PreschoolFirst Congratulates Melissa Huber - Owner of Wonder Years Learning Center

Check out the cover of the October 2008 issue of TYC (Teaching Young Children)! We’d like to congratulate Melissa Huber – a wonderful early childhood professional, recipient of the Child Care Provider of the Week Award presented by PBS, and a subscriber of PreschoolFirst since 2006!

Melissa Huber is a licensed family child care provider and owner of Wonder Years Learning Center in Georgetown Texas. Read the article on page 4 titled What Do I Do? I Teach! and learn more about her views, philosophy and goals as a high quality provider. When asked about one thing that helped her with her teaching, Melissa responded, “I observed that engaged children are happier, more confident, and more competent (Huber, 2008).” PreschoolFirst is proud to be a resource that Melissa looks to when she plans meaningful learning activities and observes children’s growth and development.

To see a video segment of Melissa “in action" featured on the PBS series A Place of Our Own,” you may go to http://aplaceofourown.org/caregivers.php.

Huber, M. Do I Do? I Teach! In TYC: Teaching Young Children, 2 (1): 4.

Another Approach to the Kindergarten Push

As reported in October 17, 2008 in the New York Times some parents are pushing back against the academic expectations in Kindergarten and giving their 5 and 6 year children a year of "un-schooling."

Those who have the opportunity - some call it a luxury - are making the choice to spend time "at-home" creating a child-centered enriched learning experience.

Read more about the "un-kindergartners" online at The Anti-Schoolers .

Tell us what you think...

Pre-K Reading Pressure Cooker

Because young children develop and function at such different rates and levels, early childhood programs cannot assume all 3 and 4 year old children are inters ted or ready to read & write. Unfortunately, parents feel pressure from public schools to make sure their child is "ready." But ready is a vague word and can mean very different things to trained early childhood professionals versus administrators at elementary schools who have little or no training in early childhood development. They assume basic abilities that we adults take for granted such as 20/20 vision and focus are fully developed in young children - when in fact the opposite is true.

Erroneously, the proposed fix for this dilemma is start 'em sooner with seat work and phonics drills. Instead the research by the International Reading Foundation shows that programs must be flexible and prepared to offer a variety of playful activities that individualize learning experiences to meet each child at his or her level. All good teaching "builds on what young children already know, and it recognizes that children have had very different prior experiences with books and with oral and written language (NAEYC & IRA, 2005)." Enriching these prior experiences and making the magic of stories and reading come alive is the best way to inspire children to want to become readers. Providing meaningful and open-ended opportunities for the children to feel comfortable experimenting with language, sounds, and writing as a way to express their thoughts and ideas will extend learning into a love of reading.

To help you understand how infants and children actually develop into readers, we've included the information below published by in 2005 by the NAEYC & IRA to present a joint position on this hot topic (NAEYC & IRA, 2005).

"From Infancy through Third Grade: Phases in Children’s Development of Reading and Writing

Phase 1: Awareness and exploration (infancy through preschool)

Phase 2: Experimental reading and writing (kindergarten)

Phase 3: Early reading and writing (grade 1)

Phase 4: Transitional reading and writing (grade 2)

Phase 5: Independent and productive reading and writing (grade 3)"

In the preschool and Pre-K years it is only reasonable to expect that children function at Phase 1 in which they explore freely with the world of printed words and stories with adult guidance. All children can do this at his or her own developmental level. A few older 4 year old children might be ready to function at Phase 2 which often begins a more systematic approach to reading & writing. Rarely will a young child function at Phase 3, and none should be expected to function at Phase 4 or 5. Sooner is not always better or "smarter," sooner is sometimes just a result of pressure cooker expectations.

Resources for further reading:

NAEYC and IRA. 2005. Where We Stand on Learning to Read and Write. Washington, DC: NAEYC. (Available online at
http://www.naeyc.org/about/positions/pdf/WWSSLearningToReadAndWriteEnglish.pdf)

Neuman, S.B., C. Copple, & S. Bredekamp. 2000. Learning to read and write: Developmentally appropriate practices for young children. Washington, DC: NAEYC. (Available online at www.naeyc.org/about/positions/asp).

Mix It up!

Do the children in your center or class ever spend time in mixed age groups? Many states and programs must follow strict guidelines about how young children must be cared for in mixed age settings. When children have siblings, have neighborhood play dates or visit the park regularly they share time with younger and older children naturally. But those who have no siblings and/or spend "all day-everyday" in center-based childcare may have little or no opportunities to interact with various aged children.

Children learn and practice very different cognitive and social skills with various people. Here are just a few of the reasons research shows children need to associate with younger and older children.

• Three and four year old children will try to comfort a crying baby in a very different way from a peer.
• Three and four year old children will adapt the complexity of their language, length of sentences, and tone of voice when they speak to younger children.
• Learning to "read" non-verbal cues as a way to understand the feelings of others takes practice, this is often easier - and simpler for young children to do by watching children of various ages who may not yet have the same "filters" adults use to mask their emotions.

Please share your thoughts, any research and ways or suggestions you've found to to help "mix it up" without breaking regulations.

To read more about the great benefits of "mixing" it up see:

Katz, L. 2005. The Benefit of the Mix. Available online: www.childcareexchange.com.

Adapted from: ExchangeEveryDay. 2005. Benefits of Mixed Age Grouping. Available online: www.childcareexchange.com