By: Diane Kashin, Ed.D, RECE. I think I have always been fascinated by small world play. As a child and as an adult. I have fond memories of creating miniature worlds especially outdoors. I used rocks, mud, grass, straw and sticks to form a world that I could play inside of. I was in control. … Continue reading
By: Diane Kashin, Ed.D, RECE. As the sun sets on the year 2020, none of us has escaped the challenges that it has brought. As the sun rises on the year 2021, it is time again for me to think about what lies ahead. I was hopeful in January as I felt that the year … Continue reading
By: Diane Kashin, Ed. D, RECE. and Rosalba Bortolotti, RECE. It has been a hundred years since the birth of Loris Malaguzzi who inspired the Reggio Emilia Approach™. Malaguzzi, from Reggio Emilia, Italy died in 1994. He was a teacher, philosopher, poet and theorist. This year, 2020, marks what would have been Malaguzzi’s 100th birthday. We … Continue reading
By: Diane Kashin, Ed.D, RECE and Cindy Green, BSc, RECE. Block play is centuries old. Blocks were part of a historical movement that focused on building a child-centred culture that began in the late 1700s (Dietze & Kashin, 2019). There was John Locke (1632-1704), the English philosopher who recommended the use of alphabet blocks for … Continue reading
By: Diane Kashin, Ed.D, RECE and Cindy Green, BSc, RECE. If we were to choose one quote that defines our view of professional learning and early childhood education, it would acknowledge our senior status and involve play. We don’t stop playing because we grow old; we grow old because we stop playing ~ George Bernard … Continue reading
By: Diane Kashin, Ed. D, RECE. I am a member of countless early childhood education groups on Facebook. I learn so much from members from around the world. Recently, a photo appeared in one of these groups that depicted a plastic bin, decorated with coloured shapes and labelled “Show and Tell”. The text that went … Continue reading
By: Diane Kashin, Ed. D, RECE. I have been curious about the role curiosity plays in teaching and learning for some time now. Curiosity can be defined as an intrinsic desire to learn. Curiosity is stimulated by something in the child’s environment that leads the child to have a desire to explore, discover, question, and … Continue reading
By: Diane Kashin, Ed. D, RECE. I love my chosen profession. The emotion is deep and embedded. While it was not my original intention to become an early childhood educator, I am so proud to be one now and I have never regretted the decision. Even though I have been an early childhood educator since … 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 and Cindy Green, BSc, RECE. We have written about our long-standing relationship in previous posts and how we connected when we were working at the same community college, teaching early childhood education, many moons ago! We became critical friends, before we knew the term. In our context, we were pedagogical … Continue reading
Technology Rich Inquiry Based Research 