Adrianna
https://www.goodreads.com/ameliorating
“Early learning is fundamentally social in nature.”
― The Importance of Being Little: What Preschoolers Really Need from Grownups
― The Importance of Being Little: What Preschoolers Really Need from Grownups
“why should we settle for unimaginative goals (as we find in so many early education settings) like being able to identify triangles and squares, or recalling the names of colors and seasons? Recognizing visual symbols is something a dog can do. Surely we can aim higher than those picayune objectives and demand preschool classrooms based on a more advanced understanding of developmental processes, an understanding that is bounded only by the limits of a young child’s growing brain, not by a superintendent’s checklist of what needs to be covered before June rolls around.”
― The Importance of Being Little: What Young Children Really Need from Grownups
― The Importance of Being Little: What Young Children Really Need from Grownups
“Children are intuitive scientists and armchair philosophers, brimming with such startling observations that it’s hard to believe they’ve come from people barely out of diapers. . . . But, along with their Talmudic wisdom and intellectual acuity, preschoolers can surprise, equally, with their undeveloped motor skills, atrocious impulse control, and venal self-interest. Like teenagers, whom they closely resemble developmentally, preschoolers are a complicated mix of competence and ineptitude. The problem with American early education is how often the grownups misread, and even interchange, those two attributes completely, and at such critical moments for learning.”
― The Importance of Being Little: What Preschoolers Really Need from Grownups
― The Importance of Being Little: What Preschoolers Really Need from Grownups
“I also believe that forgiveness is appropriate only when parents do something to earn it. Toxic parents, especially the more abusive ones, need to acknowledge what happened, take responsibility, and show a willingness to make amends. If you unilaterally absolve parents who continue to treat you badly, who deny much of your reality and feelings, and who continue to project blame onto you, you may seriously impede the emotional work you need to do.”
― Toxic Parents: Overcoming Their Hurtful Legacy and Reclaiming Your Life
― Toxic Parents: Overcoming Their Hurtful Legacy and Reclaiming Your Life
“Do preschoolers need all the trappings of elementary school . . . ? The faux academic overstimulation? The enforced choices? The cult-like obsession with readiness? I would say, mostly, they do not. And I think some of these trappings, such as the notorious print-rich environments we encountered with their busy totems to industriousness, can actually interfere with the task of becoming a good communicator and a literate person. We spend a lot of energy on creating print-rich environments but that’s not at all the same thing as creating a language-rich environment.
Consider again the hope that Finland offers; its guidelines for preprimary (preschool) education remind us that:
“The basis for emerging literacy is that children have heard and listened, they have been heard, they have spoken and been spoken to, people have discussed things with them, and they have asked questions and received answers.”
For our young children, what else is there to wish for?”
― The Importance of Being Little: What Preschoolers Really Need from Grownups
Consider again the hope that Finland offers; its guidelines for preprimary (preschool) education remind us that:
“The basis for emerging literacy is that children have heard and listened, they have been heard, they have spoken and been spoken to, people have discussed things with them, and they have asked questions and received answers.”
For our young children, what else is there to wish for?”
― The Importance of Being Little: What Preschoolers Really Need from Grownups
Adrianna’s 2025 Year in Books
Take a look at Adrianna’s Year in Books, including some fun facts about their reading.
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