The Joyful, Illiterate Kindergartners of Finland
Approaching the school’s playground that morning, I watched as an army of 5- and 6-year-old boys patrolled a zigzagging stream behind Niirala Preschool in the city of Kuopio, unfazed by the warm August drizzle. When I clumsily unhinged the steel gate to the school’s playground, the young children didn’t even lift their eyes from the ground; they just kept dragging and pushing their tiny shovels through the mud. At 9:30 a.m., the boys were called to line up for a daily activity called Morning Circle. (The girls were already inside—having chosen to play boardgames indoors.) They trudged across the yard in their rubber boots, pleading with their teachers to play longer—even though they had already been outside for an hour. “Making dams,” sang a chorus of three boys. “Nothing else?” “Nothing else,” they confirmed. “[Children] learn so well through play,” Anni-Kaisa Osei Ntiamoah, one of the preschool’s “kindergarten” teachers, who’s in her seventh year in the classroom, told me. Timothy D.
» Strollers, Baby Carriers and Infant Stress » Boba Family
by Elizabeth Antunovic (©2010 Boba Inc.) Introduction Europe seems to host the most pediatricians who recommend that, in order to avoid pressure on their underdeveloped bodies, newborns and infants lay flat on their backs in a stroller and not be carried. Yet, laying a young infant on his back alone in a stroller is actually physically and emotionally stressful and can be developmentally inhibiting. Being carried or worn in an upright position with proper leg support is not only developmentally sound but often preferable to mothers and babies alike. Upright carrying optimizes the physical, emotional and intellectual growth of your baby. Infant Spine Development Our spine is not perfectly straight, even though it may appear so from the front or back . We weren’t born with these curves. At Birth: The spine of an infant is C-shaped (a convex curve). First Several Months: As your infant works against gravity his muscles start to develop. The Stresses of Laying Flat Existence in Containers
Suzie's Home Education Ideas: 10 Ways to Support an Interest in Engineering
When our son was just sixteen months old, we brought him a little train set. With some help, our son would design and build the train route as he showed a natural curiosity in all things engineering. From the early days of playing with trains and blocks, to now building bridges (from paddle pop sticks) and wiring electrical circuits, our son's love of engineering science is evident. Now that our daughters are starting to show an interest in engineering too, I have been reflecting on how my husband and I have supported our son's learning and how we can do the same for daughters. Here are some of the ways we have supported and encouraged an interest in engineering. A Designated Work Area Every learner needs to have a work space where they can make their ideas come alive. Quality Equipment When our son was four years old, we got him a tool kit with real tools. A Journal One of the best ways to encourage engineering is to have loads of paper available to draw on. A Range of Resources Literature
New Zealand Weather Maps & Rain Radar | ONE News Now
Weather Analysis Sat Oct 03 08:15:00 NZDT 2015 The 'Isobar' or 'Synoptic' map is updated at 6am, midday and 6pm, everyday. It illustrates the weather systems currently in play around New Zealand and the East Coast of Australia at sea level. Weather Satellite
Homeschoolers can learn from Swedish preschools
There's a big push in the United States to introduce formal academics earlier and earlier for young children, and that has been spilling into the homeschooling community. While many homeschoolers of the 90's chose to homeschool because of issues like schools transitioning to full-day kindergarten and the "too much, too soon" academic pressures that were being pushed on children, many of today's new homeschoolers are mimicking modern public schools even in the preschool years and before. However, much of the world is catching on to the idea that early academics do not do children any favors, and in fact, they lead to lower academic scores and educational burnout just a few years later. Teachers TV, a group that produces educational programs to benefit teachers, highlighted Swedish preschools in their video series "How Do They Do It?" They say: Sweden's attitude to teaching one to six year olds appears incredibly relaxed. As the narrator says, What about the rest of the world? NBC says:
11 Ways Finland’s Education System Shows Us that “Less is More”. | Filling My Map
When I left my 7th grade math classroom for my Fulbright research assignment in Finland I thought I would come back from this experience with more inspiring, engaging, innovative lessons. I expected to have great new ideas on how to teach my mathematics curriculum and I would revamp my lessons so that I could include more curriculum, more math and get students to think more, talk more and do more math. This drive to do more and More and MORE is a state of existence for most teachers in the US….it is engrained in us from day one. There is a constant pressure to push our students to the next level to have them do bigger and better things. The lessons have to be more exciting, more engaging and cover more content. This phenomena is driven by data, or parents, or administrators or simply by our work-centric society where we gauge our success as a human being by how busy we are and how burnt out we feel at the end of the day. So, what is the difference? Less IS more. They believe it. 1. 2.
Fixed vs. Growth: The Two Basic Mindsets That Shape Our Lives
“If you imagine less, less will be what you undoubtedly deserve,” Debbie Millman counseled in one of the best commencement speeches ever given, urging: “Do what you love, and don’t stop until you get what you love. Work as hard as you can, imagine immensities…” Far from Pollyanna platitude, this advice actually reflects what modern psychology knows about how belief systems about our own abilities and potential fuel our behavior and predict our success. Much of that understanding stems from the work of Stanford psychologist Carol Dweck, synthesized in her remarkably insightful Mindset: The New Psychology of Success (public library) — an inquiry into the power of our beliefs, both conscious and unconscious, and how changing even the simplest of them can have profound impact on nearly every aspect of our lives. One of the most basic beliefs we carry about ourselves, Dweck found in her research, has to do with how we view and inhabit what we consider to be our personality.
How To Help Someone With Depression.
Step 1: Stop. Before you do anything, let’s take a minute and get your head right. If you don’t struggle with depression on a regular basis, or haven’t previously spent time questioning your intentions, motivation, and actions on how you interact, I can promise your head’s not right. Worse, taking action without getting your head right is usually worse than not acting at all. Seriously. But first, we’re gonna take a minute, and get you the right perspective. Here’s what depression is like. Take a few moments, and put yourself in the following shoes. You wake up one morning, and wonder if you have the flu again. But, you’re caught by finances. You skip your shower. Your 8-hour day feels like it’s closer to 18. This keeps up, day after day. Somewhere along the line, you figure out that this particular set of things is called depression, and that makes you feel like shit. You like the people around you. At some point though, on a particularly bad spell, you realize you’re stuck. I promise you.
