo tiny that you really had to look very closely to be able to actually recognize them as a potato.

Then the potatoes were weighed. We used one of those old scales with weights. That way it was easy to find out which potatoes were heavier, which ones lighter, and how size and weight are connected. Then I told them a story about the potato king and we crafted one for every child. After having dealt with the subject of “potato” sooo thoroughly for several days, the children were really keen on some – even the ones who usually don't like potatoes that much. So, at the end of our potato project, we made some tasty potato fritters together.

Autumn at kindergarten

rh — Mon, 28 Feb 2011 13:38:32 +0000

Now that the days are getting shorter and the trees are starting to change colour, we always enjoy doing some small projects on the season with our children. The children are supposed to collect all things possible outside that they feel are connected with the theme of autumn... coloured leaves, beechnuts, chestnuts, berries (while you need to take care that the children don't come back with anything poisonous or dangerous – if there isn't any opportunity to take the children outside, you can also take things with you yourself).

Then we gather up in little groups and talk about what happens in the autumn, why the trees lose their leaves, for instance.
The children always enjoy this a lot, and the subsequent crafting with leaves most often is the crowning moment. They glue on leaves and paint autumn pictures that we put up on the wall then.
One thing that they also liked a lot was to build animals and other figures with chestnuts and toothpicks.
I personally enjoy this very much every year – when you can inspire the children to like autumn, too, even if there are a couple of cold and rainy days now and then.

Quarrels among siblings

rh — Mon, 28 Feb 2011 13:35:07 +0000

For the past half year I've been attending to two boys of two and three as a day nanny four days per week. It's going well altogether, the children have got used to me, and cooperation with the parents is working out well too. But there are situations time and again where I feel somewhat helpless and that mostly has to do with conflicts occurring between the boys.
For his birthday, Lukas (3) got a new digger that he loves more than anything.

He loathes to lose sight of it only for a few minutes, and then it often happens that Vincent (2) grabs the digger. If Lukas happens to notice, he makes a beeline for his brother, tries to snatch the toy away from him, even kicks Vincent or pulls his hair. There will be much yelling, of course, with Lukas screaming, Vincent sobbing, rolling around on the floor tearing at the digger... Then it's my job to settle the dispute – but how? I've tried to cajole Lukas into playing together with his brother, but that doesn't work in these moments, and neither can Vincent be stopped from taking his brother's things again and again, although he knows that he'll get terribly angry.
I'd like to know how other colleagues react in such situations. Does anyone have a good hint for me?

Strange goodies from faraway countries

rh — Mon, 28 Feb 2011 13:32:28 +0000

In the last days' and weeks' discussion on migration I heard, with some horror, a number of comments made by certain politicians. Some of the theses that are being established there are making me wonder if they've ever had a look at what things look like in reality. In the debate we can hear things about the lack of integration starting from nursery age already, and other horrible things, too. Therefore I wanted to describe my experience from the angle of a person “concerned”, meaning that of a nursery nurse.

I work at a rather smallish kindergarten, but we have some children of “migration background”, as the official expression goes.
With most children there haven't been any problems at all in this respect, but some of them aren't that fit in German yet. That is why we take great care to support these children specifically and to encourage them to speak German. We also have a specially trained language trainer at our disposal.
What I've actually wanted to bring up: children, just like grown-ups, have prejudices about things, people and cultures when they don't know them. Therefore we educators got together and thought about how to get past that. Because, especially at that age, prejudices aren't that entrenched yet and can be got rid of more easily. The approach that came out of that was: when children don't know the unknown, they need to get to know it. In concrete terms, that meant that we addressed the parents and asked them if they felt like presenting some of their culture, their way of life, food or similar at kindergarten. To our great surprise, the proposal was very well received. So we organised a summer party, for instance, where we had a lot of goodies to eat that were unknown to some children, for example, and where they could gain a lot of new experience. There were typical German, Turkish, Polish and many other things to eat, which resulted in a torrential turnover. A storyteller told the children tales from the Arabian Nights and we had crafted various things on this theme with the children in advance, plus other things. The parents also got the chance to meet each other personally at the party, to make new acquaintances and to communicate with one another. Many children started out with some reluctance towards what was new, especially as some dishes looked uncommon. But curiosity mostly prevails and they'll end up tasting them anyway. I can only say that the party and all the other activities that we carried out later, too, were a total success in this respect. Of course, this sort of thing is only possible if there is a readiness to participate on the parents' side, and if they have the necessary time. Luckily, that was the case here.
Maybe that isn't the normal case. And many others may shy away from doing something of the kind in their own kindergarten, because it comes with a lot of extra work. But although I have to sacrifice some of my leisure time for it, I still do it gladly, because I can see that it has an effect. In my personal opinion, one should see immigrants as enriching rather than as a burden. The children do, anyway – judging by the multitude of treats there are in other countries, at least.

Safe to kindergarten

rh — Mon, 28 Feb 2011 13:29:47 +0000

Hello, my name's Maike and I've recently completed training as a nursery nurse (finally!).
Many children are brought to our place by their parents in the morning by bike as long as the weather allows. Many of them have one of those bike trailers attached to their bike. Therefore I sometimes ask myself if these things really are safe. The parents can't see their children while biking, after all, and then the seats are so low – what if a car overlooks them? Neither do I know if these trailers are well sprung. I really do get worried about some of them, hoping that nothing happens to them on the way to kindergarten...
Does anyone have any experience with this or has this sort of thing ever been mentioned at your kindergarten?

Bullying among toddlers

rh — Mon, 28 Feb 2011 13:27:40 +0000

I'm a nursery nurse and have only been working in this profession for half a year. The thing that I've already noticed in this short time, however, is the fact that some children are very “popular” from the beginning and easily make contact while others are literally being excluded.
Children simply don't show any consideration there, and I can't expect it from them at that age either, can I?
My question is how I, as a nursery nurse, can influence or rather steer this process of exclusion (I'm not playing with you, you're not my friend, he's stupid etc.) positively so as to provide every nursery child with enriching experiences if possible.

Being late – translation of the Slovenian story “Zamujanje”

mateja — Thu, 17 Feb 2011 12:41:54 +0000

Now that I am old I often think about the time, when my daughters were going to the kindergarten. In that time I was working for a company, which was trying to get out of the crisis. We were working long hours, wasting time on meetings. Usually my wife picked up the younger daughter from the kindergarten. However, once I had to pick her up. Unfortunately we again had one of those meetings to find a solution to come out of the crisis. So I came to kindergarten late. All of the children have already left, only my daughter was waiting for me with the cleaning lady. She was happy when I came, however I was feeling very bad. Even today, after many years, I have a bad feeling when I remember this event. Looking back, I think that it is much more important to take care of your family than to be a workaholic, thinking that working long hours will get your company out of the crisis.

Telling stories

Maja — Thu, 17 Feb 2011 10:18:24 +0000

Our younger daughter liked to sleep-in in the morning. She was really upset when she had to go to the kindergarten early in the morning. She was crying and it was very difficult to make her go to the kindergarten. So I decided to do something about it. When we woke her up, I started to tell her stories. Usually I took her in my arms and brought her to the kindergarten (fortunately it was not far away from my home). All the way I was telling her stories. And it worked. We resolved the problem. I think that this is the right way. Unfortunately most of us are under so much stress and we are so afraid to be late for work that we do not understand what our children need. As the Serbian poet Rsumovic said: Dete nije dete, igračka za strine i tete dete je dete da ga volite i razumete. (A child is not a toy for aunts, a child is a child, that you have to love and understand.)

A nun on stilts

sibylle — Tue, 01 Feb 2011 15:08:23 +0000

I have grown up in Sicily, and I did not go to a nursery school, but to a pre-primary school. My teachers were nuns and one of the toys available for us were little stilts. One time I asked one of the nuns if she wanted to try them, too.

The memory of this lady lifting up her large skirt, a little bit awkward but at the same time amused to try out these stilts, has been well impressed on my mind, and each time I think about, it makes me smile. Children often challenge adults, and it is nice when adults are able to catch up and participate actively in these challenges launched to them by the youngest ones.
Daniela - Nursery school educator, 34 years old, Country: Italy

Children’s stories

Teresa — Thu, 16 Sep 2010 10:15:17 +0000

Today I was sitting at a table with a group of children who were writing stories and making books.

Amaya's book had four pages. It was about a girl who misses a balloon in the sky, goes after it and has lots of adventures.

Juan's book had six pages and the characters were a lion, a ladybird, a butterfly and a mouse who went to live in a house and then, they went to the woods for a walk. When they came back to their house there were people in the house. Those people were frightened when they saw the animals. The lion, the ladybird, the butterfly and the mouse had a party in the last page of the book

Mónica wanted to come and live in my house.

Daniel thought that he had blue and green eyes as Juan.

The Easter garden or how a project develops – Shaped wholly by childrens’ hands

Sabine — Thu, 05 Aug 2010 09:15:20 +0000

The week before Easter, the kids dragged in a felled tree that had been lying around in the woods, and hit on the idea of planting it – as a maypole.

But first they wanted to decorate it. We found some ribbons in the trailer, and then there was knotting, knotting, and more knotting – an important exercise in fine motor skills, which isn't of paramount interest to the kids, however – they just want to play!

The result didn't look that bad. Now the tree just had to get into the ground.
We didn't put much trust into its stability, but we underestimated the power of enthusiasm. A deeeeep hole was dug and the trunk enforced with poles in the ground – you will have seen this technique on usual construction sites. That the pole would last to this day and even survive a storm... that we hadn't reckoned with.

We explained that it soon would be Easter and that there was some time left until May – that it thus could be an Easter pole, too. Yeees ... the kids liked that, and they decided to create an Easter garden around it - egg-shaped, of course!
For two days, they drove branches into the ground and tried to braid the fence with a plastic rope at first. But then a discussion developed among the kids because some of them didn't like the plastic twine at all. We kept out of it, observed, and were somewhat proud, if truth be told, when they decided together to use ivy instead. Their aesthetic education and the influence of their daily surroundings had obviously fallen on good soil.
They even brought ivy with them from home and, at the end of the day, they stood in front of their garden with visible pride and said: “that was soooo much work that we didn't even have time to tease the little ones!”

But that's when things really started. The motivational curve hadn't reached its apex yet because a garden needs plants.
So the kids badgered their parents to provide them with spring plants and seeds.
This happened with so much love, clarity and importance that it seemed contagious, and new plants were dragged in daily. At the same time, the kids had very clear ideas on what had to go where. We didn't buy a single plant, because the kids worked on their parents and got organized all by themselves.
No advice from us was sought for – unless it had to do with providing soil. Beans, cress and vetch seeds were sown, growth supports built, and it was observed whether things would grow faster in a pot or in soil - and that required soil.
That is when we remembered the compost. It was dug over straight away and, beside being rich in humus, it revealed a lot of earthworms. Why that many? Now we were sought out anyway, and we told the story of Reginald the earthworm, who was happy to be important, too, because everything in nature is real and important. To illustrate this, we installed earthworm observation glasses for Reginald and his fellow worms.
People were to recognize that it was an Easter garden and that entering it was sometimes allowed and sometimes not. Therefore the kids painted signs with writing and symbols. They created paths with bark mulch and lovingly designed them with rocks and sculptures.
At Easter, the kids put their self-crafted Easter nests into THEIR Easter garden, the principle of which we had taken over from their braided ivy fence – yes, we learned something from the kids, too.
First and foremost, we always learn that kids develop their highest motivational level with activities that allow them to pursue their own interests and to explore independently. We try to pick up on this and to support them with it.

Also, we are often surprised about how much they can learn in the process: how to get organized, what grows under what conditions, coming to agreements, collaborating, writing, painting, statics, creativity, fine and gross motor skills, how does a compost work, why are there earthworms, how to nourish and cherish something and feel responsible for it, and much more.

First of all: I can make a difference, and everyone is important – even an earthworm!
And that a maypole can turn into an Easter pole and then back into a maypole.

Kindergarten teacher

translated from the German original story "Der Ostergarten oder wie ein Projekt entsteht – völlig von Kinderhänden gestaltet"

Authority vs. Empathy

sibylle — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 14:41:51 +0000

I lived a difficult situation at work last year because the colleague whom I worked with had a way to treat children which was totally different from mine.

Personally I think it is good to have with children an open and affectionate behaviour, reassuring and empathetic as well, and to be strict only when it is necessary, without raising too much the voice. My colleague instead used to be quite dictatorial and too severe. This situation was problematic for me. I did not want to become "the favourite" of the children and to place her in an unfavourable light. But this did not make me feel free to behave spontaneously during my work. In my opinion the problem was due to fact that my colleague had not really a talent for dealing with children. She was not patient, there was no complicity between her and them, but on the other hand she was very good at carrying out organizational tasks.
Pre-primary school teacher, 31 years old, Italy

My most important moments as pre-primary school teacher

sibylle — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 14:32:19 +0000

There are two important events of my career.
The first event goes back to when I had around 22 years, during the beginning of the 70ies. I have been named for one year as a support teacher in a pre-primary school of Bologna, it was my first professional experience and I was lucky to enter a school where there were carried out didactic experimentations based on the teaching of Bruno Ciari, still today an important pedagogist.

The team was composed of strong personalities with whom it was not easy to exchange. It was expected from all of us to put ourselves in discussion, to give a personal contribution to the programme, and thus to conceive and propose always new activities and games with educational purposes. It was not easy, but it was a great satisfaction when I was called the year after as the only one to to work there again. This experience made me understand that being a pre-primary school teacher would be an appropriate job for me.
The second event has to do with a training experience of one year carried out thanks to the collaboration between the Bologna municipality and the Bologna Faculty of Science of Education. The project aimed at the training of support teachers for children with different abilities. The sabbatical year, how it was called, was open to all those who wanted to work with handicapped children for the next 5 years after the training period. I was adhering to the initiative and it has been a very significant experience for me, both thanks to the teaching / training received from Andrea Canevaro, famous teacher of special pedagogy, and the methodological approach carried out during the course, where learning was the result of an exchange among colleagues, and of reflections about situations not on our own but as a group. Together with another colleague I even won a scholarship which was advertised in the honour of a deceased disabled child, with 2 months to be spent at Budapest to learn about the the principles of conductive pedagogy which were experimented there. When we came back to Italy, we have transferred the new knowledge, and carried out documentation and research about this experience. When we worked again as pre-primary school teachers, we were well equipped with knowledge to use in the work with all children.
Carmen Stanzani - Pre-primary school teacher, 56 years old, Italy

“Rubber band” play

sibylle — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 14:22:24 +0000

I like to remind the afternoons spent to play with my sister and our common friend. Our favourite game was the “Rubber band” play. It was a simple game because it foresaw only the use of an elastic ribbon tied at the ends.

Two of us entered inside the elastic circle, placed the wire at the level of the ankles, then we walked away from each other. In that way we got two parallel tense and elastic wires. Who remained outside had to jump between the two elastic strings reciting a nursery rhyme. If you could do the sequence without making vibrate the strings you won the round and could continue with the next. At each round the rubber band was placed at a higher level and you had to be very nimble to jump without ever touching the strings. It was a very funny game.
Pre-primary school teacher, 31 years old, Italy

Defusing a situation

Sabine — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 14:36:02 +0000

A boy about to be picked up by his mother refused to get dressed. While he was crying and struggling his mother remained calm and let him cry. That alone took about 15 minutes. I entered the cloak room and said something trivial to the boy sitting there completely drenched in tears.
Because of my action the strain suddenly resolved and the boy calmed down entirely within a second.
This kind of situation occurs time and again, and it is as surprising every time how a swift remark or a joke can distract children so that they are able to get out of a certain situation.
Kindergarten teacher, 37 years

Handing over and letting go

Sabine — Wed, 16 Jun 2010 12:22:54 +0000

One day I was contacted by a young architect who was looking for a daycare place for his then 10 month-old son (let's call the son Jonas). Up to that moment he'd always taken his son to the office with him or carried him to building sites in a back baby carrier when he had something to take care of on site.
The mum, a physician, wasn't able to take care of Jonas regularly because of her shift work at the hospital. The father had an intimate relationship with his son and the decision of “handing him over” was visibly difficult for him.
We reached an agreement because some “regularity” and the company of other children wouldn't be amiss. Jonas yelled a lot every time daddy brought him, and daddy struggled with himself when he had to “leave him there”, and that was exactly what the child felt. The father mostly stood in the doorway or the hall for a long time, and the farewell ceremony took forever because of that. Jonas calmed down with great difficulty, since daddy was still waiting in front of the closed door and listening to his son crying.
Children are known to have very sensitive “feelers”. The mood and state of a father who couldn't let go and who wasn't committed to his decision were transferred to the child and that was very exhausting for everyone concerned.
Sometimes Jonas was brought by his mum, in which case there was hardly any yelling and the child was in a good mood. She explained to me that she was fully committed to the decision of letting me take care of the child.

Day nanny, 55

An unfortunate situation

sibylle — Mon, 17 May 2010 14:24:57 +0000

In my career I had one experience which was really unpleasant. Around 5 or 6 years ago a girl of a class which had been assigned to me only two months before fell down while she was playing with a mate of the class.

It was a little cut, nothing serious, but at the beginning there was a lot of blood coming out. In that moment I was together with the teacher of religion, and thought that it was useful to inform the family and to call an ambulance to bring the girl in the hospital, so that the family did not have to take care of this in a moment of apprehension. Some days after this event I got to know that the girl has left the hospital. The situation became very unpleasant, other parents and classmates asked me about her and I did not know what to reply, his father whom I hardly knew decided to ask the damages to the assurance and this led to very annoying administrative procedures to be tackled. This event has made me reflect about how important it is to create an atmosphere of mutual trust with the parents of the children and to develop a mutual relationship among the children, the teachers and the adults / parents.
Carmen Stanzani, Pre-primary school teacher, 56 years old, Italy

The river

sibylle — Mon, 17 May 2010 14:20:08 +0000

There is an event of my childhood that I remember very well. I have been around 2 years and a half, maximum 3 years old, and at that time I lived at Lavino, a small village close to the surroundings of Zola Predosa, near Bologna. It was a very cosy green area with a small river.

My house, circulated by a few others, and with a beautiful garden around, skirted at one side the river. So I could go there close to the fence when I was a very small child and watch the river running through the cracks of the fence. I was like enchanted by this view, to watch the water flowing by was very beautiful for me and I got even angry when some other children passed by to greet me, and reacted by biting their fingers. It was so beautiful to see the river run along, that I did not want to be disturbed.
Carmen Stanzani, Pre-primary school teacher, 56 years old, Italy

My grandparents

sibylle — Tue, 11 May 2010 08:58:59 +0000

I remember with pleasure and nostalgia my grandparents from my father's side. I remember that I passed most of the day with them - my grandma was very good at cooking, and when I was with them at lunch, she prepared a special pasta with courgettes and tomatoes - she knew that I liked that very very much!

I liked to watch her when she was cooking and she told me about the war and about how they have suffered. She told me that it was difficult to live in that period because they had not enough food. My grandpa has been "caught" and brought to Germany. He worked, when he was a prisoner, for the Germans and he was obliged to eat the leftovers (potato peels). My grandma had to work in the fields to grow the children. I remember that every time when I muttered because I did not like the vegetables, she told me: " You should have lived at the time of war, you'd have eaten also the peels."

Pre-primary school teacher, 30 years old, Italy

Pressing of grapes

sibylle — Tue, 11 May 2010 08:30:39 +0000

A memory of my childhood, happening in the last year of my attendance at pre-primary school, has to do with the impossibility to participate in a didactic event promoted by the pre-primary school teachers in autumn.

It was about the barefooted pressing of grapes. This activity has been developed to make children understand how from a typical autumn fruit, the grapes, is obtained the wine. The impossibility to participate directly in the activity, and my only presence as an observer, due to the unjustified fear of my parents about my health, made me feel very unhappy, and I still remember very clearly how I was sitting on a box and looking at the other children participating in the activity.

Federica Pennisi, Educator in a nursery school, 26 years old, Italy

Bengali and Italian tales

sibylle — Tue, 11 May 2010 08:21:31 +0000

My experience as mum has helped me much in my work with babies. I did not really have any difficult situation in my work with children. As an immigrant person, I had some difficulty with the Italian language, so it was very useful for me to see how to carry out a task rather than only speaking about it.

Working with children I have found out that some Italian tales are identical to Bengali tales. I did not imagine it. It was a beautiful discovery that helped me with my language difficulties.

Baby-sitter and nanny in a private nursery school, 29 years old, Italy

Playing with dolls

sibylle — Tue, 11 May 2010 08:15:59 +0000

I do not have a precise memory about my childhood. It was for me a happy period. I did not go to a kindergarten because this institution exists in my country Bangladesh only for about 10 years. Schools for children from 0 to 3 years are still less common and too expensive.

Anyway, as child I remember that I played with my sisters and with children of my neighbourhood when we went out. At home we played almost always with dolls while outdoors we played traditional games like hide-and-seek. I believe that it is not good that little girls play too much with dolls because as adults they will not only take care of their children.

Baby-sitter and nanny in a private nursery school, 29 years old, Italy

Hello to everyone

begona — Thu, 06 May 2010 10:40:23 +0000

Quick post just to see whether I can insert info. Here below you can find a picture of BOLOGNA, where the partners are meeting:

Cat

Jens — Fri, 30 Apr 2010 16:52:41 +0000

When I was returning from the school I saw a young cat high in the crown of birch. It was meowing loudly. At first moment I was afraid to climb on thin branches to save it, however later I became more courageous; because I knew that cat itself could not come down from the tree. When I saved her we became best confidential “friends” . From that event cat each day waited on me at the house door and helped me several time to overcome teenager’s large and small problems.

Melita Trdin

Map

Jens — Fri, 30 Apr 2010 16:51:52 +0000

With parents we hiked the whole Slovenian hiking path and visited many beautiful places in Slovenia. At school we had a test from geography, which included was an exercise to put some famous places (the capital, Triglav, Koper..) on the map of Slovenia. My parents were disappointed, because I put the places, which I visited on wrong positions (for example Triglav (the highest peak in Slovenia) on the seaside).

With our children we already visited several of those places – however, now I have a map in the car on which we are marking the places we visit, roads where we were driving or hiking, so that our children can orient better on the map.

Knez Alenka

Evenings together

Jens — Fri, 30 Apr 2010 16:50:50 +0000

All pre-school period in the evening I spent some time with children – reading stories, talking what happened in kindergarten...

This evening talks we used to have also in the school period – so I learned a lot about what happened, when I was not with my children and what about they are thinking.

I am happy that they accepted these evenings as ours, so that we are talking their and my experiences, even now when they are teenagers. So this period is for us also nice, without special »teen age » problems. I know that for good relationship with teenager I started to build in the preschool period.

Knez Alenka

Pain

Jens — Fri, 30 Apr 2010 16:49:34 +0000

It happened one day, when I was not feeling well, I had pain in my stomach so I laid down on mattress in playing room. The astonished children came to me and asked me what happened, do I have stomach pains. Than they laid or sat down around me and started to touch me tenderly. They were extremely tender and sensitive. They became quite, they were playing quitter with more feelings.

Lina Umek

Great Dane

Jens — Fri, 30 Apr 2010 16:48:43 +0000

That day I was in bad mood because, I had conflict with my co-worker. Probably I was absent with my thoughts, or I showed non-verbally my bad mood, and sadness. A boy came to me, he recognized my problem , and started t talk with me. I knew that he has a young dog, so I guided the talk in this direction. I asked him is he playing a lot with a dog, does dog obey him, did it make already some gaff, what do likes to ear, where does it sleep... boy answered my questions, art end I asked him:« What kind of »pasma« (breed) is your dog?«. The boy answered:«No it does not »pase« (graze)!«. I started to laugh gave the hug to the boy and said:« Thank you to make me feeling better!«. Boy said:«How?«. I explained him tha pasma (breed) means what is the dog like, does it have long ears, long or short tail, is it large or small, does it have short or long hair...he said «Oh this? It is Great Dane.".

Urška Rihtar

Memories

Jens — Fri, 30 Apr 2010 16:47:32 +0000

I like to remember my childhood, because I have a really nice memories. We were living together with grandparents in same house, so whenever it was possible I was sneaking to grandmother , who was always doing something interesting .

The nicest moment were in the winter, when she made fire in stove , and was shucking the beans or was sitting at old sewing machine sewing something. In those moments she had time for storytelling. We, children climbed on stove and liked to listen to her because sometimes she invented part of story. We knew that, but we did not interrupt her, but we were asking her again and again let she tell us a story »about fat boy, who ate all.«; or...

I still remember some stories, what left is my love for storytelling »with mouth« as once one child from my group has said.

Nataša Majhen

Visit to Grandparents

Jens — Fri, 30 Apr 2010 16:45:34 +0000

n childhood I was often visiting my grandma and grandpa. They told me true events of their life in Germany, were several families were moved. The grandma always made the visit more interesting preparing food like pancake, plum dumplings....We were sitting around the table and we children were carefully following the mimicry of face, the peach of the voice, what only grandparents could do. Several times we were singing songs. We were always happy when were visiting grandma and grandpa, and we were permanent asking them »tell us another story.«

Merciful

Jens — Fri, 30 Apr 2010 16:33:43 +0000

All children in age group 5-6 years are participation in action »reading badge« (parents are reading to the children at home, and children present the content of the stories on different way in the kindergarten). A boy wanted to tell other children the folk story shepherd. He invited all children to sit on carpet. He was telling the story on very interesting way (he has rich vocabulary, and is good speaker). During storytelling children were listening carefully, however in one moment he stopped and asked:«Children do you know what does mean merciful?«. All children answered:«No!«, He said:«OK I will explain. Merciful means that you are merciful. Do you understand now?«. The children were looking astonished. Then I helped him with explanation (in two sentences), and boy has continued with storytelling.

How to contribute to this Blog

Jens — Sat, 01 Jan 2000 00:00:31 +0000