“…It can be so hard to navigate the murky waters of other people’s feelings, especially the children in our care. We wonder, where did these feelings come from? What, or who, is responsible for them? Have the choices I’ve made as a caregiver that caused them? Am I now responsible for fixing them?…”
Read More“…Imagine: you know something big is coming. Something life-changing. You’ve heard everyone you know mention this unfamiliar thing that will make you into a different sort of person (read: big kid). Even if you know someone else who has done this thing, you still don’t know exactly what the future holds for you. You can’t know until you get there…”
Read More“…Over the next few years I started to see, every year around summertime, pre-kindergarten children just...got like that. The calmest, most predictable children would have moments of pure unadulterated push-back against their care-takers and friends, strange bouts of anxiety before school or during drop-off, or sometimes they’d have accidents again after being toilet-learned for years. I started to call this phenomenon kindergarten feelings…”
Read More“…Sometimes our own fears about our capability as parents or caretakers can overwhelm our sense of perspective, making it all the harder for us to see the children or they behavior for who and what they really are. Fear of our own inadequacy leads us to believe our challenges are bigger than we can cope with or, even worse, permanent. But neither of these things are true. Those are just the sort of lies fear tells…”
Read More“…To very young children, however, these words are useful. Children employ “Best Friend” and it’s inverse, “Not My Friend,” because it communicates something very clearly and with great effect - closeness or space, sometimes tears, sometimes adult attention…”
Read More“… Our job is to help support their understanding of things being in-between, unfixed, grey - and learn how to get curious about that cognitive, often emotionally-stirring disequilibrium. Essentially, we want children to learn how to open up rather than shut out what we don’t know about yet. But we adults have to get their first…”
Read More“…I was ready to rumble over the idea of “boy colors,” “girl colors,” and the rights of all children to wear any dress they want. But as I gained more experience, it wasn’t the children I worried about any longer. I found young children to be open and accepting of interventions like, “Oh, actually colors are not about boys and girls. They are just about color.” Not such a big deal. What I found instead, as if so often the case, if that it was the adults who couldn’t shake the gender habit….”
Read More“…We have to learn to view children as thinkers first and foremost. Researchers of themselves and those around them. We have to value that work. So, for NML, I knew I had to do that literally. As in, pay children for their art and labor…”
“…The key to successful goodbyes is a clear, pre-determined, and consistent routine for saying goodbye each day…”
Read MoreRather than rote academics, your child will be better served, dare I say most ready, if they arrive at kindergarten equipped with strong social-emotional and intellectual dispositions. At the basest level your child will need to come into kindergarten knowing how to be away from home and participate a school community…
Read MoreMicah Card is a writer and educator in Los Angeles, CA.
No Magic Lecture is a blog about teaching, learning, and living alongside young children, though the principles here apply to all learners (including you!). Creating a meaningful life with children is about holding a vision and seeing it through together. The phrase “No Magic Lecture” means there is no one perfect thing that must make or break a moment, a behavior, a child, family, or classroom. It’s a reminder, reprieve, and an invitation. Welcome.
Micah Card is a writer and educator in Santa Cruz, CA. She believes in the power of children, thinking deeply and critically, and in reminding ourselves that the point of all this is to grow.
To learn more about Micah’s work and credentials, click here.
