Our guest today is Stacy Benge.  If you've attended any of our summer conferences over the last few years, you've probably heard from Stacy! She is an early childhood speaker who approaches learning in the early years with practicality and common sense. Standing firm on the truth that children learn best through simple, authentic experiences, Stacy advocates for child-led play to build solid foundations for child development. In addition to a Master of Science degree in Human Development and Family Studies, Stacy spent a decade teaching children ages birth to five and has spent the last two decades sharing her passion for child development with fellow early learning professionals with enlightening and informative presentations, and is the author of "The Whole Child Alphabet." We dive deep into the topic of school readiness versus child development. Stacy and I start the conversation by discussing the importance of prioritizing child development and child-led play over school readiness and academic instruction. Stacy shares an emphasis on the need to focus on the foundations of literacy and other developmental skills before introducing formal instruction. She also shares with us her thoughts on the myth of pre-packaged curriculums and the importance of designing curricula around the interests and needs of individual children. Together, we highlight the significance of respecting and valuing children's play as a crucial aspect of their learning and development. I just love Stacy's passion and advocacy for whole-child-development. She really wants what's best for children to be the top priority in our decision-making and in our daily practice in the classroom. I'm so excited for y'all to meet her in person at our summer state conferences this year.  She'll be one of our Thursday keynote speakers! Stacy regularly shares helpful information about child development and best practices for the whole child. What I love about today's conversation with Stacy is the regular reminder that children are learning All. The. Time.  Not just when they're being "instructed."  It's wild to think about that – every single experience a child has is forming them into who they will eventually be. Trying to force them to learn to read or write before they are developmentally ready will actually slow down their academic progress later on and could lead to lifelong frustration with literacy. It's mind-blowing to think about all the development that needs to happen before a child can successfully read and write.  My challenge to you is that you take a moment and just slow down…what are the children learning in your classroom right now?  How does that link to literacy?  I BET you can name 10 ways after today's conversation!     You can connect with Stacy via her Instagram or her website Stacy also has a course in our Learning Library!  As always, we would love to connect with you on Instagram and on Facebook  

Ver todos los episodios