By: Diane Kashin, Ed.D, RECE. I have made this confession before – when I worked directly with children I did not embrace outdoor play and learning. I could have never imagined that as retirement is looming over the horizon that I would be advocating for outdoor play and learning. I am volunteering with the York Region … Continue reading
By: Diane Kashin, Ed.D, RECE. Building on my last blog post – The Back to Basics Conundrum in Early Learning: Reflecting on the Past to Move us Forward this post is about one of the most basic and essential elements of early childhood education … BLOCKS! Blocks can be defined as visual-spatial construction play objects; materials that … Continue reading
By: Diane Kashin, Ed.D, RECE. Recently, a kind and sharing early childhood educator posted my blog, Pedagogical Documentation: Why? When? Who? What? Where? How? on a Facebook group for Reggio-inspired educators. Since she tagged me, I looked and saw that it immediately garnered a comment. “Basic” was all she wrote. I replied “it was meant to be” … Continue reading
By: Diane Kashin, Ed.D, RECE. Curriculum can emerge from outdoor play experiences in wondrous and authentic ways. The changing seasons offer invitations for learning that cannot be duplicated indoors. Curriculum can and should emerge from nature. It is in nature that children’s interests will be piqued. Whether it be building snow forts in the winter, puddle … Continue reading
By: Diane Kashin, Ed.D, RECE. and Cindy Green, BSc, RECE. One of the most significant professional learning experiences that we have engaged in during the last few years was our trip to Adelaide, South Australia. While there to present workshops focused on the possibilities of buttons as loose parts and the beauty of agates as materials to … Continue reading
By: Diane Kashin, Ed.D, RECE. and Cindy Green, BSc, RECE. This is the third in a series of blogs written about a leadership research project that we are working on with Upper Canada Child Care Centres. In the first post we introduced the research project. In the second post we reflected on reflection as an important process essential to … Continue reading
By: Diane Kashin, Ed.D, RECE. Many years ago, Jean Piaget, the famous Swiss psychologist who spent most of his life studying children and how they learn, said: Play is the answer to the question, how does anything new ever come about? ~ Jean Piaget The playing child is a learning child. We need to make … Continue reading
By: Diane Kashin, Ed.D, RECE. When the physical environment acts as the third teacher it holds the potential to influence what and how children learn. Carter (2007) suggests that “if we are to embrace the idea of the environment as a significant educator in our early childhood programs, we must expand our thinking … We … Continue reading
By: Diane Kashin, Ed.D, RECE. and Cindy Green, RECE. It has been almost two years since Cindy and I spent a wonderful few days collecting loose parts with intention to share at a conference with 400 Upper Canada Child Care educators but over twenty-five years since we first started our dialogue about loose parts. Loose … Continue reading
By: Diane Kashin, Ed.D, RECE. In my last blog post, I wrote about outdoor play and encouraged early learning teachers to look beyond their fenced in playground in the hopes that children may be given the gift of place. I referred to a quote that I read many years ago from Loris Malaguzzi that asks … Continue reading
Technology Rich Inquiry Based Research 