By: Diane Kashin, Ed.D, RECE. The York Region Nature Collaborative has been offering a series of Land as Teacher webinars. On February 13th, I had the honour of co-presenting Land as Teacher: Foundations for Early Learning, the fifth offering in the series. Rather than a presentation, it was a dialogue about contexts and perspectives between … Continue reading
By: Diane Kashin, Ed.D, RECE. Stories spiral in and out of my mind when I visit the pond near my house. These stories are woven together by threads of relationships. There are stories within stories that relate to my professional and personal growth in my final season. The pond is the backdrop to a documented … Continue reading
By: Diane Kashin, Ed.D, RECE. We are living in extraordinarily difficult times profoundly impacting the three subjects of education; children, families and teachers. Every day, I find myself in a paradox. I see images and words shared on social media that demonstrate that choices are being made to continue within the restrictions and limitations to … Continue reading
By: Diane Kashin, Ed. D, RECE. One of the benefits of a long career in early learning is the opportunity to see how the profession evolves and responds to new thinking, ideas and concepts. A concept is an abstract idea. Conception is the act of conceiving a child or an idea! A misconception is the result … Continue reading
By: Diane Kashin, Ed. D, RECE. It was a year or two ago that I received a message from a Facebook friend asking me whether I had heard of “hygge”. Pronounced hue-guh hygge describes a quality of coziness that makes a person feel content and comfortable. It originates from Denmark and is not specific to the … Continue reading
By: Diane Kashin, Ed. D, RECE. I use this blog to share reflections and musings about the practice of early childhood education. In a recent post, The Broken Circle: Rethinking the Practice of Circles in Early Learning I wrote about a topic that fascinated me as a beginning teacher. Currently, circles continue to spiral in and out … Continue reading
By: Diane Kashin, Ed. D, RECE. I wrote a blog post last fall about themes in early learning, expressing surprise/concern that they were still a thing! It has become one of my most shared posts reflecting that, indeed there are those who continue the practice. I have always found the use of themes to be … Continue reading
By: Diane Kashin, Ed. D, RECE. When I taught introductory early childhood education courses, I presented developmental domains by raising my hand. One by one, I would count down the big five, cognitive, social, emotional, language and physical which I would divide into gross and fine motor. Lately, I have been wondering about other domains … 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. It was in 2015 that the York Region Nature Collaborative offered the first Rhythm of Learning in Nature which is an opportunity for like-minded educators to come together to experience nature in dialogue with the Reggio Emilia Approach and influenced by forest school practices and Indigenous ways of knowing. … Continue reading
Technology Rich Inquiry Based Research 