Resources

March 2022: I've always thought of the March newsletter as special because March 20 was Fred's birthday. Over the years, we've even celebrated Fred's birthday on March 20 in a special way - by wearing a sweater - and doing something neighborly. Maybe you'd like to join in that tradition too.

December 2022: In all the years that I worked with Fred, one of the things I came to appreciate is that he encouraged us to be "mindful" - and that was long before it was a part of our vocabulary.

July 2022: For many of my friends in early childhood, this is the time of year they love most. It's summertime. Some programs take a break. Other programs have a slower pace, more like summer camp. Professors' schedules are often lighter. Whatever it's like for your work, I hope you can take a bit of a breather...

June 2022: It was 1968 when Fred introduced us to his song, "What Do You Do with the Mad that You Feel." That was over fifty years ago, and the messages of that song are as needed today as ever. Fred knew how important it is to help children learn to deal with their angry feelings. But in his song he wasn't ...

January 2022: Here we are at the beginning of the year when we're "looking ahead," wondering what this new year will bring. It seems kind of ironic, but "looking back" can help us with our journey ahead. There's even a name for that in early childhood — reflective teaching.

January 2023: A while ago, I was observing a group of preschoolers, and I was amazed at how long they stayed at a task. What was so engaging? They were making something rather ordinary and kind of "old-fashioned" -- paper chains.

August 2021: It's the beginning of a new school year, and I remember a teacher telling me that while she's excited to work with a new group of children, this has always been a challenging time for her. Now and then she sometimes starts to feel sad or a little impatient.

December 2021: With all the holidays this month, we talk about this season as a time of peace, joy, light, and hope. But it's also a time when it's easy to feel stressed, over-burdened and under-appreciated, so I am offering you a treasured video from one of our early professional development workshops.

November 2021: The new Mister Rogers sculpture that was recently unveiled at Rollins College is a remarkably fit tribute to Fred. I was delighted to see that the sculptor Paul Day decided to depict Fred with his Daniel puppet talking with children.

October 2022: Ever since I started presenting workshops on Fred's approach to STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, the Arts and Math), I've kept my ears open for stories of children's questions about the world around them -- and for the way their teachers respond.

April 2022: Whenever I show video clips from Mister Rogers' Neighborhood at a professional development workshop, I often ask, "What messages did you hear in it?" Usually teachers talk about "what" Fred said or did. But I remember a teacher who told me she found a lot to learn from "how" Fred said and did things.

February 2022: I think we'd all agree that being helpful is one of the social skills that we want to support in young children. But we don't always get the response we want when we ask, "Will you help me?" Researchers at the University of California, San Diego showed us there's another way.

September 2022: I don't know what this summer has been like in your neighborhood, but it's been raining a lot around here. I even caught myself singing, "Rain, rain go away.

August 2022: With all the attention on high tech these days, I was happily surprised by a low-tech moment I had when I was doing an observation in a preschool.

September 2021: In the midst of all we've been going through in this pandemic time, I've thought about something that Helen Ross, a noted children and family mental health specialist, told Fred...