What it Looks Like to Promote Young Children’s Growth and Discovery

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Before true mathematical thought develops in childhood, reading to babies can help them explore precursor concepts of math. A caregiver reads a touch-and-feel book to an infant in her care. The emphasis is on supporting the child’s receptive understanding of attributes perceived through touch.
The child’s language is an advanced babble stage. While he isn’t vocalizing any recognizable words, his intonation makes it clear when he is asking a question or making a statement. She is responsive to his "conversation".

Why is this important?
The caregiver uses pointing and motions to establish joint attention and her language emphasizes attributes… soft, rough, fluffy. These interactions help the child begin to classify the world around him.

Precursor literally means “to come before,” and we believe that deep and meaningful engagement with these concepts must come before a child is ready to attend to the early mathematical Big Ideas in preschool.

Attributes are properties or qualities that allow us to describe and classify the world around us. This is the most basic.

• We perceive attributes of the world around us through our senses. –
• Attributes can be used to group. –
• Language allows us to describe attributes with increasing precision.

–The Erikson Institute Early Math Collaborative

Courtesy of Erikson

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Family child care educator Bernadette Ngoh educates and cares for children in West Haven, Connecticut. In the video, Bernadette describes her approach to promoting young children’s learning and how this approach is informed by her own childhood: “I grew up where the child was raised by the community. What were they teaching me? How to help out. The listening ear. The listening feelings. Trying to understand that empathy. And that’s what I try to bring each day to my kids in my day care and to their parents.”

All Our Kin is a nationally recognized nonprofit organization that trains, supports, and sustains family child care educators to ensure that children and families have the foundation they need to succeed. Through All Our Kin’s programming, child care professionals succeed as business owners; working parents find stable, high-quality care for their children; and children gain an educational foundation that lays the groundwork for achievement in school and beyond.

Videographer: Travis Carbonella

Courtesy of All Our Kin

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Family Child Care Educator Dora Lopez educates and cares for children in Stamford, Connecticut. In the video, Dora describes the deep, trusting partnerships she builds with families to support young children’s learning, “When I notice that a child is changing, and their parents are happy to ask for my opinion about their child, and I have the answers for them – all this gives me great satisfaction: to contribute what I learn to the parents and to teach the children – to practice it."

All Our Kin is a nationally recognized nonprofit organization that trains, supports, and sustains family child care educators to ensure that children and families have the foundation they need to succeed. Through All Our Kin’s programming, child care professionals succeed as business owners; working parents find stable, high-quality care for their children; and children gain an educational foundation that lays the groundwork for achievement in school and beyond.

Videographer: Travis Carbonella

Courtesy of All Our Kin

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Former Family Child Care Educator and present All Our Kin staff member Natasha-Auguste Williams educated and cared for children in Bridgeport, Connecticut. While a family child care educator, Natasha shared, “I want to make a difference in a child’s life. Seeing children in my program and watching them learn new things makes me feel good. With All Our Kin’s support, we can do it! We can provide the highest quality day care to children who need it.” Today, as the All Our Kin Bridgeport site’s Provider Mentor and Community Specialist, Natasha brings her years of experience and expertise in the field to mentor and support family child care educators in her community.

All Our Kin is a nationally recognized nonprofit organization that trains, supports, and sustains family child care educators to ensure that children and families have the foundation they need to succeed. Through All Our Kin’s programming, child care professionals succeed as business owners; working parents find stable, high-quality care for their children; and children gain an educational foundation that lays the groundwork for achievement in school and beyond.

Video created by the Kindling Group and Siskel/Jacobs Productions as part of their No Small Matter documentary film and national campaign about early care and education in the United States.

Courtesy of All Our Kin

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A 5-minute video produced by NPR where teacher Nikki Jones walks us through a day in her pre-K classroom at a Tulsa, OK elementary school.

Courtesy of NPR Ed

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Courtesy of PBS KIDS Lab

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A 4-minute video produced by Edutopia that shows how language and literacy skills can be developed through art at an elementary school in New York City.

Courtesy of Edutopia

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A 5-minute video where Michigan State University researchers explain the benefits of project-based learning and show us an example of how one 2nd grade classroom used their project-based literacy and social studies curriculum.

Courtesy of Edutopia

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A 5-minute video produced by the Trust for Learning, that shows scenes from what Stephanie Miller, the Trust's former executive director, calls "curriculum-rich, evidence-based, developmentally appropriate, child-centric programs.

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A 26-minute video that explores the advantages associated with a play-based approach in kindergarten and features stories of how two Illinois school districts made the transition to play-based learning.