I did a podcast and talked about Birdsall House and child care in KC.
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Tag: Mixed aged groups
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Teaching with a mask on
When we decided to reopen in May of 2022, we put in place recommended Covid precautions, which included having all staff members wear masks.
Most of our students have been with us for awhile and we knew they would be alright with us wearing masks but we had infants scheduled to start and we had some concerns about that. I spoke with other directors and with teachers and everyone was expressing the same concern.
We worried that it would be difficult for them to get to know us and trust us with half our faces covered. We worried that they would have a hard time with language development because they could not see our mouths to mimic our movements. I love having babbling conversations with infants and was worried that the mask might hinder that. Basically we worried about a lot of things but we knew that we had no choice, we needed to keep everyone safe, that was our first priority, so we needed to wear masks.
There was no need for us to worry. As often happens, we were not giving infants/toddlers enough credit.
They have had no trouble getting to know us and telling us apart. They can tell our faces by our eyes and eyebrow shapes. They can tell us apart by our voices. When a new teacher comes into the room and greats the little ones, their faces light up.
They have not had trouble with language development. For one thing, they see their parents faces at home and can see their mouths move. For another, they are adapting and focusing more on the different sounds they hear than on the movement of our mouths. I can still have babble conversations with the infants and while they can’t see my mouth as I make new sounds, they still try to mimic the sounds I make and laugh when I make the same sound they are making.
In the four months that we have been open, three infants have started in our program and there has not been any difference in how they have adjusted than infants in the past.
We also have toddlers who are starting to mimic words and the masks don’t seem to be limiting their understanding at all.
So, while wearing masks may not be ideal, it is not turning out to be the problem many of us thought it would.
When you have staff who love their job and the children they care for, masks can’t hide that and the children know it.
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Not STEM, not STEAM but STREAM!!
You hear a lot of talk about STEM education and about STEAM, I’m personally glad they added the A for arts because art is a great learning tool but neither of those are appropriate for early childhood for a couple of reasons.
First, children are natural scientist, engineer’s, artist and inventors, all we need to do is give them the freedom to do so. So STEAM in early childhood should be naturally happening.
Second, what is needed most in early childhood is relationships.
Here at Birdsall House we let the STEAM happen naturally and we add the R to make STREAM through consistency in staffing and fostering respectful relationships from infancy on.
By modeling caring respectful interactions we teach the children how to have caring respectful interactions, themselves.
I remember watching one of our students who was three at the time playing with a one year old. She was using a blanket to cover and uncover the one year old and each time she would stop and say “did you like that? Do you want me to do that again?” which was met with a giggle indicating “yes”.
Not only are the relationships between the children important but also the relationship between child and staff really matter. When children feel safe with and loved by their caregiver, they feel free to experiment and explore, which leads to learning.
There is one negative to building these strong relationship though, the same feelings of safety and love that allow an infants to explore, also allow a toddler to push push push the limits. But we are ok with that, we know it’s their way of learning what is expectable and we feel honored that they trust us enough for them to push the limits, knowing they will always be kept safe and loved.
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Mixed ages, it’s only natural
One of the most unique things about Birdsall House is our mixed age group setting. In a home, children are not usually born in litters and the younger ones learn from the older ones. Yet for some reason the traditional early childhood setting separates children by age. When you do find a program that has mixed ages groups they separate the infants and toddlers from the older children, in fact in Missouri if you have more than 20 children in your care, you have to have a floor to ceiling wall between these groups. When I found this out I was very disappointed and decided the benefits of mixed ages was so great that we will keep all our centers at 20 children or less.
Here are the reasons I feel so strongly about letting our infants and toddlers interact with our 3,4, 5 year old’s and more.
Children learn by observing and mimicking, if children are only with children their age, they will not be inspired as much as if they are with older children.
Here we see a two year old being inspired to challenge himself by watching his 7 year old brother.
Children develop a sense of family with their fellow students and the older children get the opportunity to mentor and take a leadership role.
Children do not feel pressure to achieve a skill or reach a milestone. Everyone is at a different place in their development. The children accept each other for where they are and encourage each other when they try something new.
There is no better way to interest a child in learning than for them to see their bigger friends doing it.
Not only do the children learn from and teach each other, they also stay with the same group of teachers from infancy to when they leave for elementary school.
I can’t imagine going back to teaching in a single aged classroom, I see no benefit to it and would miss seeing magical interactions like this.
