“It’s not that children are little scientists — it’s that scientists are big children. Scientists actually are the few people who as adults get to have this protected time when they can just explore, play and figure out what the world is like.” 

― Alison Gopnik

What a great statement.  We need to give our children time.  Time to play and explore and just figure it out and as we’ve learned over the course of the last 8 weeks, this protected time should last for everybody from newborn through early childhood to middle childhood and continue.

“Play gives children a chance to practice what they are learning.”

– Mr. Rogers

Children are not going to be able to own new skills, if they are not given the right environment and support to acquire them.  That means time to play.

“There's one basic rule you should remember about development charts that will save you countless hours of worry.... The fact that a child passes through a particular developmental stage is always more important than the age of that child when he or she does it. In the long run, it really doesn't matter whether you learn to walk at ten months or fifteen months--as long as you learn how to walk.”

-Lawrence Kutner

As we were able to see in our observation media pieces over the course of the last 8 weeks, development is on a continuum.  No two children are going to develop at the same rate.  We need to worry only if developmental milestones are not being met.

Thank you

I would like to thank Dr. Pickens for her posts to the announcements regarding the week that was to come.  I felt like we had an additional source for learning other than the course texts and media segments.  I appreciate all of your responses to our posts with thought provoking questions for us to answer.  I have learned so much. 

I would like to thank Renee and Angela.  I looked forward to reading your posts each week.  I learned so much from you.  Your personal stories on your blogs were always heartfelt and gave us all something to think about.   I want to also thank both of you for commenting on my blog and discussion posts.  I enjoyed reading your responses and comments.  I truly hope that our paths cross in future courses at Walden.  I wish you both and all of our colleagues at Walden the very best.