Toddlerhood... what an exciting time in a person's life, both for the toddler herself and for her parents, teachers, and other caregivers. Toddlers can thrill us with their rapidly developing linguistic, cognitive, and social capabilities, but on the other side there are the dreaded struggles and tantrums, when it can seem that their only goal in life is to make ours as difficult as possible. The great challenge of being a toddler is that they feel just about the same range and intensity of emotions as we adults can, but they have not yet developed the emotional regulation skills that we unconsciously but constantly use to keep ourselves composed. Supporting children through this wild ride of emotions can be exceptionally difficult.
Child psychologist Alicia Lieberman recently published a book called The Emotional Life of a Toddler and we wanted to share an interview with her available here. In it she discussed how our understanding of toddlers' emotional development has evolved to eliminate the term "terrible twos": "There is a new understanding that tantrums, oppositionalism, [and] negativism are not a sign that the child is terrible or that the child's age is terrible. It's a sign that the child's ability to think through a situation has collapsed because of overwhelming feelings of fear and frustration that dysregulates their emotional composure."
Janet Lansbury's book No Bad Kids focuses on respectful discipline during toddlerhood, and she's also written a blog post about how adults can use "confident momentum" and strong leadership skills to assert our responsibility over many of the situations that can be so overwhelming to toddlers.
"[Confident momentum] is a positive, sometimes heroic kind of energy, an I-can-do-this-thing attitude of helpfulness that stems from the understanding that it's perfectly normal for young children to stall, resist, and test limits." So, yes, it might help to don your super hero cape!
Thanks for reading,
Megan
News and Reminders
We will be closed on Monday, January 15 for Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. Teachers will be at school for an in-service day.
Our first family potluck of the year will be Wednesday, January 24. Stay tuned for more details.
Classroom Updates
Infant I
Our infants changed and grew so much during their week with their families! On Tuesday we observed new words and new vocalizations, more confident walking and rolling, new gestures and facial expressions, and children zooming around the room faster than they ever had before. They clearly enjoyed their holiday week but were also very excited to find themselves back in the company of friends. The transition back into our classroom routines went pretty smoothly, and though the cold weather kept us inside most of the time, we enjoyed lots of book reading, scarf and puppet play, and hidden object peek-a-boo. Looking forward to a warmer week!
Despite some colder temperatures on a few days, we still found ways to get exercise and enjoy the snow. Walking stairs, playing in the yoga hallway with the upstairs classrooms and bringing snow inside to explore were all fun. Learning how to walk through the deep snow and get back up was a challenge this week but we worked hard to figure it out. Saying hi to each other repeatedly also became a fun game this week. We enjoyed watching them communicate like this.
Toddlers
We had a great week settling back into our routines and classroom schedule. This week we read many books focusing on snow and winter themes: The Mitten, The Snowy Day, Winter Friends and Frosty the Snowman. We were very excited to finally get outside on Wednesday! We layered up and played on both playgrounds to celebrate fresh air and outside time; we were just so happy to get outdoors. The soft, powdery snow was an added bonus– so fun! We were also very happy to welcome two new classmates this week, M and O. Welcome!! Please be sure to check the new January group snack schedule to see when it's your turn to bring in snack. Happy 2018!
2018 is off to an exciting start with a new student from the toddler room and yet another 3rd birthday! Despite the long break from school and the frigid temperatures, the children have been flexible, resilient, and overjoyed to reunite with their playmates. We have all been excited to try out some new materials in our room that are fine-motor oriented: magnet puzzles, a light table with smaller toys, and rubber bands with peg boards. Emergent interest in letters, literacy, and numbers is still present despite the holidays--we will dive back into them next week!
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| Greeting a canine neighbor |
This week in PS2, we welcomed O from PS1 as a full time member of our team, but we had to say farewell to P as he moved over to PreK--both were very excited about the transition and did great with the move and the new schedules. We have been enjoying our new class room set up and the added space it has provided for us to stretch in our new circle area. While sledding and shoveling all the great snow have remained a daily joy, we have also been asking for walks in the woods, art and painting time, and is it library day? We trudged through the deep snow and over snow banks for our first winter adventure to camp fire forest, where we helped to add sticks to the new pallet fort and cleaned snow off the fallen climbing tree. We had a great painting session on Thursday with everyone adding a new color until our rainbow was a masterpiece. We hope to be back to the library for story hour next week--letter "m" week! Our weekly journals will also resume next week--please feel free to take them home to write notes, ask questions, or let us know about your home days, but please have them in their cubbies before Thursday.
Returning to school after time away is so exciting! We returned to some changes in our classroom (though we did discuss and plan them before the break) which made our space even more interesting and exciting! We, of course, were so happy to see classmates and hear about all of their winter holiday adventures! It can be difficult to remember classroom rules like walking feet, calm bodies and quiet voices in the middle of so much excitement. We reviewed these rules often and will continue to do so next week as well. Some of the changes included a cardboard box which we cut a hole into for the children to crawl in and out. We will eventually create an underground scene inside, but for now, they are having a lot of fun just crawling in and out and sitting crouched together in the darkness of the space. We've used a few of the older lantern tea lights inside as well. We'd like to add a few more "hideouts" next week. You probably noticed that we've also switched out our train table and listening station area which gives the whole space a more open feel. Sarah was able to find us a new junction box for the headphones as well and now everyone reports they can hear the songs and stories perfectly! We will continue to add to our collection of CDs and cassette tapes for children to choose from. Interest in birds is also making a comeback! We are listening to see which birds we can still hear outside and we'll pull out some of our favorite bird books to cuddle up with as we anticipate their return & warmer weather.
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