Children learn so much while they are playing in the neighborhood!  They learn how to explore, pretend, create, solve problems, get along with others, lead, follow, make friends, build, play, invent, make decisions, try new things, develop skills and find their passion.  Many families no longer feel comfortable sending their kids out into the neighborhood to play, and many schools have cut recess and free time.  But kids have to learn these skills somewhere!  Because The Neighborhood is an important part of a child’s social and emotional growth, we’ve created a place for them to do those things within the safe walls of O2B Kids under the watchful eye of our Fun Crew.  This child-directed play is a time of rich learning, and we’re proud to provide these essential learning opportunities to children in our communities. 

“Play is our brain's favorite way of learning.” - Diane Ackerman, Contemporary American author

Neighborhood Time is a crucial learning time for all children.  During Neighborhood Time, a designated part of the facility is open, and children get to choose what to do while they are there.  Children choose the activity and the action.  Playing alone or with others, they interact with materials freely, in many different ways. 

During this non-scripted play, children gain essential skills.  They have the opportunity to: 

• Practice problem solving
• Understand consequences
• Develop social skills
• Gain independence & self confidence
• Learn to be responsible
• Gain physical fitness
• Create leadership skills
• Practice self-regulation
• Use their creativity

What Grown-Ups Can Do!

To support child initiated play and to maximize the enrichment, our daily goal is to
• Set the stage
• Supervise safe play
• Expand upon learning opportunities!

We discuss what parts of the building or classroom are available and what activities the kids want to do when they get there.  What will they try to get better at?  Who will they play with?  How will they make it fun and exciting, or calm and relaxing, or energetic and heart-pumping? 

The building changes!  Each day we make sure there is something different to stimulate play -- building blocks, bowling pins, connect four, costumes, cardboard boxes, yarn, walking sticks, bubbles, paper, cloth, tubes, etc.  Each thing stimulates play, and changes the child’s interactions from one day to the next. 
 
Child initiated learning is not a matter of chance.  We think about the child’s development and intentionally prepare an interesting and rich environment that offers choices. 

Did we just finish a unit on physics?  Then we add cloth and a vacuum cleaner and see if kids can make a kite.  Did we just learn about Shakespeare?  Then we add hats and robes and see if they create a play. 

We observe children, ask open-ended questions, and make suggestions that will extend children’s play and support their learning. 

We ensure it is Safe Play!
• Engagement, Engagement, Engagement!  We offer choices, and create opportunities for learning, creativity and growth.
• Be proactive.  We look for mad, sad or confused faces on children and ask questions before a problem occurs:  Are they sick? Scared? Tired? Hungry?  Worried?  Bored?
• Take the time to connect with each child, every day.  We look them in the eye, and listen when they talk.
• Set limits and consequences in advance whenever possible.
• Be consistent, kind and firm with limits, consequences, rules and expectations.
• Keep it simple, have as few rules as possible and discuss them often.

"Do not…keep children to their studies by compulsion but by play." ~ Plato

“People always want to see the future.  Well I see the future every day.” 

That’s how Ms. Kelly, a teacher of 3 year olds at O2B Kids Alachua, describes her job.  And she’s right!  Not only does she see it, she shapes it.  Now that’s power!  Each day Kelly, and so many other early childhood educators like her, invest in the lives of children, which means they are investing in the future for all of us.  Teaching curiosity, creativity, problem solving, and literacy means our children will have the skills they need to be responsible grown-ups and the future’s leaders. 

Kelly’s prediction for the future?  The class of 2025 will be awesome!  The 3 year olds that she works with every day consistently impress her.  They are bright, engaging, and eager to grow.

But not every child is in Ms. Kelly’s class.  What about all of the other 3 year olds out there?  Research tells us that 30% of kids entering kindergarten are not ready to learn.  30% of children in 3rd grade read below grade level.  30% of children do not graduate from High School.  That’s not a coincidence.  The problem begins before school starts, and that means the solution starts there too.  We need to get more kids into quality early childhood education centers, we need to make sure parents have the resources they need, we need to make sure our kids are healthy, we need to encourage curiosity and creativity – the building blocks for literacy. 

Let’s not wait for Superman.  Let’s encourage more people to be Superman, like Kelly, and work hard to get the class of 2025 ready… for our future.   

If smiles could fly and laughter could soar, could they carry hope in their feathers, sprinkling it on those below?

If questions could build, and answers connect, could that bridge cover the span that separates?

If I believe I matter, that I make a difference, what would I say and do and be?

A teacher.

A teacher, a teacher, a teacher!

If I teach a teacher who teaches a child, who teaches their family, who teaches their community....

What could that community do?

Could they change the world?

Could they walk the bridge they built, then take off with wings of hope?

Yes.

Our philosophy is that we learn a whole lot more when we’re having fun!  

So, what would you expect 4 year olds in the Gator Nation to be talking about during football season?  You guessed it!  Check out Ms. Valerie’s VPK room:

All of Florida’s players are on the wall and each day a new one comes down and joins the class during circle time.  They memorize his name, number and position, and then review all of the other players they’ve learned so far.  We’ve got math, letter and number recognition, reading, comprehension, memorization, and more!   The kids sure are paying attention, and must really impress their parents when they watch the game together on Saturday!  (Well, except for the one dad who’s an Alabama fan, he may wish we were doing something else!)  

Learning sure can be fun!
Go Gators!

A Sparkling Vision

“You have glitter on your chin,” my husband said to me when I got home from attending The Milk Party at Santa Fe College in Gainesville, sponsored by the Children’s Movement of Florida.  Laughing, I told him the glitter was from our granddaughter’ kisses, whose happy faces were painted with shimmering flowers and hearts.

The Children’s Movement (www.childrensmovementflorida.org) is a visionary initiative started by David Lawrence Jr., former publisher of the Miami Herald.  Its goal is clear - take good care of Florida’s children, and we will be taking much better care of our state.  Our little ones need critical improvements in 1) access to quality health care, 2) screening and treatment for special needs, 3) quality pre-kindergarten, 4) high-quality mentoring, and 5) effective support and information for parents.

This is a citizen’s initiative, rather than a political one.  Its intent is to draw on our best selves to do what we already know how to do.  We already know the standards of good parenting.  We already know what defines a superb teacher and effective curriculum.  We already know how to keep children healthy.  And most of all, every one of us absolutely knows that these doable things are the RIGHT thing to do.

The Children’s Movement has one purpose - to bring this doable goodness into focus - now. To pull Florida out of is humiliating, dreadful bottom-feeding statistics regarding the care of our children - now.  To fix the problems we already know how to fix - now.  Gratefully, this is not rocket science.  The solutions are not a mystery.  The solutions are a matter of energizing the moral and social will of every voter, politician, business person, parent, and caring citizen.

There’s much that sparkles in Florida - our oceans, sands, our fluffy clouds, sunny palms.  But nothing will shine brighter, or glitter with more consequence, than when we, in a few short years, meet the sacred goals of The Children’s Movement - to nurture every single Florida child so that s/he is fully prepared and eager to impact - for the good - our  beloved state and our global community.

-- Jani N. Sherrard 

My four year old daughter is magic.  She tells me so.  She can do anything…or not, depending on how it suits her.  She doesn’t have to drink milk.  You see, “magic girls don’t have to drink milk.”  But she agrees to drink it.  She doesn’t have to sleep either…although she agrees to go to bed…usually.

She tells me she has a button…five in fact.  Magic buttons.  But I can’t see them.  They are in her bones.  The first button turns her magic on.  The second button turns her into a flying pony, a unicorn, a butterfly, a ladybug or a flower…”the real kind, not the fake kind.”  The third button turns her back.  The forth button turns her into a rock star and magic “sprinkles” shoot from her entire body.  Rock star sprinkles.  We’re not sure what the fifth button does, but we’re quite sure she has one.

And I celebrate.  I celebrate the creative mind that is blossoming in my home.  I celebrate the confident spirit that defines who my daughter is.  She knows she can be anything.  She is not deterred by laws of nature or human obstacles that too often kill the dream.  A recent Newsweek article presented research that stated that the correlation to lifetime creative accomplishments was more than three times stronger for childhood creativity than childhood IQ.  The article goes on to say that for the first time in generations, American creativity scores are falling significantly in younger children from Kindergarten through sixth grade.

What does this mean?  Why is this happening?  In short, there are no conclusive answers.  But there are clearly some easy places to look.  More TV; more videogames; more structured school curriculum with less art, music, and physical education; less neighborhood freedom and exploration.  Entertainment is being packaged FOR kids.  Kids no longer have to create it.  So how did we get here? 

I think creativity has always been taken for granted.  Although it is valued and appreciated, it has never been coveted or desired.  We do not formally teach creativity.  You have “it” or you don’t.  We assume that kids have “it”…until it leaves…and then you’re a grown-up. Can this be?  Is this OK?

Newsweek states that “a recent IBM poll of 1,500 CEOs identified creativity as the No.1 ‘leadership competency’ of the future.”  Our world is changing.  The knowledge revolution is upon us.  The jobs of tomorrow will be very different than the jobs of today…and we don’t even know exactly what they will be.  So what to do?

Nurture the creativity of your child.  Ask what ifs.  Paint pictures.  Dance in the kitchen.  Play princess or pirate or superhero.  Talk about nature and people and places and things.  And most importantly, embrace the most wonderfully annoying, educational, simplistic, complex question in the world…”why?”  Answer the question every time it is asked.  Turn the tables on your child and ask them to take a guess at their own questions…and then fully engage yourself in the answer!  Be present!  Be interested!  Be curious!  Be a parent!

If you do…and if you are…your child’s magic buttons will guarantee a very successful life journey.  Here’s to rock star sprinkles and an enjoyable ride.

Thoughts from Emmy Midtown!

Last week I went to some trainings with Danny, and having him explain the importance of Neighborhood Time was something that I really wanted to share! This time is meant to replace the lost neighborhood experience where all of the kids from the ‘block’ would get together and play. Kids learned and gained valuable skills from their peers without adult supervision. They had to be self sufficient, work together and well with others, learn that when they scraped their knee, their leg wasn’t going to fall off, use their imaginations, be respectful, and all sorts of wonderful skills. With all of the fear-mongering in today’s society, that life changing experience has been lost for so many kids. They are shuffled into tracked and gifted programs, sheltered by scared to death parents, protected from confrontation…and they are missing out on learning how to become productive, confident people.

That neighborhood is what we try to recreate here. An experience where kids can be safe to run, fall, and get back up. Where they can effectively communicate and deal with confrontation with their peers without parents interfering and taking over. We provide the facility; the “safe place,” but we want our learning and play to be student centered and based on creativity, exploration, failing and learning how to make it work ON THEIR OWN.

The example that Danny gave was comparing and contrasting a pick-up game of baseball, and a Little League game of baseball. Think about the answer to these questions:

Who runs a pick-up game of base ball? Who makes the rules? How does any conflict get handled?

What about a Little League game? Who runs the show? Who decides the rules?

Who can play in a pick up game? A little league game?

If you think about the answers, you can see where this is going. Adults decide the rules and how to enforce them for a little league game, so all that kids who play little league learn is how to play baseball. How to behave and conform to a set of rules and ideas. Only kids who’s parents can afford little league can play, they all have uniforms and look the same, and the kids who don’t fit in, ship out.

In a pick up game, the kids run the show. They decide the rules. Usually, the bigger kids have to help and explain the rules to the younger kids. If you don’t want to be a team player, you don’t get invited next time. Any conflicts have to be handled by the kids who are playing. Kids may learn baseball, but they learn a lot more about how to try new things, play in a team setting, conflict resolution.,…and I could go on and on.

WE WANT TO BE THE PICK UP GAME!  We want all of the kids. We take and listen to all ideas. We encourage and expect our students to be able to have the confidence to solve their own problems, and if they aren’t there yet, we help them get there, but by facilitating, not controlling. We want our kids to have disagreements so that they can learn how to correctly handle conflict. We want them to fail so that they can use their creativity and problem solving skills.

I just wanted to pass this information along, because it made me so excited to work in a place that views education in that light. Where not just anything, but EVERYTHING is possible.