Dismantle, move, rebuild. Now there are bridges and double the number of launch points. Enjoy the show.

It holds children. One or two, when there is a quiet journey. More, when a danger must be avoided and the destination is some safe haven. Sometimes, it is a home and regular deliveries are made of boat juice (boat juice is fuel of rain water or sand, depending on available resources) and food by other children as they run past or drift past the more populated areas in the vast sea of their imagination.

It holds things. Mostly water, but also, depending on the season, it holds hickory nuts, sand, mulch, sticks, bark, and leaves. These things collect or are brought and deposited by running and plotting children. The collections, just like the boat juice, reflect the available resources found and uncovered on the playground. These included buckets, shovels, turkey basters, spoons, cake pans, and bottle babies. You just never know what you will need once you set sail.

It holds seasons. The water, sand, and other collections change over the seasons. We have mostly mild Winters and ice is considered a rare treasure beyond compare. That thin surface of slick, precious and transparent glass-like crust that forms on colder days is held, protected in the boat. Waiting for children to tap, crack it and then carry its shards around to trade and share. On colder days, the boat holds the water longer as it turns into that cloudy, white solid block of ice. No amount of hammering will loosen it from the base of the boat. Hickory nuts and sticks captured in its frozen depths, the children slip and slide on it, a miniature frozen landscape.

Children, during the years at our school, are developing their sense of where they begin and end, how their bodies move through space and how they fit into the world. They gain this information through senses and through motion and interaction with each other and with materials. The boat holds this, from the silt and mud, yellowed from Spring pollen to the frozen, crackling ice.

It is also the way of the parent cooperative to find a need and then work to fill it. From the founding of schools to the digging of a dry creek bed. This story begins with imagine and ends with create. Each day, imagine and create happens in little and big ways. This story is about imagining a dry creek bed and then creating that creek bed. I found a need and we worked to fill it.

Since we installed a stepping stone pathway around the other side of the school, we gained space and discovered opportunities for new experiences. The stepping stones extend from the Children’s Teahouse to a second gate that we use to exit the school each class session. Our imaginings – rock garden – revealed a new geography, a new ecosystem. The back of the school has always presented an interesting puzzle of rain drainage. The basement would regularly flood and as each little hiccup was addressed, like the roof, the gutters, etc., another hiccup would crop up, or rather flood down. With all of the building problems addressed, the rock garden introduced a new flooding pattern. Now, rain is an important thing for young children. Mud is too, but the rain would wash and pool around the foundation and over the stepping stones. We needed to figure out a way to direct the flooding.

I watched how the rain would stream and wash over the pathway. The rain would then rush out onto the street and that impacts the Anacostia Watershed. We can’t have that! Find a need, fill it. I thought, dry creek bed, and we made it happen. Now the rain water is collecting in a stream and draining and the best part is the children did all the heavy lifting!

About the time the children were digging dirt and dragging rocks, I was elected President of Parent Cooperative Preschools International (PCPI). Just as the story of the dry creek began with a need, this story does too. And it is made all the more meaningful to serve an organization that played an important role in our school’s history. One of its founding members, Rebecca Allen, is one of our alumni parents. It feels important to give back to an organization that galvanizes the parent participatory model. The need is there and it is time to fill it.

As President, I hope to look back to its rich history to revitalize the organization and call attention to the cooperative movement and how the early childhood educational community can find the resources they need to support parent and family involvement. To do this, I will need we. If you want to learn more about the cooperative or participatory model, please visit PCPI’s website. If you are parent or teacher in a cooperative/participatory school and you are not already a member of PCPI, then please join. If you want to learn about the cooperative movement and the United Nations International Year of the Cooperative, 2012, visit the NCBA. Gather and collect. Imagine and create!

Mom and Kiddo of What Do We Do All Day? in New York city tagged Scott of Brick by Brick in Tennessee and he tagged Donna and Sherry of Irresistible Ideas for Play Based Learning in Australia. They then tagged Maureen  at Strong Start in Canada who tagged Karen at Flights of Whimsy in Australia. She tagged Kierna at Learning for Life  in Ireland then lo and behold, we received a wonderful package from Ireland. This daisy chain only traces our part of the story! Each of these bloggers sent two and even three packages to other people/blogs. This means that this adventure is an exponential one and you know how all us ECE-types love the math!

The Pay it Forward package arrives from Ireland

Our package from Ireland included two maps, a great book, Finn’s Causeway Adventure by Lauren Graham, a leprechaun, a packet of Irish wildflower seeds, a calendar, and some Play Outdoor stickers. The seeds arrived at a perfect time, Spring has sprung here early and is it possible to have a better book for an early childhood classroom? It has the wild rocks of the Giant’s Causeway  and a shark.

So here are the rules…

The Learning Materials Workshop‘s website tells us that founder, Karen Hewitt, places “an emphasis on the importance of open-ended play as a generative experience and rich source for fantasy and form-making is ever-present in her work.”

I am happy to share that this simple tray brought us exactly that kind of play. We opened the discussion about how to use it with the 4 and 5-year olds. What would you do with this tray? The first idea offered was “build a bridge.” This was because the tray looked so substantial. We experimented with this idea, but the children quickly saw that their hopes for having another opportunity to climb on furniture would not be supported using this particular piece of wood.

We talked about how there are options for layers — there is the lower surface (the bottom of the tray) and then the possibility of covering or revealing that surface with a sliding lid. Since we were reading fairy tales and using lots of maps in our dramatic play, it made sense to transfer mapping opportunities to this new, large, but not large enough to stand in or on, tray. The children thought that we could make a moveable, dimensional map in miniature. The paintings the children made to line the bottom of the tray are described on the child art retrospective blog.

I asked one of our co-oping parents to cut a design into four pieces of black mat board with a router. These pieces could slide into the channels,to cover and reveal the layer below. While I was waiting for those pieces to come together days passed, and as any teacher knows, ideas began to flow. Karen had included a strip of mylar and it, along with this idea of reveal/conceal, it reminded me of a children’s poetry writing class I taught years and years ago. I asked the children to use mirrors to look at the reflected world behind them for inspiration. Through the looking glass. Things familiar, but quite different.

Then, I found a similar size tray at the thrift shop. This tray is covered in deep blue velvet. What if the tray became a tactile experience with the deep blue providing a soft backdrop with a reveal in touch and even sound? And wait there is more! Two other themes were taking shape in short order. The imaginary play space is dressed as outer space and we are reading the book, The Seeing Stick by Jane Yolen. In outer space, the 3- and 4-year olds cannot get enough of troublesome alien eggs and the 4- and 5-year olds are interested in exploring the world without sight. And these two these ended up playing a very big role in how both of the trays were put to use.

Magic happened. This is an adventure best told through pictures, but to give you a brief overview…there was BIG drama, there was exploration with hands, hearts, and minds, and there was certainly beauty through the use of a simple tray and how children naturally explore through open-ended play. What I did not know before we started this pursuit is that the children could take a tray and provide so many contexts for it. It was truly enjoyable. Make sure to click on the toggle, show info, in order to see the photo captions. The photo collection shows both the 3- and 4-year olds and the 4- and 5-year olds groups.

For successful potty training there are two key components.  First you have to be ready to commit to the process.  It doesn’t happen over night and if you are not ready to deal with the accidents and stick with it then you shouldn’t start.  Starting and stopping when it is convenient for you will send mixed messages and be confusing for your child.

Secondly your child needs to be ready too.  This includes both physically and emotionally.  Signs of this will include dry diapers for extended periods of time during the day, an interest in using the potty, cooperation and the ability to control their bowel and bladder muscles (having bowel movements around the same time each day, not having bowel movements at night, and having a dry diaper after a nap.) Children must also be able to climb, talk, remove clothing, and have mastered other basic motor skills before they can use the toilet by themselves.

If your child is resistant then do not force the issue.  This will only result in power struggles, which we all know never end well for any of the interested parties.  More importantly, forcing the issue can result in serious medical complications as a result of holding such as dysfunctional voiding, UTIs and encopresis, a serious condition where the muscles in the colon lose the ability to function normally due to over stretching from holding.  This will result in fecal incontinence.

Bottom line is that not every child will become potty trained at the same age and it is a process not a struggle.  Some kids will also need more time for bowel control than bladder control.  And even after your child is potty trained there will continue to be accidents so always keep a spare pair of clothes on hand and some patience.

I am a nursery class teacher in a primary school in Dungannon, N. Ireland. My class are 3 and 4 years old and spend one year with me before starting statutory schooling. I was very fortunate to receive funding to spend a week shadowing a colleague in an outdoor kindergarten in western Norway. I came back totally enthused and wanted to try as many of the things I had seen with my class, and fortunately all the other staff were in agreement too.

We decided to spend at least 1 hour outside everyday, no matter what the weather and starting going outside first thing in the morning. In the new school building we have a covered verandah area and this means that we can take many resources outside that normally might get destroyed in the rain etc. It also means we have snack outside and those children who want to sit and be quieter at an activity can do so whilst others run about being noisy.

Unfortunately I did not have any wooded area within walking distance of the school nor was there a suitable area within the school grounds that could be utilised either. However, a local park did have a secure natural learning space designated as a “Woodland Classroom” for schools to use free of charge. I secured Lottery funding for transport costs and for 2 years I took my class to the park on a weekly basis. Due to funding and staffing issues for the past 2 years we have gone once a month. It is only possible to go at all because so many of our parents come along too to help make it as enjoyable as possible. The children have a communal snack when they arrive and then are free to play for the next 70 minutes. The children are free to run, climb, jump, splash in the mud, play with water making mud pies and just enjoy being in a safe secure natural environment.

We got a brand new school building in 2006 so we don’t have an established natural play area and also have a lot of tarmac and no trees. I have found that the children don’t get hurt as much in the forest as the natural surface provides a softer surface and they cope better with nettle stings than a fall on the tarmac. They do transfer most of the skills they learn in the woodland classroom back to their play in the school playground and all staff allow them to climb up on the tyres/seats etc, as long they get up by themselves.

Ideally I would love to be able to walk to such a wonderful area and be able to use it on a daily basis but it is something to look forward to each month.

The first time I introduced it was quite formal since it was part of my school work with a corresponding lesson plan, literature connection, and filled with treasures collected from here and there. I read the books that set the dramatic play session up and then brought the children into the Imagination Station for the big reveal. I remember exactly the click of opening clasps and the way the children fairly leapt into the case to pull the ropes, quilts, maps, and aprons from the  suitcase.

Within minutes every single thing in the case was employed and put to good use…ropes were tied to horses, calicos were covering the children from head to toe, and quilts were wrapping the babies. The only thing left to do was hop on board the wagon to head west with the now empty, but still very, very important suitcase.

Since that time, the suitcase has served many purposes. Its stickers are a little frayed and some are missing altogether. The lining is holding up, which is interesting considering how many things and people have been carried and perched inside the suitcase.

Over seven years of adventures — which don’t even include the adventures the suitcase had even before I found it at the thrift shop — and it should have a good many years in it still!

As educators, we know that the model is ideal for parents who want to experience early childhood learning and play, firsthand, while gaining insight into their child’s view of the world. The cooperative classroom setting provides context and information that cannot be expressed as effectively any other way. The parents’ understanding of their child moves beyond written reports to something more meaningful and fulfilling.

As an organization built through parent involvement these past 70 years, we know these benefits hold true.

The parents’ focus is naturally and rightfully on their little one as they look for schools and care settings. Yet a formal childcare setting or school is made up of many children. In a parent cooperative, this means that the parent will not only be working with his or her child alone, but with many children gathered together. Children gathered in play are fabulously loud and rambunctious. They do not move in orderly fashion, but through leaps and bounds, rolls and stops. They cry, they laugh, they make mistakes, and they sometimes say things they don’t really mean as well as things they really do mean. Understanding and accepting other people’s children is the biggest and best take-away a parent cooperative will give to their member parents.

Deciding to become part of larger whole is a big commitment. Every parent must consider this before they take that leap to join a parent cooperative. Actively making that choice and deciding to trust that things could get very messy, knowing that there will be joys and triumphs that match the frustrations and hiccups along the way, will tumble out into the greatest benefit a parent cooperative education model offers . . . Community.

Some teachers and administrators are big on advance planning and a lot of these educators are serving as gatekeepers and squeeze chutes in the education business. Teachers find themselves on inescapable tracks to prove that their lesson plans meet core academic standards. This does not make them bad teachers. It is a hoop that has been placed in front of them. Teachers are creative and they are able to figure out to cook the books, i.e. meet children’s needs at the same time as meeting regulations and administrator’s needs.

We do not have day-to-day, moment-to-moment plans. These would run contrary to our philosophy of education. We do have thematic units with flexible beginnings and endings, for example our Into the Forest fairy tale unit was at least 3-weeks shorter last year than the year before. We do not want to share these units in advance either although they seem to pop up year after year, because I am more than willing to heave ho something that isn’t working. The only exception to this is in the Tracks class — there are two culminating art projects. In the pursuit of those two projects the way is open enough for the journey to wiggle and zig and zag along the way.

Within each unit there is wiggle room with the projects and pursuits, but each activity builds towards a whole “something”.” These projects do not necessarily carry over from year to year. This is simply because much of our material lists are changeable and collected/recycled/repurposed at a moment’s notice.

Projects and activities must also must be flexible and responsive because individual and group dynamics and needs change with each class of students. And finally, we cannot remove the adult-presence from the conversation. I learn more each year I teach from the children and from the adults.

The Reggio philosophy frames the “child as researcher” or as Lilian Katz and Judy Harris Helm frame it, “child as investigator.” In their book, Young Investigators, they define project work for us.

Although the word project has many meanings, when used in the “project approach,” it has a specific meaning. A project is an in-depth investigation of a topic worth learning more about.

They continue this definition that in the project-based approach (and I would add in the Reggio-model), the research is conducted by a small group, sometimes an individual child and is pursued to reveal, in detail, the information the child or small group has revealed regarding the topic.

At our Cooperative School, we seek to include the group in a cooperative learning environment (a cooperative through-and-through), so you will not often see individual threads being pulled from the cloth. We straddle the line between Teacher-Directed Inquiry and Projects.

In regards to our stance on teacher-directed inquiry, Andrea and I are very responsive teachers in practice—the children’s voice is quite present in the discussion. A good example of this is the Bugs’ “shadow” research. Our projects are both teacher and child-initiated, but as mentioned earlier, we like the whole group to be involved in the pursuit.

We believe, and have seen time and time again, those opportunities for skill-building, academic facts, and content knowledge can absolutely be woven into the exploration as long as teachers and other adults remain responsive and aware of opportunities. For instance, we know that the names of colors and shapes have been infused early on and what about grammatical rules? There is some constant, some natural progression, and steady exposure. There are times though, that we must construct opportunities for information delivery. For instance, we know that letters must often be formally introduced and practiced. These rarely are learned spontaneously.

So, we do not write out daily plans, rather we shake out themes that are usually interesting to young children and can be enriched through literature and/or materials. We choose activities and pursuits that provide opportunities to introduce and practice the “academic content,” but more importantly, we seek out activities that will build creative thinking, gross and fine motor skills, and opportunities to exchange the language of ideas and social interactions between peers.

As part of our reflective practice, we use weekly reviews, staff meetings, and ongoing discussion with parents and children to consider the successes and flops. In turn, these should help parents (and our validators) envision the wholeness of our program.