This post will deal with my years of experience teaching children on the autistic spectrum. This post will also deal with the difference between immaturity and true developmental delay. All of the information in this post is meant for instruction and not as a means of diagnosis. I will give you the warning signs of developmental delay in order for you to know when a referral to early intervention services may be warranted. Many children do not receive a diagnosis of developmental delay until they reach elementary school. Hopefully this post will help caregivers to catch and refer those children that have true developmental delays to the early intervention specialists available in every state.
The Difference between Immaturity and Developmental Delay
In many of my previous posts I have touched on the difference between immaturity and true developmental delay. I have also written extensively on the upsurge of immaturity in children in the past few years. When children walk through our doors, many times they arrive far behind their peers that have had quality early childhood experiences. Some of these children have true developmental delays, which seem to also be on the uptick in the last few years. Many of the children are simply immature and have not had enough quality childhood experiences to have reached the same level of development as those children that have had such experiences. Quality of experience makes a huge difference in children. Changes in our society over the last couple of decades have stripped away many early childhood experiences that we as the older generation took for granted. The reduction of playtime outside along with too much television time or other technology and immature or misguided parenting styles has nearly crippled our young children's development. Until the last 5 to 10 years the effects have been gradual. However, in the last 5 years the effects have been compounding annually. Many on the front lines of the early childhood community are seeing these changes and have been seeing them for years. Now the elementary school teachers are truly beginning to see this compounding effect and are struggling with meeting new stricter standards in education. However, this post is not on immaturity, but on developmental delays. If you want more information, refer to my post on immature children.
How Do You Tell the Difference?
How do you tell the difference between immaturity and true developmental delays? When children walk through the door, there will be no difference. Only time will show whether the child has a true developmental delay or simply needs quality experiences. At one time early childhood interventionists would tell you that the amount of delay at the onset was a good indication of delay. However, that is no longer true. Some children now walk through the door a year or more behind their peers without actually having a true developmental delay. The difference lies in how the child responds to quality experiences. If the child begins to blossom at an amazing rate when exposed to quality experiences, that child simply had immaturity issues. If a child continues to lag behind their peers at about the same rate as when they arrived or actually widens the gap, then that child has a true developmental delay and is in need of early intervention services. If you do not know how to contact the early childhood intervention system in your area, simply log onto your state's website and search for early intervention or disability services for children. Early intervention falls under Part C of IDEA.
Once you have had the early intervention specialist test a child and have established that a true developmental delay exists, the services for that child will begin. However, most of these services are only once per week or so. You as the main caregiver will still have a large part to play in that child's development. In my facility I have cared for children who have fallen on the autistic spectrum at various stages. The information that I am about to share comes from my experiences with these children and covers the common issues that I faced.
A Calm Environment
The first and probably most important factor that you as the caregiver can manipulate involves a calm environment. Most children with developmental delays and especially those on the autistic spectrum have problems with being overstimulated. When these children get overstimulated they will shutdown or have outburst issues. Either way, you will have serious problems. The ones that shutdown may crawl into the fetal position and mumble to themselves. Sometimes they crawl into the fetal position and scream the same phrase over and over. The ones that go the opposite direction may all of a sudden become violent or completely out of control. Once the escalation starts, whichever way it goes, it is very hard to return that child to a calm demeanor. The best solution is to avoid overstimulation at all costs. Will this possibly put a damper on some activities? Yes. If you have an activity that you know is going to get rowdy, you might want to find a way to do something else with your special needs child that is away from the chaos. Will you be able to completely avoid these episodes with your special needs child? No. This is especially true for those people in states that have a lot of regulations. A stranger in your facility can set off a special needs child just as much as chaos. When I had the children on the autistic spectrum, I had to be very upfront with the state assessors about how their presence affected that child(ren). It is impossible to have a "normal" day for assessment purposes if you have a special needs child. I have had a child fall in the floor in the fetal position and scream the same phrase over and over during lunch. I had to leave the other children who were finishing up lunch to deal with the special needs child before it really got ugly, and I was marked down heavily for it. For years I have tried to make the case that QRIS systems are not special needs friendly. Maybe one of these days, these experts will finally listen to somebody.
Routines
The next aspect I want to discuss deals with routines. All children function better when a facility has routines that they follow everyday, but children on the autistic spectrum demand routines. However, they will fight the routines when they first start. Establishing the routines with these children will not be easy. Most normally developing children will begin to pick up the routines within the first week or two. When you are dealing with a child on the autistic spectrum, you will remain in the teaching phase of a routine for months. Do not think, however, that this means the routine is not necessary. These children need structure more than most. It just takes longer to teach them anything including routines. Once you finally reach the point where that child adapts to the routines, you will find it necessary to stick to your routines without much deviation. Deviation can set off the child just like overstimulation. If you are a teacher that likes to keep things random and varied, you might want to consider not taking on children with developmental delays. It is okay to admit that you are not equipped to handle children with serious developmental delays. These children can be challenging, and inclusion can be a double-edged sword for everyone involved. Being upfront about your abilities to include these children is much better than taking on a situation that becomes disastrous for everyone involved.
The Challenges of Instruction
Finally, I want to cover the challenges of instruction. As I stated before, it takes longer to teach these children most subjects. However, sometimes they will pick up something quickly only to struggle with a slight variation for months. What they struggle with can be so random. They might learn two colors and then struggle with the other colors until kindergarten. I had one child that took two years to learn her colors, but learned her shapes in two months. They can also be what I call "Borg" children. In the Star Trek movies, the Borg adapted to everything that was thrown at them. These children can be the same way. Sometimes what worked yesterday will not work today. These children have helped me develop more teaching strategies than any of the others because I was constantly having to adapt. This proved true with routines as well as academic subjects. The trick is consistency, flexibility, and tons of patience. Be consistent in what you do, but flexible in how you do it. Also, be patient with yourself. Teaching children on the autistic spectrum can be rewarding, but it is also physically and emotionally draining. Give yourself breaks and pull in as much help as you can find. Learn as much as you can from the early interventionists that come into your facility. Most of all, be realistic in what you are equipped to handle. I took on one child that I never should have attempted and about caused myself and all my staff to have a nervous breakdown. I had to finally step back and see that the situation had become toxic for everyone involved. That was not healthy for the special needs child or any of the other children not to mention my staff. Admitting your weaknesses is not the same as admitting defeat. That is being wise.
I hope you have enjoyed this post. Goodbye and God bless!! Check out Natalie's children's books at: https://www.amazon.com/author/nataliewade7457
Saturday, September 28, 2013
Tuesday, September 24, 2013
Teaching Children to Be Dependable
This post will deal with the task of raising children to be dependable people. This is not an easy task in today's society. As with most of the character traits I have dealt with in previous posts, many American adults do not have this trait in abundance. Teaching children to have a trait that their parents do not necessarily possess can be especially tricky.
The Definition of Dependability
What is dependability? Webster defines dependability as being trustworthy and reliable. The trustworthy aspect revolves around being people that keep their word. If I say I am going to do something, it is as good as done unless something catastrophic interferes. Reliable comes very close to the same definition. Being reliable involves doing what is expected all the time. If I am a reliable person, then the activities put under my care are done to the right specifications all the time without having to be supervised. How many American employers would nearly give their right leg to have those kinds of employees?
Adults First
As with all my other posts on character traits, let's talk to the adults first. By now it should be blatantly obvious that character is something you model while you teach. The adults must be trustworthy and reliable if they want the children in their lives to be trustworthy and reliable. I really believe that Americans' biggest problem with most of the character traits I have covered in posts is their tendency to spout off at the mouth. Being trustworthy has the same issue. How often do you promise or threaten to do something with absolutely no follow through? Again, one of the biggest lessons many adults must learn is to not let it come out of their mouth unless it has the full force of their will behind it. In other words, do not say it unless you can perform it. On the other hand, reliability has more to do with the attitude of the heart than the actions of the mouth. Who or what do you work for? Do you work for money alone? Do you work for the accolades of man? Or do you work as unto the Lord, to please Him in all respects? Only the last one produces truly reliable people. The old saying "any job worth doing is worth doing well" also fits in with being reliable. When you work, do you consistently try to do your best even when no one ever pays attention to whether you do a good job or not? Only when the answer to that question is yes can you consider yourself a reliable person. Remember dependability equals trustworthiness plus reliability. It takes both aspects being present in a person for that person to be truly dependable.
People of Their Word
How does this look in the early childhood arena? First, let's look at teaching children to be trustworthy. The most obvious way probably presents the hardest problem for most. When children promise something, do you hold them to it? How many times have you let a child off the hook because enforcing the promise would be too much trouble? If you did let them off the hook, did you punish them for promising something they could not perform? I think it has been a very long time in this country since parents took seriously the task of teaching children to be people of their word. I say this because many of the adults of this country do not have the reputation that many people of previous centuries have had. Is your word your bond? There was a time when if people promised something, they fulfilled it even if it cost them dearly. They also taught their children to value their word as if it was made of gold. That starts in the preschool years by expecting them to do what they say. If they cannot do what they say, they are taught that breaking their word comes with consequences. For example, if a child promises to let another child have a toy in a few minutes, you make sure the child follows through with his/her promise. Teach children that a promise is a promise and if you do not mean it, do not say it. Can you imagine what a difference it would make in this society if we succeeded in raising a generation that highly valued trustworthiness?
Reliability
Now let's look at the other half of the equation. How can I teach children to be reliable? This one has to do with the expectations you have for the children. For example, at my childcare one of the milestones the children reach is the point where I trust them to do their pages right on their own. If they violate that trust, they have to earn it back. In case you are wondering I do require the children to do what some people consider "school pages" and I expect them to do it correctly according to their ability. Many early childhood experts will tell you these pages have absolutely no value in an early childhood setting. What better reason could you have than to teach that child to be dependable? I expect them to color the page according to specifications because that teaches them to follow directions. It is also a way for them to show me that they are reliable. Another way I teach reliability occurs during pick-up time. I expect the children here as soon as they learn where toys belong to put them back in that spot. If they do not, I make them correct their mistake. Yes, I treat it like a mistake. If you let them get away with putting away things wherever is convenient, you are teaching them that it does not matter what kind of job they do as long as they do something. That is precisely what is wrong with the generation that is now between the ages of 12 and 30. If you do not expect the children to do a good job, you will get what you expect - whatever.
Root Out Relativism
Many childhood experts might tell you that teaching preschoolers dependability in this way is not developmentally appropriate. However, let me remind you again that most early childhood philosophy has a foundation of relativism, which is the belief that true right and wrong do not exist. If we want to have truly dependable children, the relativism must be rooted out of our worldview at its core. Relativism is precisely why children and adults in this society have so little character.
I hope you have enjoyed this post. Goodbye and God bless!! Check out Natalie's children's books at: https://www.amazon.com/author/nataliewade7457
The Definition of Dependability
What is dependability? Webster defines dependability as being trustworthy and reliable. The trustworthy aspect revolves around being people that keep their word. If I say I am going to do something, it is as good as done unless something catastrophic interferes. Reliable comes very close to the same definition. Being reliable involves doing what is expected all the time. If I am a reliable person, then the activities put under my care are done to the right specifications all the time without having to be supervised. How many American employers would nearly give their right leg to have those kinds of employees?
Adults First
As with all my other posts on character traits, let's talk to the adults first. By now it should be blatantly obvious that character is something you model while you teach. The adults must be trustworthy and reliable if they want the children in their lives to be trustworthy and reliable. I really believe that Americans' biggest problem with most of the character traits I have covered in posts is their tendency to spout off at the mouth. Being trustworthy has the same issue. How often do you promise or threaten to do something with absolutely no follow through? Again, one of the biggest lessons many adults must learn is to not let it come out of their mouth unless it has the full force of their will behind it. In other words, do not say it unless you can perform it. On the other hand, reliability has more to do with the attitude of the heart than the actions of the mouth. Who or what do you work for? Do you work for money alone? Do you work for the accolades of man? Or do you work as unto the Lord, to please Him in all respects? Only the last one produces truly reliable people. The old saying "any job worth doing is worth doing well" also fits in with being reliable. When you work, do you consistently try to do your best even when no one ever pays attention to whether you do a good job or not? Only when the answer to that question is yes can you consider yourself a reliable person. Remember dependability equals trustworthiness plus reliability. It takes both aspects being present in a person for that person to be truly dependable.
People of Their Word
How does this look in the early childhood arena? First, let's look at teaching children to be trustworthy. The most obvious way probably presents the hardest problem for most. When children promise something, do you hold them to it? How many times have you let a child off the hook because enforcing the promise would be too much trouble? If you did let them off the hook, did you punish them for promising something they could not perform? I think it has been a very long time in this country since parents took seriously the task of teaching children to be people of their word. I say this because many of the adults of this country do not have the reputation that many people of previous centuries have had. Is your word your bond? There was a time when if people promised something, they fulfilled it even if it cost them dearly. They also taught their children to value their word as if it was made of gold. That starts in the preschool years by expecting them to do what they say. If they cannot do what they say, they are taught that breaking their word comes with consequences. For example, if a child promises to let another child have a toy in a few minutes, you make sure the child follows through with his/her promise. Teach children that a promise is a promise and if you do not mean it, do not say it. Can you imagine what a difference it would make in this society if we succeeded in raising a generation that highly valued trustworthiness?
Reliability
Now let's look at the other half of the equation. How can I teach children to be reliable? This one has to do with the expectations you have for the children. For example, at my childcare one of the milestones the children reach is the point where I trust them to do their pages right on their own. If they violate that trust, they have to earn it back. In case you are wondering I do require the children to do what some people consider "school pages" and I expect them to do it correctly according to their ability. Many early childhood experts will tell you these pages have absolutely no value in an early childhood setting. What better reason could you have than to teach that child to be dependable? I expect them to color the page according to specifications because that teaches them to follow directions. It is also a way for them to show me that they are reliable. Another way I teach reliability occurs during pick-up time. I expect the children here as soon as they learn where toys belong to put them back in that spot. If they do not, I make them correct their mistake. Yes, I treat it like a mistake. If you let them get away with putting away things wherever is convenient, you are teaching them that it does not matter what kind of job they do as long as they do something. That is precisely what is wrong with the generation that is now between the ages of 12 and 30. If you do not expect the children to do a good job, you will get what you expect - whatever.
Root Out Relativism
Many childhood experts might tell you that teaching preschoolers dependability in this way is not developmentally appropriate. However, let me remind you again that most early childhood philosophy has a foundation of relativism, which is the belief that true right and wrong do not exist. If we want to have truly dependable children, the relativism must be rooted out of our worldview at its core. Relativism is precisely why children and adults in this society have so little character.
I hope you have enjoyed this post. Goodbye and God bless!! Check out Natalie's children's books at: https://www.amazon.com/author/nataliewade7457
Saturday, September 21, 2013
Tailoring Instruction to Individual Children
This post will continue the discussion started with last Saturday's post on individualized instruction. The focus of this post will be how to tailor instruction for each individual child. However, before I begin that part, I will discuss what I do not mean by tailoring instruction. Two very different camps exist on this subject, and I will explain both camps.
Child-Centered Instruction vs. Individualized Instruction
When many childhood experts talk about individualized instruction, they are referring to child-centered instruction. This type of instruction lets the child choose what and how they will learn. The teacher in this situation takes the cues from the child and caters the instruction to that child's interests. For example, if the child has an interest in insects, the teacher will plan all the lessons to revolve around insects. To teach colors, the teacher will talk about the colors of the insects. The teacher will read books about insects, etc. The big problem with this approach is not everything can be necessarily squeezed into something in which a child has a particular interest. This is especially true when teaching math and phonics concepts. As a former homeschooling mom, I have seen children whose elementary education followed this model. By the third grade these children knew everything there was to know about insects, but could not read well and had very poor math skills. If you do not believe there are foundational subjects in which every person should have a basic working knowledge, then this type of instruction is for you. I have a huge problem with this type of instruction.
Teacher-Directed Instruction
I fall into the other camp. This camp believes that individualized instruction should be mostly teacher-directed instruction that caters to the child's learning styles not necessarily their interests. This type of instruction believes there are common concepts all children should learn and many of these concepts build one upon the other. The teacher in this situation teaches all children the same basic information, but changes the delivery system to accommodate the way that particular child processes information. A good teacher using this type of instruction also exposes the child to other ways of learning with extra support in order to help that child to develop his/her less dominant areas of the brain. It is actually very detrimental to a child to have everything completely catered to him/her. One of the great life lessons all children must learn to be functional adults involves working through adversity. How do children that have every single aspect of their life catered to their every whim learn to deal with a subject that is difficult? They do not. They do not learn about that subject because they do not find that subject interesting. If you cannot see the harm in that, you should not be reading my blog. You are squarely in the other camp, and I will only make you angry.
How Do I Do It?
How do I accomplish this great feat of tailoring instruction for each individual child? As I stated before, I have a basic curriculum that I follow. I developed this curriculum from aspects of established curriculums and from scratch. The established curriculums I use are from Christian textbook publishers. These curriculums have both private school and homeschool teaching manuals. I use the homeschool manuals because they suit my preschool model. However, I do not follow them exactly. I pick out the best pieces from different curriculums plus adding in my own lessons to make up the entire curriculum. I have 13 years of homeschooling experience plus 8 years of preschool experience. If you are just starting out, I would recommend picking an established curriculum that suits your teaching style and then adding in bits and pieces that you pick up from trainings as you gain experience. Also, never be afraid to chunk what does not work. Establishing a curriculum that truly flows takes years of trial and error. Plus, your curriculum will not look like another person's curriculum because we all have unique teaching styles. Never try to be someone else. Always find your own path when it comes to being a successful teacher.
Pace and Procedure
Once the core curriculum has been established, the individualization comes in the pace and the procedure. For example, every child that comes through my door starts at the exact same point. If it is a one year old, I stretch the lessons out over a couple of weeks. If it is a four year old, I might double or triple the lessons until I find the point where the child struggles. At that point I slow down. I never skip lessons just because of a child's age because I have found developmental delays in children through this process. If I have a four year old that struggles with body parts, we have issues. The pace will be the first aspect to be established. Establishing the procedure takes time. As you work with each child every day, you will begin to learn the uniqueness of each child. To do this you must pay attention. Over time you will learn that one child struggles with the names of different things while another child struggles with math concepts. When a child struggles, that is your signal to dig in and work harder on that particular area. Do not skip the other areas, but do spend more time on the areas in which a child struggles.
Zone of Proximal Development
At this point I want to discuss what Vygotsky called the "zone of proximal development." When working with children one-on-one, your main objective is to move children from an exposure to the material to a working knowledge of the material. You will introduce the concept at a point that is just outside the reach of a child's knowledge base. Then you will work with that child until that becomes a part of the child's knowledge base. This process is repeated over and over with every single concept. Many people call this style of teaching "scaffolding." When a child struggles with a concept, you do not move on until that concept becomes a part of that child's knowledge base. This is especially important for children with developmental delays. One of my favorite quotes is "there are a thousand ways to climb the mountain." Your job as a teacher involves finding the way up the mountain for each individual child. Each child you encounter will teach you new ways up the mountain. The more experience you gain as a teacher, the more strategies you will have in your arsenal. Always be open to the slight variations in presenting material that each child will need.
I hope you have enjoyed this post. Goodbye and God bless!! Check out Natalie's children's books at: https://www.amazon.com/author/nataliewade7457
Child-Centered Instruction vs. Individualized Instruction
When many childhood experts talk about individualized instruction, they are referring to child-centered instruction. This type of instruction lets the child choose what and how they will learn. The teacher in this situation takes the cues from the child and caters the instruction to that child's interests. For example, if the child has an interest in insects, the teacher will plan all the lessons to revolve around insects. To teach colors, the teacher will talk about the colors of the insects. The teacher will read books about insects, etc. The big problem with this approach is not everything can be necessarily squeezed into something in which a child has a particular interest. This is especially true when teaching math and phonics concepts. As a former homeschooling mom, I have seen children whose elementary education followed this model. By the third grade these children knew everything there was to know about insects, but could not read well and had very poor math skills. If you do not believe there are foundational subjects in which every person should have a basic working knowledge, then this type of instruction is for you. I have a huge problem with this type of instruction.
Teacher-Directed Instruction
I fall into the other camp. This camp believes that individualized instruction should be mostly teacher-directed instruction that caters to the child's learning styles not necessarily their interests. This type of instruction believes there are common concepts all children should learn and many of these concepts build one upon the other. The teacher in this situation teaches all children the same basic information, but changes the delivery system to accommodate the way that particular child processes information. A good teacher using this type of instruction also exposes the child to other ways of learning with extra support in order to help that child to develop his/her less dominant areas of the brain. It is actually very detrimental to a child to have everything completely catered to him/her. One of the great life lessons all children must learn to be functional adults involves working through adversity. How do children that have every single aspect of their life catered to their every whim learn to deal with a subject that is difficult? They do not. They do not learn about that subject because they do not find that subject interesting. If you cannot see the harm in that, you should not be reading my blog. You are squarely in the other camp, and I will only make you angry.
How Do I Do It?
How do I accomplish this great feat of tailoring instruction for each individual child? As I stated before, I have a basic curriculum that I follow. I developed this curriculum from aspects of established curriculums and from scratch. The established curriculums I use are from Christian textbook publishers. These curriculums have both private school and homeschool teaching manuals. I use the homeschool manuals because they suit my preschool model. However, I do not follow them exactly. I pick out the best pieces from different curriculums plus adding in my own lessons to make up the entire curriculum. I have 13 years of homeschooling experience plus 8 years of preschool experience. If you are just starting out, I would recommend picking an established curriculum that suits your teaching style and then adding in bits and pieces that you pick up from trainings as you gain experience. Also, never be afraid to chunk what does not work. Establishing a curriculum that truly flows takes years of trial and error. Plus, your curriculum will not look like another person's curriculum because we all have unique teaching styles. Never try to be someone else. Always find your own path when it comes to being a successful teacher.
Pace and Procedure
Once the core curriculum has been established, the individualization comes in the pace and the procedure. For example, every child that comes through my door starts at the exact same point. If it is a one year old, I stretch the lessons out over a couple of weeks. If it is a four year old, I might double or triple the lessons until I find the point where the child struggles. At that point I slow down. I never skip lessons just because of a child's age because I have found developmental delays in children through this process. If I have a four year old that struggles with body parts, we have issues. The pace will be the first aspect to be established. Establishing the procedure takes time. As you work with each child every day, you will begin to learn the uniqueness of each child. To do this you must pay attention. Over time you will learn that one child struggles with the names of different things while another child struggles with math concepts. When a child struggles, that is your signal to dig in and work harder on that particular area. Do not skip the other areas, but do spend more time on the areas in which a child struggles.
Zone of Proximal Development
At this point I want to discuss what Vygotsky called the "zone of proximal development." When working with children one-on-one, your main objective is to move children from an exposure to the material to a working knowledge of the material. You will introduce the concept at a point that is just outside the reach of a child's knowledge base. Then you will work with that child until that becomes a part of the child's knowledge base. This process is repeated over and over with every single concept. Many people call this style of teaching "scaffolding." When a child struggles with a concept, you do not move on until that concept becomes a part of that child's knowledge base. This is especially important for children with developmental delays. One of my favorite quotes is "there are a thousand ways to climb the mountain." Your job as a teacher involves finding the way up the mountain for each individual child. Each child you encounter will teach you new ways up the mountain. The more experience you gain as a teacher, the more strategies you will have in your arsenal. Always be open to the slight variations in presenting material that each child will need.
I hope you have enjoyed this post. Goodbye and God bless!! Check out Natalie's children's books at: https://www.amazon.com/author/nataliewade7457
Tuesday, September 17, 2013
Teaching Children to Be Honest
This post will deal with instilling honesty in children. Probably more than any other character trait, this one must be modeled above all else. Therefore, as with all the other character posts I have done, first I will talk to the adults before we move on to the children.
The Definition of Honesty
What is honesty? Is it just simply telling the truth all the time? Webster defines honest as free from deception; truthful; genuine, real; creditable. That takes it a little deeper than simply telling the truth. Honesty flows from a place that is grounded in real truth. It encompasses being a credible person as much as just saying things that are true. Being an honest person means people believe in the person you portray yourself to be. People trust you and find you dependable.
Being Free from Deception
The first part of Webster's definition deals with being free from deception. Many people feel like they are telling the truth when in reality they are deceived or their perception of truth has been skewed somehow. For example, a person shares what he/she feels to be the truth without having all the necessary facts and the version of the truth that he/she has is actually the opposite of reality. Therefore, the first aspect of being honest involves being slow to speak and not jumping to conclusions. Do not spout off at the mouth until you have all the facts. How many times do we as adults jump to conclusions before we have all the facts? Did you know that was an aspect of being honest? This involves our credibility. Being too quick to jump to conclusions destroys our credibility and makes people dismiss our opinions as unreliable. If people cannot trust what you say, you might as well be lying. Also, be careful of the things that form the basis of your opinions. Believing false information can harm your credibility as well. Before you discuss a matter, get the facts. Some of the best advice on this comes from the Bible. James 1: 19 says for us to be "quick to hear, slow to speak, and slow to anger." Most of the time we get that completely backwards. We are slow to hear, quick to speak, and quick to anger.
Keep Your Word
The next aspect of honest I want to discuss deals with being people that keep their word. Again, this is an aspect of honesty that many people do not consider. This also involves being slow to speak. Do not threaten or promise anything that you know you cannot carry out. This is especially true when dealing with children. Do not let it come out of your mouth unless it carries the full force of your will to back it up and you will do everything in your power to make it happen even if it costs you. Credibility has as much to do with honesty as telling the truth. When a person does not keep his/her word, that destroys credibility. People will not believe what you say just as if you were telling the biggest lie on the planet. Your intentions do not factor into this equation. Your actions will define your honesty.
Telling the Truth
Now we come to the aspect of honesty that everyone knows - telling the truth. However, again we hit on being slow to speak. Many times when we tell a little white lie, it's because we have opened our mouth too quickly in a situation where we should have kept the truth to ourselves. It is not necessary to blurt out every single thought that comes into your head. That is not being honest. Most of the time that is being hurtful. There is an old saying that fits this perfectly - "If you can't say anything nice, don't say anything at all." We as Americans tend to value our own opinions far too highly and feel everyone should be entitled to how we feel. Many times what we push off as honesty, falls better into the category of manipulation and jealousy. Think before you speak and honesty will become a part of who you are as long as you value being honest. Some people do not value honesty and will lie to your face without even thinking twice about it.
Are Children Naturally Honest?
Before we discuss how to instill honesty in children, I want to touch on a false perception in our society. Many early childhood experts will say that children are naturally honest. Are they really? I have had 3 and 4 year olds lie to my face without batting an eye. I have touched on this before, but most early childhood experts refute original sin. They do not believe that we as humans are born with a sin nature. They believe that children have to be taught to do wrong. Those of us who believe in original sin understand that children have to be taught to do right. Doing wrong comes naturally to us all. Some children do have a tendency to be more honest than others, but every child will at least attempt to lie to your face when backed into a corner. Some children just lie better than others.
Model Honesty
As I said in the first paragraph, this particular character trait has to be modeled for children to learn. Children will follow the model of honesty that you set for them. If they see you as a person that cannot be trusted, they will not place much stock in honesty. If they see you constantly telling little white lies, they will think that is normal. Remember, honesty has to be taught. It does not come naturally. For very young children sometimes we have to help them differentiate between pretending and lying. At my childcare we have this discussion regularly. When you are pretending, you are playing and everyone understands it is not real. Lying is when you are trying to make people believe something that is not true. I often give the example for little boys about washing their hands after they go potty. If you do not wash your hands, and then when I ask you if you washed your hands and you say yes, that is lying. Little boys are notorious for this one, and it hits home. Remember to always try to find examples in which the children can relate.
Do Not Be Gullible
Lastly, expect honesty from yourself and the children, but do not be gullible. It is perfectly okay to check into a child's story to verify. When his/her story checks out, it gives the child a sense of justification. If the child's story does not check out, that child needed to be caught redhanded. Getting away with lying bolsters lying in children. Some people feel that constantly verifying children's stories undermines that child's self-esteem. Again, they have it backward. A child must understand that credibility is earned not just given, and once lost, it takes a long time to earn it back.
I hope you have enjoyed this post. Goodbye and God bless!! Check out Natalie's children's books at: https://www.amazon.com/author/nataliewade7457
The Definition of Honesty
What is honesty? Is it just simply telling the truth all the time? Webster defines honest as free from deception; truthful; genuine, real; creditable. That takes it a little deeper than simply telling the truth. Honesty flows from a place that is grounded in real truth. It encompasses being a credible person as much as just saying things that are true. Being an honest person means people believe in the person you portray yourself to be. People trust you and find you dependable.
Being Free from Deception
The first part of Webster's definition deals with being free from deception. Many people feel like they are telling the truth when in reality they are deceived or their perception of truth has been skewed somehow. For example, a person shares what he/she feels to be the truth without having all the necessary facts and the version of the truth that he/she has is actually the opposite of reality. Therefore, the first aspect of being honest involves being slow to speak and not jumping to conclusions. Do not spout off at the mouth until you have all the facts. How many times do we as adults jump to conclusions before we have all the facts? Did you know that was an aspect of being honest? This involves our credibility. Being too quick to jump to conclusions destroys our credibility and makes people dismiss our opinions as unreliable. If people cannot trust what you say, you might as well be lying. Also, be careful of the things that form the basis of your opinions. Believing false information can harm your credibility as well. Before you discuss a matter, get the facts. Some of the best advice on this comes from the Bible. James 1: 19 says for us to be "quick to hear, slow to speak, and slow to anger." Most of the time we get that completely backwards. We are slow to hear, quick to speak, and quick to anger.
Keep Your Word
The next aspect of honest I want to discuss deals with being people that keep their word. Again, this is an aspect of honesty that many people do not consider. This also involves being slow to speak. Do not threaten or promise anything that you know you cannot carry out. This is especially true when dealing with children. Do not let it come out of your mouth unless it carries the full force of your will to back it up and you will do everything in your power to make it happen even if it costs you. Credibility has as much to do with honesty as telling the truth. When a person does not keep his/her word, that destroys credibility. People will not believe what you say just as if you were telling the biggest lie on the planet. Your intentions do not factor into this equation. Your actions will define your honesty.
Telling the Truth
Now we come to the aspect of honesty that everyone knows - telling the truth. However, again we hit on being slow to speak. Many times when we tell a little white lie, it's because we have opened our mouth too quickly in a situation where we should have kept the truth to ourselves. It is not necessary to blurt out every single thought that comes into your head. That is not being honest. Most of the time that is being hurtful. There is an old saying that fits this perfectly - "If you can't say anything nice, don't say anything at all." We as Americans tend to value our own opinions far too highly and feel everyone should be entitled to how we feel. Many times what we push off as honesty, falls better into the category of manipulation and jealousy. Think before you speak and honesty will become a part of who you are as long as you value being honest. Some people do not value honesty and will lie to your face without even thinking twice about it.
Are Children Naturally Honest?
Before we discuss how to instill honesty in children, I want to touch on a false perception in our society. Many early childhood experts will say that children are naturally honest. Are they really? I have had 3 and 4 year olds lie to my face without batting an eye. I have touched on this before, but most early childhood experts refute original sin. They do not believe that we as humans are born with a sin nature. They believe that children have to be taught to do wrong. Those of us who believe in original sin understand that children have to be taught to do right. Doing wrong comes naturally to us all. Some children do have a tendency to be more honest than others, but every child will at least attempt to lie to your face when backed into a corner. Some children just lie better than others.
Model Honesty
As I said in the first paragraph, this particular character trait has to be modeled for children to learn. Children will follow the model of honesty that you set for them. If they see you as a person that cannot be trusted, they will not place much stock in honesty. If they see you constantly telling little white lies, they will think that is normal. Remember, honesty has to be taught. It does not come naturally. For very young children sometimes we have to help them differentiate between pretending and lying. At my childcare we have this discussion regularly. When you are pretending, you are playing and everyone understands it is not real. Lying is when you are trying to make people believe something that is not true. I often give the example for little boys about washing their hands after they go potty. If you do not wash your hands, and then when I ask you if you washed your hands and you say yes, that is lying. Little boys are notorious for this one, and it hits home. Remember to always try to find examples in which the children can relate.
Do Not Be Gullible
Lastly, expect honesty from yourself and the children, but do not be gullible. It is perfectly okay to check into a child's story to verify. When his/her story checks out, it gives the child a sense of justification. If the child's story does not check out, that child needed to be caught redhanded. Getting away with lying bolsters lying in children. Some people feel that constantly verifying children's stories undermines that child's self-esteem. Again, they have it backward. A child must understand that credibility is earned not just given, and once lost, it takes a long time to earn it back.
I hope you have enjoyed this post. Goodbye and God bless!! Check out Natalie's children's books at: https://www.amazon.com/author/nataliewade7457
Saturday, September 14, 2013
An Introduction to Individualized Instruction
This post will deal with what is quickly becoming the latest "craze" in early childhood circles. To those people I say, "Where have you been?" I am a former homeschooler, and individualized instruction or one-on-one instruction, as it is also called, makes up the heart of what I do every single day. I will discuss the reasonings behind this philosophy of instruction and also give you a glimpse of what it looks like in an early childhood setting.
The Superior Quality of Individualized Instruction
The main thrust of the homeschooling movement from its inception has been the superior quality of individualized instruction. Instead of being in a classroom where a teacher has to cater his/her instruction to the group, in a homeschooling setting the teacher tailors the instruction to the child. With all that we now know about learning styles and differences in the way children learn, it makes perfect sense why this method of instruction really does provide superior results. When children have material presented to them in their own learning style(s), they learn much more. Also, in the individualized instruction world, a child does not move on to another topic before they conquer the previous one. The child is allowed to proceed down a logical path to acquiring knowledge rather than a hodgepodge of material. For those of you who have never homeschooled, been homeschooled, or attended a private school, you probably have no idea what that truly looks like. Most American public schools have not proceeded down logical paths to instruction in the last 75 years or so. I am not saying every homeschooling or private school situation proceeds down logical paths, but I am saying that when this situation occurs it happens 95% of the time in homeschool or private school settings. I know that the education my children received was so far superior to the education I received it was astonishing. My daughter is also now learning that the education she received is far superior to the ones her children are receiving now in public school. She spends every evening now trying to make up the difference and fill in the holes. It blows her mind how hodgepodge her children's education is compared to the one she received. The reasons for this will be the topic of a future post.
What Is All The Fuss?
Why all the sudden interest in individualized instruction? There has been much discussion in the last couple of years about the huge difference in maturity among children who are biologically the same age. Many current kindergarten teachers are finding it increasingly difficult to cover the broad range of maturity levels that arrive on their doorstep. I have already written a post about the upsurge of immaturity in the children who are presently arriving in childcare for the first time. The early childhood community has seen this coming for the last couple of years. Many facilities are simply not equipped to handle such a wide range of maturity levels. In a class of 4 year olds in a typical early childhood classroom in today's world, you can have children who are not even pottytrained yet to children who are nearly ready to read. Some of this is caused by an upsurge of true developmental delays that we have been seeing for the last 5 to 10 years. A great deal of this is simply immaturity caused by parenting styles presently embraced by our society. Facilities that are divided by age are finding themselves in the same situations as multi-age facilities such as family child care. What worked even 5 years ago does not apply anymore. However, to divide children by ability rather than age opens up a whole other can of worms. Therefore, many teachers are beginning to look to the homeschooling movement and the model of the one-room schoolhouse for answers to our current dilemma.
The One-Room Schoolhouse Model
In my facility I draw heavily from the model of the old one-room schoolhouses. Those teachers faced the same problems we are seeing today. Many times in those days, children's education was interrupted by harvesting, sickness, or having to go to work to help support their family. Therefore, those teachers would just simply pick up a child's education where it left off and keep going for as long as they could attend until something else came along to interrupt the instruction. This was frustrating to say the least, but they had a model that worked well. They had the instruction broken down to where it was line upon line and precept upon precept. A child did not proceed to the next level until they conquered the present level, even if they were half grown. Also, because these classrooms were small and were multi-age another dynamic came into play. The teacher rotated between groups all day long doing direct instruction, and sent the other groups to do independent work. While the teacher taught the older ones, the younger ones were getting exposure to more complex concepts. While the teacher taught the younger ones, the older ones were getting review in simpler concepts. As a homeschooling mom, I cannot communicate to you the value of this dynamic unless you have witnessed it for yourself. This review and exposure makes everything easier at all levels. It doubles or triples the amount of instruction that occurs in the same time frame as a teacher that simply caters to one level of instruction. However, it requires a level on control in the classroom that cannot be achieved by many of the modern models of discipline and instruction. That is why I may seem extremely old-fashioned in my methods and ideas.
How Do I Do It?
How do I accomplish an old-fashioned one room schoolhouse with today's children? First of all, I am strict. I expect these children to follow the rules at least 75% of the time (they are still children). If a child refuses to follow the rules after having been given a couple of months to settle into our routines, I will terminate that child. We have to remember that we are private businesses. We are not equipped to handle many of the emotionally dysfunctional children in our society, but public preschools do have those resources. Never feel bad about sending children to places where more resources are available to them. We cannot single-handedly save the world. Secondly, I do all individualized instruction during our center times. I will have the children choose centers, and they must stay in that center for the duration of that center time, which ranges from 20 to 30 minutes. I do not allow roaming. You have no idea how much chaos that removes until you have witnessed a facility with this rule in place. While the children are playing, I will call them one by one to come for their "school." The time for each child's instruction varies. For those who are just starting, the instruction time usually last about 5 minutes per day. For those who have reached the four-year old kindergarten level, the instruction lasts about 20-30 minutes per day. That does not sound like much, but when you consistently work with a child one-on-one every single day for even 5 minutes it makes a HUGE difference in just 6 months. Many of the children that come to me as one year olds reach kindergarten reading simple words and sentences. I will do this "round-robin" style of teaching all day long during each center time until everyone is finished. I will say that this preschool model works best in smaller settings. For me, it worked very well for 7 children, but was much more difficult for 12-15 children. However, for those larger facilities that would like to adopt this model, an adaptation to your distribution of staff might make this work. If I had had decent staff at 12-15, it might have worked well.
This has been an introduction to this topic, but much more needs to be said. For the next several Saturday posts, I will be covering various aspects of how I accomplish the one-on-one instruction in my facility.
I hope you have enjoyed this post. Goodbye and God bless!! Check out Natalie's children's books at: https://www.amazon.com/author/nataliewade7457
The Superior Quality of Individualized Instruction
The main thrust of the homeschooling movement from its inception has been the superior quality of individualized instruction. Instead of being in a classroom where a teacher has to cater his/her instruction to the group, in a homeschooling setting the teacher tailors the instruction to the child. With all that we now know about learning styles and differences in the way children learn, it makes perfect sense why this method of instruction really does provide superior results. When children have material presented to them in their own learning style(s), they learn much more. Also, in the individualized instruction world, a child does not move on to another topic before they conquer the previous one. The child is allowed to proceed down a logical path to acquiring knowledge rather than a hodgepodge of material. For those of you who have never homeschooled, been homeschooled, or attended a private school, you probably have no idea what that truly looks like. Most American public schools have not proceeded down logical paths to instruction in the last 75 years or so. I am not saying every homeschooling or private school situation proceeds down logical paths, but I am saying that when this situation occurs it happens 95% of the time in homeschool or private school settings. I know that the education my children received was so far superior to the education I received it was astonishing. My daughter is also now learning that the education she received is far superior to the ones her children are receiving now in public school. She spends every evening now trying to make up the difference and fill in the holes. It blows her mind how hodgepodge her children's education is compared to the one she received. The reasons for this will be the topic of a future post.
What Is All The Fuss?
Why all the sudden interest in individualized instruction? There has been much discussion in the last couple of years about the huge difference in maturity among children who are biologically the same age. Many current kindergarten teachers are finding it increasingly difficult to cover the broad range of maturity levels that arrive on their doorstep. I have already written a post about the upsurge of immaturity in the children who are presently arriving in childcare for the first time. The early childhood community has seen this coming for the last couple of years. Many facilities are simply not equipped to handle such a wide range of maturity levels. In a class of 4 year olds in a typical early childhood classroom in today's world, you can have children who are not even pottytrained yet to children who are nearly ready to read. Some of this is caused by an upsurge of true developmental delays that we have been seeing for the last 5 to 10 years. A great deal of this is simply immaturity caused by parenting styles presently embraced by our society. Facilities that are divided by age are finding themselves in the same situations as multi-age facilities such as family child care. What worked even 5 years ago does not apply anymore. However, to divide children by ability rather than age opens up a whole other can of worms. Therefore, many teachers are beginning to look to the homeschooling movement and the model of the one-room schoolhouse for answers to our current dilemma.
The One-Room Schoolhouse Model
In my facility I draw heavily from the model of the old one-room schoolhouses. Those teachers faced the same problems we are seeing today. Many times in those days, children's education was interrupted by harvesting, sickness, or having to go to work to help support their family. Therefore, those teachers would just simply pick up a child's education where it left off and keep going for as long as they could attend until something else came along to interrupt the instruction. This was frustrating to say the least, but they had a model that worked well. They had the instruction broken down to where it was line upon line and precept upon precept. A child did not proceed to the next level until they conquered the present level, even if they were half grown. Also, because these classrooms were small and were multi-age another dynamic came into play. The teacher rotated between groups all day long doing direct instruction, and sent the other groups to do independent work. While the teacher taught the older ones, the younger ones were getting exposure to more complex concepts. While the teacher taught the younger ones, the older ones were getting review in simpler concepts. As a homeschooling mom, I cannot communicate to you the value of this dynamic unless you have witnessed it for yourself. This review and exposure makes everything easier at all levels. It doubles or triples the amount of instruction that occurs in the same time frame as a teacher that simply caters to one level of instruction. However, it requires a level on control in the classroom that cannot be achieved by many of the modern models of discipline and instruction. That is why I may seem extremely old-fashioned in my methods and ideas.
How Do I Do It?
How do I accomplish an old-fashioned one room schoolhouse with today's children? First of all, I am strict. I expect these children to follow the rules at least 75% of the time (they are still children). If a child refuses to follow the rules after having been given a couple of months to settle into our routines, I will terminate that child. We have to remember that we are private businesses. We are not equipped to handle many of the emotionally dysfunctional children in our society, but public preschools do have those resources. Never feel bad about sending children to places where more resources are available to them. We cannot single-handedly save the world. Secondly, I do all individualized instruction during our center times. I will have the children choose centers, and they must stay in that center for the duration of that center time, which ranges from 20 to 30 minutes. I do not allow roaming. You have no idea how much chaos that removes until you have witnessed a facility with this rule in place. While the children are playing, I will call them one by one to come for their "school." The time for each child's instruction varies. For those who are just starting, the instruction time usually last about 5 minutes per day. For those who have reached the four-year old kindergarten level, the instruction lasts about 20-30 minutes per day. That does not sound like much, but when you consistently work with a child one-on-one every single day for even 5 minutes it makes a HUGE difference in just 6 months. Many of the children that come to me as one year olds reach kindergarten reading simple words and sentences. I will do this "round-robin" style of teaching all day long during each center time until everyone is finished. I will say that this preschool model works best in smaller settings. For me, it worked very well for 7 children, but was much more difficult for 12-15 children. However, for those larger facilities that would like to adopt this model, an adaptation to your distribution of staff might make this work. If I had had decent staff at 12-15, it might have worked well.
This has been an introduction to this topic, but much more needs to be said. For the next several Saturday posts, I will be covering various aspects of how I accomplish the one-on-one instruction in my facility.
I hope you have enjoyed this post. Goodbye and God bless!! Check out Natalie's children's books at: https://www.amazon.com/author/nataliewade7457
Tuesday, September 10, 2013
Teaching Children to Be Diligent
This post will deal with how to train children to be diligent workers. Like so many other positive character traits, diligence is not a trait that many adults have much less children. Americans especially have the tendency to give up if an endeavor does not create instant success. However, one of my favorite proverbs from the Bible comes from Proverbs 12:27b, "The precious possession of a soul is diligence." The Bible does not just call diligence "good." It calls it "precious," and therefore something of extreme worth to us as individuals.
The Definition of Diligence
What exactly is diligence? Webster defines diligent as steady, earnest, and energetic effort. The steadiness comes from being able to keep after a task in the face of opposition. Earnestness involves actually trying to do your best even when it may not be completely required. Energetic is giving it your all at everything that you do. The old phrase "anything worth doing is worth doing well" fits this perfectly. The new phrase "git 'r done" also falls into the realm of diligence. I define diligence as staying after the work set before you with all your might and effort until the job is done or God changes the task.
Adults First
Before I move on to the children, I want to take a moment and get real with the adults. If we as adults were to be completely honest with ourselves and others, we would readily admit that our tendency toward laziness can be extremely strong. It can be the easiest thing in the world to simply do what is required of you and no more. Diligence tends to be one of those areas where you must work at it for a lifetime. It does not come naturally to anyone. We as adults must make a conscience effort every single day of our lives to remain diligent to the task God has set before us. Also, we cannot expect the children to be diligent if we are not. We as adults must model this well if we expect the children to pick up on it at all. Our present society does not help with this situation, either. Typical Americans only do what is required of them in order to keep themselves from being fired. It is the rare person that goes above and beyond even though countless studies have shown that these people are the ones that enjoy more success. If you do not believe me, become an employer. Better yet, become the employer of people under the age of 25. I have been told to my face by an employee under the age of 25 that they should be paid minimum wage for walking through the door every day. If I wanted them to do more, I would have to pay them more. Needless to say, that particular employee joined the ranks of the unemployed very quickly. However, as an age group, the below 25 crowd give new meaning to doing the bare minimum. We failed miserably as a society to teach the generation that is now between the ages of 12-25 what it means to be a diligent worker. The generation that is 25-40 did not learn that lesson too well, either. My generation was taught that lesson and ignored it until we had to start funding the lifestyle of the former two generations. Now we have to have diligence just to keep our heads above water. In case you are wondering, I fall into the generation that is 40-65 and has to have 3 jobs just to keep all the bills paid. We must do better with the next generation coming up because I refuse to have to work 3 jobs until I am 80 years old just so all previous generations can sit on their laurels and play video games. I am not saying that every member of each age group falls into this categorization, but you have to admit that as a whole that is a pretty good assessment of our present situation. We must as individuals judge our own selves. Do we truly live the motto "anything worth doing is worth doing well?" Are we the ones doing all we can to survive or is there someone else in our lives doing that for us? Please be adults who carry their own weight in this world. I am now off my soapbox.
Make A Difference
Since as a society we have failed miserably in the teaching of diligence, what can those of us that want to make a difference do? My favorite quote from J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings series comes from a conversation that occurs between Gandalf and Frodo. "Even the smallest person can change the course of history." If you can train the children sent to you to be diligent, you might just be raising the one that does alter the course of history. Where do we begin? We begin by ignoring hissy fits. I have already written one post about hissy fits, but I will have to address it again here. Expecting diligence from today's children will beget major hissy fits. Let them scream and wail and cry, but do not just do it for them if they are fully capable of doing it themselves. This applies to preschoolers through 25 year olds. I know that the early childhood climate does not lend itself to this philosophy, but if ever there was a philosophy that was meant to be ignored, it is the one that says you must cater to children and not tell them "no." I beg you to tell these children "no," "stop," and "don't" and make them do what they are capable of doing themselves.
Hold Back Before Intervening
The next step in this process involves being very slow to step in and do things for children. We have to let them flounder a little if we want them to figure things out on their own. If we as adults constantly step in at the first sign of trouble, the children will never learn how to problem solve, which is a byproduct of diligence. I read an article recently about embracing failure. Parts of the article made me cringe, but the aspect of teaching children to use failure as a springboard rather than a stopping point is right on target. Being able to use failures in a positive light separates the diligent from the rest of us. We must teach children to get back on the horse and stay after their goals if we want them to become successful adults.
Expect Diligence
The last aspect of teaching diligence revolves around expectations. I have said over and over in many of my posts that we get little because we expect little. Children are capable of so much more than many people give them credit. They just need someone to communicate to them that first of all they are capable of doing whatever they set their minds to do within reason. Then we communicate that we fully expect them to make every effort to bring it to pass. We as Americans are really good at the first part, but fail miserably at the second part. We have become so afraid of being overbearing that we do not expect anything from children. However, I communicate to the children in my care my expectations every single day, and it makes them flourish not wither. You need to provide children goals in which they can strive, or they will not strive for anything.
I hope you have enjoyed this post. Goodbye and God bless!! Check out Natalie's children's books at: https://www.amazon.com/author/nataliewade7457
The Definition of Diligence
What exactly is diligence? Webster defines diligent as steady, earnest, and energetic effort. The steadiness comes from being able to keep after a task in the face of opposition. Earnestness involves actually trying to do your best even when it may not be completely required. Energetic is giving it your all at everything that you do. The old phrase "anything worth doing is worth doing well" fits this perfectly. The new phrase "git 'r done" also falls into the realm of diligence. I define diligence as staying after the work set before you with all your might and effort until the job is done or God changes the task.
Adults First
Before I move on to the children, I want to take a moment and get real with the adults. If we as adults were to be completely honest with ourselves and others, we would readily admit that our tendency toward laziness can be extremely strong. It can be the easiest thing in the world to simply do what is required of you and no more. Diligence tends to be one of those areas where you must work at it for a lifetime. It does not come naturally to anyone. We as adults must make a conscience effort every single day of our lives to remain diligent to the task God has set before us. Also, we cannot expect the children to be diligent if we are not. We as adults must model this well if we expect the children to pick up on it at all. Our present society does not help with this situation, either. Typical Americans only do what is required of them in order to keep themselves from being fired. It is the rare person that goes above and beyond even though countless studies have shown that these people are the ones that enjoy more success. If you do not believe me, become an employer. Better yet, become the employer of people under the age of 25. I have been told to my face by an employee under the age of 25 that they should be paid minimum wage for walking through the door every day. If I wanted them to do more, I would have to pay them more. Needless to say, that particular employee joined the ranks of the unemployed very quickly. However, as an age group, the below 25 crowd give new meaning to doing the bare minimum. We failed miserably as a society to teach the generation that is now between the ages of 12-25 what it means to be a diligent worker. The generation that is 25-40 did not learn that lesson too well, either. My generation was taught that lesson and ignored it until we had to start funding the lifestyle of the former two generations. Now we have to have diligence just to keep our heads above water. In case you are wondering, I fall into the generation that is 40-65 and has to have 3 jobs just to keep all the bills paid. We must do better with the next generation coming up because I refuse to have to work 3 jobs until I am 80 years old just so all previous generations can sit on their laurels and play video games. I am not saying that every member of each age group falls into this categorization, but you have to admit that as a whole that is a pretty good assessment of our present situation. We must as individuals judge our own selves. Do we truly live the motto "anything worth doing is worth doing well?" Are we the ones doing all we can to survive or is there someone else in our lives doing that for us? Please be adults who carry their own weight in this world. I am now off my soapbox.
Make A Difference
Since as a society we have failed miserably in the teaching of diligence, what can those of us that want to make a difference do? My favorite quote from J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings series comes from a conversation that occurs between Gandalf and Frodo. "Even the smallest person can change the course of history." If you can train the children sent to you to be diligent, you might just be raising the one that does alter the course of history. Where do we begin? We begin by ignoring hissy fits. I have already written one post about hissy fits, but I will have to address it again here. Expecting diligence from today's children will beget major hissy fits. Let them scream and wail and cry, but do not just do it for them if they are fully capable of doing it themselves. This applies to preschoolers through 25 year olds. I know that the early childhood climate does not lend itself to this philosophy, but if ever there was a philosophy that was meant to be ignored, it is the one that says you must cater to children and not tell them "no." I beg you to tell these children "no," "stop," and "don't" and make them do what they are capable of doing themselves.
Hold Back Before Intervening
The next step in this process involves being very slow to step in and do things for children. We have to let them flounder a little if we want them to figure things out on their own. If we as adults constantly step in at the first sign of trouble, the children will never learn how to problem solve, which is a byproduct of diligence. I read an article recently about embracing failure. Parts of the article made me cringe, but the aspect of teaching children to use failure as a springboard rather than a stopping point is right on target. Being able to use failures in a positive light separates the diligent from the rest of us. We must teach children to get back on the horse and stay after their goals if we want them to become successful adults.
Expect Diligence
The last aspect of teaching diligence revolves around expectations. I have said over and over in many of my posts that we get little because we expect little. Children are capable of so much more than many people give them credit. They just need someone to communicate to them that first of all they are capable of doing whatever they set their minds to do within reason. Then we communicate that we fully expect them to make every effort to bring it to pass. We as Americans are really good at the first part, but fail miserably at the second part. We have become so afraid of being overbearing that we do not expect anything from children. However, I communicate to the children in my care my expectations every single day, and it makes them flourish not wither. You need to provide children goals in which they can strive, or they will not strive for anything.
I hope you have enjoyed this post. Goodbye and God bless!! Check out Natalie's children's books at: https://www.amazon.com/author/nataliewade7457
Saturday, September 7, 2013
Direct Instruction vs. Learning through Play
This post will deal with the pros and cons of both direct instruction and learning through play. This will not be an either/or discussion. Both styles of teaching work well with preschool children. This post will focus on the areas where each type of teaching style makes the most sense.
Learning through Play
I want to start this discussion with learning through play. The proponents of this style of teaching would have you believe that learning through play is the only way children learn. That is preposterous. Actually there are twenty different learning styles with each individual child being a unique combination of any of the twenty. Direct instruction and learning through play make up a rough categorization of the twenty different learning styles with each style falling in either category. The ones that fall in the learning through play category all deal with exploration and hands-on type learning. Roughly half the population has learning styles that fall dominantly in this category. However, even the children whose dominant learning style falls into the learning through play category may still learn certain skills through direct instruction. The same holds true for the other half of the population that falls dominantly in the direct instruction category. They will learn certain skills through the learning styles that fall into the learning through play category. Even with individual children this does not divide into an either/or situation.
Direct Instruction
Since learning through play dominates the discussion of how to teach children, I want to take a moment to familiarize you with the category of learning styles called direct instruction. These learning styles deal with adult-initiated lessons rather than child-initiated lessons. One-on-one instruction would fall into this category along with most of what constitutes circle times in American child care facilities. These learning styles are just as relevant as the learning through play learning styles. If you do not take anything else from this discussion, please understand that learning through play is not the only way to teach children.
Adult-Initiated Activities
A better division of when to use what type of instruction would actually be to determine what type of activity is being taught. Activities that teach skills that must be learned in a certain way such as letter recognition, number recognition, color recognition, etc. work better with the more direct instruction approaches. Just because an activity falls into the adult-initiated category does not mean that games cannot be used to accomplish your purpose. Learning through play is always child-centered. Much of what many people consider learning through play would actually be more direct instruction. For example, a teacher using a game to teach colors that has specific rules and is supervised by the adult entirely would actually be a type of direct instruction. The determining factor involves who is in charge. Is the adult leading the activity or is the adult simply following the children's lead? When dealing with information that has to be learned in a certain way, direct instruction usually constitutes the better choice.
Child-Directed Activities
When is learning through play more appropriate? Activities that deal with creativity and discovery function better using the learning through play format. These types of activities should be child-centered. The purpose is not to teach certain information but to help a child tap into their creative side. An activity that is meant for the child to discover on their own also falls into this category. I have seen many activities that were meant to be creative and/or use discovery that actually were not even remotely child-centered. The adults told the children what to do every step of the way. That is not child-centered. A child-centered activity gives a starting place for the children and then lets the activity follow the children's lead. Let me give you a good example. I do creative writing lessons with the children in my preschool. One of the lessons involves making up a story from a picture. I never suggest what the story should be about because I want to know what the children see in the picture. It is never what I would have chosen. Once they choose what they want to write about, I simply act as scribe. I write down their story. That is a truly child-centered activity.
Which One Do You Use?
Let me sum all this up. Direct instruction constitutes the more appropriate choice when material that needs to be learned in a certain way is involved. Child-centered instruction does not work very well when you are trying to teach something very specific. I also encourage you to make no bones about it. Teach the children directly when the occasion calls for it and do not let the learning through play people intimidate you. If they try, just simply inform them that learning through play is one of twenty different learning styles and this activity calls for direct instruction. I am tired of being told that children only learn through play. When an activity needs for the child to be creative, then start the activity and get out of the child's way. Do not try to micromanage an activity that needs to be child-centered. Above all, use your good common sense. If one type of instruction does not seem to be working with your particular group of children, then try another. Remember, there are a thousand ways to climb the mountain. It is your responsibility to find the way up the mountain for your particular group of children.
I hope you have enjoyed this post. Goodbye and God bless!! Check out Natalie's children's books at: https://www.amazon.com/author/nataliewade7457
Learning through Play
I want to start this discussion with learning through play. The proponents of this style of teaching would have you believe that learning through play is the only way children learn. That is preposterous. Actually there are twenty different learning styles with each individual child being a unique combination of any of the twenty. Direct instruction and learning through play make up a rough categorization of the twenty different learning styles with each style falling in either category. The ones that fall in the learning through play category all deal with exploration and hands-on type learning. Roughly half the population has learning styles that fall dominantly in this category. However, even the children whose dominant learning style falls into the learning through play category may still learn certain skills through direct instruction. The same holds true for the other half of the population that falls dominantly in the direct instruction category. They will learn certain skills through the learning styles that fall into the learning through play category. Even with individual children this does not divide into an either/or situation.
Direct Instruction
Since learning through play dominates the discussion of how to teach children, I want to take a moment to familiarize you with the category of learning styles called direct instruction. These learning styles deal with adult-initiated lessons rather than child-initiated lessons. One-on-one instruction would fall into this category along with most of what constitutes circle times in American child care facilities. These learning styles are just as relevant as the learning through play learning styles. If you do not take anything else from this discussion, please understand that learning through play is not the only way to teach children.
Adult-Initiated Activities
A better division of when to use what type of instruction would actually be to determine what type of activity is being taught. Activities that teach skills that must be learned in a certain way such as letter recognition, number recognition, color recognition, etc. work better with the more direct instruction approaches. Just because an activity falls into the adult-initiated category does not mean that games cannot be used to accomplish your purpose. Learning through play is always child-centered. Much of what many people consider learning through play would actually be more direct instruction. For example, a teacher using a game to teach colors that has specific rules and is supervised by the adult entirely would actually be a type of direct instruction. The determining factor involves who is in charge. Is the adult leading the activity or is the adult simply following the children's lead? When dealing with information that has to be learned in a certain way, direct instruction usually constitutes the better choice.
Child-Directed Activities
When is learning through play more appropriate? Activities that deal with creativity and discovery function better using the learning through play format. These types of activities should be child-centered. The purpose is not to teach certain information but to help a child tap into their creative side. An activity that is meant for the child to discover on their own also falls into this category. I have seen many activities that were meant to be creative and/or use discovery that actually were not even remotely child-centered. The adults told the children what to do every step of the way. That is not child-centered. A child-centered activity gives a starting place for the children and then lets the activity follow the children's lead. Let me give you a good example. I do creative writing lessons with the children in my preschool. One of the lessons involves making up a story from a picture. I never suggest what the story should be about because I want to know what the children see in the picture. It is never what I would have chosen. Once they choose what they want to write about, I simply act as scribe. I write down their story. That is a truly child-centered activity.
Which One Do You Use?
Let me sum all this up. Direct instruction constitutes the more appropriate choice when material that needs to be learned in a certain way is involved. Child-centered instruction does not work very well when you are trying to teach something very specific. I also encourage you to make no bones about it. Teach the children directly when the occasion calls for it and do not let the learning through play people intimidate you. If they try, just simply inform them that learning through play is one of twenty different learning styles and this activity calls for direct instruction. I am tired of being told that children only learn through play. When an activity needs for the child to be creative, then start the activity and get out of the child's way. Do not try to micromanage an activity that needs to be child-centered. Above all, use your good common sense. If one type of instruction does not seem to be working with your particular group of children, then try another. Remember, there are a thousand ways to climb the mountain. It is your responsibility to find the way up the mountain for your particular group of children.
I hope you have enjoyed this post. Goodbye and God bless!! Check out Natalie's children's books at: https://www.amazon.com/author/nataliewade7457
Tuesday, September 3, 2013
Teaching Children the Art of Patience
This post will deal with the very difficult proposition of teaching children patience. Many, many adults do not have this skill especially in our instant gratification culture. However, people and children who possess this skill have been shown to be happier, healthier, and more successful than those that do not. Therefore, even though you will be fighting a major uphill battle, helping children to acquire even the least little bit of patience will be very worthwhile in the long run.
What Is Patience?
Before I proceed, I want to define patience. Patience deals with the ability to postpone gratification without becoming fretful. It is so much more than the ability to wait, but it does involve that as well. Patience goes with the flow with the knowledge that something better will be obtained in the long run. It involves the ability to move from one step to the next in a process without losing sight of the goal ahead. As in the parable of the tortoise and the hare, patience is the slow and steady movement toward a goal without wavering.
Adults First
As I stated before, many, many, many adults do not possess this skill, and it is a skill. That means it can be developed. Even though some people are born with a greater tendency for this skill (just like all other skills), these people still have to work to develop this in their lives to truly see the fruit of it. Therefore, before I move on to developing this skill in children, I want to talk to the adults. If you do not have this skill in abundance, you will never be able to help children develop it. Teaching children the art of patience requires a great deal of patience on the part of the instructor. Maybe that is why this skill can be so rare. Many people joke about never "praying for patience" because that will be like asking for trials and tribulations. However, I have news for you. Trials and tribulations come whether or not you pray for patience. Patience is one of the greatest skills you will ever acquire and will serve you better than many, many other life skills we Americans spend so much time to develop (multi-tasking for one). As I describe the process of instilling patience in children, make a conscience decision to work on these things in your own life first and foremost. When you do, teaching patience to children will be an outflow of your own character.
Slow and Steady
One would think that teaching children to wait would be the first step in this process, but it actually is not. Remember waiting only encompasses part of the definition of patience. The slow and steady pace of working toward goals is equally if not more important than the actual waiting. Therefore, the first order of business is to make your childcare schedule as slow and steady as possible. In our chaotic world, that can be a tall order. However, when children are used to steadily working through the schedule of the day instead of a mad rush for everything, it instills in them that rhythm that is so essential in learning to move from point A to point B taking care of all points in between. Many people never accomplish their goals because they cannot move along the process in a steady manner. When your day proceeds along an expected path with certain items that must be done in a certain order, you teach children how to patiently work toward a goal.
Waiting without Pouting and Fretting
The next step is teaching children to wait without pouting or fretting. The kicker in that statement involves no pouting and fretting. Many children have to wait for things, but they do so in such a way that they make everyone around them completely miserable. That is not patience. One of my favorite word pictures from the Bible is found in Psalms where it speaks of quieting one's soul as a child that is weaned. This is the most perfect picture of patience I have ever found. A child that has been completely weaned from bottle or breast no longer frets or cries for it. They are quiet and content. When we must wait for something, we need to be quiet and content in the waiting happily occupying ourselves until the desired outcome arrives. With children, this lesson is simple. When they must wait, we teach them to occupy themselves and not pester. As they gain more experience with this, they will gain a maturity modern families do not think is possible.
A True Story
Before I leave this subject, I want to give you an example of how much patience a child is capable of achieving. When I was a child of eight, I actually tamed a wild kitten. This process required me to do the same thing over and over for several weeks. It also required me to be extremely quiet and still, slow and methodical. That experience taught me more patience than nearly any other experience I have had in my life, and because I was successful, I developed a great deal of patience at an early age. The key to this success involved my great desire to have that calico kitten and the fact that my mother made me entertain myself for most of my childhood. We do children a huge disservice by constantly entertaining them. Learning to entertain themselves is a vital part of learning patience.
I hope you have enjoyed this post. Goodbye and God bless!! Check out Natalie's children's books at: https://www.amazon.com/author/nataliewade7457
What Is Patience?
Before I proceed, I want to define patience. Patience deals with the ability to postpone gratification without becoming fretful. It is so much more than the ability to wait, but it does involve that as well. Patience goes with the flow with the knowledge that something better will be obtained in the long run. It involves the ability to move from one step to the next in a process without losing sight of the goal ahead. As in the parable of the tortoise and the hare, patience is the slow and steady movement toward a goal without wavering.
Adults First
As I stated before, many, many, many adults do not possess this skill, and it is a skill. That means it can be developed. Even though some people are born with a greater tendency for this skill (just like all other skills), these people still have to work to develop this in their lives to truly see the fruit of it. Therefore, before I move on to developing this skill in children, I want to talk to the adults. If you do not have this skill in abundance, you will never be able to help children develop it. Teaching children the art of patience requires a great deal of patience on the part of the instructor. Maybe that is why this skill can be so rare. Many people joke about never "praying for patience" because that will be like asking for trials and tribulations. However, I have news for you. Trials and tribulations come whether or not you pray for patience. Patience is one of the greatest skills you will ever acquire and will serve you better than many, many other life skills we Americans spend so much time to develop (multi-tasking for one). As I describe the process of instilling patience in children, make a conscience decision to work on these things in your own life first and foremost. When you do, teaching patience to children will be an outflow of your own character.
Slow and Steady
One would think that teaching children to wait would be the first step in this process, but it actually is not. Remember waiting only encompasses part of the definition of patience. The slow and steady pace of working toward goals is equally if not more important than the actual waiting. Therefore, the first order of business is to make your childcare schedule as slow and steady as possible. In our chaotic world, that can be a tall order. However, when children are used to steadily working through the schedule of the day instead of a mad rush for everything, it instills in them that rhythm that is so essential in learning to move from point A to point B taking care of all points in between. Many people never accomplish their goals because they cannot move along the process in a steady manner. When your day proceeds along an expected path with certain items that must be done in a certain order, you teach children how to patiently work toward a goal.
Waiting without Pouting and Fretting
The next step is teaching children to wait without pouting or fretting. The kicker in that statement involves no pouting and fretting. Many children have to wait for things, but they do so in such a way that they make everyone around them completely miserable. That is not patience. One of my favorite word pictures from the Bible is found in Psalms where it speaks of quieting one's soul as a child that is weaned. This is the most perfect picture of patience I have ever found. A child that has been completely weaned from bottle or breast no longer frets or cries for it. They are quiet and content. When we must wait for something, we need to be quiet and content in the waiting happily occupying ourselves until the desired outcome arrives. With children, this lesson is simple. When they must wait, we teach them to occupy themselves and not pester. As they gain more experience with this, they will gain a maturity modern families do not think is possible.
A True Story
Before I leave this subject, I want to give you an example of how much patience a child is capable of achieving. When I was a child of eight, I actually tamed a wild kitten. This process required me to do the same thing over and over for several weeks. It also required me to be extremely quiet and still, slow and methodical. That experience taught me more patience than nearly any other experience I have had in my life, and because I was successful, I developed a great deal of patience at an early age. The key to this success involved my great desire to have that calico kitten and the fact that my mother made me entertain myself for most of my childhood. We do children a huge disservice by constantly entertaining them. Learning to entertain themselves is a vital part of learning patience.
I hope you have enjoyed this post. Goodbye and God bless!! Check out Natalie's children's books at: https://www.amazon.com/author/nataliewade7457
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