SCC ECED Student Group

This…..👏👏

We have a crisis in early childhood — and it's hiding in plain sight.

Walk into almost any preschool classroom and you'll find it: children reciting colors, counting to 20, naming shapes, and rattling off letters. And adults beaming with pride.

But here's the question nobody's asking — do they actually know what any of it means?

And yet we've built entire assessments, report cards, and parent conversations around these performances, mistaking recitation for learning.

Rote drills activate the most surface level of cognition. They don't transfer. A child who can count to 100 may have zero number sense. A child who knows every letter name may still struggle to decode because phonemic awareness, as the real foundation was never developed.

Meanwhile, the experiences that actually wire the developing brain are being crowded out.

Connection builds the emotional safety that makes all learning possible — the foundation of every risk a child will ever take as a learner.

Nature and outdoor movement grow executive function, attention, and regulation, and give children's bodies what they were designed for. Running, climbing, jumping, and digging are not recess filler. They are brain development. You cannot skip the body and expect the mind to follow.

Sensory play builds the neural pathways that underpin reading, writing, and mathematical thinking.

Listening to children (truly, responsively listening) and genuine, reciprocal communication, builds vocabulary, narrative thinking, and the felt sense that their voice matters. When we talk at children instead of with them, we rob them of the interactions that grow language most powerfully.

The more of us who understand this, the brighter early childhood (and lifelong development) becomes. 🌱

Entertainment captures attention. Engagement develops the brain.

Of course, there is a place for entertainment. Entertainment is enjoyable, restorative, social, and even educational at times.

But the distinction matters because entertainment and engagement are not the same thing.

This is especially important when it comes to screens. Many apps, videos, and games are designed to capture attention. They may keep a child focused on a screen, but that doesn't necessarily mean they are building focus.

This helps explain why some children can attend to a screen for two hours, yet struggle to attend to a book for two minutes.

Fast-paced, highly stimulating, constantly novel experiences provide frequent rewards and can shape what the brain expects from an activity. Over time, slower-paced activities may feel less interesting, less rewarding, and more difficult to sustain. In other words, the brain begins to expect a higher level of stimulation, making activities that require effort, patience, and persistence harder to engage with.

What develops the brain is play, movement, exploration, curiosity, conversation, creativity, imagination, problem-solving, experimentation, risk-taking, responsibility, persistence, boredom, struggle, and meaningful human connection. These experiences require children to actively participate in the world around them rather than simply consume it.

So when it comes to screens, think screen time smart. Choose intentional over constant. Choose a shared screen over an individual device whenever possible. Choose movies and shows with sequence, storyline, and depth over short-form, fast-paced videos designed to rapidly capture attention.

And perhaps most importantly, let children be bored.

Boredom is not a problem to solve. It is often the starting point for curiosity, creativity, problem-solving, play, and true engagement. If we constantly entertain children, we may unintentionally rob them of the very experiences that help their brains grow.

🔺🎶 Shape Movers Song!🎶🟦
Learning shapes is even more fun when we add music and movement! Children can spin, clap, stretch, and move while exploring circles, triangles, squares, and rectangles.
This engaging activity helps build:
✨ Shape Recognition
✨ Listening Skills
✨ Gross Motor Development
✨ Following Directions

Yes! This…..

🎶There's Sunday and there's Monday
There's Tuesday and there's Wednesday
There's Thursday and there's Friday
and then there's Saturday 🎶

It is good practice to always question our WHYs.

I am always keeping tabs on everything I expect children to do as part of our routine.

Here are the questions I constantly ask myself:

Who is this for?
Do I need to direct this OR will it happen organically, WITHOUT me leading, if I am patient?
Who does this empower?
Who needs to be empowered?
Is this worthy of a child's time?
Am I listening to the children?

**NOTE ADDED: BEFORE commenting, please do a little research and enjoy this blog post I wrote a year after I stopped leading "circle time" back in 2010:

https://www.facebook.com/share/1EJg9DkuUN/?mibextid=wwXIfr

Note 2 added: the attached image has been edited to better translate the intended message of this post.

Sensory bags are such a great way to allow babies and toddlers to safely explore a variety of different textures! Here are some things you can put in them.

Here’s a fun science activity……

Keep the kids busy with an easy jumping bean challenge.

All you need is a kitchen foil and a marble.

https://www.science-sparks.com/the-best-bouncy-jumping-bean/