My heart feels lighter the moment I hear, "THIS is the library I was talking about!" as a beaming 4 year old skips into the library entrance. My biggest Take-Away from my Masters in Literacy program was to instill a love and passion for reading, for that is the foundation to creating a lifelong Reader. How this [...]
The Reggio Emilia Approach is based on an Inquiry approach to learning. What does that mean exactly? The big picture is this: We want our children to know their questions are valuable. They are not only worthy of our attention and praise, but they establish a mindset of becoming lifelong learners. With a child's question, [...]
The child is made of one hundred. The child has a hundred languages a hundred hands a hundred thoughts a hundred ways of thinking of playing, of speaking. A hundred, always a hundred ways of listening of marveling, of loving, a hundred joys for singing and understanding a hundred worlds to discover a hundred worlds [...]
Some books change your life forever. When I was at Nazareth college obtaining my Masters in Literacy, I will never forget the impact this book had on me. I loved it so much that I would purchase copies and give them as baby shower gifts to my friends! I believe this book influenced me to read [...]
It's always changing, but after 4 years I'm really enjoying the rhythm we have going on right now. Baby Everleigh is at a fun age (15 months) where she LOVES to feel included in everything big sister Penelope is doing. For better or for worse, I'm loving it! What's this "rhythm" I speak of? I [...]
When Reggio-inspired teachers document, what does that mean? When we "document" we are trying to make the children's thinking visible to others. This can be in the form of taking notes through active observation, recording audio, video recording and/or photographs. Documentation is used by educators to identify and plan new projects and sets a platform [...]
He (Peter Rabbit) was only just beginning to find out that no one knows all there is to know, especially about the birds. And no one ever will. (Burgess, p.255). We had a little melancholy moment at lunch today. Today's the day we finished reading the book, The Burgess Bird Book for Children by Thornton W. Burgess. We started [...]
I'm a planner. Are you? I enjoy it to an extent. I'm one of those people who enjoy making checklists so I can check things off. The crossing out, the motion of down and up of the check icon brings great satisfaction to my brain. Since having children I've learned to lower my expectations of [...]
I'm in a local Reggio Emilia Study group! How amazing is that!? The chair person, Kathy, asked if I would write a story I shared with the group for the next Rochester AEYC newsletter. I was honored, and it was so much fun to write! Here's what I wrote: A Child’s Bill of Rights: To [...]
It happened. A year passed. Somewhat a blur, somewhat a blink, somewhat the longest shortest time... But according to the calendar, it's true, a year has passed and our baby is one year old. My oldest daughter also turned another year old during this time... Surprised? I kind of am! My oldest is four years [...]
