Back in the Day
08-09-2018
I recently spent a happy afternoon helping my mother clear out a couple of cupboards, one of which contained many old family photographs, including this one. It’s a school photograph and I think I’m around 5 years old.
When I look at it, all at once I am swamped with memories.
Sticky Childhood
01-09-2018
I have never quite understood how it became socially acceptable to laugh openly AT children, there’s no confusion that it might be WITH, we really laugh AT them. I know it’s a truism that they do say and do the funniest things, but much of the time, they aren’t trying to be funny, much of the time they’re trying to express something that’s extremely important to them.
During a movement workshop in a lovely RC school in central Birmingham, a very keen six year old girl kept asking if she could show me her Irish dancing, and I had replied, yes, that would be lovely, but could she please wait and show me at the end of the session.
Mrs Do-As-You-Would-Be-Done-By
09-06-2018
People-watching sure can teach you a lot. On my recent break, I spent a fair amount of time observing how other guests treated the hotel staff. Some were polite, but removed, others clearly saw beyond the role to the human doing the job, and some were just downright rude. I found myself wondering if there was a parallel here with how they treated children and young people.
Teach EYFS Article - Distractions
28-04-2018
Here is the second in this series of articles based on conversations with children, and first published in Teach Early Years magazine. In each piece, I’ll focus on one prominent theme. For this one, it’s DISTRACTIONS!
My thanks to editor Jacob Stow for allowing reproduction, and if you want to know more, details of this and their other magazines and resources are available at: https://www.teachwire.net
- • What lesson would you like grown-ups to learn about how to talk to children?
- “Not to get lost in looking at their phones and then five minutes later say, ‘What?’" G (female)
Time to Remember
27-02-2018
Last week I touched upon the importance of using personal memories to enable empathetic communications with our children. I’d like to talk more here about it’s power and how we can help children develop recall skills.