Browse Articles

April 2009

• Get Children Started Early in Math

• All About Safety: Tips for Choosing and Using Crib Toys and Pacifiers

• Do Good Grades for Early Childhood Education Mean Good Grades for Kids?

• A Few Good Books

Get Children Started Early in Math

an interview with Kathy Richardson

Surprisingly, research shows that preschool math learning predicts not only later learning in mathematics but also literacy and reading skills. To speak on this important subject, we’re pleased to bring you an exclusive interview with noted math educator and author Kathy Richardson. Kathy Richardson has been guiding early childhood educators in the thoughtful teaching of mathematics to young children for more than 30 years. In her latest book, Developing Number Concepts in Pre-Kindergarten, Kathy brings her knowledge and enthusiasm for how young children learn math to the preschool level. We caught up with Kathy recently, and she talked to us about her teaching philosophy and why she wrote her new book.

The Early Learner: You’ve written a number of successful math teaching series, including “Assessing Math Concepts” and “Developing Number Concepts” for grades K-3. What was your goal in writing this new book?

Kathy Richardson: The National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) included pre-kindergarten standards in their Principals and Standards for School Mathematics for the first time in 2000. My intention in writing the book was to provide pre-K teachers with the research framework and practical applications they need to implement these standards in a thoughtful way. As I explained in the book, it’s important that curriculum practices and assessment techniques reflect what we know about how young children learn, and the way their development affects their learning.

The Early Learner: What is the most important thing for pre-K teachers to grasp when introducing math concepts to preschoolers?

Kathy Richardson: Young children are naturally very curious about the mathematics in their world. They naturally ask questions like, “How many are there?” “How many do we need?” “How are these two shapes alike?” “Which one is bigger?” In their play and exploration, the children themselves provide many wonderful opportunities for the teaching of mathematics. If teachers can follow their lead and work with that natural curiosity, they can go a long way to establishing the necessary foundation for children’s later growth in mathematics understanding.

It’s also important for teachers to recognize that it’s not always obvious which experiences help build understanding in young children and which do not. We often make assumptions that children think what we are thinking when they perform correctly. However, children can give the right answer and not know what they’re saying. Conversely, they can also give the “wrong” answer and still be pondering an important idea. If we’re willing to learn from the children’s honest responses, we’ll be able to present ideas to them in all their complexity rather than oversimplifying them with the object of ensuring “success.”

The Early Learner: How does your approach help young children develop the background they need to be ready for kindergarten, first grade and beyond?

Kathy Richardson: The NCTM standards give us a vision of mathematics for young children. In the standards summary, the NCTM standards tell us that developing a solid mathematical foundation from pre-kindergarten through second grade is essential for every child. In these grades, students are building beliefs about mathematics that will influence their thinking about performance in, and attitudes toward, mathematics in later years.

We don’t need to give children experiences that “look like” what they’ll need to know later. For example, children don’t need to know about rulers to be learning about measurement. They need to line things up, to cover spaces with blocks, and to pour sand and water from one container to another. By the same token, learning the names of shapes is not the best preparation for understanding the geometry ideas they’ll need to
know later. Rather, it’s putting blocks together to make new shapes and, in that hands-on way, recognizing the difference between a triangle and a rectangle. When we try to teach children our way of getting answers before they are ready, we interfere with their sense-making process. However, when teachers understand the learning phases a child goes through in developing an understanding of math concepts, their teaching will give children the experiences that truly prepare them for future learning.

The Early Learner: If children don’t learn these fundamental math concepts at an early age, can they catch up later?

Kathy Richardson: I would like to think that it is never too late to learn. However, providing a good beginning for a young child ensures that they can get more out of whatever experiences they encounter in the future. It is not so much a matter of catching up or not catching up, but of being in a position to get the most out of the mathematical experiences they are provided. Giving children opportunities to see and experience the
mathematics in their world will impact their future in profound ways.

Developing Math Concepts in Pre-Kindergarten (#123892, $27.95) is available from www.didax.com or by calling 800-458-0024. Order before 6/1/09 and save 10%. Use Promo Code EC10 at web checkout or on your
order.

All About Safety
Tips for Choosing and Using Crib Toys and Pacifiers
from “Safe & Sound for Baby, a guide to baby product safety, use and selection” by the Juvenile Products Manufacturers Association (JPMA)

Maintaining a safe environment for the babies in your care requires an often alarming amount of attention to details. It is, truly, “sweating the small stuff.” To help you keep babies safe every day, the Juvenile Products Manufacturers Association (JPMA) has created a booklet focusing on the infant products you may need and how to use them safely and correctly.

In the March Issue of The Early Learner e-newsletter, we brought you JPMA’s tips on cribs. As a follow-up, here’s some advice on the safe use of crib toys and pacifiers.

• Make sure a pacificier’s protective shield has ventilation holes and is large enough so it can’t fit inside a baby’s mouth.

• Check the pacifier frequently for rips and tears.

• Recent studies have shown that using a pacifier can reduce the risk of SIDS. Consider offering a pacifier at naptime, but do not force an infant to use one.

• Do not reinsert a pacifier after the infant falls asleep.

• Do not coat the pacifier in sweet-tasting solutions.

• Never string a pacifier or any other item around baby’s neck. Strings can cause strangulation.

• Take rattles, squeeze toys, teethers, plush toys and other items out of a baby’s crib when a baby is sleeping or unattended.

• Remove crib gyms and mobiles from the crib when baby begins to push up on hands and knees.

• Mobiles and any other toys that hang over the crib should always be out of reach.

In addition, JPMA recommends some standard baby-safety rules regardless of the infant product you’re using. The only sure-fire way to keep a baby safe is direct supervision when juvenile products are in use.

• Always read and follow the manufacturers’ instructions and warning labels.

• Frequently inspect the products you use to make sure that they comply to today’s changing safety standards. Refer to JPMA’s brochure, available at www.jpma.org, for up-to-date information.

• Frequently inspect products for missing hardware, loose threads and strings, holes and tears.

• Discontinue using a product when a baby reaches the limits defined by the manufacturer.

The Juvenile Products Manufacturers Association represents 250 companies in the United States, Canada and Mexico who manufacture, import and/or distribute infant products such as cribs, car seats, strollers, bedding and a wide range of accessories and decorative items. JPMA has been recognized as an organization dedicated to enhancing children’s product safety. For free copy of “Safe & Sound for Baby,” available in English and Spanish, send a stamped, self-addressed business-size envelope to JPMA Public Information, 15000 Commerce Parkway, Suite C, Mt. Laurel, NJ 08054, or visit www.jpma.org for a downloadable version.

Do Good Grades for Early Childhood Education Mean Good Grades for Kids?

by Tina Manzer

As President Obama plans an “historic” investment in early childhood education, a new book from Jossey-Bass, The Obama Education Plan: An Education Week Guide, provides helpful background information on the plan’s important points. Each chapter in the book begins with a brief summary of the president’s proposal, followed by relevant articles from the archives of Education Week, to provide perspective.

Included in the “Invest in Early Childhood Education” chapter is an article from last October about states’ preschool rating systems. In it, Education Week reporter Linda Jacobson says, “The use of rating scales as a way to encourage childcare centers and preschools to improve their programs continues to increase in popularity across the states, even as researchers say states need to do more to share what they find and to demonstrate whether their rating systems improve children’s learning.”

The rating systems are viewed as a market-driven way to encourage centers to improve quality and to better inform parents about the centers they are choosing for their children. The systems typically focus on teachers’ level of education, staff-to-child ratios and measures of classroom quality. Jacobson compared them to the system used by the health department to grade eating establishments.

But the issue is more complex than that. Preschool rating systems can be a useful tool for policymakers who must decide if, and how much, to invest in the nation’s preschool and childcare programs, especially since the quality of existing preschool initiatives across the county vary so widely. In a policy brief last September, the director of the National Institute for Early Education Research at Rutgers University, W. Steven Barnett, recommended that we focus on expanding effective preschools with high standards and avoid handing out more childcare subsidies for preschool.

As of January 2008, 16 states had statewide rating systems and more than 25 states were planning or designing them. With most state systems, participation is voluntary, but in North Carolina and Tennessee, quality ratings are integrated in the state childcare licensing system.

There’s not enough information now to determine if the preschool rating systems contribute to improving children’s school-readiness. The states that participate have to do a better job communicating what they’ve learned, researchers say, although individual states’ evaluations show that rating scales can improve early childhood education environments for children.

A Few Good Books

by Tina Manzer

The winner of this year’s Randolph Caldecott Medal for the most distinguished American picture book for children is The House in the Night (Houghton Mifflin) by Susan Marie Swanson, illustrated by Beth Krommes. For children ages 4 through 8, the book is considered “gentle bedtime reading…designed to illuminate a child’s dreams,” said one reviewer. How about their naptimes?

Swanson’s words are short and simple (“Here is the key to the house/In the house burns a light/In that light rests a bed.”), inspired by a “cumulative” poem found in The Oxford Nursery Rhyme Book. It expands from that small, intimate moment to an exciting flight around the world, then back to bed.

You would expect a distinguished picture book for children to be colorful, but this one is beautiful in its lack of color. In this black-and-white nightscape of a story, yellow is used “at meticulous moments” for the sun, moon and stars.

Do kids like it? Well, even though you might use the story to help children in your care fall asleep at naptime, the kids will find the pictures engrossing. Thanks to Swanson’s spare style of writing, illustrator Krommes has room to create memorable images.

Two of the Caldecott honor books are also appropriate for children ages 4 through 8. A Couple of Boys Have the Best Week Ever (Harcourt) by Marla Frazee, is the hilarious story of a summer “nature” vacation in which eating waffles inside and playing video games is truly the order of the day.

How I Learned Geography (Farrar, Straus and Giroux) by Uri Shulevitz is a story of hope with stunning illustrations. It’s based on the author’s memories of World War II, and relates the story of a boy and his family who have fled their homeland to live in poverty in a strange country. Food is scarce, so when the father brings home a map instead of bread, the boy is furious. When the map is hung on the wall and the room is flooded with color, the boy travels to exotic places in his imagination.

An author’s note includes a brief description of his family’s experience, two of Shulevitz’s early drawings, and the only surviving photograph of himself from that time.

Each year in January, the American Library Association announces its book awards, including the Caldecott Medal and the John Newbery Award for the most distinguished contribution to children’s literature. For more information, visit www.ala.org.