Imaginations. We all have them. But I’m not talking about imaginations in the way you might be thinking. I’m talking about imaginations in terms of the stories we tell ourselves. How Past Experiences Influence Our Imaginations Whenever something happens in our lives, we process that information based on our past experiences….trauma we never processed, bad…
Around the age of 4, many children begin to exhibit behaviors, such as gun play or superhero play. These types of play help children feel a sense of power or control. Teachers often feel unsure of the best way to handle this type of play. Traditional approaches of banning or putting limits on the play…
Note: This is an opinion piece only whose goal is to start a conversation. I am not a medical professional nor a COVID Researcher. Recently I’ve been asked numerous questions about practices within ECE classrooms and the COVID-19 pandemic. Questions have included some of the following: Should we let children play together or separate them?…
Check out my newest feature, the 5-Minute Professor, in which I answer questions about teaching and parenting young children. Read the transcript or watch the full video below! Hi. I’m Dr. Jenni Jacobs, Founder of The Learning Professor. Welcome to the 5-Minute Professor where I answer your questions about early childhood. One of the questions…
Of all the topics about preschool literacy that I teach, the most hotly debated among teachers is that of tracing. A simple google search on preschool writing or curriculum ideas will no doubt result in some form of tracing. In fact, even some handwriting curricula encourage the practice. Whenever I introduce the idea of no…
Recently I’ve joined several parenting (mom) Facebook groups online to get a sense of some of the topics that parents are struggling with. It’s supposed to be a place of support, where mothers can ask questions without fear of judgment. I have found it is quite far from that. I think I naively assumed that…
A friend of mine has a 7 month old infant in a group care setting. She came over with him the other day and told me that the day care had asked her not to hold him so much on the weekends because she was spoiling him. Apparently he was expecting the teachers to hold…
As I prepare to teach a temperament class today at a conference, I’ve been reflecting on the topic of temperament and goodness of fit. As I thought about the nine different temperament traits, I became very aware that the importance of knowing about these traits isn’t actually in the traits themselves but rather in learning…
I recently taught a class in which we talked about behavior charts in the classroom. Behavior charts come in all different varieties. They might be forms sent home with parents, charts on the wall, flipping cards, or the infamous stoplight systems. Do these types of things work? And are they fair? We must inform parents…
Physical science is one of the three content items in science. (The other two are life science and earth & space science). Physical science activities deal with the properties of materials and objects. This includes things we can observe, such as height, weight, color, and transparency, but it also includes how objects respond in different…