By: Diane Kashin, Ed.D, RECE. Like, my grandchildren, I love Knuffle Bunny, a floppy stuffed rabbit, featured in a series of books by Mo Willems. I first became aware of, Knuffle Bunny: A Cautionary Tale when I was teaching a history and philosophy course to early childhood education students. The idea of using children’s books … Continue reading
By: Diane Kashin, Ed. D, RECE. Recently I experienced the power of place when I spent the weekend in Pennsylvania at Lehigh Carbon Community College (LCCC). I was invited by LCCC’s Teacher Education program to do a morning and afternoon workshop featuring loose parts to help launch its 32nd annual celebration of the Week of … Continue reading
By: Diane Kashin, Ed. D, RECE. I have written about early childhood education basics such as blocks, art and dramatic play before. By basics I mean that these are experiences that are essential and should be commonplace in every early learning environment both indoors and outdoors. By no means though, are these experiences simple. Rather, … Continue reading
By: Diane Kashin, Ed.D, RECE and Cindy Green, BSc, RECE. As we age, it is healthy to give advice and to feel that our long careers in the profession of early childhood education has been meaningful. We have both retired from full-time work teaching early childhood education at the same community college. There, the working … Continue reading
By: Diane Kashin, Ed.D, RECE. In my last post I discussed the importance of dramatic play and why it should not be taken for granted. Art like dramatic play is an essential experience for children but it is one that is often hijacked by adults and turned into a product-oriented, adult-directed craft. When I visit programs … Continue reading
By: Diane Kashin, Ed.D, RECE. It has been a few weeks since my return to Reggio and I am still processing the experience. The opportunity to spend a week in this historically beautiful environment with others on the 2018 Canadian Study Tour was one that I will always cherish and hold close to my heart. … Continue reading
By: Diane Kashin, Ed.D, RECE. This is the third summer, that the York Region Nature Collaborative has hosted the The Rhythm of Learning in Nature, which has been promoted over the years as a 5-day summer intensive – an unforgettable indoor/outdoor learning journey for about 30 early learning professionals. Previously billed as the Reggio Summer Intensive, this … Continue reading
By: Diane Kashin, Ed.D, RECE. Well over a year ago, I wrote a blog post entitled Quotes to Provoke Reggio-inspired Teaching and Learning that has been recently shared by my friends at StoryPark and it has received some renewed attention. In my brain’s current context, I am again thinking about quotes but this time, I am looking beyond … Continue reading
By: Diane Kashin, Ed.D, RECE. When I first began teaching early childhood education about three decades ago, there were many discussions about the language that we use to name what we do. I remember that our conversations related to moving away from using the term, “activities”. At the time, early learning teachers were setting up activities … Continue reading
By: Diane Kashin, Ed.D, RECE. I have written about interests in an earlier blog post. I find interest-based teaching and learning to be so interesting! My interest propels me to think deeply and explore resources and ideas about interests. While some may think that interest-based education is a new concept, it is firmly rooted in the past, as … Continue reading
Technology Rich Inquiry Based Research 