July 28, 2025 • 17 mins
Not every one of your accomplishments shows up on reports of children reaching milestones. Every day, there are quieter actions and interactions that show you are succeeding in this quest to nurture and educate early learners. Join Cindy and Alison for a discussion about the importance of tracking the wins that are less visible but just as significant.
- Check out our website: https://www.howpreschoolteachersdoit.com/
- Be sure to like our Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/howpreschoolteachersdoit
- Learn more about Cindy's work, including professional development, family education, and consulting opportunities: https://hihello.com/hi/cindyterebush-RXMBKA
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to How Preschool Teachers Do It.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
This is Alison Kenttos, I am an early childhood educator.
Speaker 1 (00:08):
And this is Cindy Tarr Bush, I am an early
childhood consultant.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
This podcast is for parents and early childhood professionals.
Speaker 1 (00:16):
Let our experience and research based knowledge become your guide.
Hello preschool peeps.
Speaker 3 (00:25):
Hi peeps.
Speaker 1 (00:26):
We're gonna we have such a fee feel good episode today,
don't we we do. I think it's feel good episode
for you, and I'm excited about it too. But first,
where are people listening to us? All say?
Speaker 2 (00:39):
We have people listening to us from Egypt, so hello everyone,
so cool.
Speaker 3 (00:44):
And also Maine main, which is a place I've always
wanted to visit.
Speaker 2 (00:48):
I feel like if I go on vacation this summer,
that might be where I go because I want to
go hiking up there.
Speaker 1 (00:53):
Oh nice, Yeah, long drive, I.
Speaker 3 (00:55):
Know, but I feel like it'll be worth it, yeah.
Speaker 1 (00:58):
Says the girl who's driven to Canada. As we know
from a prior episode, like I feel like you can
do it.
Speaker 3 (01:04):
I can do it.
Speaker 1 (01:04):
Yeah, I could do it.
Speaker 3 (01:05):
Yeah yeah, And that's so close to Canada that.
Speaker 1 (01:08):
It is just you know, depending on where you are
in Maine.
Speaker 3 (01:12):
You go right over the border and just start living there.
It's fine.
Speaker 1 (01:16):
Again with that, again with that. Also, you need to
question your tolerance of winter.
Speaker 2 (01:22):
That might be an issue. Maybe we should go down
south to like Mexico or something.
Speaker 1 (01:28):
I have to question my tolerance of heat, I know.
So there you go, there you go. We're here today
to talk about tracking your non what I was calling
your non scale winds. And I'll tell you why I
called it that. So I mentioned a couple of last
last episodes. Oh my gosh, time I mentioned last episode
(01:49):
that I've been doing this uh weight management lifestyle change program,
which has been amazing for me. And one of the
things that they teach us is that it's not always
about the numbers on the scale, that there are other
wins when you change your lifestyle. And so what I
started to do in that case, I have a digital
(02:10):
journal and it has a calendar in it, and every
time every day that I have a non scale win,
like I'm wearing a different size clothes, or or I
was able to do something more easily right like, because
you'll text me some of your nons I do. I
get so excited.
Speaker 2 (02:26):
She's like, I just walked up the neighborhood hill or
something the other day, you tell me, and I didn't
get winded at all, and I was like, Oh.
Speaker 3 (02:31):
That's amazing.
Speaker 1 (02:32):
Yeah, really put me in good shape. It is a
big lifestyle It's not only diet, it's also a big
lifestyle change. And so I've started to mark these on
a calendar. And what I realize is sometimes we measure
our successes in ways that don't tell you the whole story.
And then I realized that's true for early education too.
They don't tell us the whole story. We have a
(02:53):
lot of assessment tools now in early education, lots of
emphasis on observe the children, document what they're doing. Use
these tools, whether it is your standards where you live,
state or country standards. It could be a product that
your program purchases. For example, one well known one is
(03:14):
Teaching Strategies Gold. Another one is high Scopes Core Advantage.
It could be other research based tools that you're using,
like the CDC milestones to figure out what are these
children's milestones, what do we need to help them accomplish
right or move toward? And I think there's a lot
of emphasis put on where is the child in this chart, Yes, right,
(03:40):
where is the Where are the child's skills? Not the child?
Where are the child's skills on this chart? And everybody's
looking at these charts and these statistics that come from
these charts, and here's what I'd like to say to everybody.
Just like I have non scale wins, that sometimes the
number on the scale doesn't tell the whole story of
what's happening in my body. You have have non for
(04:02):
a lot, I don't know what else. Call it non
scale winds when you are working with young children. And
I advise you that every time you have one of these,
you need to put it on a calendar because you're
gonna be like, I do an amazing job with these children.
And it's not only about these statistics. It is somewhat
about these statistics. You know, I have to weigh myself
(04:24):
every week. It is somewhat about that, because if I
don't keep an eye on that, then the non scale
winds go away. They go away. And I think it's
the same for us. If we're not using these research
based tools, then your winds are going to go away.
They're going to diminish. So it's important that we use
them when we have that data, but at the same time,
you are so much more than that, and we wanted
(04:45):
to give you some examples of that. One example of
that is something that sometimes adults don't even know what
to do with, and that's when a child is very
attached to you. Right, If a child is very attached
to you, that is a wonderful sign, a wonderful result
of the relationship that you have developed with this child
(05:08):
and your ability to make children feel safe with you.
It is wonderful. Now, do we want that child to
eventually be willing to explore the world beyond our laps
and our sides and us? Of course we do. Just
know that it is a win when a child loves
spending time with Yes, yes, right, And you can go
(05:31):
to that calendar and you can write something like, you know,
Alison just wanted to spend time with me today. That's
a win. I have a good relationship with that child. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (05:44):
And it's funny because like with the same child several
weeks down the road, the wind might be Alison explored
an area without me today.
Speaker 1 (05:53):
Which means you supported their ability to leave your side.
Speaker 2 (05:56):
Yes, that you gave them the security through that relationship
that you had in order to feel confident to explore
the area on their own.
Speaker 1 (06:04):
It's a giant win, it is, you know. I also
feel like the families think about the families. So sometimes
families will come in and they will confide in us. Yeah, right.
They may confide in a teacher, a teacher assistant, a director,
an assistant, or whoever they pick. That's a non scale win.
That's trust exactly. They've trusted you enough, you have built
(06:27):
trust with them that they're going to come and tell
you what's going on.
Speaker 3 (06:29):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (06:30):
Put it on a calendar. A family trusted me today.
Speaker 3 (06:33):
Yeah, and they value your opinion. Yep, you know, that's
that's what we should be doing.
Speaker 1 (06:39):
A family trusted me today. That's all you need to
write down. Right when you start to collect these wins,
it is so affirming. Yeah, yeah, it's yeah. I've started
to do a couple of things. When I get up
in the morning. One of the first things I do
sometimes even before leaving bed, I have a journal and
(07:02):
I write down three things I'm looking forward to today.
And sometimes it's a stretch. Honestly, Sometimes I'm like, it's
going to be a crazy, hectic day. What am I
looking forward to? But I come up with three. I
have to come up with three. I also, at the
end of the day, sit and I document something I'm
particularly proud of that actually happened, right, which is different
than these other wins. It can be the same, I guess,
(07:25):
but I document something else that I was particularly proud
of from my own actions. So for my actions is
a little different than these wins. And I encourage everybody
to do that in relation to early education, because let's
face it, it's not a high paying job. There's a
lot of stress.
Speaker 3 (07:42):
I was just gonna say, it could be very stressful.
Speaker 1 (07:45):
Lots of stress, some frustration, lots of demands on you.
So if you're going to keep an eye on the ball,
on eye on that, why you have to document all
of this. You said you had a story from class.
Speaker 2 (07:57):
Oh yeah, okay, So there's this boy in my class
who was always very nervous to come to school.
Speaker 3 (08:03):
It was his first experience at school. I took him.
Speaker 2 (08:06):
I'm not always watching his arrival time because I'm in
my classroom, so I don't know what happens out on
the front door.
Speaker 3 (08:13):
And a teacher just came up to me on Friday
and said, it's so amazing to see him.
Speaker 2 (08:17):
He just he says bye to mom and happily walks
in now and with no hesitation at all. And it
took a month's month. I mean we're now like months
into the school year. Took a months to get there.
And if another teacher didn't tell me that, I wouldn't
have known that happened because I'm not at the front door,
but she is. And so I was like, oh, that's amazing,
you know, like, you know, because usually by the time
(08:39):
he gets in my class when he's happy, but I
didn't know that there was even the struggle so much,
you know, that he was doing so much better with
the leaving mom in the morning, And I was like, oh,
that's amazing.
Speaker 1 (08:49):
If he's doing so much better leaving his parent to
go to you, it's a win for you because he's
feeling secure with you.
Speaker 2 (08:56):
Yeah, and he walks through the hallways all confident now,
and it's really it was cute. So like, I was
like so happy that the teacher told me that, because
I was like, oh, that's nice, that's good. You know,
I have another student who speaks Russian, and so.
Speaker 3 (09:12):
He came in speaking very very very.
Speaker 2 (09:15):
If anything, no English at all and just recently started
at least saying.
Speaker 3 (09:19):
Please help me.
Speaker 1 (09:20):
Well that's good first step.
Speaker 3 (09:22):
Yeah, so like to zip his coat up.
Speaker 1 (09:24):
It's a great phrase to have, please help me.
Speaker 2 (09:27):
And I said, because he used to whisper. And I
was like, say it louder, say it louder, you can
do it.
Speaker 1 (09:31):
He was unsure.
Speaker 2 (09:32):
He was very unsure. He's very not confident in his
English speaking. So like he's now going up to other people,
like not just me or my teachers. Aid like he
went up to somebody else in the cafeteria the other
day because he needed more water in his bottle and
asked them a teacher he doesn't even know, saying please
help me.
Speaker 3 (09:48):
And I was like, oh, this is amazing.
Speaker 1 (09:50):
How cool is that?
Speaker 3 (09:51):
Yeah? So good, so cool.
Speaker 1 (09:52):
I remember when I was a classroom teacher. Every June
I used to have a conversation with the people I
worked with in the room where we would say remember
who they were and September and they had grown physically, socially, emotionally,
cognitively in every way they had grown and every in
their skills. They had grown in every way, and sometimes
(10:13):
we would look back if we had photos of them
from the beginning of the school year, or the class
picture from the beginning of the school year. We would
look back and even say, look how small they were,
like a little baby. I wish that I knew then
to do that more often, instead of waiting to the
end of the year every couple of months to sit
and reflect who were they two months ago? Who are
(10:33):
they now? Because you're gonna come up with so many
wins that, yes, some of them were reported in your
data and to families, but not all of them. Right,
You're gonna come up with things like, oh, this child
is doing so much better with getting his lunch and
opening it up. Right, You're gonna come up with this
(10:56):
child just interacts with me on a different leah, yeah,
you know, or this child all of a sudden, I
saw this child being a leader the other day.
Speaker 2 (11:06):
Yeah, that's a big one that sometimes you miss. Yeah,
you know, because when you're with them every day, sometimes
it's hard to see the little things adding up, right,
because you're like, oh, we're just with each other every day,
you see, you know. But like when you really sit
down and think about it, you're like, oh, she didn't
used to do that in the beginning of the year,
or she didn't used to do that even last week.
Speaker 3 (11:24):
You know. Sometimes sometimes the growth.
Speaker 2 (11:26):
Is really rapid sometimes and you don't you miss it
if you're not looking.
Speaker 1 (11:30):
For And it's partially their brain development, yes, right, their
brains are developing. They're making other connections. It's partially internal.
But all of those connections wouldn't be made if it
wasn't for you. Correct, it's the repetition of the things
that we hope they will learn. And that's a partnership
between us in early childhood programs and the families. Right,
(11:51):
we can't take all the credit. You know, it's funny
we sometimes early childhood professionals want to say this the
right way. Sometimes early childhood professionals want to take all
the credit for the things that are going well and
none of the credit for the things that aren't. So
we go, oh, that's the family's fault. But then when
the children learn something, we go, oh, that was us,
that's us, that's us, that's not the family. Actually it's everybody.
(12:14):
Everything is everybody. We are equal partners in all of this.
And then the same thing for families. I'm sure as
a parent there were times when I was like, well
that lousy thing was the school and then when something
went well, I was like, that's because we're great parents.
We always want to take the credit for what's good
and shun the things that are not. Put it on
somebody else, Blame somebody else. It's not a blame game.
(12:36):
It's just this is what's happening, and we're doing our
best to work together. And it's individual child development and
brain development when they're going to start to do things,
so some of it is there, and their own growth
and children taking charge of their own growth when they're
willing to practice the skill over and over. That's children
take taking charge of their own growth. The fact that
(12:57):
children feel safe enough in our programs to do that
is kudos to you. And if they feel safe enough
to do that at home, and I'm sure they do,
and they do. All the research shows that if you
are coming from a nurturing home, that you're going to
do things first at home. Yeah, so you know, we
want to give credit where credit is due. And you
(13:18):
can take this idea if you are working in an
early childhood program. Teach it to the families. Tell them
you know, raising children can be quite the slog you
are slogging through the mug sometimes raising children twenty four
hours a day, seven days a week, and even if
they're not with their children all of the hours of
the day, they're thinking about their children all the hours
(13:39):
of the day and worrying about their children all the
hours of the day. So, you know, parenting raising children
is a daunting task. Teach them to write down the
winds please, and they don't have to And you need
to tell them, don't rehearse your children so that you
get a win. It has to emerge from the children.
(14:02):
What do you see the children doing naturally that you
can think away, that's because we took them to the
park X number of times, Like wait, my child is
negotiating taking turns on the slide on the slide because
we've taken them so many times.
Speaker 3 (14:20):
Are now there, You've taken them so many times.
Speaker 2 (14:23):
Now they're climbing things they couldn't climb before, you know,
whereas before they maybe needed your help or your your
hand on their back to feel secure.
Speaker 1 (14:30):
Now they're just doing things right. You know. One of
the things I learned recently and I want to try
and implement this in my own life, is that you
need to send set these and we know this. You
need to set short term goals. Right, Yes, here's something
I want to work on with the child. Set a
short term goal, and when the goal is reached, have
(14:53):
yourself a celebration that you have helped the child reach it, right,
have yourself a celebration. You need to determine this for yourself.
And the celebration should not be like I'm going to
go out and get myself a donut in a cupcame.
What it should be is I'm going to spend some
time enjoying something I like to do because I did
really good work doing that.
Speaker 3 (15:12):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (15:12):
Right, So I'm going to take care of myself. Now.
I'm gonna sit and I'm gonna read, or I'm going
to put time aside for myself to be outside in
a nice weather. I'm going to put my work aside
a little early today and go do something because I
want to celebrate this win, right right, And celebrating the
win is taking care of me.
Speaker 2 (15:31):
Yeah, because, and I think as an adult, we don't
celebrate our winds enough.
Speaker 1 (15:37):
That's true.
Speaker 2 (15:38):
You know, we're just slogging through life and through work
and we're like, Okay, that's great. I survived the day.
And that's a reward enough sometimes, right, but you really
should be like, no, I mean this was a I
did this, and I deserve a little break or some
sort of treat or some sort of extra time doing
something like we need to award ourselves.
Speaker 1 (15:59):
You know what I should do the non scale wins.
If I get a certain number of them before the month,
I should do something special. Yes, you should, because that's
motivating to me, even more than what the scale says.
It's motivating to me. Yes, because it's so much more
than a diet, the program that I'm doing, So it
is so anyway, folks, if you want to learn more
(16:21):
about that, you have to listen to a prior episode.
And I wonder now, see now that we're talking about this,
I wonder what my son the Millennial would have said
if he were in here.
Speaker 3 (16:30):
I need to be a permanent part of this podcast. Michael,
are you listening.
Speaker 1 (16:35):
No, he's probably he's in another room. He's probably like, no,
thank you, I'm done. I've done my.
Speaker 3 (16:39):
I'm done dealing with Alison.
Speaker 1 (16:40):
I'm sorry, I've done. You know what I should have
asked him while he was on the podcast.
Speaker 2 (16:45):
A question that he couldn't not answer because he's on
the podcast.
Speaker 1 (16:49):
Yeah, like, what what it's like that people take his
mother's advice.
Speaker 3 (16:56):
That's a really good question.
Speaker 1 (16:59):
Really, it's super weird for my kids, I know.
Speaker 3 (17:02):
Yeah, what does he think about that?
Speaker 1 (17:04):
To get it right from his.
Speaker 3 (17:07):
Right, I feel like we have to ask him that
if he ever comes back on.
Speaker 1 (17:10):
All right, if he ever comes back on, So stay
with us listening to our episode mini episode with just
that question.
Speaker 3 (17:15):
It's like just a quickie quikie.
Speaker 1 (17:18):
That would be fun, That would be fun.
Speaker 3 (17:19):
All right.
Speaker 1 (17:20):
Anyway, We're gonna let y'all go and ponder what we've said,
and I hope you will start to document in some
way and track your wins that can't be shown on paper. Yeah,
all right, preschool peeps, We will catch you next time
on the podcast.
Welcome to How Preschool Teachers Do It.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
This is Alison Kenttos, I am an early childhood educator.
Speaker 1 (00:08):
And this is Cindy Tarr Bush, I am an early
childhood consultant.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
This podcast is for parents and early childhood professionals.
Speaker 1 (00:16):
Let our experience and research based knowledge become your guide.
Hello preschool peeps.
Speaker 3 (00:25):
Hi peeps.
Speaker 1 (00:26):
We're gonna we have such a fee feel good episode today,
don't we we do. I think it's feel good episode
for you, and I'm excited about it too. But first,
where are people listening to us? All say?
Speaker 2 (00:39):
We have people listening to us from Egypt, so hello everyone,
so cool.
Speaker 3 (00:44):
And also Maine main, which is a place I've always
wanted to visit.
Speaker 2 (00:48):
I feel like if I go on vacation this summer,
that might be where I go because I want to
go hiking up there.
Speaker 1 (00:53):
Oh nice, Yeah, long drive, I.
Speaker 3 (00:55):
Know, but I feel like it'll be worth it, yeah.
Speaker 1 (00:58):
Says the girl who's driven to Canada. As we know
from a prior episode, like I feel like you can
do it.
Speaker 3 (01:04):
I can do it.
Speaker 1 (01:04):
Yeah, I could do it.
Speaker 3 (01:05):
Yeah yeah, And that's so close to Canada that.
Speaker 1 (01:08):
It is just you know, depending on where you are
in Maine.
Speaker 3 (01:12):
You go right over the border and just start living there.
It's fine.
Speaker 1 (01:16):
Again with that, again with that. Also, you need to
question your tolerance of winter.
Speaker 2 (01:22):
That might be an issue. Maybe we should go down
south to like Mexico or something.
Speaker 1 (01:28):
I have to question my tolerance of heat, I know.
So there you go, there you go. We're here today
to talk about tracking your non what I was calling
your non scale winds. And I'll tell you why I
called it that. So I mentioned a couple of last
last episodes. Oh my gosh, time I mentioned last episode
(01:49):
that I've been doing this uh weight management lifestyle change program,
which has been amazing for me. And one of the
things that they teach us is that it's not always
about the numbers on the scale, that there are other
wins when you change your lifestyle. And so what I
started to do in that case, I have a digital
(02:10):
journal and it has a calendar in it, and every
time every day that I have a non scale win,
like I'm wearing a different size clothes, or or I
was able to do something more easily right like, because
you'll text me some of your nons I do. I
get so excited.
Speaker 2 (02:26):
She's like, I just walked up the neighborhood hill or
something the other day, you tell me, and I didn't
get winded at all, and I was like, Oh.
Speaker 3 (02:31):
That's amazing.
Speaker 1 (02:32):
Yeah, really put me in good shape. It is a
big lifestyle It's not only diet, it's also a big
lifestyle change. And so I've started to mark these on
a calendar. And what I realize is sometimes we measure
our successes in ways that don't tell you the whole story.
And then I realized that's true for early education too.
They don't tell us the whole story. We have a
(02:53):
lot of assessment tools now in early education, lots of
emphasis on observe the children, document what they're doing. Use
these tools, whether it is your standards where you live,
state or country standards. It could be a product that
your program purchases. For example, one well known one is
(03:14):
Teaching Strategies Gold. Another one is high Scopes Core Advantage.
It could be other research based tools that you're using,
like the CDC milestones to figure out what are these
children's milestones, what do we need to help them accomplish
right or move toward? And I think there's a lot
of emphasis put on where is the child in this chart, Yes, right,
(03:40):
where is the Where are the child's skills? Not the child?
Where are the child's skills on this chart? And everybody's
looking at these charts and these statistics that come from
these charts, and here's what I'd like to say to everybody.
Just like I have non scale wins, that sometimes the
number on the scale doesn't tell the whole story of
what's happening in my body. You have have non for
(04:02):
a lot, I don't know what else. Call it non
scale winds when you are working with young children. And
I advise you that every time you have one of these,
you need to put it on a calendar because you're
gonna be like, I do an amazing job with these children.
And it's not only about these statistics. It is somewhat
about these statistics. You know, I have to weigh myself
(04:24):
every week. It is somewhat about that, because if I
don't keep an eye on that, then the non scale
winds go away. They go away. And I think it's
the same for us. If we're not using these research
based tools, then your winds are going to go away.
They're going to diminish. So it's important that we use
them when we have that data, but at the same time,
you are so much more than that, and we wanted
(04:45):
to give you some examples of that. One example of
that is something that sometimes adults don't even know what
to do with, and that's when a child is very
attached to you. Right, If a child is very attached
to you, that is a wonderful sign, a wonderful result
of the relationship that you have developed with this child
(05:08):
and your ability to make children feel safe with you.
It is wonderful. Now, do we want that child to
eventually be willing to explore the world beyond our laps
and our sides and us? Of course we do. Just
know that it is a win when a child loves
spending time with Yes, yes, right, And you can go
(05:31):
to that calendar and you can write something like, you know,
Alison just wanted to spend time with me today. That's
a win. I have a good relationship with that child. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (05:44):
And it's funny because like with the same child several
weeks down the road, the wind might be Alison explored
an area without me today.
Speaker 1 (05:53):
Which means you supported their ability to leave your side.
Speaker 2 (05:56):
Yes, that you gave them the security through that relationship
that you had in order to feel confident to explore
the area on their own.
Speaker 1 (06:04):
It's a giant win, it is, you know. I also
feel like the families think about the families. So sometimes
families will come in and they will confide in us. Yeah, right.
They may confide in a teacher, a teacher assistant, a director,
an assistant, or whoever they pick. That's a non scale win.
That's trust exactly. They've trusted you enough, you have built
(06:27):
trust with them that they're going to come and tell
you what's going on.
Speaker 3 (06:29):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (06:30):
Put it on a calendar. A family trusted me today.
Speaker 3 (06:33):
Yeah, and they value your opinion. Yep, you know, that's
that's what we should be doing.
Speaker 1 (06:39):
A family trusted me today. That's all you need to
write down. Right when you start to collect these wins,
it is so affirming. Yeah, yeah, it's yeah. I've started
to do a couple of things. When I get up
in the morning. One of the first things I do
sometimes even before leaving bed, I have a journal and
(07:02):
I write down three things I'm looking forward to today.
And sometimes it's a stretch. Honestly, Sometimes I'm like, it's
going to be a crazy, hectic day. What am I
looking forward to? But I come up with three. I
have to come up with three. I also, at the
end of the day, sit and I document something I'm
particularly proud of that actually happened, right, which is different
than these other wins. It can be the same, I guess,
(07:25):
but I document something else that I was particularly proud
of from my own actions. So for my actions is
a little different than these wins. And I encourage everybody
to do that in relation to early education, because let's
face it, it's not a high paying job. There's a
lot of stress.
Speaker 3 (07:42):
I was just gonna say, it could be very stressful.
Speaker 1 (07:45):
Lots of stress, some frustration, lots of demands on you.
So if you're going to keep an eye on the ball,
on eye on that, why you have to document all
of this. You said you had a story from class.
Speaker 2 (07:57):
Oh yeah, okay, So there's this boy in my class
who was always very nervous to come to school.
Speaker 3 (08:03):
It was his first experience at school. I took him.
Speaker 2 (08:06):
I'm not always watching his arrival time because I'm in
my classroom, so I don't know what happens out on
the front door.
Speaker 3 (08:13):
And a teacher just came up to me on Friday
and said, it's so amazing to see him.
Speaker 2 (08:17):
He just he says bye to mom and happily walks
in now and with no hesitation at all. And it
took a month's month. I mean we're now like months
into the school year. Took a months to get there.
And if another teacher didn't tell me that, I wouldn't
have known that happened because I'm not at the front door,
but she is. And so I was like, oh, that's amazing,
you know, like, you know, because usually by the time
(08:39):
he gets in my class when he's happy, but I
didn't know that there was even the struggle so much,
you know, that he was doing so much better with
the leaving mom in the morning, And I was like, oh,
that's amazing.
Speaker 1 (08:49):
If he's doing so much better leaving his parent to
go to you, it's a win for you because he's
feeling secure with you.
Speaker 2 (08:56):
Yeah, and he walks through the hallways all confident now,
and it's really it was cute. So like, I was
like so happy that the teacher told me that, because
I was like, oh, that's nice, that's good. You know,
I have another student who speaks Russian, and so.
Speaker 3 (09:12):
He came in speaking very very very.
Speaker 2 (09:15):
If anything, no English at all and just recently started
at least saying.
Speaker 3 (09:19):
Please help me.
Speaker 1 (09:20):
Well that's good first step.
Speaker 3 (09:22):
Yeah, so like to zip his coat up.
Speaker 1 (09:24):
It's a great phrase to have, please help me.
Speaker 2 (09:27):
And I said, because he used to whisper. And I
was like, say it louder, say it louder, you can
do it.
Speaker 1 (09:31):
He was unsure.
Speaker 2 (09:32):
He was very unsure. He's very not confident in his
English speaking. So like he's now going up to other people,
like not just me or my teachers. Aid like he
went up to somebody else in the cafeteria the other
day because he needed more water in his bottle and
asked them a teacher he doesn't even know, saying please
help me.
Speaker 3 (09:48):
And I was like, oh, this is amazing.
Speaker 1 (09:50):
How cool is that?
Speaker 3 (09:51):
Yeah? So good, so cool.
Speaker 1 (09:52):
I remember when I was a classroom teacher. Every June
I used to have a conversation with the people I
worked with in the room where we would say remember
who they were and September and they had grown physically, socially, emotionally,
cognitively in every way they had grown and every in
their skills. They had grown in every way, and sometimes
(10:13):
we would look back if we had photos of them
from the beginning of the school year, or the class
picture from the beginning of the school year. We would
look back and even say, look how small they were,
like a little baby. I wish that I knew then
to do that more often, instead of waiting to the
end of the year every couple of months to sit
and reflect who were they two months ago? Who are
(10:33):
they now? Because you're gonna come up with so many
wins that, yes, some of them were reported in your
data and to families, but not all of them. Right,
You're gonna come up with things like, oh, this child
is doing so much better with getting his lunch and
opening it up. Right, You're gonna come up with this
(10:56):
child just interacts with me on a different leah, yeah,
you know, or this child all of a sudden, I
saw this child being a leader the other day.
Speaker 2 (11:06):
Yeah, that's a big one that sometimes you miss. Yeah,
you know, because when you're with them every day, sometimes
it's hard to see the little things adding up, right,
because you're like, oh, we're just with each other every day,
you see, you know. But like when you really sit
down and think about it, you're like, oh, she didn't
used to do that in the beginning of the year,
or she didn't used to do that even last week.
Speaker 3 (11:24):
You know. Sometimes sometimes the growth.
Speaker 2 (11:26):
Is really rapid sometimes and you don't you miss it
if you're not looking.
Speaker 1 (11:30):
For And it's partially their brain development, yes, right, their
brains are developing. They're making other connections. It's partially internal.
But all of those connections wouldn't be made if it
wasn't for you. Correct, it's the repetition of the things
that we hope they will learn. And that's a partnership
between us in early childhood programs and the families. Right,
(11:51):
we can't take all the credit. You know, it's funny
we sometimes early childhood professionals want to say this the
right way. Sometimes early childhood professionals want to take all
the credit for the things that are going well and
none of the credit for the things that aren't. So
we go, oh, that's the family's fault. But then when
the children learn something, we go, oh, that was us,
that's us, that's us, that's not the family. Actually it's everybody.
(12:14):
Everything is everybody. We are equal partners in all of this.
And then the same thing for families. I'm sure as
a parent there were times when I was like, well
that lousy thing was the school and then when something
went well, I was like, that's because we're great parents.
We always want to take the credit for what's good
and shun the things that are not. Put it on
somebody else, Blame somebody else. It's not a blame game.
(12:36):
It's just this is what's happening, and we're doing our
best to work together. And it's individual child development and
brain development when they're going to start to do things,
so some of it is there, and their own growth
and children taking charge of their own growth when they're
willing to practice the skill over and over. That's children
take taking charge of their own growth. The fact that
(12:57):
children feel safe enough in our programs to do that
is kudos to you. And if they feel safe enough
to do that at home, and I'm sure they do,
and they do. All the research shows that if you
are coming from a nurturing home, that you're going to
do things first at home. Yeah, so you know, we
want to give credit where credit is due. And you
(13:18):
can take this idea if you are working in an
early childhood program. Teach it to the families. Tell them
you know, raising children can be quite the slog you
are slogging through the mug sometimes raising children twenty four
hours a day, seven days a week, and even if
they're not with their children all of the hours of
the day, they're thinking about their children all the hours
(13:39):
of the day and worrying about their children all the
hours of the day. So, you know, parenting raising children
is a daunting task. Teach them to write down the
winds please, and they don't have to And you need
to tell them, don't rehearse your children so that you
get a win. It has to emerge from the children.
(14:02):
What do you see the children doing naturally that you
can think away, that's because we took them to the
park X number of times, Like wait, my child is
negotiating taking turns on the slide on the slide because
we've taken them so many times.
Speaker 3 (14:20):
Are now there, You've taken them so many times.
Speaker 2 (14:23):
Now they're climbing things they couldn't climb before, you know,
whereas before they maybe needed your help or your your
hand on their back to feel secure.
Speaker 1 (14:30):
Now they're just doing things right. You know. One of
the things I learned recently and I want to try
and implement this in my own life, is that you
need to send set these and we know this. You
need to set short term goals. Right, Yes, here's something
I want to work on with the child. Set a
short term goal, and when the goal is reached, have
(14:53):
yourself a celebration that you have helped the child reach it, right,
have yourself a celebration. You need to determine this for yourself.
And the celebration should not be like I'm going to
go out and get myself a donut in a cupcame.
What it should be is I'm going to spend some
time enjoying something I like to do because I did
really good work doing that.
Speaker 3 (15:12):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (15:12):
Right, So I'm going to take care of myself. Now.
I'm gonna sit and I'm gonna read, or I'm going
to put time aside for myself to be outside in
a nice weather. I'm going to put my work aside
a little early today and go do something because I
want to celebrate this win, right right, And celebrating the
win is taking care of me.
Speaker 2 (15:31):
Yeah, because, and I think as an adult, we don't
celebrate our winds enough.
Speaker 1 (15:37):
That's true.
Speaker 2 (15:38):
You know, we're just slogging through life and through work
and we're like, Okay, that's great. I survived the day.
And that's a reward enough sometimes, right, but you really
should be like, no, I mean this was a I
did this, and I deserve a little break or some
sort of treat or some sort of extra time doing
something like we need to award ourselves.
Speaker 1 (15:59):
You know what I should do the non scale wins.
If I get a certain number of them before the month,
I should do something special. Yes, you should, because that's
motivating to me, even more than what the scale says.
It's motivating to me. Yes, because it's so much more
than a diet, the program that I'm doing, So it
is so anyway, folks, if you want to learn more
(16:21):
about that, you have to listen to a prior episode.
And I wonder now, see now that we're talking about this,
I wonder what my son the Millennial would have said
if he were in here.
Speaker 3 (16:30):
I need to be a permanent part of this podcast. Michael,
are you listening.
Speaker 1 (16:35):
No, he's probably he's in another room. He's probably like, no,
thank you, I'm done. I've done my.
Speaker 3 (16:39):
I'm done dealing with Alison.
Speaker 1 (16:40):
I'm sorry, I've done. You know what I should have
asked him while he was on the podcast.
Speaker 2 (16:45):
A question that he couldn't not answer because he's on
the podcast.
Speaker 1 (16:49):
Yeah, like, what what it's like that people take his
mother's advice.
Speaker 3 (16:56):
That's a really good question.
Speaker 1 (16:59):
Really, it's super weird for my kids, I know.
Speaker 3 (17:02):
Yeah, what does he think about that?
Speaker 1 (17:04):
To get it right from his.
Speaker 3 (17:07):
Right, I feel like we have to ask him that
if he ever comes back on.
Speaker 1 (17:10):
All right, if he ever comes back on, So stay
with us listening to our episode mini episode with just
that question.
Speaker 3 (17:15):
It's like just a quickie quikie.
Speaker 1 (17:18):
That would be fun, That would be fun.
Speaker 3 (17:19):
All right.
Speaker 1 (17:20):
Anyway, We're gonna let y'all go and ponder what we've said,
and I hope you will start to document in some
way and track your wins that can't be shown on paper. Yeah,
all right, preschool peeps, We will catch you next time
on the podcast.
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
New Heights with Jason & Travis Kelce
Football’s funniest family duo — Jason Kelce of the Philadelphia Eagles and Travis Kelce of the Kansas City Chiefs — team up to provide next-level access to life in the league as it unfolds. The two brothers and Super Bowl champions drop weekly insights about the weekly slate of games and share their INSIDE perspectives on trending NFL news and sports headlines. They also endlessly rag on each other as brothers do, chat the latest in pop culture and welcome some very popular and well-known friends to chat with them. Check out new episodes every Wednesday. Follow New Heights on the Wondery App, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen to new episodes early and ad-free, and get exclusive content on Wondery+. Join Wondery+ in the Wondery App, Apple Podcasts or Spotify. And join our new membership for a unique fan experience by going to the New Heights YouTube channel now!
24/7 News: The Latest
The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.