Starting Strong Conference

I just returned from attended a three-day conference in Tacoma--the 7th Annual Starting Strong Conference.

It's a conference focusing specially on early learning.  It was a great conference and I'm so excited my boss invited me to join her for it!

A quick list of some take-home ideas for me:

• Create developmentally appropriate and purposeful math experiences for preschoolers (see Pathway to Numeracy)
• Preschoolers have a sense of everyday mathematics
• "Is this a yelling moment or a teaching moment?"
• Relationships--they're about quantity, quality, and intensity
• Multi-sensory interaction, with love, nurture, and care leads to learning (example:  Geometry vs. making chocolate chip cookies)
• Attachment--Secure(trust caregiver; needs are meet), Avoidant (distrust caregiver), Anxious (can sometimes trust caregiver; inconsistent); Disorganized (abuse in the home)
• Play IS:  voluntary, meaningful, symbolic, rule-governed, pleasurable, episodic
• The more senses you use the fewer times you will have to teach
• Eye gaze is extremely important to infants

• Turn academics into play (example: learn to write name--sign the work you do like artist, authors, etc.)
• Outside is the best classroom!
• Technology--anything made by humans (not just electronic devices!)
• Mind likes discovery and divergent learning; use open-ended manipulative such as blocks, water, sand, paint
• Revisit activities/manipulatives again and again and again
• Learning is a social experience; we learn how to learn from others
• Science needs to be D.I.R.T.Y.  Daily discovery, driven by inquiry, relevant and real, tactile teamwork, appropriate for young children
• Integrate literacy throughout curriculum; not in isolation
• We need to build a culture of caring, a culture of competences, and a culture of excellence
• Help child learn to problem solve through their senses

To Read List
The Mindful Brain
I Love You Rituals
A Moving Child is a Learning Child
Powerful Interactions
125 Brain Games for Babies
Why Love Matters
Play (Stewart Brown)
Gardening with Young Children
I Believe...What Do You Believe?

Websites
Alliance for Childhood
Zero to Three
ilabs.uw.edu
Priceless Parenting