Thinking About Children Thinking

On May 19th, as I was touring a prospective parent on our playground, I observed that HSH was "off schedule". Playground time continued to "eat in to" the Circle Time. Checking in with teachers, I verified this was a strong choice. As I continued my tour of our outdoor classroom, I saw small groups of children completely engaged in strong play narratives. Children in the garden counted the rolypolies and made "new houses" for them; the large legos were put to excellent use on the stage as children collaborated among often changing directions to finish their big vision; a group of children used the climbing structure as their startship homebase; the sand box was busy with a designated project manager ordering the excavation of new tunnels. To force an immediate transition would have shown adult disrespect for the child's work in progress; everyone was interested in the business of learning through play.

Home Sweet Home is excited and, frankly, empowered to send two staff and a youth intern to the Seventh North American Reggio Emilia Association (NAREA) Summer Conference on June 16 - 18, 2011. This international conference "Dialogues for Quality in Education: Valuing Early Childhood" will feature presentations by Elena Giacopini, pedagogista, and Anna Orlandini, atelierista, from the Reggio Emilia municipal schools. Our HSH representatives will also tour the traveling exhibit "The Wonder of Learning - The Hundred Languages of Children" at the Steinbeck Center in Salinas, CA (scouting for our learning community, as HSH will be organizing parent/teacher/Big Friend study groups to this exhibit). More information on their opportunity is available at http://www.steinbeck.org/pages/the-wonder-of-learning

Another wonderful resource for parents and teachers is the following website: http://zerosei.comune.re.it/inter/reggiochildren.htm

As articulated in this website, the aims of Reggio Children are:

• to communicate a forceful idea of childhood and of children's rights, potentials, and resources, which are often unrecognized or neglected


• to promote studies, research, and experimentation in education, with particular emphasis on children's active, constructive, and creative learning processes


• to advance the professionalism and culture of teachers, promoting a greater awareness of the value of collegial work and of meaningful relationships with the children and their families


• to highlight the value of research, observation, interpretation, and documentation of children's knowledge-building and thinking processes


• to organize guided visits to educational programs, cultural initiatives, exhibitions, seminars, conferences, professional development courses on the issues of education and the culture of childhood

The Reggio journey for Home Sweet Home offers children, youth and adults an opportunity to collaborate to create an intentional learning community. How does the HSH physical environment support inquiry? How does HSH resource the diverse talents of the children, parents, teachers and youth? How does the HSH routine honor the needs of the individual and support a community identity? Ellen Galinsky in her book Mind in the Making: The Seven Essential Life Skills that Every Child Needs identifies the following:

• Focus and self control


• Perspective taking


• Communicating


• Making connections


• Critical thinking


• Taking on challenges


• Self-directed, engaged learning

Reflecting on the seven essential life skills, how do HSH adults and youth model these for children? Can we be held accountable in our thought, intentions, and behavior? Do our policies, practices and routines reflect a committment to these educational values? HSH commits to a continued dialogue on the seven essential life skills to support our journey as a learning community.

The following clip is provided to give the viewer 5 minutes of awe and wonder. Had we any doubts about the capacity for brilliance in the human mind, and the many shapes genius might take among us, this clip will (hopefully) inspire us to pay attention.

http://www.stumbleupon.com/su/2MBBxU