Relationships with Children

In Intellectual Emergencies: Some Reflections on Mothering and Teaching, Lilian Katz makes these two observations about teachers' relationships with children:

"Relationships cannot be developed in a vacuum; we have to relate to each other about something — something that matters to the participants in the relationship. The content of our relationship with children should not be mainly about rules, regulations, and conduct, but about their increasing knowledge and developing understandings of those things within and around them worth knowing more about and understanding more deeply, more fully, and more accurately."

"Cultivate the habit of speaking to children as people — people with minds — usually lively ones. Appeal to their good sense. It is not necessary to be sweet, silly, or sentime ntal at one extreme, or somber, grim, or harsh at the other end. Let us be genuine, direct, honest, serious, and warm with them, and about them — and sometimes humorous too."

Fundraiser for A Starting Small Project at the Fredonia Farmers Market

Hi Everyone,
I will be at the Fredonia Farmers Market tomorrow selling books and postcards. Please consider buying a postcard or book or placing an order for one of the many items available from Syracuse Cultural Workers. All the proceeds to benefit A Starting Small Project.

Thank You,

Karen

Jim Greeman

“It is a strange time. We live in an age when our children may know far more about bizarre people we care nothing about or a cartoon world than the workings of their own back yard — that marvelous ecosystem teeming with life. They may know more about, or rather have more information on, exotic zoo animals and farm animals than the snails, squirrels, birds, worms, and bugs that live outside their windows.”

Jim Greenman

Syracuse Cultural Worker's Products for Sale through A Starting SMall Project

Hey Friend,
Please help A Starting Small Project by purchasing a book, postcard or t-shirt from Syracuse Cultural Workers. You can place your order by contacting Karen at startingsmallproject@gmail.com- I can drop off a catalog or you can browse the website, but all orders must come through us or we won't get credit.


I will soon have a list of on-hand items and other information- check back soon!

Karen

So many resources

Here is another resource:

http://www.search-institute.org/about

I believe the institute met with local leaders on Friday. I would like to hear what was discussed and how we can be a part of the solution.

Check this out!

The Stick

From Everyday Exchange-
Sadly, I am sure there are some who don't value the power of a stick as a play tool.


Hall of Fame Stick
May 5, 2010

Midday sun is the remedy for a cold.
-Proverb from Hausa
The National Toy Hall of Fame has inducted 44 classic toys, including the stick. In discussing the stick, the Hall of Fame observes...

"The stick may be the world’s oldest toy. Animals play with sticks, and we use them to play fetch with our dogs. Children find sticks an endless source of make-believe fun. Sticks can turn into swords, magic wands, majorette batons, fishing poles, and light sabers. When children pretend with sticks, they cultivate their creativity and develop their imagination. They explore as they search outdoors for just the right one. Children build with sticks, bat balls with them, and walk with them. They are the original building blocks for creative play. Sticks also promote free play — the freedom to invent and discover. They encourage playing outside instead of inside. Sticks are all around us; they are natural and free. And playing with sticks isn’t just for children and animals. Adult artists, crafters, decorators, and architects all make use of sticks in sculptures, wreaths, furniture, and building design. Few adults or children can resist simple play with sticks — from drawing in the sand on the beach, to building a campfire and then toasting marshmallows. Sticks are not only possibly the oldest toy, they’re possibly the best!"

If we are looking only at the preschool years, what do you see as the classic toys? Share your recommendations in this week's Exchange Insta Poll, "Classic Toys for Young Children."