Recommended Reading: Permission to Parent
Recently we've been reading the book Permission to Parent. The book focuses on the work of establishing clear understandable boundaries for children and how doing so fosters loving and respectful parent-child relationships. Here's a blurb from the author, Robin Berman MD regarding her process:
"Many parents, still feeling the emotional bruises of their own childhoods, rejected their parents’ old-school style of discipline. But rather than injecting more love into their leadership, they ceded too much of their parental power. The whole family hierarchy has collapsed, leaving children in charge, bossing their parents around. Somehow giving children self-esteem has been construed to mean giving kids a trophy for showing up, hovering over their every move, pouring on excessive praise and never saying “no” for fear of hurting their feelings.
There is a graceful place in the middle of these parenting extremes. A hybrid approach in which we thoughtfully reflect upon what we should keep from our parents’ methods, learn from recent parenting trends, and find what no longer serves us."
Recently we've been reading the book Permission to Parent. The book focuses on the work of establishing clear understandable boundaries for children and how doing so fosters loving and respectful parent-child relationships. Here's a blurb from the author, Robin Berman MD regarding her process:
"Many parents, still feeling the emotional bruises of their own childhoods, rejected their parents’ old-school style of discipline. But rather than injecting more love into their leadership, they ceded too much of their parental power. The whole family hierarchy has collapsed, leaving children in charge, bossing their parents around. Somehow giving children self-esteem has been construed to mean giving kids a trophy for showing up, hovering over their every move, pouring on excessive praise and never saying “no” for fear of hurting their feelings.
There is a graceful place in the middle of these parenting extremes. A hybrid approach in which we thoughtfully reflect upon what we should keep from our parents’ methods, learn from recent parenting trends, and find what no longer serves us."
Find out more about the author and the book here: http://permissiontoparent.net/
Classroom Happenings
Infant I: The children have spent a lot of time investigating the mirror in our classroom. Some intentionally venture over to the mirror, while others just seem to happen upon it in the course of rolling over. Their reactions to the mirror vary. At times, the babies smile and start babbling to their reflection, while others just come to a focused stare. Another interaction with the mirror seems to be scooting up to it as close as possible, then kissing or hitting the mirror. Peek-a-boo has also developed with the reflections; they keep their bodies around the corner of the mirror and just pop their heads over to see themselves. The climbing structure has been another place of exploration. Some of the infants are new to climbing and are trying this out for the first time. The stairs pose a significant challenge, but we’ve observed a lot of determination; no matter how many times the stairs trip them up, they get right back to trying again.
Infant II: We are still in the midst of transitions, but we are becoming more comfortable with our new environment, teachers and peers. A big focus for us this week has been kind and clear communication. Some of the phrases we are using to help meet our needs include the following:
Preschool I: After last week’s discovery of an ant habitat, we have spent time checking out a new ant book and comparing and contrasting the ways that the lives of ants are similar and different from our own lives and the lives of other animals we know. We have a few new items in our dress up area and have been taking those pieces out with more frequency, using them more prominently in our dramatic play.
Pre-K: After some time away, we were very excited to take trips back to campfire forrest. It’s close enough for the younger children to walk to comfortably and allows all of us to really spread out and sink into play. While there, we have turned a large log into a “fire boat” (the kind that helps people when there’s a fire) done plenty of rock climbing, created “pogo sticks,” built campfires and rode unicorns. What else? We have also come up with some many great things to do with sticks while learning to handle them safely and with “caution.” Caution is one the new words we are thinking about. Time in the woods is wonderful, in fact, HS told Jen: “This is WAY more fun than going to the (SES) playground.” We also had a new student in the room, welcome SA!
Also Seen at MVS
Thanks for Reading
-Sam
Classroom Happenings
Infant I: The children have spent a lot of time investigating the mirror in our classroom. Some intentionally venture over to the mirror, while others just seem to happen upon it in the course of rolling over. Their reactions to the mirror vary. At times, the babies smile and start babbling to their reflection, while others just come to a focused stare. Another interaction with the mirror seems to be scooting up to it as close as possible, then kissing or hitting the mirror. Peek-a-boo has also developed with the reflections; they keep their bodies around the corner of the mirror and just pop their heads over to see themselves. The climbing structure has been another place of exploration. Some of the infants are new to climbing and are trying this out for the first time. The stairs pose a significant challenge, but we’ve observed a lot of determination; no matter how many times the stairs trip them up, they get right back to trying again.
Infant II: We are still in the midst of transitions, but we are becoming more comfortable with our new environment, teachers and peers. A big focus for us this week has been kind and clear communication. Some of the phrases we are using to help meet our needs include the following:
“No thank you.”
“Help please.”
“Space please.”
“Please stop.”
The last two phrases are especially helpful as we use words to communicate with peers instead of using our bodies to get the message across. Another way we are thinking about language acquisition is through singing and finger plays. We have been learning many words through songs like “Wheels on the Bus,” Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes,” and “If You’re Happy and You Know It.” Outdoors we have been taking lots of partnered walks around the yard. We’re making great progress linking hands and walking side by side at a pace that is comfortable for both people. Additionally, this has created opportunities to cue in to the other person or provide help if they fall. We also have been very attentive to all the trucks and deliveries that go by as well as the sounds of the landscapers mowing the nearby lawns. A goal for our room in the coming weeks will be to remove all cribs from the space and transition all students to sleeping on cots. So look for that to come. A reminder to please take all food items home at the end of the day, thank you!
Toddler Room: It’s been a busy week! We are starting to feel at home and settled in the new space and the children seem to have their schedules and routines down. Those routines highlight their ability to complete a variety of autonomous tasks. An example of this is how we complete our morning chores of washing hands, putting on our shoes and placing food items in the fridge. These are things we are capable of doing independently, and we are working hard at them. We had special interest in sensory explorations; each morning there were different items placed in the water for the children to discover. Seashells and ping pongs balls were favorites. A new vocabulary word for us is enormous. The children love using this word and have hand motions to further express themselves. We spent time balancing a football and even tried kicking and punting with our hands and feet. In other sports news, we’re forming our own hockey team thanks to JF, see photo below.
“Help please.”
“Space please.”
“Please stop.”
The last two phrases are especially helpful as we use words to communicate with peers instead of using our bodies to get the message across. Another way we are thinking about language acquisition is through singing and finger plays. We have been learning many words through songs like “Wheels on the Bus,” Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes,” and “If You’re Happy and You Know It.” Outdoors we have been taking lots of partnered walks around the yard. We’re making great progress linking hands and walking side by side at a pace that is comfortable for both people. Additionally, this has created opportunities to cue in to the other person or provide help if they fall. We also have been very attentive to all the trucks and deliveries that go by as well as the sounds of the landscapers mowing the nearby lawns. A goal for our room in the coming weeks will be to remove all cribs from the space and transition all students to sleeping on cots. So look for that to come. A reminder to please take all food items home at the end of the day, thank you!
Toddler Room: It’s been a busy week! We are starting to feel at home and settled in the new space and the children seem to have their schedules and routines down. Those routines highlight their ability to complete a variety of autonomous tasks. An example of this is how we complete our morning chores of washing hands, putting on our shoes and placing food items in the fridge. These are things we are capable of doing independently, and we are working hard at them. We had special interest in sensory explorations; each morning there were different items placed in the water for the children to discover. Seashells and ping pongs balls were favorites. A new vocabulary word for us is enormous. The children love using this word and have hand motions to further express themselves. We spent time balancing a football and even tried kicking and punting with our hands and feet. In other sports news, we’re forming our own hockey team thanks to JF, see photo below.
Here, he was using the stick to hit the trees and fence. With a little encouragement, he used his stick to hit the ball, once he did this, he exclaimed, “hockey!” Then, he went on to play and hit the ball all around the playground. Several children followed in this game and a talk about field hockey ensued.
Preschool I: After last week’s discovery of an ant habitat, we have spent time checking out a new ant book and comparing and contrasting the ways that the lives of ants are similar and different from our own lives and the lives of other animals we know. We have a few new items in our dress up area and have been taking those pieces out with more frequency, using them more prominently in our dramatic play.
While we always seem to have a love of trucks, we have started taking the plastic animal figures along for rides in the truck beds, delivering animals to where they need to go. We continued our trend of outdoor cooking in the sandbox and setting up different kitchens across the playground. We have also been doing a lot of outdoor building of barns, houses and furniture with a variety of new blocks.
Preschool II: Our exploration and identification of numbers continued on this week. Another way we are looking at numbers is at circle time through the use of our calendar. The children love looking at the calendar and counting the days. We practice our counting skills this way, and try to count both forwards and backwards. Also at circle time, we have been working through a variety of musical concepts with our rhythm sticks. “Hot Cross Buns” has posed a specific challenge as the meter changes in song. This requires both listening and coordination to replicate the proper beat. Speaking of music, we made up lots of new words to the favorite, “Down by the Bay.” This sparked conversation about what rhyming really is and what it isn’t. We also made two GREAT batches of play dough, one for our class and one for the Pre-K. We carefully measured out the ingredients to get it just right.
Preschool II: Our exploration and identification of numbers continued on this week. Another way we are looking at numbers is at circle time through the use of our calendar. The children love looking at the calendar and counting the days. We practice our counting skills this way, and try to count both forwards and backwards. Also at circle time, we have been working through a variety of musical concepts with our rhythm sticks. “Hot Cross Buns” has posed a specific challenge as the meter changes in song. This requires both listening and coordination to replicate the proper beat. Speaking of music, we made up lots of new words to the favorite, “Down by the Bay.” This sparked conversation about what rhyming really is and what it isn’t. We also made two GREAT batches of play dough, one for our class and one for the Pre-K. We carefully measured out the ingredients to get it just right.
We spent time out and about with the Pre-K class; we have been really concentrating on following directions, listening closely and keeping safe while off campus. These expectations and boundaries for walks allow us to take trips out into the community, we take the process seriously and go step by step towards more frequent and longer adventures outside of school.
Pre-K: After some time away, we were very excited to take trips back to campfire forrest. It’s close enough for the younger children to walk to comfortably and allows all of us to really spread out and sink into play. While there, we have turned a large log into a “fire boat” (the kind that helps people when there’s a fire) done plenty of rock climbing, created “pogo sticks,” built campfires and rode unicorns. What else? We have also come up with some many great things to do with sticks while learning to handle them safely and with “caution.” Caution is one the new words we are thinking about. Time in the woods is wonderful, in fact, HS told Jen: “This is WAY more fun than going to the (SES) playground.” We also had a new student in the room, welcome SA!
Also Seen at MVS
Thanks for Reading
-Sam
Comments
Post a Comment