A Ballerina Mouse

My granddaughter wanted to be a ballerina mouse for Halloween last fall. That theme carried over into her summer plans for a wonderful birthday. And why not? Why shouldn't children still have the opportunity to dream and pretend that life is full of wonderful surprises.

I worry sometimes that children are not encouraged to build an imagination and dream about possibilities. I was sharing with students recently how I used to hurry home from school to play in the hills around our small-town home. I remember making mud pies, building a tree house, playing with the dog and many other things. I didn't even consider watching television or going from one planned practice to another. It is wonderful that we have so many opportunities and options for children in 2010. However, I worry that imagination and creativity is in jeopardy. We need to make sure that children still are encouraged to explore and create their own adventures.

So, Audrey wanted to be a ballerina mouse. No one told her that there was no such thing or that she couldn't pull it off. She WAS a ballerina mouse. It was a great birthday. I wonder what she will come up with for Halloween this fall. It is sure to be good.

Eat Your Breakfast!

A new study from the University of Essex has drawn a link between child obesity and breakfast - basically, the researchers concluded that those children who skip breakfast before going to school were more likely to be obese.

The research has been published in the European Journal of Clinical Nutrition, under the snappy title of 'Associations between habitual school-day breakfast consumption, body mass index, physical activity and cardiorespiratory fitness in English schoolchildren.' UCB students can access this article in full via the Gale service in Athens.

Playday 2010

Yesterday was the 22nd annual Playday, an event organised by the National Children's Bureau which celebrates the right of children to play. This year the theme was 'Our Place', with an emphasis on creating better places for children to live and play.

To coincide with the event, each year some research is commissioned to tie in with the chosen theme. Among this year's publications is a poll which found that half of all adults think it is unsafe to let a child play outside without supervision. For links to all of the Playday 2010 research with information on communities and play, click here.

EYFS Review

Do you want to help shape the future direction of early years policy in the UK? Following the recent announcement that the government was inviting Dame Clare Tickell to carry out a review of the Early Years Foundation Stage framework, an area for consultation has now appeared on the website of the Department for Education. Click here to visit the site and have your say.

Nurseries, childminders, parents and experts have until 30 September to contribute to the EYFS review.

Developmentally Appropriate Fine Motor Skills

Wouldn't you know that I forgot the most important part of the discussion during my last entry about the triangular crayons. The most important part of that issue is not the crayon staying on the table, it is how the shape of the crayon will help young children develop fine motor skills.

During my 30+ years working in classrooms as a teacher and supervisor, I am continually reminded that we push young children into a corner with many activities that we plan and materials that we use. Early in my years of teaching kindergarten I re-discovered a monumental truth taught to me many years ago. Back in the 'olden days' my first grade teacher had it right. She insisted that we use large 'horse-leg' pencils during that first year of school (we didn't do much during the six-week summer preschool they called kindergarten back in the day). Mrs. Conklin seemed to know that our fine-motor skills were still in development. In keeping with that thinking as a teacher, I began using large-size crayons and pencils for the first half of the kindergarten year. Come January, I would slowly transition the children to standard-size instruments.

All I know is that my children consistently wrote, drew, painted and did everything better by the end of that school year. I felt it was one of my contributions to recognizing there are developmental stages to fine motor skills. Can young children write with regular pencils and crayons? Sure. But, I have observed children having difficulty with fine motor control. A child in that situation is encouraged practice. Perhaps instead of encouraging practice the adult should give the child more appropriate materials to use for her developmental level.

Now, these new triangular crayons and pencils can serve the same purpose. They give a slightly larger surface area and great angles for children to develop those skills.

Mrs. Conklin would be happy.

Mothers Returning to Work

A major new US study has investigated the effects on young children's wellbeing when mothers return to work within months of giving birth. The academics from New York's Columbia University School of Social Work who conducted the study concluded that when mothers returned to work, this did not impact adversely on their offspring's development. This is in contrast to other recent studies from Essex University and UNICEF which suggested that childrens' development could be affected by such circumstances.

The full study comprises the latest issue of Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development. UCB students can access this in full by entering the Wiley InterScience site in Athens.