Mindfulness and Purpose in Early Childhood Education

A Modified Project Approach For Purposeful Summer Programming As educators, we can help our students find and explore their passions. Once they discover what they’re truly passionate about, the learning and engagement will never stop. The best way for children to explore their happiness passions is through Genius Hour. Genius Hour isn’t a new concept. Many educators use this method as a scaled down project approach to get children engaged and active in their own learning.  Summer, with the long days of unscheduled or relaxed programming, is a perfect time to try out creating a genius hour if it's your first time. And remember, you don't have to restrict yourself to just an hour a day, you're free to expand the time frame to a morning or afternoon.    TIPS FOR A SUCCESSFUL GENIUS HOUR 1. Let Students Explore Their Interests or 'Happiness Pursuits' ·         Give children enough time to explore and indulge the i...

First, What is Hygge? Hygge, pronounced (hue-gah) is the Danish concept of comfortable and cozy living.   Because winters can be awfully miserable and dark for much of the day, it's important to be able to come home to a warm blanket, a cozy cup of cocoa, a soothing fire and soft lights. Hygge is the enjoyment of creating and celebrating beautiful moments of comfort, acknowledging special feelings of love and friendship, and enjoying the splendor in the ordinary. HYGGE IN CHILD CARE  is creating rich moments for children to enjoy themselves, with each other and their teacher. It's teaching children how to enjoy and appreciate special moments and simple things.      Hygge is appreciating the basics.    The quite everyday things that build a meaningful childhood and life experience. CREATE A HYGGE PLAYROOM Use soft lights – turn off those overhead florescents! Use a water diffuser with essential oils – put it up ...

Feng Shui  is for everyone This ancient Chinese art of placement helps you to arrange your home so that your life is harmonious and your dreams are realized to their fullest. This can also apply to child care settings. When your surroundings nourish you and the children, everyone will feel balanced and motivated. Applying the principles of Feng Shui in the children's rooms can enhance imagination, learning ability, and confidence. Typically, child care rooms can accumulate clutter, and excess clutter creates unnecessary stimulation making it difficult for children to concentrate. Clear the clutter.  Clear the mind. TIPS TO GET STARTED: LIGHTING: Make sure the room has ample sunlight or uses full-spectrum bulbs. The corners should be well lit to avoid dark areas. SEE THE SKY: To fix an oppressive low ceiling, paint it light blue with white billowy clouds to imitate the sky. This image will encourage the children to dream and be imagina...

What can you expect, ECE graduate, from the average day of working in the field? We asked some Ottawa ECEs what they were doing at: 8:45am, 1:30pm, and 3:15pm. Here's what they said: LAUREN 8:45: heading out to the kinder yard to greet the kids and supervise the yard. 1:30: tidying up a table for snacks, and admiring a "sleepover party" that the kids had set up by moving all our chairs onto the carpet to make beds. 3:15: playing "Mario kart", in which the kids and I each run around the painted track on our yard making sound effects and laughing our heads off.     MS-K D     8:45am (after getting my girls up,dressed,lunches made, and out the door too the bus for 8) i have put a load of laundry in from my basement that flooded on Friday! And am working on one of my online courses. 1:30 on a bus going to my school for working in my extended care 2:30 to 5:45 shift 3:15 i was outside in my kinder yard with 40 kinders playing ...

Without a doubt, downtime for ECEs can get relegated to the sidelines in favour of getting just one more thing done before  . . . (add next event here.)   Then before you know it an hour, your lunch time or the whole evening has passed by and you haven't even taken off your work clothes to transition into home time.   Believe ECE in the power of transition.  We do it all the time with our group, but for us?  Like children, having a transition routine for ourselves will definitely help to get our mind from one thing to the next:  think busy playroom to calm rest, relax and unwind time.   Personally, I like to get out of the centre and go for a walk on my lunch.  Removing myself from the environment (my transition) really helps my mind change gears for the hour.   After work, taking a shower and changing my clothes helps my mind unwind and transition to home.  Of course home hold another s...