If you are Lisa’s Facebook friend, you may have seen this article on her Facebook feed this week.  The policy that the author writes about-- where kids do not have to share or give up a toy they are using, even if another child wants it-- and the reasoning behind it is what we believe about sharing here at Ashland Children’s Garden—with a few additions of our own.    

We, like the author of the article, want children to learn the important lesson that wanting a toy does not make them entitled to that toy if another child is using it.  However, we also want them to feel the joy that comes from sharing.  When one child is particularly sad waiting for a turn with a toy, we may ask the child who has the toy to look at the sad child’s face, asking them to notice he or she looks sad.  Then we let them know they could make their friend happy if they shared.  We don’t pressure the child to give up their toy or make them feel guilty, we just make them aware that a friend is sad.  When a child is willing to share we make a REALLY big deal about it, by asking them to notice how happy they made their friend and by telling them what a great friend they are.  We believe this helps to raise children who have generous spirits, who as adults will be happy to donate to a favorite charity, volunteer in their communities, or give their time to friends and family.

In a perfect preschool world, every child would be able to spend as much time as they wanted at an activity, and their turn would only be over when they were ready to move on.  However, the reality of a structured preschool setting (and beyond) is that children have to take turns and sometimes they have to move on from an activity before they are done.  We have planned turn taking activities into our learning through play to help children with this.  For example, we only have two easels but we may have six children who want to paint, so sometimes we have to tell a child that their turn is over so that everyone gets a turn.  This not only teaches children about fairness in sharing, it also prepares them for the reality of turn-taking in their everyday lives.

You can find the article at http://moms.popsugar.com/Should-You-Teach-Kids-Share-27333250.

Lisa and I spent a LOT of time before we got up and running planning out a super-detailed menu with a ton of healthy foods for our students to eat.  One of our goals is to introduce our students to a variety of new flavors and nutritious foods, but as a licensed family home we aren't allowed to require children to taste the food.  Instead, we've been encouraging them to be adventurous eaters!  Here's some advice that we have found helpful in that process.
(You can find more Nibbles for Health newsletters here!)

Check back in a future blog for some of our most successful healthy recipes for building adventurous eaters!

When people ask Lisa and I if we use worksheets, the first place we point them is to this article from Early Childhood News.  Research in the fields of Child Development and Early Childhood Education show that worksheets aren't developmentally appropriate for most preschoolers, and aren't necessary even for the children who could learn effectively from them. 

The research shows that at best, worksheets can be used to teach skills that children could learn without worksheets.  Any foundational skill that could be taught through a worksheet can also be taught with a hands-on activity.  For example, to teach children how to recognize and write their name, teachers could hand out name-tracing worksheets every day.  Or, teachers can label things with children's names and talk with children about the letters they see, play games where children match stickers, magnet letters, and other letters to their names, and provide name cards so children can write their own name on their artwork.  Which of these methods do you think a preschooler would enjoy?  We know which one we'd rather do!

At worst, worksheets can teach preschool children that they are bad at school, by requiring them to complete tasks that they aren't physically, mentally, or emotionally ready for.  Most three-year-olds, many four-year-olds, and even some five-year-olds simply don't have the attention span to sit down and do paper and pencil tasks.  It's not interesting to them, so they aren't intrinsically motivated to do it!  Additionally, many children in preschool won't have the fine-motor control to successfully complete even worksheets aimed at preschoolers.  A worksheet that requires children to use a pencil with precision is setting most preschoolers up for failure-- they need lots of time to practice using writing materials in their own way before they'll be able to be successful with worksheets!  All worksheets by nature require a great deal of fine motor control and experience with using writing materials, and children who always struggle with worksheets because they don't have that fine motor control can become resentful, or even anxious about school.

Even if the worksheets don't cause a child to experience a lot of failure or boredom, they aren't usually an effective way to truly teach a concept to preschoolers.  The article from Early Childhood News gives many examples of this, but to make a long story short, sometimes when a child can successfully complete a worksheet, all it means is that they know how to complete a worksheet.  If children can successfully chant the letters of their name and write it on worksheets, does it really mean anything if they can't recognize their name on their cubbies or write it on their artwork?

That being said, some children really do just love worksheets.  We're not saying that we would ever tell children "No, you can't do that worksheet, it's not developmentally appropriate!"  In fact, Lisa's son, my brother Jacob, loved to do worksheets as a preschooler and requested new workbooks almost as often as toys.  What we do believe, and what the research supports, is that the bedrock of a preschool education should be hands-on, authentic learning experiences that follow the child's interests, rather than sit-down, pencil and paper activities that follow a teacher's plan.