Collaborative Training Solutions

22 Statistics You Need to Know About Childhood Brain Development The first three years of a child’s life are the most pivotal, and also the most vulnerable when it comes to childhood brain development.

Toddlers, my favourite people. Enjoy their spirit, quirkiness, and their unrestrained love and energy. Great to keep this in mind. Penny's legacy lives on.

Time for Zero Waste
School as you and I know it is a very recent phenomenon in human history. In general, the model has shown itself to be very wasteful of children's abilities, intelligences, talents and creativity. After 12+ years of childhood in school, too many students emerge unaware of their strengths and talents so they can't 'follow' them. Equally, many emerge without functional literacy, numeracy and social skills. By the model's own criteria it as failed. Too many children leave school having lost their curiosity and their love of learning. These two features of human spirit are our guides as we navigate our way through our lives.
There are GOOD people in the school system, many of whom are working to make the changes which can make all the difference to the children. Those teachers create 'Learner's Heaven', and if you have had a child lucky enough to be in their class, you will notice the difference in your child. Blessing on those teachers - and those exploring different models.

I’m playing with Lego now with Mr 4 - How are you playing now?

Play Time
"We do not stop playing because we grow old, we grow old because we stop playing."
George Bernard Shaw.
“It takes courage to say yes to rest and play in a culture where exhaustion is seen as a status symbol.”
Brené Brown

Measuring up
Magda Ge**er once asked us to consider how it must affect children when what they cannot do is expected, and what they can do is not appreciated. I wonder if this helps seed the self talk "I don't measure up".
While Nathan's message in the post probably won't surprise anyone reading this page, it is worth repeating it, over and over and over again. If repetition works for advertisers getting their message across, let's say it over and over and get the message out there more widely for the sake of our kids.

Food for thought - This is systems change which requires new ways of thinking and engaging to alter the swing of the pendulum.
It’s time.

Broken. Seriously Broken.
The 2020s have been a wild ride so far, and it has shown up - around the globe - that so many of our institutions are seriously broken. So it’s worth pondering what an institution is. It all starts as an IDEA in someone’s mind, and if they can get buy-in from people who resonate with their idea, and who are willing to graft to bring the idea into form, Voila! We have an institutional way of dealing with things public, which started as an idea. Remember that bit. Banks, the stock exchange, early childhood centres, factory farming, monoculture forestry, bottom trawling fishing, adversarial systems of government, prisons for profit, [pick your thing really], did not come down on stone tablets from God. They started in someone’s head as an idea.
But ideas can outlive their use-by date: think slavery, sending convicts to Australia, denying women the vote, routine tonsillectomies and circumcisions, mercury based fillings, cars without safety belts…. People reassess in the light of the existing reality and come up with better ideas. This is the time for better ideas, seriously. And we are the people.
A word of warning! A quick review of the list (banks, the stock exchange, early childhood centres, factory farming, monoculture forestry, bottom trawling fishing, adversarial systems of government, prisons for profit) and you can see there are people making money from the systems who might be somewhat reluctant to entertain a new improved idea for dealing with their sphere of interest. How do we bring the dream for a Vibrant Healthy Society which is respectful of the whole biosphere - including those who oppose us - into the new reality? One thing I am sure of, it will require that we stay in our hearts, and therein lies our power.

Ready for School
Our school starting age in New Zealand is really an historical accident, or more probably accurately, an historical precedent. Children start school at five even though they don’t have to start until they are six. While more parents are taking the start-at-6 option, most don’t because starting at six not considered 'normal' in our culture. It takes courage to swim upstream in order to change things for the good of our children. Those who are not so keen on change will argue for the status quo, school at five. Those who are looking at aligning what the education system offers to child development will argue for pushing back abstract symbolic learning (reading, writing, mathematics) until 6 or 7, as the Scottish Education Authorities are doing with the introduction of their “Upstart” programme. Blessings on all of the parents whose ‘education activism’ will make it easier for other parents to look out for their children’s wellbeing.

"No authority in the field of child psychology, paediatrics, or child psychiatry advocates the formal instruction, in any domain, of infants and young children. In fact, the weight of solid professional opinion opposes it and advocates providing young children with a rich and stimulating environment that is, at the same time, warm, loving, and supportive of the child’s own learning priorities and pacing. It is within this supportive, nonpressured environment that infants and young children acquire a solid sense of security, positive self-esteem, and a long-term enthusiasm for learning."
David Elkind

A must watch for anyone engaging with children. The link doesn’t work for my Australian colleagues so here’s a full interview for you to enjoy https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=uUAL8RVvkyY

When School is The Safe Haven
""Every kid is one caring adult away from being a success story."
Josh Shipp
For many children that one caring adult is a teacher. In this short clip (5 minutes 11 seconds), Oprah speaks about the interview she hosted with Dr Bruce Perry (psychiatrist, currently the senior fellow of the Child Trauma Academy in Houston, Texas), and the profound effect it had on her. If we were to adopt Bruce Perry's one question our perspective would change.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dF20FaQzYUI

Let's Talk About the 'Flow' of Creativity
"Flow is being completely involved in an activity for its own sake. The ego falls away. Time flies. Every action, movement, and thought follows inevitably from the previous one, like playing jazz. [...]
The happiest people spend much time in a state of flow - the state in which people are so involved in an activity that nothing else seems to matter; the experience itself is so enjoyable that people will do it even at great cost, for the sheer sake of doing it."
Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

Too Much Too Soon
Much of what we consider education in schools is out of relationship with the CHILD because it is not developmentally appropriate. In the 'one size fits all regardless' system, children are expected to succeed in abstract learning their neurological systems aren't ready for - yet. Some children do succeed; and many more struggle and don't succeed because the task is beyond their cognitive capability for now. And only for now.
Education is up for a huge overhaul and you and I can join by allowing our children to unfold at their own pace, not pressuring them. We can support the teachers who are moving outside of the square and offering programmes that do align with the child's needs and developmental capabilities. These teachers are gold, they will bring about the change. (They also take a fair bit of flack so your support makes a difference for them.)