Dilly Days with Beth and Joellyn: Authors of The InvestiGator Club™ for Robert-Leslie Publishing

Join us at the NAEYC Convention on the trade show floor in booth #2226 for informative, engaging mini-sessions. You can attend Thursday or Friday. These are open events. Topics are as follows:

10:30 a.m. – Social and Emotional Development
11:30 a.m. – The InvestiGator Club Prekindergarten Learning System Core Curriculum
1:30 p.m. – Adaptive Learning to Include All Children
2:30 p.m. – Teaching the Spanish Preschooler
3:30 p.m. – Just for Threes
4:30 p.m. – Fine Arts in the Preschool Classroom

See you there!

My good friend and colleague, Maria Gonzalez, and I are delivering a workshop at the NAEYC Convention in Dallas this coming November. Please join us on Friday, November 7 from 10 to 11:30 AM at the Hyatt Regency in Cumberland C. During this session, we will explore a variety of approaches for the Spanish-speaking preschool setting. You will learn to tap into young learners’ curiosity through rich, meaningful Spanish literature, song, and storytelling experiences that develop children’s Spanish literacy skills, including oral language, vocabulary development, and comprehension skills. In addition, you’ll learn about a variety of Spanish literature, song, and storytelling opportunities that invite children to be active participants in content-area learning with a mindful approach. More NAEYC workshop and booth news to come! Stay tuned!

I am sitting at my desk in Florida. Florida, whose nickname is “The Sunshine State,” has been anything but sunny for the last few weeks. Tropical storms and hurricanes have been in our weather forecast constantly. I’ve watched intently as Gustav made his way up the Gulf Coast, leaving flood waters, downed trees, power outages, and destruction in his path. Now as Hanna and Ike bear down on the United States, we’ve secured our home and gathered emergency equipment, food and water in the event that any of these storms hit us. We cautiously wait and watch as the storms churn around us, our nerves a little frazzled and our anxiety levels heightened. We are alert and ready to take action if necessary.

Young children are very susceptible to fear and anxiety about storms, too. This is particularly true if they:
• have had direct experience with a bad storm in the past.
• are sensitive to your heightened anxiety.
• have a vivid imagination.
• see and hear about the storm on TV.

So, I’m wondering what preschool teachers and parents do to reassure children and help them overcome their fears. This is such an important topic, I’d love to hear what you’ve done that works.

Here are 2 comments from parents in Orlando:

Alaina: As much as possible, I try to keep to our regular schedule. It makes my daughter feel more secure and heads off those “I’m over-tired tears.” Bedtime is the hardest time, so I make sure that we eat at our regular time, bathe, and get ready for bed as we always do. Then, we snuggle up together and I read Emily’s favorite story – Good Night Moon.

Carissa: We prepared for the storms by securing patio furniture, garbage cans, and other objects that might become airborne projectiles. Since Spencer loves to build things, I alleviated the tension by bringing the patio furniture into the playroom and letting him build forts with it. It kept him busy and his mind off the wind and the rain outside.

Please take a minute to share your experiences and suggestions.

Pre-K Now, a public education and advocacy organization that advances high-quality, voluntary pre-kindergarten for all three and four year olds, provides a state-by-state report on the quality of preschool education today. To see how your state ranks according to Pre-K Now, go to Mapping Pre-K. Then come back to Dilly Days and let us know if you agree with their assessment. We’d love to hear from you!