Today's post is by Nanette (@scrappymummy), who says:

Hi I’m Nanette a stay at home, home-educating mummy to three boys aged 2 to 8 yrs old, living in Bonnie Scotland. I also have to confess I’m one of the ‘newbies’ you have been warned about, lol. New in lots of ways - new to blogging (www.littleboybluetoddleschool.blogspot.co.uk), new to guest posts (so please be kind) and also new (8 yrs anyway) to child care and education (I was a nurse who did health education with adults!)

So here is my penny worth.....

Boys Will Be Boys

Have you ever heard the term ‘gender neutral’? The first time I heard it being banded about was in a news report about a child care facility in Sweeden (www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-14038419) and also an article about a child being raised ‘gender nuteral’ (www.telegraph.co.uk/news/9028479) The question I asked when reading these articles was “What is wrong with embracng or even celebrating the differences, diversities, abilities and true individuality that either gender has, in fact that any child has?”

As you have guessed already I’m female, not a die-hard girly-girl or a "yummy mummy," but even I noticed the differences between my friends' girls & my boys, early on. Science has also noted some of the biological differences in the genders and it’s not just reproductive parts! Generally boys continue growing longer than girls and therefore end up taller than girls; generally girls begin puberty 2 years before boys; hormone differences; bone density; and many many more. There are also studies into gender differences in the sequence of brain development (http://www.education.com/reference/article/Ref_Boys_Girls/). This has led me to question: can we and should we treat our girls and boys the exact same and/or expect the same from them? Controversial, I know, but it does influence how we care for and educate children in our care, whatever the setting, also the results we get!

It’s a given that there are certain behaviours society expects from its citizens but sometimes I feel we squash the boyishness out of our boys and the girlishness out of our girls by trying to be too Politically Correct. In my experience as a mum of three boys I am learning to embrace the boyishness in them head-on and wanted to share something of that with you.

Being female, there are some things I find gross, rude and generally disgusting, but my boys and even daddy (sometimes especially daddy) think are hilarious and I fight back my desire to have them conform to my gentle disposition!

Physical

At 18 months old I found my middle son had climbed up onto our high TV unit and was hugging the TV; one used the back of the sofa like a balance beam; another stood balanced on the tip of the seat of his trike until someone saw him and went "ta da!"My boys have always been physically active and fidgety, whether it be pulling everything out & climbing in boxes, building dens and doing lessons in there, re-enacting battles, digging in muck & getting dirty, or climbing up the outside of a tube slide!  To account for this activity, we have frequent breaks in our school day. I get them to run round the house 10 times before settling to concentrate on something important, they do karate lessons, gymnastics classes, and if a lesson can include physical activity, it does. I also don’t expect them to sit still for read aloud story time: I try to gather toys pertaining to the story for them to play with. I discovered my eldest was pick, pick, picking at his nails recently & when asked why he said he did it when concentrating so we have now put together some fidget toys.

Bugs & Beasties

One day my son came into the house with this horrible green, smelly slime stuck tight to his fingers and hands, when asked what he had been doing he said “ I was helping a slug get out of a shell!” He had squished a poor snail and ripped it from it’s shell (skeleton)!

If you could see my face in some of these pictures, you would know how I truly feel about bugs and beasties!

My boys, however, adore them, as you can see!

I have forced myself to handle, dig for, examine, study and photograph things I’d much rather avoid, ignore or stamp on! While learning with them we have watched National Geographic

programs, Deadly 60(by the BBC), gone on bug hunts, woodland safari, and outings to zoos; all for the boys' love of bugs and beasties! Believe it or not I have even had some stay overnight in the house, but in their bug barn!

Toilet Humor

There is nothing my boys like better than to burp... As
for me it makes me want to vomit, but they would
probably laugh at that too! I remember being on a car
journey as a family and all the boys did in the back
seat was say poop, fart, bum, pee and burp over and over! They were only 4 ½ and 2 ½ years old at the time, I scolded and said “Right no more poop, pee, fart, bum..... enough!” at that my 2 ½ year old looked at me with a smug grin on his face and said “Fartypants.” He knew this was not in my combination of words not to be said and that he got one over on me. My husband burst into laughter and I knew I had lost the battle! My boys can burp their names, A,B,C’s and count and love the Captain Underpants books as well as the book "Who’s in the loo?"! I’m still at a bit of a loss as to know what to do with this one but at the moment the compromise is - not at the dinner table or in front of company!

Balance

I’m not trying to make sweeping generalizations here. I know girls do some of these things too, just like we have a balance - it’s not all guts and gore, lol! Like all families we have times of sweet loving kindness, baking, sewing, household chores, smelling the flowers, appreciating beauty and quietness 

(maybe not just as much!)

The boys have owned play pink buggies, dolls, dressed up as princesses, and one's favourite colour is pink! I’m not promoting that each gender play only with the ‘gender specific’ toys so they can become 1950 stereotypes. My concern is that we have ‘thrown the baby out with the bathwater’ as the saying goes, thinking it necessary for equality later in life! I think if we don’t encourage or cultivate that curious, adventurous and high spirited nature found more in boys and deemed it less acceptable than a soft, quiet or emotional nature (sometimes for our own comfort and ease to teach) then what message will that send? It’s not ok to be you? You must conform to be the same, look the same and achieve the same? What will be the result? Clones? I don’t think I’ll be producing an clones here any time soon!

Even if it goes against your nature or makes more work try and embrace, encourage and value the curious, adventurous and high-spirited child (whether boy or girl)!

Celebrating Creative Superheroes

Today's post comes from Kathy Melton, who is a principal in Oswego, Illinois.

With a 5th grader, two 3rd graders, & a 1st grader all under my roof, I have enjoyed (understatement) seeing how my children's own learning has developed within and beyond the walls of their schools. Further, from an academic programming standpoint, two of my daughters are English Language Learners, having joined our family three years ago from Ethiopia. Three of my children have participated in reading intervention, two in speech and language support, and one in academically talented services. As an educator and a mom, I understand how varied the needs of children can be and how much of a challenge it can be to both enrich and support.

I also know the incredible gift of seeing creative energy unfold in my own children aside from any of the ways we might describe their academic path; I believe all children have this within. In recent weeks, I read and commented on Day 5: Dreaming About Education by @stumpteacher #12DOD on Brett Clark's blog. Josh Stumpenhorst's post mentioned engaging children at school at the level they are engaged at home and the need for parents and teachers to come together, among many other points I recommend you take time to read and consider. I considered these words as a mom rather than simply a school principal and shared this:

So many items here that I agree with as an educator and a mom, Josh. Wondering if I could do better as a mom to share out the engaged learning that happens in my home. Recently our basement has been transformed into 'Hogwarts' where my kids and their cousins created a class to teach one another. My son and his friends also took sidewalk chalk to the unfinished basement floor a different day to draw bases for their Star Wars ships as they mapped out what my son calls a figure battle. How do we share what happens unprompted in our homes with a larger community to demonstrate what can happen? I know as an educator, I've considered and reconsidered a lot from observing this in my own home coupled with my conversations with educator/parents like you.

So as educators and parents, how DO we harness this creative energy? How do we make that super-power a way of being and not just a fleeting moment when they are very young? How do we know that the spirit we see in kindergarten can continue to shape them as learners beyond? While this can indeed lead into some complex conversations from homework to developmentally appropriate practice and beyond, start by thinking what you can do in your role ,whether it be parent, teacher, administrator, or teacher of teachers, to promote and value student creativity; it is probably more than you realize. 

I think back to visiting a class the last week before winter break that was being led by a substitute teacher. As the children prepared to color seals, the substitute talked about what color seals should be and what colors or patterns they are simply not. I couldn’t help but smile as I watched twenty-four little kindergarten heads shake back and forth in disagreement. One girl stated: “It is okay for my seal to have stripes if I want. My teacher said" 

Let’s pledge to encourage that creativity where we can, celebrate it when we see it, and be outspoken about "permission." If you feel the same and are a teacher, do your students know you’re inspired by their creativity and want them to use that gift? If you’re an administrator and you agree, do your teachers know where you stand? Do they know creative sometimes trumps “right”? And back to the initial question I posed to Josh, how do we showcase that creativity so that its difference-making power shines through?

You can find Kathy on Twitter: @principalkmelt, check out her blog: Once Upon a Principalship; or send her an e-mail.

Tomorrow: "Teaching with Intention," by @countryfunCC.

#Kinderblog2012: A new challenge!

Hello friends!

First of all, a huge thanks to everyone who has participated (and is still participating in) the #kinderblog2012 summer blogging challenge. I know I still have a few questions to answer over on my own blog (did you SEE my new blog? www.missnightmutters.com. I migrated from blogger, and it was kind of a pain-in-the-place-where-the-sun-don't-shine to get it all moved and working, but Holy Jazzy Journals, Batman, do I EVER like the new setup. Head on over and visit if you haven't already!), and I don't want anyone else to feel pressured or rushed about finishing, either.

THAT SAID: It seems like lots of you would like to continue the challenge throughout the school year, and I think that is a scrumptious idea. I would love to hang out and write with you all, all the time. AND, in a happy stroke of serendipity, earlier today, I was hanging out over at AskMoxie. (If you don't read Moxie already, you should, even if you are not a parent. It is truly one of my favourite sites for general thoughts and reflections about kids and families, and the community over there is lovely.) There is quite a stream of comments about what parents worry about as the start of a new school year approaches. If you read through the comments, you will see that I chimed in with the fact that every August, I start to worry about WHAT IF I HAVE FORGOTTEN HOW TO TEACH??

So, that inspired me to do an impromptu mid-week assignment for you all: what are the secrets you wish parents knew at the start of a new school year? What things might help parents feel better about their child entering your classroom in a few days or weeks?

Don't forget to tweet your responses using #kinderblog (I'm thinking we should drop the '2012', since it looks like we will go on indefinitely), and to link to your response here in the comments. Also, I'll probably add a comment over at AskMoxie, to let parents know we are doing this - it's good to build bridges, especially at this time of year.

Ok, let those typing fingers fly!

Smiles and Sunshine;
Amy

Facebook Family Forum

So! The Facebook Family Forum, huh?! :D What have we wandered into here?! The land of Facebook! Tangles and all! But you cannot dispute its wide appeal and usage. We believe this is where our Parents are and where we can begin to create a globaled community of Parents and Professionals engaged in dialogue about the joys and challenges of working with Young Children.

So with all its scars, issues and fears, perceived or real, we are using Facebook to host The Official Kinderchat Family Forum inspired and under the direction of @Matt_Gomez.


1. Why is Mr Gomez using Facebook again this year?

• Check out the feedback from his Class Parents last year

2. What kinds of stuff did Mr Gomez post? I don't want pictures of my kids on Facebook.

• Check out the kinds of Parent dialogue Mr Gomez fostered daily

3. Multiple Choice :D

    A. Looks good, I'm interested! Sign up here for continued help in creating Class Closed Groups

    B. Am not interested (FB blocked, etc) but would like to engage in FB Family Forum. Use this form:

You can "Like" the Kinderchat blog below and be sure to "Like" Kinderchat on Facebook if you want to join this Project!!

Special Thanks to @Matt_Gomez for pioneering this Project and for leading us in this journey! The only way to learn is to risk, try, fail, flounder and yet this has been a great success. We CAN change the world, even if its one "Like" at a time.

Thanks all for your fun, your willingness to Play and your support for each other every day. We are so lucky to have found one another.

Good Luck to ALL as we begin to start school, get to know our new students and Parents. As always, we hope that Kinderchat makes your job easier, more fun and more connected to the world.

Love,
Heidi