Do young children REALLY need E-learning right now?

I am seeing a lot of stress and anxiety from my educator colleagues right now about the pressure to provide “elearning” to their students currently out of their program due to Covid closures!

I want to preface my following statement with the knowledge that I truly value the importance of early learning, the FDK program and well vital role of public education in general. Education matters!

However RIGHT NOW, for the majority of Ontarian’s or Canadians, I believe this is the furthest thing from anyone’s mind. So much fear and anxiety and added pressure of being home with multi aged children and not able to get out and do the things we’d would normally do to relieve that energy the create  ... the thought of trying to do formal “e learning lessons” with them well sorry but I honestly don’t think the majority of kids are going to be in that mental state right now to even process that method of learning! Nor are parents in the mental state to support them in that learning process - it’s just going to add more stress and anxiety to an already tumultuous situation for many 😞

Right now I personally think it’s more important for children and parents to be taking care of their MENTAL health than their academic progress! If you loose the first the later won’t matter and with the first you can CATCH UP on the later, later when life is back to normal!

Play board and card games, take this time to teach your kids to cook and bake as a family, read some books together, do art and sensory fun stuff like long baths there’s never time for when life’s busy and we rush through routines, make music and dance!

IMO right now in this unprecedented pandemic let the focus for parents to be to CONNECT with their loved ones and make POSITIVE MEMORIES to get them through this time! Please do not add mandatory e-learning to their already full plate ... there are lots of free only home school options for those who DO want to volunteer to continue to formally feed their brains ... but here is so much VALUE in PLAY TOO!

Let families choose to PLAY right now!

Let them learn THROUGH their play!

Margaret

Live Well, Laugh Often, Love Much

Be Totallyawake4-life

Vicki Boutin Wildflower & Honey DSP card 3 and bonus card

Sharing my guest designer post for Scrapbook Nerds with another DSP inspired card - playing with the Vicki Boutin Wildflower and Honey DSP, So Fun Stamp set and Concord & 9th Triple Step Thank You to make a quick and simple under 5 minute card!

Here is a quick little process video to show how quick and easy this paper is to make a lovely card!

Here is a recap of the 4 quick and simple cards I was able to make in under 5 minutes each using the Vicki Boutin Wildflower and Honey DSP as my inspiration! 

Happy Stampin'

Margaret

Live Well, Laugh Often, Love Much

Be Totallyawake4-life

*this post contains affiliate links

March Paper Pumpkin - Outside the Box Scrapbook edition

I am SO loving this Paper Pumpkin! The embellishments and stamp sets are just adorable!

Plus for their 7th Birthday we also got an additional stamp set in this months kit! 

I was so excited to share my sneak peek when it arrived I did not even bother to edit my video and just uploaded it to Youtube! 

 

 I was eager to whip up my 3 trio design cards in the kit! I mean see how I was not kidding on how adorable are the embellishments here?

Today I have been working o on my Paper Pumpkin Alternatives today for Paper Pumpkin customers virtual class support over on my Totallyawake4-stampin' - double layout! If you are looking to subscribe to Paper Pumpkin please make sure to choose me as your demonstrator so I can support you with lots of 'outside the box' options!

I focused on one traditional with mat for a 5X7 layout - I cut up the card bases and envelopes and on this particular layout I used envelope pieces to create the banners along the top here as well as the stamps from the stamp set to create imagery along the white background and than card kit embellishments to add dimension. 

And than did one pocket with 4 mats for 4x6 photos! I had used the 3x3 cut outs from the card bases for the focal imagery along the 3 4x4 squares in the middle and stamped and fussy cut using the coordinating Under the Umbrella imagery on this layout It’s such an adorable little set 💕💕💕

 

Happy Stampin'

Margaret

Live Well, Laugh Often, Love Much

Be Totallyawake4-life

*this post contains affiliate links

Vicki Boutin - So Much Fun with Florals

Having fun guest designing over at Scrapbook Nerds!

Card Number One features Vicki Boutin's Color Kalidescope - So Much Fun stamp set with the floral stamps used to create a versamark collage embossed in gold on the crumb cake cardstock and than water colored with white pigment ink. 

Card number Two was a quick and simple card with the floral collage stamped in gold ink and than layered card fronts in the white, crumb cake and black ... just love this color combo! The Happy Birthday sentiment is from Concord & 9th Birthday Basics stamp set!

Seriously are these not two adorable quick clean and simple cards that pack a lot of punch? 

 

Made a fun little process video of the card I made for the Floral Challenge this week - you can play along too head on over to their Scrapbook Nerds & Friends on Facebook and join the fun! 

Happy Stampin'

Margaret

Live Well, Laugh Often, Love Much

Be Totallyawake4-life 

*this post contains affiliate links

Vicki Boutin Wildflower & Honey Card 2

I am back with another installment in this months guest designer posts for Scrapbook Nerds with another DSP insipired card - continuing to play with the Vicki Boutin Wildflower and Honey DSP, So Fun Stamp set and Concord & 9th Triple Step Thank You to make a quick and simple under 5 minute card!

Created a quick little process video to showcase just how quick and easy this card came together!

Happy Stampin'

Margaret

Live Well, Laugh Often, Love Much

Be Totallyawake4-life

*this post contains affiliate links

Ornate Garden Suite JUGS challenge

Using my Sunday Social Distancing to have fun doing some card challenges - the Just Us Girls trend stretch #527 is “black background”!

I am playing with my sneak peek Orante Style stamp set and Ornate Layers dies from the Ornate Garden suite by Stampin’ Up! This amazing suite will be available to customers April 1st!

 

I have created a nice clean simple any occasion card with a tiny pop of color on my daisies 💕 I used the Ornate Layers die for the black background. Stamped with versamark. colored the leaves in solid with a versamark pen and than embossed it with white emboss powder. I coloured the stems and the middle of the flowers with Old Olive and Daffodil  Stampin' Blends.

 Happy Stampin'

Margaret

Live Well, Laugh Often, Love Much

Be Totallyawake4-life

*this post contains affiliate links

March SBN Sketch Challenge

Back with my Scrapbook Nerd Design team hat on playing with March’s Scrapbook Nerd and Friends card sketch! 

Showcasing the gorgeous Vicki Boutin Colour Kaleidoscope suite products available on the Scrapbook Nerds online shop!

Stenciling is so much fun and a quick way to add a nice pop of colour and dimension to a card!

Today's card also uses the So Fun Stamp Set with versamark on the blue squares - the photos did not do a great job picking up their subtle textures, the sponged the background with the coordinating Botanical stencils and I used both the Colour Kaleidoscope Ephemera Pack and Colour Kaleidoscope stickers with silver foil accents for my embellishments and sentiment choice. 

This card came together to make a quick yet stunning “Celebrate” card .... perfect for a birthday, wedding or anniversary!

Happy Stampin'

Margaret

Live Well, Laugh Often, Love Much 

Be Totallyawake4-life

*this post contains affiliate links

Why do ECE have to tie their PD to Standards of Practice?

Still so many ECE complaining about the CPL having to tie back to our Code of Ethics and Standards of Practice! 

In my opinion the whole point of the way our CPL is deigned is exactly to force ECE to focus on tying their work with children to the Code of Ethics and Standards of Practice  because sadly our entire industry has global issues with a LACK of them. IMO while it’s not something we like to talk or reflect on because individually we like to think we are all amazing at what we do and put our heart and soul into our work  the reality is that “collectively” the Auditor General report on childcare back in 2014 showed a serious lack of “quality” evident across Ontario’s childcare industry - the amount of serious occurrences reported in licensed childcare centre from loss of children to the death of children was statistically high considering these are only those actually “reported” to the Ministry and not all those some centres try to sweep under the rug and that the licensed sector only represents 22% of the childcare use in Ontario, the amount of centres operating on “probationary licenses” due to serious non compliance found during inspections with what are bare minimum standards and so forth! The documents too long and in-depth to list all the challenges that were shown - its a dry but informative read if you'd like more information on the challenges found in the industr.

And while I agree with my peers that it’s not fair that the front line bear the brunt of having to “raise the bar” on those issues but reality is if we want to be seen and valued as professionals we need an industry that clearly understands the Standards of Practice of the field they work in - hence why we ALL have to do this style of PD in order to reach those few who really need to do more active reflection about their role as an ECE.

Plus they are not just picking on us mandatory PL was also introduced in 2016 by the government to teachers college too for its members - the difference for them though is that they all share ONE employer in the Ministry of Education so it is easy for their employers to “provide and track” all their employees PLF as theirs is called via both their annual job reviews and PD day workshops and so forth to ensure to their college that the criteria is being met by their members and they get audited too but for teachers the process is easier because the employer is able to support the process and send their “PD records” and so forth ... sadly the ECE field does not have that same benefit of one shared employer especially one thats actually a branch of the “government” itself and not just Joe Public with its own agendas so we have to play all the roles of assessment, learning planning, implementing or own PL and “tracking” it all ourself!

However we will never have what teachers have in way of value/respect from society until we RAISE THE BAR in our own profession - and the CPL like it or not is the first step in that! And the more VISBLE we make that commitment to life long learning and that raising the bar process with a workforce well versed in its own standards of Practice and easily able to tie what we do back to those Standards to the public the better!

Unfortunately IMO the public seeing any % of that workforce so vocally complaining about having to do a CPL that asks them to reflect on their Standards of Practice or who doesn’t want to have tie their work TO the Standards of Practice because it’s hard doesn’t display a whole lot of confidence to dispel the societal belief that what we do “ is just glorified babysitting”.

Than adding to the uproar in frustration is the College of Educators current survey proposing a new 'class' of membership for those with administration background and the sheer panic from current supervisors that they may be 'forced' to go back to school. Yet there is no evidence that in the College materials that states supervisors would be FORCED to apply for this class of membership and not just remain RECE class. In fact it mentions considering the ability of members to 'move between' them as desired?

IMO unless the Ministry of Education changes its criteria to require RECE to have this new 'class' of membership with the College as criteria to WORK as a supervisor in a centre than IMO there is no reason why 'current' supervisory would have to have this proposed 'class' of membership they could just continue to have only a RECE designation.

From what I listened to and read on the College website is the OPTION of being an additional 'class' for those who have additional training and consistently work in Administration/Supervisory roles to be able to distinguish themselves to public from just 'regular' RECE. Many many other regulated industries have different 'classes' of membership based on additional qualifications - I personally do not see this proposal as a NEGATIVE thing at all!

I keep hearing everyone go on about wanting to be seen and paid and valued like TEACHERS but teachers have what they have mostly because they are unionized and have the government as an employer but ALSO because they RAISED THE BAR over the many many decades of public education from back when just anyone being able to teach as long as they could read and write themselves to having to have achieved a BA level education and an additional 2 year teachers college to having to also engage in continual professional learning framework themselves and so forth.

IMO we are at a chicken and eggs conundrum here - we feel we do not get paid enough to do all the stuff being asked of us HOWEVER if we want society to VALUE us and be willing to invest more money in childcare than we need to be visibly showing that this is a job that not just ANYONE can do - we need to raise the bar and show it takes skills, knowledge and continued learning to remain an effective professional!

Seems like so many frustrated early childhood educators out there right now filled with anger which is disheartening because our work with children is so demanding as it is without us bringing that kind of energy into our programs! 

Big deep breath's friends! Growth and change can be scary but it can also be BENEFICIAL ... the College is looking for ways to help raise the bar in our profession in a way that will help it better serve the public and better trained professionals committed to life long learning are what the industry truly NEEDS. We should not be fighting moves that are aimed at resulting in this! Right now we need to 'nurture' the chicken so that in the future it can lay us that golden egg of an industry that is SO VALUED by the public that they are willing to invest in early learning and care the same way they invest in education!

Margaret

Live Well, Laugh Often, Love Much

Be Totallyawake4-life

Rise & Shine

Have you heard about Stampin’ Up!’s Reversibles stamps? These patent-pending, photopolymer stamps let you ink and stamp on both sides, giving you super-fun, mirror-image stamping and layering options.

 

And if this news isn’t cool enough, we have more: With our Sale-A-Bration second release, you can earn the Reversibles, 15-piece Rise & Shine Stamp Set (item 152303) FREE with qualifying order.

 

Wait! It gets even better. This set also coordinates with our Cup of Cheer Dies (item 152303).

  

If you buy the dies, the purchase goes toward your qualifying order of earning the stamp set. Add some paper and adhesive and you’ve got your own little kit brewing!

Stampin’ Up! has really brewed up a bargain here! Look at these lovely projects you can make with this set!

 

 

Happy Stampin'

Margaret

Live Well, Laugh Often, Love Much

Be Totallyawake4-life

*this post contains affiliate links

Winter Rethink reflecting on “Belonging”

Amazing day put on by Strive