Bright Shining Stars Preschool

Remind them ♥️

As the preschool year wraps up it’s easy to be pre-occupied with all the year-end stuff. Knowing we only have one more year here has really made me mindful of the moments with these amazing little humans who teach me so much every day.

A research team decided to take action and gain some clarity on the question whether “ experiences promote and ”.

The team, led by Ming Kuo, performed a thorough review of a wide array of studies. They covered topics ranging from nature in the inner city, to the study of nature's effects on Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder ( ) or the impact greenness has on test scores. They found nature can provide a calmer, quieter, safer, warmer, more cooperative setting for learning. They found evidence that nature has a restoring effect on attention; improves self-discipline; reduces stress; increases physical activity and fitness and promotes motivation for and engagement in learning. All of these effects have been shown to improve learning. Even small doses of nature can have surprisingly large effects. The key to the puzzle lies in how these effects work together.
The researchers identified eight distinct pathways through which experiences with nature benefit students:

🌳Better Attention—
It perks up mentally fatigued adults and children and helps kids concentrate. Whether just a view from the classroom of a field trip, nature has a proven rejuvenating effect on attention.

🌳Stress Relief—
Nature is undoubtably a great stress reliever. You don't need a trip to Yosemite. Just a window view of greenery from reduced heart rate and self-reported stress in students.

🌳Boost to Self-Discipline—
Greater self-discipline in children with ADHD, learning disabilities or neurotypical children is commonly cited in the scientific literature.

🌳Motivated Students—
Studies show that learning in nature may improve motivation most in those students who are least motivated in traditional classrooms. Experts believe these effects are due to nature's reliably positive effects on mood and lead to a general increased interest in school and reduced absenteeism.

🌳Fitter Kids—
Children tend to be more physically active in nature-based learning and particularly nature . This can improve fitness, control weight and possibly reduce risk of chronic diseases related to being overweight. Simply greening school grounds can counter children's trend toward decreasing physical activity as they approach adolescence.

🌳Build Better Relationships—
Greener environments are calmer and quieter and foster warmer relationships. Add in "loose parts" and relative autonomy for a true learning boost.

🌳Calmer, Quieter, Safer Places for Learning—
The calmness and peace of a natural environment have been tied to greater student engagement and academic success Nature also reduces disruptive or aggressive behaviors, many of the behaviors that lead to kids missing outdoor time ironically.

🌳Foster Warmer, More Cooperative Relations—
Maybe it’s because it's less restrictive and freer, but learning in nature brings out cooperation and comfort between students and teachers.

🌳More Autonomy and Creativity—
Children's play becomes more creative, physical, and more social when you add in loose parts like sticks & stones.

The science is confirming what parental instincts have told us all along. Nature is good for kids and helps them learn.

https://www.frontiersin.org/.../10.../fpsyg.2019.00305/full
https://childhoodbynature.com/8-ways-nature-helps-kids.../

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This is lovely

L.R.Knost - Little Hearts/Gentle Parenting Resources 💜

We won’t be offering a Summer Camp this year, but this Kid Fitness experience is FANTASTIC! My grandkids STILL talk about Miss Angela and the awesome things they did over the summer!

Woot-woot! Another amazing book by the incredible Mine Conkbayir Consultancy. Can’t wait to dive in!

The preschoolers were labeling each other as naughty and nice this year with the accompanying threat or promise. Then they broke out into song, "You better watch out, you better not pout, you better not cry, I'm telling you why, Santa Claus is coming to town." So we sat together at carpet time and talked about this song. I said, "Sometimes I am sad or hurt and I cry. Sometimes I feel bad and my face shows it. Is that okay?" (yes's all around). So we rewrote the lyrics). "You better not hit, you better not kick, you outta talk nice I'm telling you why, that is how you make friends for life." As a society we have become more aware of mental health and I am grateful for that. I have taught preschool for SO many years that I admit I have sung this song with the children. We will only be singing the revised version from here on out. No judgement if you still sing it with your children.

❤️💚

A teaching moment as I heard the crash and shatter of the decor I had hung high on the preschool marketplace. I loved the pop of color against the wood and the soft tinkling sound made me smile when the breeze made it softly sway.
As I approached and said “Oh darn! I really liked that and I am sad that it is broken. Stand back, in case the pieces are sharp I need to be the one to pick it up. What happened?” Instantly several fingers pointed “he did it, he hit it HARD”. (It was pretty high so I knew he didn’t use a hand and it wasn’t hit by accident) As I looked over at the one called out by his peers I could tell by the look on his face and the fact that he was pulling up his shirt and trying to hide his head in it that he was stressed. Had I ever said they shouldn’t hit it? No. In fact I have a set of metal chimes hanging in a tree that doesn’t get much wind that they are allowed to hit. I told the accusers “he didn’t know it would fall (neither did I) and he sure didn’t know it would break. I’m not angry.”
As I picked up the broken pieces several ideas were thrown out about how to fix it. I agreed I might be able to try some of their ideas. Then I noticed one shape from each color had survived. We decided it was still pretty and it should be hung back up, even if we don’t fix it. These little guys are learning about their world and how things work. They are learning cause and effect. They are learning if they are as important as things.
Indeed, they are infinitely more important than any item. Better to have a broken item than a broken boy.

Math As An Intellectual Pursuit Rather Than A Merely Academic One The two-year-old had carried the plastic bears halfway across the room to show me. "Blue bears," he said, holding them in fr...

It is important that a half day kindergarten be an option for families! If you have a child in the West Ada district who is heading to kindergarten this fall please let your voice be heard. Even if your family prefers full-day, a half day option should be a choice as well.

Science is now showing that may be just what we need to regenerate our exhausted and bodies.

The demands of modern life put a significant burden on the prefrontal cortex of the brain, which is involved in high-order thinking, decision-making and problem-solving.

Researchers in the new field of interruption science have found that it takes an average of twenty-five minutes to recover from an activity like a phone call. Yet such cognitive interruptions come every eleven minutes on average— which means we’re never quite caught up with our lives. And when our attentional resources become drained, we can become distracted, mentally fatigued, and struggle to focus and solve problems.

This is a common struggle. For many people, it’s incredibly difficult to disconnect or take downtime. Stillness is tremendously difficult in our media-rich, always-on, over-communicated society. We’re constantly filling our brains with news, work updates, music, podcasts and, of course, non-stop TV shows. As our internal and external environments become louder and louder, we need to deliberately seek out moments of silence from the noise— putting a pause on the information overload, constant stimulation, and a hurried life.

Constant itself can be taxing on a person. Studies of human physiology help explain how invisible phenomena can have pronounced physical effects. Sound waves vibrate the bones of the ear, which transmit movement to the snail-shaped cochlea. The cochlea converts physical vibrations into electrical signals that the receives. The body reacts immediately and powerfully to these signals, even in the middle of deep sleep. Neurophysiological research suggests that noises first activate the amygdalae, clusters of neurons located in the temporal lobes of the brain, associated with memory formation and emotion. The activation prompts an immediate release of stress hormones like . People who live in consistently loud environments often experience chronically elevated levels of stress hormones.

And it is not just the noise we need relief from, but also the constant thinking— a problem for the ages. Even the seventeenth-century French mathematician and philosopher Blaise Pascal famously noted, “All the unhappiness of men arises from one simple fact: that they cannot sit quietly in their chamber.”

Although anatomically the brain isn't a muscle, it does contain some muscle. And like any muscle, it tires from repeated stress. A structured downtime can help a person do their best work.

The Draugiem Group conducted an experiment using a time-tracking productivity app to see what habits set most productive employees apart. What they found was that the ten percent of employees with the highest productivity surprisingly didn’t put in longer hours than anyone else. In fact, they didn’t even work full eight-hour days. What they did do was take regular breaks.

So even if you are worried about productivity, scheduled periods of stillness and rest are still the ultimate way to go. (Specifically, 17-minute breaks for every 52 minutes of work, if you want to apply the exact science).

The brain depends on downtime to process information, consolidate memory and reinforce learning. In stillness, your brain is actively internalizing and evaluating information for you. A study by Duke University regenerative biologist, Imke Kirste, found that two hours of silence per day prompted cell development in the , the brain region related to the formation of memory, involving the senses.

When your brain is idle, you can tap into your inner stream of thoughts, emotions, memories and ideas. When you give yourself stillness, you are giving your brain the opportunity to understand your internal and external environments and gain perspective— something that is vital for overall wellbeing.

These periods of calm can allow self-reflection on where we are headed, why we’ve chosen that path, what we can do better and how to make the journey more meaningful. In an increasingly distracting world, stillness is an overlooked resource that is always at our fingertips.
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https://cstu.io/eab219

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Our Fall 2022 Classes have all filled! Thank you for trusting us with your precious little people!

From Dr. Mine Conkbayir:
“Our education system is failing so many of our children because they focus on academic outcomes before well-being. It is top-down. They have it upside down. We need to start bottom to top, (referring to the brain) and back to front in line with early brain development.”

A dysregulated child (or person) is operating from the limbic system of the brain and cannot regulate emotions or behaviors while in fight, flight, or freeze mode. We must co-regulate with them to help them return to a state of calm where they can be reasoned with and learn.
There are MANY things that can trigger a stress response in a person. We must identify the reason for their stress to help them be able to reactivate the pre-frontal cortex in their brains.

Play Before Pencils online event

Some of these one-liners are pretty good! I really like “I love you too much to argue”

Love this!

I love this photo.

In Denmark, "gender roles" are practically non existent. Everyone mixes and learns how to cook, clean, knit, work with wood. Because everyone is expected to take part in life equally.

Men take great pride in their roles as dads as much as women and society greatly encourages this.

I wonder if we replaced the classic idea of "boys will be boys" (rough, rowdy, rambunctious, plays with cars and dinosaurs) and replaced it with (sweet, caring, sensitive, thoughtful, likes to play house and take care of kids) what would we see in our future dads who then go on to influence the next future dads?

After living in Scandinavia, I saw nothing more "manly" as someone who confidently steps in to take care of children with all the love, work and effort this requires. Sling an ax to chop a tree, meh... sling a diaper change and swaddle a baby with delicate ease while cooing and looking in their eyes?....wonderful.

Seeing as play is where children practice life roles the most, let's give more and more opportunity for play without the stigma, and redefine "boys will be boys" to include all the wonderful possibilities of becoming kind, helpful, caring humans.

Isn't this what we want more of in the world?

The academic pushdown is squashing happiness in our children!
Would you want to skip from 9th grade to college and miss all the scaffolding and growth and maturing that happens in 10-12th grade to prepare you for college level work? Of course not! But that is the type of thing that is happening in our kindergarten classes nationwide.

Kindergarten Teachers Are Quitting, and Here Is Why Comments from exasperated kindergarten teachers throughout the country.

Do you agree?
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https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/freedom-learn/201911/kindergarten-teachers-speak-out-children-s-happiness

"Before we ever put a pencil in a child's hands, those hands should dig, climb, press, pull, squish, twist, and pinch in a wide array of environments and with a variety of materials."
—Amanda Morgan

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Summer break is almost over and preschool starts on September 7. We can’t wait to see all of you again!

Play Is the Way!

Notice here how he is holding his pencil - A Palmer & or emergent Palmer grip
This is an indicator that his control is being lead by his shoulder ( supported by his shoulder ) and moving to his elbow and not his fingers.

Therefore large gross motor activities are fundamental to developing those pivotal joints - before it progresses to elbow, wrist and finally thumb and fingers !

An interesting quote during a conference today.
“Work is not the opposite of play, depression is.”

We are created to play, it’s how our brains grow and our moods stabilize.

Dr. Stuart Brown talks about interviewing several murderers in prison. Every one of them had suffered play deprivation.

This graphic is from his presentation and represents possible effects from not enough play in a persons life.

Let your children play, play with them, create opportunities for you to play. It is a basic human need.

Patterns of Play also helps us identify innate talents and intrinsic motivators.

I am so intrigued by this new school focusing on hands-on, outdoor learning, including the trades. It is for ages 4-17. Does anyone have any experience with this new school?

THE GUARDIANS ACADEMY MERIDIAN, IDAHO FULL TIME OUTDOOR ACADEMY AGES 4-17 THE ADVENTURE HAS BEGUN

I am reminded that my hubby is a Tanker driver when he mentions the “retain” somebody left in the recycle soda bottle. Gotta love him!

You ever have so much in/on your mind that you realize you’ve been in the shower a long time, you smell soap and shampoo, but you aren’t really sure what got washed, so you give it another quick once over? Oh yeah, me neither.

Science Friday with Miss Jean!

Pulled up behind this Tesla at the light. I heard he wanted to leave Silicon Valley.