Mindfulness and Purpose in Early Childhood Education

WHAT IS CROWDSOURCING? It's the process of obtaining needed services, ideas, or content by getting contributions from a large group of people, and especially from an online community, rather than from traditional employees or suppliers. (Wikipedia)   Keeping ideas fresh is important for ECEs, and staying on top of collective ideas in the field is easier now with online access to pages, blogs, groups, and feeds.  It's almost too easy, bordering on overwhelming, with a virtual sea of information out there.   If you would like to get connected to the community hub but feel lost on where to start,  bookmark some of these Linked In pages and groups (if you don’t have a linked in account, now is a good time to get one) as starting points to begin:   Linked IN Pages and Groups: Early Childhood Education Forum for Professionals and Parents Research in Early Childhood Education The Childcare Network Early Childhood Education Networks Early ...

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...