A retrospective exploration into pre-school years!

'I'm just a parent', usually uttered with a shrug of the shoulders.  It's a phrase where the word 'just' doesn't belong.  Shall we review the transferable skills of a parent? * Leadership - you're the natural leader of the pack and make the decisions every single day.  * Patience - you need it in bucket loads. * Creativity/intuition - Keeping a child amused on a long far ride, need I say more?  * Teaching - passing on your knowledge of early years ed, values, social rules, life skills. * Resiliance - You need an unbelievable amount of mental and emotional strength.  * Self control - Every parent has had to leave the room or close their eyes and count to ten before continuing a conversation against a toddler or a teenager or any aged child in between. There is little difference between children and customers in this respect.  * Negotiating - it does not matter if you have one or ten children, negotiating will occur on a daily basis. Parents deserve the ho...

Early years education officially spans over the first five years of life before formal schooling begins, whether this will be home education or school led.  I personally dislike bringing age into it because then it becomes a race, with a tight goal. Innate pressure to perform and the world of competition begins, taking away the joy.  There exists a tick box if you will. However, every child should be given the space to explore this half a decade at their own pace.  Some children will need more time than others, and having had a couple of children with a myriad of special needs, I became very aware of the tight time frames given for every skill. They didn't sit up or walk or talk at the right age, so they were a failure in the eyes of professionals. Their successes were never appreciated or celebrated by the powers at be, they just consistently failed their tickboxes. This negativity can really bring you down as a parent. I finally broke free from this world and mindset an...

Choice can be fruitful. It can also be overwhelming. I find every part of early years and home education requires discernment and choice. As a result, it means that everyone's learning journey is unique.  The resources available are vast, even books can be a minefield. It is arguably one of the most important umbrella resources. Yet parents can be left feeling bewildered and uncertain which direction to choose. The prospect of teaching our child to read can be scary. We can get caught up in the 'what ifs' and fear.  After all, reading is a crucial life/survival skill, not just an academic one, which might not be used.  I narrowed down the overwhelming choice by following a set formula.  1) Place your child at the centre and modify this template to showcase their personal interests. 2) The Classics. Every culture will have their own personal children's classics. Thus it is subjective to a degree.This genre for myself includes Beatrix Potter, The Very Hungry Caterpilla...

Within the golden years of early years education you'll have so much more fun and have a far more fruitful and successful outcome if you place age far away from your mind.  Age is irrelevant to a degree at this stage.  A three year old can be more proficient in transferable skills than a six year old. Now doesn't that sound negative? It wasn't meant to be. It is a simple fact, however it holds an extremely negative vibe. Straight away you're thinking, how clever is the three year old and wondering what's wrong with the six year old.  This is so damaging and unfair. In this theoretical scenario, the three year old was engaged, showing cues that they were ready to begin learning through play. They began the learning journey step by step, gently at their pace, through fun and play, resulting in being able to read and write. The six year old in this case may have missed out in some of the steps in the early years journey. There may be a developmental delay in motor skil...

Xander failed his two year old assessment test set by the health departments.  His fine and gross motor skills were not where they should be. He wasn't drawing a house.  He wasn't threading beads.  He wasn't as agile as he should be. The list went on. He failed every question. He is an extreme preemie, born at 28weeks, so the above was expected. As a mother you don't like hearing they've 'failed' though. They didn't want to know about his cognitive skills and just dismissed this part of him. He wasn't expected to do it yet so it didn't count. I did my own review with Xander at this time in the form of a verbal quiz. He told me 1-10 in Japanese, his colours in English and Japanese, counted 1-23 in English, and pointed out and named 14 body parts including his heart.  He recognised the alphabet out of sequence and told me a word example without prompting: Alligator, baby, cat, daddy, elephant, funny, grumpy, hippo, insect, jump, kangaroo, lion, mum...

This occured in their golden age of toddlerdom. It was their first time within arts and crafts using glue and embellishments.  It didn't go as I had envisioned in my mind. Then again I wasn't certain back then that we had two girls on the spectrum. In retrospect it makes perfect sense. Sophia wanted to just order everything and find a home for each specific group of trimmings.  Kira gave a running commentary of everything she picked up, describing the colour, shape, and the feel of it before she passed it to me to stick down. Neither wanted to touch the glue.  They were very happy and content. They were learning and processing. I could tell this at the time and now armed with what I know about the girls I am certain.  Kira loves talking about facts and information, and Sophia finds peace and calm in ordering. She goes to a happy place.  I wasn't leading the session, there was no objective. It was a perfect time to observe the girls and see how they respond to ne...

Music and learning/retaining knowledge have very strong ties. The emotion invoked through the music makes all the difference.  Sophia uses music to process and she first used it to deal with her medical trauma. She would sing in the car about the journey, what would be happening, and how she would be feeling. On return home she'd sing about it as well.  As she grew older, she processed her feelings through playing the piano. She uses music within learning and recalling knowledge as well. She wanders away from the original learning lyrics and replaces it with her own. I find this extremely useful. It's her version of retelling a story in her own words. She makes a song up using her knowledge. One example comes to mind. One day I heard these beautiful lyrics wafting from the bathroom....  'The food travels to the stomach to do a dance and then down to the intestines to squeeze squeeze squeeze and ahhh'. It's a no brainer what she was doing on the toilet towards the la...