ExchangeEveryDay Past Issues

Hi I'm Gina.
I'm mother of two wonderful 10 years sons. Their father has left us 8 years ago.
I have a question, maybe some of you can help me?
At what age should a parent teach their son about sex education if there is no father around or would it be better for the child to have a male family member to do this?
It really bothers me because i've found adult magazine in Their room.

Will be happy to hear any advice.

Many interest stations or centers need to be around the classroom, so that children, during their work/play time (at least 45 minutes per day) can be thoroughly nosy...;) We taught children through their interests, and would do a theme on spiders, for example, if the children found some and were fascinated. We would write class stories about spiders, make spider "everything" covering all content areas, count spiders, draw spiders, paint spiders, make spider hats, sing spider songs, eat children-made spider treats for snacks and so on.
When the spider fever ran it's course, invariably some other child would come up with another discovery we'd go with. All areas of the curriculum were touched upon through the child's interest-driven curriculum. A very specific classroom culture was developed, with each child playing a contributive role based on their interests-just a wonderful experience for parents, teachers and children. So the key to that curriculum was the adults in the classroom really listening and paying attention to each child's interests, to help plan and extend the curious ulum-a very exciting and effective way to teach. There was always a "buzz" in the classroom with the children, as to the day's conversations, what happened at home, pet stories, sibling stories. The classroom was truly owned by the children. The adults were the shared partners in their learning, and facilitators and encouragers of the children's ideas and imaginations!

There is one very special way to honor early childhood professionals and that's with a Bammy Award (www.bammyawards.org). It's a wonderful way to honor someone's contribution to the field and to shine a light on all that is right in American education. Nominations are being accepted for the next 28 days. Sadly, very few have come in for ece program staff. I hope that will change, beginning today.

In scanning some of this it is nice to know that I do many of these things--one half of my staff of 20 people have been with me over 15 years. Through pay cuts, benefit cuts and all they have stuck with the program because they believe in what we do and I would like to believe, because as their director I encourage them through the bad times as well as the good. It is so hard to be a director--hats off to the directors who can keep their staff members happy and motivated--it is a challenge!! These articles though have given me a few more ideas to get through the next few years before I leave my office to the next director!!