Not Just Cute, the Podcast: Intentional Whole Child Development for Parents and Teachers of Young Children

Today, I’m talking about the Consensus Statement released by the Brookings Institute on the Current State of Scientific Knowledge on Pre Kindergarten Effects. Ten of the top scholars on issues of early learning came together and outlined what they agree is known and needs to be known about the pre kindergarten experience. They’re tackling questions like what outcomes can we expect in the long and short term from large scale preK programs, and what elements come together to make a high quality preK setting. This is a rigorously scientific discussion of early childhood education, the kind of thing that makes my nerdy heart go pitter patter.

This second read goes back all the way to 2014, but it’s a concept I still use frequently when speaking to groups about the importance of the foundational work in early childhood, and how it can -unfortunately- often be overlooked. Just like the foundation of our homes, foundational learning may sometimes be hard to see, but is critical to supporting everything that follows.

Today, I’m talking again with Emily Plank, author of Discovering The Culture of Childhood. It’s the read-along selection this year, for Not Just Cute readers. That means instead of one overview, I get to have several in-depth chats with Emily. It’s been an eye-opener for me, and I know I’m not the only one because I’ve been hearing a lot of great things from listeners as well! In this episode, we’ll be discussing chapters 3 and 4 of her book. We’re looking, largely, at how play serves as the language of childhood, and what kinds of problems arise when adults begin to forget their native tongue. We'll discuss tricky topics like pretend violent play, dealing with childhood fears, and how to support truly rich play environments. As always, Emily invites us to put on a new pair of spectacles and see childhood in a new way, and what she helps us discover there is truly fascinating.

Today, I’m talking about redshirting. You may know the term from college sports, where athletes can be redshirted for a year, keeping them out of the game but giving them an extra year of eligibility. Kindergarten redshirting is a similar concept, giving kids an extra year beyond their eligibility before enrolling them. I’ll confess, I personally cringe at the term because I think it conveys—to some – the idea that kids are being held back to give them an advantage at sports. Which, arguably, some are. But the reasons why parents give their kids an extra year before starting kindergarten reach much beyond that. Today, I’m joined by my friend, Allison Mac Donald, who writes at No Time for Flash Cards. She’s a teacher, a book author, a graduate student, a marathoner, and a mom to two rad kids. She and I are chatting today about why some parents choose to give their kids an extra year, what that means from a systems perspective, what factors play into the decision from a personal perspective, and some of the other options parents may not have considered. I have a lot of parents ask me about my opinion about kindergarten redshirting, and –like many parenting dilemmas--- it just doesn’t have an easy, clean answer. So I’m glad Allie’s here to help me sort through the information.

(A quick listener note: The audio equipment wasn’t functioning properly during this recording, so the quality isn’t what I’d like it to be. But the conversation was so good, I didn’t want to scrap it. While I hope future recordings meet higher expectations, I think you’ll agree this one is worth tolerating the imperfections!)

Today, I’m revisiting a post from 2016, which I wrote at the beginning of last year’s read along, Rae Pica’s book, What if Everybody Understood Child Development. (You can find links to that read along in the original post.) In the post, I shared some striking contradictions I’d notice as I’d been going over a few different pieces of research from early childhood settings. Contradictions between what we know young children need, and the trends toward what we were actually delivering in early childhood settings.

Do we see childhood for what it really is? Are we ready to challenge our ideas and put on a new pair of spectacles? Emily Plank joins us for the second in a series of discussions about her book, Discovering the Culture of Childhood. In this episode, she talks about friendships in early childhood, the tricky task of entering play, and how adults can better support authentic social growth.

In this episode, I'm answering a reader's two-part question. First, what are some suggestions for redirecting children and second, what did I mean when I wrote that "teachable moments cannot occur when children are in an emotional state." With the first question, we'll examine what redirection really means, and how it differs from distraction. For the second question, I start by doing some clarifying as well. And even as I listen to the show again, I realize I could have made even more clarification: When I reference "learning" in this podcast I'm referring to "upstairs brain" learning. Logical reasoning, decision-making, etc. Secondly, when we talk about stress and negative emotion getting in the way of learning and performing, there's an argument to be made that (particularly for adults) some degree of stress actually enhances performance rather than getting in the way. This is true for healthy levels of stress and for people who have healthy coping mechanisms for stress and anxiety. Two people (children and adults) can experience the same stress in different ways and the brain's response will be different as well. Have I created more Q's than A's at this point? Join us in this podcast and it will soon become clear! Let's talk about redirecting behavior and the powerful influence of emotion on learning.

In this episode, I discuss the introdcution of the book, "Discovering the Culture of Childhood", with its author, Emily Plank. (This is the read-along book for NJC readers.) Emily tells us how she began to see childhood and child development through new eyes, and how that changed her as a teacher and parent. (Also, she tells us what the section heading "The Day My Three Year Old Brought Home a Condom" is really all about.)

Second Read: And the Award Goes To... Following the season of Hollywood award shows, I got thinking about who really deserves an award for making a difference in the lives of children. Regular moms, dads, teachers, and care-givers. (Maybe we'd let a few Hollywood elites in too....)

Here's the story behind Not Just Cute -- how it got its name and how it got started. A quick look at what drives the focus on intentional, whole child development at Not Just Cute.