Dear Beloved Early Learning Educators
Thank you. Only some know how important your work is, and how difficult when it is done right. Supporting the development of the youngest children is not just a responsibility - it's an extraordinary opportunity: if you are well-trained and you work hard, what do with and for young children and their families is an investment that pays off immediately, and the dividends just keep growing every year. It is also really hard to get people, and institutions to understand this - even those charged with early education.
Besides teaching parent child classes, and doing business consulting for preschools, I "work" as an advocate for quality preschool programs. In seeking best practices for the managers of the Santa Monica school district's preschool program, I was referred to the excellent Reggio-Emilia inspired program of the Fullerton Central School District, in Fullerton, CA. This website contains 11 blog posts in a Q & A format designed to help other educational leaders learn from Fullerton's program, and how it was established and resourced. It's also got some things that are of general interest to Early Educators, including some ideas you might want to share with the parents in your programs.
As well as teaching child-and-parent classes, I do programs for parents on topics like support literacy development at home, applying the basics of Roman Stoicism in working with young children, and conversational frameworks for increasing confidence and competence in young children.
Look around, and feel free to get in touch. And please, especially if you are connected to a public school district that has a preschool program, check out the Fullerton section.