The Everything ECE Podcast

So often, when people think about risky play, they think about physical risk. In this episode of The Everything ECE Podcast, Laura Hansen presents the concept of social-emotional risky play in early childhood education. Children need to be emotionally ready to take risks before they physically take that risk. In addition, educators also need to be emotionally ready to support children’s risky play. This episode is a great way to self-reflect on your own feelings about risky play and how you can support yourself and your students.

Show Notes: elfoundations.com/87

How to Work with Carla

There are many ways to observe a child in Early Childhood Education. In today's podcast, listeners will learn five observation methods they can use from a social science perspective. Observations help educators get to know their students, help with program planning and help document changes in behaviours.

Things need to change in Early Childhood Education and soon!

Are you ready to get loud(er)? Are you ready to be heard? Are you ready to start a revolution? Well, on today’s episode of The Everything ECE Podcast, the amazing Rae Pica is ready to guide you on how! Rae has launched her book, Spark an ECE Revolution and she shares some golden nuggets in the episode on why and how we need to get started.

www.raepica.com

Spark a Revolution- https://raepica.teachable.com/p/revolution 

Mark-making is the creation of different lines, dots, patterns, textures and shapes. It is the first step in a child's development toward learning to write. In this episode of The Everything ECE Podcast, host, Carla Ward, takes you through the benefits of mark-making, why we can't skip it and go straight to writing letters and how to support mark-making in the classroom.

This episode is sponsored by Famly. Famly is an Early Childhood Platform that gives all the adults involved in a child’s early life a place to connect, learn, and handle admin together.

First built in Denmark in 2013, the platform is designed to help different grown-ups who care for young children either to collaborate or to take work out of their hands.

This means more information is shared between the families, early education providers, and all people involved in a child’s life so that everyone gets a better understanding of how to help them thrive. And on top of that, we help to save more educator time for the stuff that matters and help providers grow their businesses. That is how we help to give every child the best start to life.

All in all, Famly supports 6300+ early education providers in 10 countries (primarily: UK, Nordics, Germany, US) to build relationships with more than 430,000 parents.- Website

Links Mentioned in this Episode

Veronica Green joins Carla on The Everything ECE Podcast to discuss going beyond documentation apps in child care. They discuss the intent and the intended audience behind documentation and ways to use documentation in an authentic way and not just something to check off a to-do list.

Do you belong at your child care centre? Do you feel a sense of belonging in your place of work? Hopefully, you just answered yes but more often than not, that is not the case for all ECEs. This episode is about building a sense of belonging within your team and why it is so important! Adults need to feel a sense of belonging to thrive!

This episode is one with many twists and turns. Carla had the pleasure of speaking with Lynette Arthur. They discussed the many things surrounding the wonder of children and the AHA moments that so often come up while teaching and why it’s important to lean in and let them be who they’re going to be. One minute the conversation is about magic and the next, it’s about the funeral and resurrection of a class guinea pig! Most unusual but quite perfect for Halloween week.

Inviting children to play does not mean inviting them to what you, the educator, thinks will be fun. It’s about meeting the needs of the individual child. There needs to be a purpose and intent behind everything we do in Early Childhood Education. Our why. Today’s podcast guest, Julie Hansen, owner of Inspired ECE, shares amazing strategies on how to bring inquiry-based learning and play invitations to our programs.

Rachelle Gibbs, an RECE, professional coach and meditation teacher, joins The Everything ECE Podcast to discuss mindfulness and why we need to embrace it not only in our daily lives but the lives of our students. She takes us through a step-by-step process on how to be present while brushing our teeth and let me tell you...it's beyond what you expect! Rachelle shares many ways to bring mindfulness to your program and how to keep it fun!

Show Notes: elfoundations.com/79

How to Work with Carla

As educators who teach children, it is important for us to also be researchers and keep ourselves connected with learning. That means reading books and blogs and listening to podcasts; finding ways to absorb new information. In this episode, Carla shares 5 resource books that have made an impact on her teaching and will hopefully make an impact on you too!

Show Notes: elfoundations.com/78

How to Work with Carla