Intro to Jean Paiget's Stages of Cognitive Development Theory

 

     Last week I chose to break down Erikson's stages of development. This week I decided to talk a little about Jean Piaget's stages of development. There are four different development stages, and in each stage there are things the child goes through to move on to the next stage.

     Before explaining the stages I think it is importan to explain the term "schema" as it is a huge part of his theory.  Paiget believed that children collect data which is then turned into "schemas." A schema is the word he chose to use for objects the child first comes into contact with to learn about the world around him. A schema is then built on as more of the objects come into contact with the child for the child to build-up his/her own mental database. The schemas are then always changing as more information is learned.

     There are four phases a person goes through to understand each new schema. This photo may help explain this concept better than I may be able to.

  Now that I covered schemas I will now post the four stages of cognitive development Paiget believes we all go through.

Adventures In Potty Training: Take One

      Since going into the early childhood education field my age of expertise is also the age that deals with lots and lots of potty training. I have helped countless numbers of kids learn to use the potty. I have prided myself on knowing all there is to know about being a potty training expert. Enough to know that my son has not shown any interest whatsoever in the potty. He will sometimes put his corduroy bear on in to try, but other than that not interested...or so I thought.
      This week I was looking forward to a very chill week off from introducing any new comcepts to my kid. No lesson plans, just going with the flow. So you can imagine my complete surprise when my kid wakes up Monday morning asking to wear big boy underwear. I had already bought some to be ready for this moment, but with his lack of interest in anything with the potty you can imagine how shocked I was for this as well as hesitant. Big boy underwear was put on after he happily sat on the big boy potty and tried, unsuccessfully, to go potty. Day 1 came and went with lots of unsuccessful attempts at making it in the potty and lots of "accidents." I made big deal when he tried because he never wanted to do this before and downplayed his accidents. Day 2 was rougher to where he woke up begging for big boy underwear, but was more hesitant to sit on the big boy potty at all. Then the rest of the week was him terrified to go near the potty when he actually needed to go. Between his obvious fear and lack of care whether he was wet or dry, and my bad back issues I finally decided the stress was not worth it. He obviously is getting closer to wanting to use the potty, but not quite there, and you know that is ok with me. Potty training should not be filled with tears of fear and trying to hold onto me for dear life to avoid sitting on the potty.
    I also should add because his request of wanting to try out big boy underwear that night after he was in bed I actually became very emotional. There were legit tears while my husband was like, "Why are you crying about ditching diapers?" Honestly I think it was because I also was not mentally prepared for him to make that next step because it came out of no where. I did not cry when he moved from his crib to his big boy bed. I did not cry when we took the rocking chair out of his room. I did not cry when after 3 weeks my kid still refused his naps. Yet, him showing signs of readiness to ditch his diapers did me in. Of course the next morning I started my period, so I know half of that was pms...
     So his first time trying out the potty was not "successful" in the sense that we are moving out of diapers, cause we went back to them. It was successful though because he is aware of the potty. Of not being afraid of sitting on it. Sometimes it is best to go back and wait a month or two. From my years of potty training other's kids I know that it is not odd for a kid to be almost 4 before being fully potty trained. My kid has time. He will get there. It will be on his time though, and not mine.
     Anyone have any helpful potty training tops to share? Please comment ways that helped your child.

Importance of Slowing Down and Living In the Moment

     In the midst of lesson planning and setting up educational activities it is easy to be more in my head doing a mental checklist instead of fully enjoying what my child is actually experiencing. It is important for me to remember he is still young. He is not a baby, but still not fully independent. It is important to me that I also relish these days as much as possible, even though some days are harder than others. I need to remember to let him play and explore as there is only so much time left for him to be really free of the book lrarning style that comes in elementary school. There is no rush right now for what he must learn by a certain time, it really should be more fun than anything else. Some days it is ok to forget what was planned and chill. Giving downtime like that will only help my kid be more relaxed and ready to learn something new, and that is a big deal.

Intro to Erik Erikson's Psychsocial Development Theory

 

   

     Eric Ericson is one of the bigger education/behavioral theorists we needed to learn about while working on our early childhood degrees. He is also one of the ones that we loved to hate if only because of one huge paper we had to write about un an introspective way about how we perceived our life was during each of the eight stages of erikson's theory. Remembering under the age of two is basically impossible, yet we had to figure out enough to fill several pages of that first stage. If we messed up that particular paper grade basically we knew we screwed up our grade for the class enough to fail.

     Erikson believed every person goes through eight stages of life. In each stage there is a conflict and depending on our resolution of that conflict would affect us in the next phase for worse or for better.

Because of not having as much time to personally break these down for you, I decided to share this graph that I hope explains the eight phases to you.

Be Careful! It's A ZOO In Here!

     This week it has been all about zoo animals and their habitats. We have touched base on jungle animals, dessert animals, creatures of the oceans and many more. Zoo week is a fun one. Teaching respect for all of God's creatures big and small is a step in the direction of helping my child have respect and show kindness to all of humanity from the littlest ones to the oldest.
     This week has been a tad less active mainly because I learned I injured my sciatica nerve and perfictis muscle (in normal human words a muscle in my behind) and under doctors orders to rest as much as possible. Funny as a mom of a very active almost three year old. I scaled back on a lot of the activities I wanted to do, but stuff happens. We still had a good week of learning together.
      Also we learned about the Holy Spirit this week. I do not expect a kid this young to understand much of this concept of my family's faith, but it is still important to introduce these things to him.
     This week we have been focusing on the letter "Hh" and number 3.

Monday- Wetlands Animals and Habitat/Intro Uppercase "H"
Books:My h Soundbox by Jane Belk Moncure
Never Play Music Right Next to the Zoo by John Lithgow
Over In the Wetlands by Caroline Starr Rose and Rob Dunlavey
My First Dictionary "Hh" words only

Songs: Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes
Going to the Zoo by Raffi

Activities:
Intro to the letter "Hh." What uppercase H looks like and what sound it makes. Introduce the Hh words in the picture dictionary you are using.
Uppercase H coloring page
Use our real stethoscope to help hear whata real heart sounds like
Heart painting activity.
Fun with making handprints with the paint.
Play with our zoo play house with play animals.

Tuesday: Intro Dessert Animals and Habitat/Intro Number Three/Intro Holy Spirit
Books: When Sheep Cannot Sleep by Satoshi Kitamura
In The Dessert by David M. Schwartz
Journey Through the Dessert by Specs Art
The Story of the Descent of the Holy Spirit
My First Dictionary

Songs: Sally the Camel
The Gloria from the Catholic Mass parts. This song, for my non-Catholic readers, is a song that celebrates the Trinity. You are welcome to google it if you are curious what it is like.
Holy Spirit by Francesca Battistelli

Activities:
Review "Hh" picture vocab words.
Intro the number three. Practice sorting and counting to three with animal crackers.
Work on the number 3 coloring page.
Intro to the Holy Spirit. Explain how it is the third special name we use for God. Read the story of the decent of the holy spirit upon the apostles after Jesus died on the cross.
After reading talk about the three symbols that the Holy Spirit used to help the people in the upper room. There was a dove, fire, and wind. Show a picture of a dove, and lighta candle to help your child see a tongue of fire, and then turn on a fan and blow bubbles to help explain wind. After this I played the song Holy Spirit by Francesca Battistelli which was incredibly sweet to watch my kid completely relax with. After it finished he sat up and said to me "Do it again, Honey." He apparently felt something with that song just as I do everytime I hear it. We then sang the Gloria together.
Played in the sand together for the dessert type of habitat.

Wednesday: Intro to Forrest Animals and Habitats/ Intro Lowercase "h."

Books: Robert the Rose Horse by Joan Heilbroner

Journey Through the Forrest by Steve Cox

My First Dictionary "Hh" words only

Songs: Bumping Up and Down by Raffi

Five Green and Speckled Frogs

Activities:

Review "Hh" picture vocab words

Intro lowercase h and coloring page

Play tools and most specifically the hammer 

Dramatic play with all sorts of different hats 

Play with the flourist water deco beads for sensory play.

Thursday: Intro to Jungle Animals and Habitat/ Intro to Plains Animals and Habitat/Practice Lines and Scissor Skills

Books: Hello Hello by Miriam Schlein

Journey Through the Jungle by Steve Cox

My First Dictionary "Hh" words only

Songs: Hokey Pokey

5 Little Monkeys

Activities:

Review "Hh" picture vocab words

Use hair gel packets made from last week to practice writing straight lines with and build up the fine motor skills.

Practice scissor skills

Mr. Potato Head Play

Zoo animal and tools (hammer) puzzle work

Play with the sensory water beads

Park Day

Friday: Intro to Ocean Animals and Habitat/Intro to Arctic Animals and Habitat/"Hh" Vocab Review

Books: The Cat In the Hat by Dr. Seuss

Ocean Babies by Hiroe Nakat

Journey Through the Oceans by Steve Cox
Baby Animals In the Snow by Scholastic Books

My First Dictionary "Hh" words only

Songs: If You're Happy and You Know It

Octopus Garden by Raffi

Baby Baluga by Raffi

Activities

Review "Hh" vocab and vocab coloring page

Seashell painting

Play with sand and sensory water beads

Build a zoo out of blocks

Zoo day

                         (Hh is for hippo)

What activities do you have for turning your home into a week of zoo learning fun??? Or additional activites for the letter "Hh?" Let me know! One of my friends mentioned using a lightbox for the waterbeads to add even more scensory stinulation. I hope to figure that out the next time I use these.

"Hh" Is For Doll HOUSE Play

 

    I have written a previous post on all the benefits of using dramatic play for young children and their learning process. In this ppst I wanted to talk more in depth about how important a doll house (yes, boys have just as much fun playing with doll houses as girls, but if the term doll house is not your fav we just call them play houses here with our son.) can be used as a tool for helping children learn. Doll houses are very nostalgic for so many people. I know I can recall endless hours spent up in my childhood bedroom spent engaged in playing with my doll house. I loved being able to control what went on in my own house. Maybe you have similar memories of playing with your own growing up?

     When children play with doll houses they can break down things that are going on in their own families. They use them to try to understand how to problem solve disagreements through making the little people role play different interactions. They also begin to understand more about what household things are needed for certain everyday tasks and where they belong. Bath time needs a bath tub and is done in the bathroom and not in the kitchen... gotta cook dinner for the family over in the kitchen. Bedtime routines can be heard while the child us putting the kids to bed. You can hear how they think disagreements should be handled if they have the little people fight over the television. They build their vocabulary as they pretend to be the mommy or daddy. While playing doll house they are also using those fine motor skills as they move the people and furniture around. It may be helpful to get a glimpse of how they view their homelife while listening in on their doll house play. This type of dramatic play is different from dress up role playing in a sense because instead of pretending to be one thing, with the doll house they are role playing multiple people so their brain waves are being exercised even more as they try to be in more than one person's shoes. It is hard work doing that for them.

Introduction to Maria Montessori's Learning Theory

 

   

I know I mentioned something about a Montessori  type school in a past post on the constructive learning theory. I thought I would take a minute and talk about how Maria Montessori's learning method plays into this theory, as well as a few ways she found to help om her own.
     Maria Montessori is one of the few learning theorists that we learned sbout in our early childhood classes who was female. Her beliefs about education is why those who decide homeschooling may not be for them, but love the idea of the freedom of learning should see if a montessori school may be nearby as these schools most closely resemble a homeschooling day to day life than public and private schools do.
     Montessori believed children learn best through exploration and play. The most important time for a child to learn is under the age of six which is it a lot easier to find early childhood montessori programs, but there are schools set up for older ones too. The children are put in 3 different age groups, but some schools use 4. Infancy through age six are kept grouped together with the same teacher for their time period there. Ages six through twelve are all kept together with the same teacher, although some schools have started to group six to nine seperate from nine through twelve. And finally the teenage year age groups are taught together with the same teacher. These age groups are done purposefully because she believed that the younger children will receive an abosrbant mind through watching and working with the older children much better than from a "teacher."
      Her curriculum has five key points. Sensory and perceptual development, self-help skills, language skills, physical and motor skills, and social and emotional growth. Her schools have teachers who are more like mentors, there to observe when a child may need help, but not to tell them and instead show without words. There is about three hours worth of active learning in a school day with teachers introducing new concepts and ideas, but the best teachers in this set up other than the children is the environment of the classroom. The classroom should be filled with the things that are close to naturalistic as possible and focused on the concepts the teachers are hoping for the children to be able to explore and learn from together and on their own.
     This learning and teaching style has now begun to move into a pre school Catholic religious ed program called Catechisis of the Good Shepherd. You may find you have a parish nearby that offers this or you may end up feeling called to help start one up for your parish. Teachers for this program must go through the catachesis training before being able to teach.