Inspirational and Empowering Child Care Business Owners To Build Successful Child Care Businesses

Posts tagged ‘Child Observation’

An Aha Moment…

A moment of clarity, the aha moment is a defining moment where you gain real wisdom- wisdom you can use to change your life…or Business

 

As I was conducting my weekly classroom observations, a three-year old began to roll a car down my leg and my back. I must say that  I began to feel very relaxed as she rolled the car against my leg and back.

Then I noticed another child sitting next to me  playing with some play-doh and she asked me to smell it. As I sniffed the playdoh, it brought back  childhood memories that I had about playdoh.  In fact, I shared the  Aha moment with  the teacher in the classroom and she was so excited to discover that smell can bring back a simple childhood memory.

After my Aha Moment,I was reminded that smell can trigger a memory and if smell triggers a memory, than sensory play has to be great for a child’s brain development!

Moreover, this is why I believe that  it is important to have materials in the classroom that children can smell and experiment with.

Normally, I would have told the three-year old to only roll the car in the block area, however, I was amazed and soothed by the feeling of the car rolling against my skin. Furthermore, I thought about how children should be encouraged to be creative with how they use the materials, such as rolling cars on their friends; it just may calm down an excessively hyper child.

I shared this Aha moment with you to encourage you to provide more sensory play in your childcare business, because it is a great way to stimulate a child’s brain.

Feel free to share an  Aha moment that you have experienced recently in your childcare business. I look forward to reading your thoughts about this post.

Online Resource:

Smell, Taste and Nutrition: Building Block for Early Learning

 

Shiketa

Category:

childcare, Classrooms, play, preschool

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Observation in Your Preschool Program

Observation is a vital part of assessing the preschoolers in your program. I first discovered the importance of observation when I was enrolled in the childcare field base program here in St.Louis through the local community college.

Observation is simply writing down the behaviors that you see in your environment.

If you happen to  be very experienced at recording observations this blog post may simply be a refresher coarse of what you may already know about child observation.

If you are not experienced at writing observations or not sure why it should be a vital part of your preschool program, this post will walk you through the process and how you can use observations to assess the children in your preschool program. Furthermore at the end of the post, I have attached links to more observation resources.

Here is an example of what an observation of two preschoolers in the Block Area:

It is 9:30am and Johnny and Karen are playing in the block area. Johnny was building in the block area alone. Karen walked over and asked, can I play? Johnny yelled…”NO!” Karen walked  away crying.

After reading the observation above, what did you discover about both children? I am going to guess that you discovered an opportunity to encourage kindness and friendship. Also, an opportunity to encourage Karen to use her words and to teach Johnny to share.

Moreover, the observation above could be used as an inspiration to read books about being kind to our friends and promoting sharing in the play areas.

You may have come to other conclusions, However, I just wanted to give a brief overview of why observation is so important in preschool and how it allows you to determine what the children in your care really needs.

When I hire new teachers, they usually ask me, how often do I expect them to record observations. I tell simply them to record as many observations as they desire, because the more that you observe young children; the more  you will discover about their developmental needs.

Just in case you are a home provider or your teachers may complain about the paper work, I would like to share with you how I make the observation process in my center easy and convenient.

  • Carry sticky notes in your pocket
  • Have observation forms copied and already labeled with each child’s name on a clip board in the classroom.
  • Record the classroom for 30 minutes a day and then go back and write down the observations on paper
  • If you have a digital camera system, use the camera system as an observation and training tool for staff

I hope that you have been inspired to use observation in your preschool program. If you are already using observation tools, keep up the good work!

Here are some child observation resources:

Forms for Observation

Guidelines for Preschool Learning Experiences Free e-book!

Learning Through Child Observation Free e-book!

Child Profile Observation Form

 

To Your Success in the Business Of Child Care,

Shiketa

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I want to help you to Succeed!! Feel free to email your childcare business questions to me at childcarenews@aol.com.

Category:

Assessment, Child Care Center, Family Child Care, Lesson Planning, preschool, Quality Care

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