Featuring special guest blogger: Stefany Cunningham, B.S. (Areas of study include kinesiology, early childhood development & education, and psychology)

During this difficult and isolating time, writing letters to loved ones will foster your child’s knowledge of several literacy components, as well as foster social-emotional health among everyone involved (your children, the recipients, and you!). Right now, in the eyes of young children, the world can be a confusing place as new social restrictions are being put into place and our everyday lives are jostled. Children at this time have less power to initiate social connections with people who live outside of their homes than ever before.

Writing letters can serve as a healthy outlet for young children to remain in contact with those they are currently unable to see in person. In addition, it gives them the power to initiate a social connection that email is unable to provide (children can’t hop onto their own email accounts whenever they please, but they certainly can find a writing utensil and a piece of paper!). Your children will love to write letters to people they are missing dearly: grandparents, aunts and uncles, cousins, friends, and teachers. 

There are a couple different ways families can go about this activity depending on the age of their children and how much experience the child has with writing. 

If your child has experience and interest in writing letters and words, they may wish to write the letter themselves (with a little help from their adults, of course!). Children with writing experience may need an adult to spell out words for them or have an adult write out words on a seperate sheet of paper for them to copy down in their letter. 

Remember: Your child is learning and growing. The best way to support literacy skills at this age is to show them that reading and writing is enjoyable. Their letter forms do not have to be perfect, as it’s about the process not the product. Your children will have plenty of time to learn how to properly dot their I’s and cross their Ts as they grow older. 

If your child has not explored writing letters or words yet, they can still be heavily involved in the writing process by dictating to their adults what they want the letter to say. Or, if your child wants to “write the letter themselves” by scribbling all over the paper, this is an early attempt at writing and this is valuable too! 

Either process will help children build literacy skills in meaningful ways. Children will have the opportunity to express their thoughts and emotions in writing fostering a deep, meaningful connection with literacy (and receiving a letter in return is a bonus, meaningful literacy experience!). When children experience a meaningful connection with literacy, they are exploring the following literacy concepts:

• Knowledge of Print: When writing letters to loved ones, your children will explore the concept that verbal language can be documented and read aloud, and that print carries a message (more importantly, their message! How powerful they will feel expressing their thoughts and emotions on paper!). Additionally, children will gain a better understanding that print must follow certain arrangements. For example, English is written from left to right; starting at the top of the page and moving downward (Dodge, Colker, & Heroman, 2009). 

• Letters and Words: When your children write letters to loved ones, they are learning letter and word identification. In addition, they are also learning how we use letters and words to communicate with others. Authors Diane Trister Dodge, Laura J. Colker, and Cate Heroman (2009) explained, “Really knowing letters involves understanding that a letter is a symbol representing one or more of the sounds in the English language; that these symbols can be grouped together to form words; and that these words have meaning” (p. 129). What better way for children to explore how to use letters and words for communicating than to connect with those they care about through print?

• Literacy as a Source of Enjoyment: Motivation is a key feature in literacy development. Why do people read and write? Because we want to hear stories, gather information, or we want to communicate our own stories and information. Communicating your own thoughts and emotions, or reading the thoughts and emotions of someone you truly care for is far more motivating than copying or reading letters on a worksheet (Dodge, Colker, & Heroman, 2009). 

We hope your family enjoys this opportunity to foster a love of literacy while simultaneously enriching your family’s social-emotional health! Please subscribe to Pine Nuts: Musings on Early and Higher Learning and join Aspen Academy on social media (Facebook and Instagram) for more activity ideas!

References

Dodge, D. T., Colker, L. J., & Heroman, C. (2002). The creative curriculum for preschool (4th ed.). Teaching Strategies. 

During the world’s current public health crisis, in addition to their everyday responsibilities, families are being advised to homeschool their children. This can feel overwhelming living in a culture where parents and their children often feel pressure to participate in rigorous academics along with an insurmountable amount of extracurricular activities in order to “keep up” in our highly competitive society. 

In the book, Einstein Never Used Flashcards, authors Kathy Hirsh-Pasek, PH.D., Roberta Michinkick Golinkoff, PH.D., and Diane Eyer, PH.D. (2003), assert, 

“We are told that faster is better, that we must push learning along at a rapid pace. We are told that we must make every minute of our children’s lives count, that our children are like empty rooms to be filled by the adults who serve as the interior designers of their lives. These assumptions about children and how they learn are at complete odds with the messages coming from the halls of academe, where child development experts have researched how children grow and learn” (p. xiii). 

To help alleviate the pressure and misinformation on child education in our culture, and to promote developmentally appropriate practice, we’re here to help!

These developmentally appropriate activities that families can implement at home require little materials and will encourage creative, contextual, and valuable learning experiences. We hope that these activities will foster a love for learning among your young children (and you!), and support your family in taking time to grow in our hurried world. Our first activity is included below! We look forward to learning and exploring with you and your family! 

Exploring Math Concepts with Rocks 

Collecting rocks in your backyard will not only get you and your family outside, but it is a simple and meaningful way for young children to explore critical math concepts. Providing your child with the freedom to explore and collect their own materials is an effective way to foster deep learning. Your child will be excited to share with you what they collected and will want to explore their physical properties with you! 

One-to-one Correspondence

Counting the number of rocks you and your children have collected helps children develop an understanding of one-to-one correspondence, which is defined as, “assigning one, and only one, number to each item in a set of objects” (Dodge, Colker, & Heroman, 2002, p. 135). If you find your child is counting some rocks more than once, offer to point to each rock as your child counts out loud. 

Sorting and Comparisons 

Asking your child questions such as, “Which rock do you think is the biggest/smallest?”, or “How many smooth/rough rocks do we have – Are there more smooth rocks or rough rocks?”, helps children sort objects and make comparisons which will later support children in recognizing patterns and relationships (Dodge et al., 2002, p. 135).

Patterns and Relationships           

Encouraging your child to make a simple pattern with the rocks you collected will help foster pattern recognition and relationships among objects, which are not only critical math concepts, but will also be useful in literacy and science (Dodge et al., p. 136). 

Tip: Making patterns with your vocal tone while saying the pattern out loud can be a helpful tool when guiding your children to discover which object comes next in the pattern. 

Data Collection, Organization, and Representation 

Children love seeing their discoveries documented on paper! Counting, sorting, comparing, and pattern recognition are all the beginning steps of data collection. Graphing is an effective way to collect data and it helps children recognize relationships in a simple and organized way. Additionally, as an added bonus, it fosters a meaningful relationship with literacy as well (Dodge et al, p. 136)!

Sometimes the simplest activities can provide our children with the biggest opportunities for growth. We hope this activity is an enjoyable break from being indoors! Please subscribe to Pine Nuts: Musings on Early and Higher Learning and join Aspen Academy Preschool on social media (Facebook and Instagram) for more activity ideas!

References 

Dodge, D. T., Colker, L. J., & Heroman, C. (2002). The creative curriculum for preschool (4th ed.). Teaching Strategies. 

Hirsh-Pasek, K., Golinkoff-Michnick, R., Eyer, D. (2003). Einstein never used flashcards. Holtzbrinck Publishers. 

I was supposed to be on a plane to New Zealand today for a preschool study tour.

To make this trip possible, I’d sold my car, took on an extra class this summer, and applied for scholarships. I also recently transitioned from a dual-income household to a single-income one (thanks divorce!).

Instead I’m trying to find ways to help my tiny preschool survive the next two-and-a-half months. 

My number one goal is help to my staff avoid filing for unemployment. I work with two fabulous teachers; teachers with degrees, teachers who I’ve known since they were students in my college classrooms. 

The average assistant preschool teacher in Oregon earns between $12 and $15 an hour. My employees work approximately 20 to 22 hours a week. If they apply and qualify for unemployment, do the math on what 60% of that income looks like for them. That few hundred dollar discrepancy could mean the difference between evictions, missed car payments, and so on.

So, I sent this email out to my preschool families (names edited to protect privacy):

Dear Families,

Last summer I read several of Brené Brown’s books (didn’t we all?). This seems like a great time to put the power of vulnerability into practice. 

• “Vulnerability is not winning or losing; it’s having the courage to show up and be seen when we have no control over the outcome. Vulnerability is not weakness; it’s our greatest measure of courage.”

Right now, we have no control over the outcomes; reaching out to you with this request requires courage on my part, and a lot of vulnerability. 

In light of Governor Brown’s declaration that all Oregon schools remain closed until April 28^th, we have decided to extend our planned closure through April 28^th. As such, the first possible date that we will return to preschool will be Wednesday, April 29^th, and we will continue to re-evaluate this date as new information and recommendations unfold.

My first priority during this time is to maintain Wilma and Thelma as employees of our school, while helping them to avoid unemployment. I don’t want to lose them! My goal is to continue to pay them (regardless of what happens) through their last day of the 2019/2020 school year – June 10^th. My second priority is to ensure all bills related to the school are paid in full and on-time. Continuing to provide a high quality, model preschool program has many hidden costs. Luckily at this time, we are not paying for snacks or replenishing supplies. 

While I believe strongly in our ‘preschool’ model, at the end of the day I technically operate a “Certified Family Child Care.” Providers, like myself, do not qualify for unemployment benefits or paid family leave. As a result, there are many small programs permanently closing their programs; some may never re-open. I don’t want to see us in the same position. 

My wish is to be able to charge full tuition in April because our program budget (including staff pay, mandatory bills, and so on) is based on receiving full tuition from all children enrolled. I realize this is a very BIG wish. 

My hope would be to implement some sort of sliding scale tuition model, based upon the acknowledgement that there exists financial disparities between many of our enrolled families. I want to continue to safeguard access for all currently enrolled families who wish to remain a part of our school community. I would like to raise funds to support our program’s commitment to equity and access for all currently enrolled families (if needed).

Many of you are experiencing the reduction of work hours, unemployment, and added costs of child-care for families working from home. Following is what I envision moving forward (for April): 

• The spring term supply is waived. This can be credited to families who paid for the entire year upfront. 
• For those of you who paid for the year up-front, please let me know if you would like any tuition refunded or credited for April.
• For those of you paying monthly, please pay what you can. 
• If you can contribute nothing for April, please connect with me to make arrangements holding your child’s spot. 
• If you feel you will no longer need our services for the duration of the 2020 school year, a 30-day paid notice is kindly requested.
• I’m happy to think outside-the-box with anyone! One example I came across was the local Waldorf started a GoFundMe to continue to pay their educators. 

In the meantime, Wilma has started a series of educational emails and social media posts we’ll be sharing with families soon. Thelma is working on getting children’s scrapbooks together for our June Family Social (fingers crossed!). And I’m doing everything in between! 

It is my hope, with your understanding, flexibility, diligent handwashing, and continued support, we can get through this together. 

I was hoping for an It’s a Wonderful Life type of moment where everyone realizes the hard work George Bailey has done for the community. In my case, the intentional work, dedication, and passion I’ve put into creating this phenomenal early learning environment; a program like no other in our community. Largely, I am experiencing my George Bailey moment (at least for April’s tuition). 

I am not entitled. I am vulnerable. The average owner of a Certified Family Child Care Home (what my preschool operates according to State licensing) earns less than $30,000/year. 

I am also fortunate to be a university instructor at two different universities. But as contingent faculty, I lack job security and access to unemployment benefits. As one university I work for moved exclusively to on-line learning for spring term (although, they would prefer the term ‘remote’ – that’s a topic for another post), my 60-hour practicum course in local preschools is in jeopardy.

I am also losing my university-sponsored health insurance coverage as soon as April 1^st. My two classes put me at .43 FTE (while last term, two classes put be above .50 FTE) due to expected low enrollment numbers.

I had insurance coverage for the preschool study tour and have thus far recouped the initial hotel and the majority of flight costs (thanks Air New Zealand!). The study tour was a $2500 experience, of which I had been awarded a scholarship from one university and departmental funds from another. Yep, I work for TWO universities and own an in-home preschool. As the tour didn’t occur, I’m out the entirety of study tour funds, as I won’t be receiving the 40% support funds I had anticipated. My fingers are crossed than my travel insurance coverage pulls through.

I remain so grateful for my preschool families; we’re all on this journey together. Families whose businesses have been forced to close are telling me they will continue to pay. Families in quarantine are paying. People are doing what they can to help my school remain viable, because they believe in what we do.

One suggestion was to start ‘teaching’ the preschoolers on-line. Young children do NOT need screens; parents need screens. We live in a beautiful mountain town. Most of my preschool families have access to yards, private transportation, and personally-owned recreation equipment. The kids need to be outside. They need to build. They need to dig. They need to create. They need to be read to. They need to sing. They need to be held and snuggled. They need to PLAY. 

And play we will, because we will survive this. My staff will survive this. I will survive this and I’m determined my little preschool will too. 

Evidently there is a controversy surrounding the popular children’s book The Wonky Donkey as it relates to a song about golliwogs. When I first read the book, I wasn’t aware of the racist implications of the text, nor the origins of golliwogs. 

I can, however, write to my initial reaction to the popular children’s book. After reading The Wonky Donkey, I am shocked this book has received such high acclaim. 

What appears to be missing from the conversation are the implications for those with differing abilities and the biased messages we are sending young children. 

The insinuation is that people who wear prosthetics are somehow “wonky.” Let’s examine some dictionary definitions of wonky: “crooked, off-centered, askew, faulty, defective, and unreliable.”

The inherit message is that a person (in this case a donkey) with a prosthetic is faulty and defective. While it’s a convenient rhyme and a fun song, there are clearly less ableist alternatives available. 

It’s likely that many young children have not encountered someone wearing a prosthetic. And for many children, this one exposure to a differing ability is that it is “wonky.”

Children’s literature is incredibly powerful. Books and stories serve as windows into lives and worlds they may not be exposed to on a daily basis. Literature serves to create allies of understanding and acceptance. 

My goal as an educator is to implement an Antibias Education (ABE) – one of the ABE goals is for children to “learn accurate information, appropriate to their developmental stage, about disabilities and special needs” (Derman-Sparks, 2010, p. 126). Another ABE goal is for all children to learn how to “challenge name calling and stereotyping with respect to their own or other’s abilities” (Derman-Sparks, 2010, p. 126). 

The information children are learning from The Wonky Donkey is grossly inaccurate. Moreover, it leads to name-calling and stereotyping. 

Consider these stereotypes of people who are differently-abled in children’s literature from the Guidelines for Selecting Bias-Free Textbooks and Storybooks:

While the donkey in the story is not portrayed as a pirate, he easily fits into these other ableist caricatures of people with disabilities. In addition, his one eye earns him the label of “winky donkey.”

Books like The Wonky Donkey serve to foster pre-prejudice in young children – these are “beginning ideas and feelings in very young children that may develop into real prejudice if reinforced by societal biases. It may be based on young children’s limited experience and developmental level, or it may consist of imitations of adult behavior” (Derman-Sparks, 2010, p. xiii). 

This book is doing nothing more than reinforcing societal biases by preying upon children’s limited world experiences. 

What can we do?

As parents and educators, we must be incredibly intentional about the perspectives we share with young people. I encourage you to rethink sharing The Wonky Donkey with young children. If it’s available in your child’s classroom, reach out and express your concern. We must:

• “Regularly read children’s books that honestly depict children and adults with various disabilities” (Derman-Sparks, 2010, p. 131). 
• “Choose books and pictures that show people as whole, competent human beings and that address both their disabilities and their abilities” (Derman-Sparks, 2010, p. 132). 

As adults we simply must do better; we can do better. Our children are counting on us. 

Some book lists to help us out:

Little Parachutes ~ Children’s Picture Books About Disabilities

Raising Luminaries: Books for Littles ~ Influential Kids Books Featuring Capable Disabled Characters

Simply Special Ed ~ Picture Books About Children with Different Abilities

References 

Derman-Sparks, L., & the A.B.C. Task Force. (1989). Anti-bias curriculum: Tools for empowering young children. Washington, D.C.: NAEYC.

Derman-Sparks, L. & Edwards, J. O. (2010). Anti-Bias education for young children and ourselves. Washington, D.C.: NAEYC.

Guidelines for selecting bias-free textbooks and storybooks. (1980). Council on Interracial Books for Children.