The Get Ready, Get Set, Go! Workshop is designed to help early childhood educators stimulate students of varying backgrounds, ages and levels of achievement. It covers readiness skills fundamental to each child’s success as they enter formalized school settings. Each unit presented is built around a theme and presents activities to introduce or reinforce the developmental skills that lay a foundation for future academics. These skills, introduced not through drill but through fun exciting activities, were carefully selected after and exhaustive review of developmental skills lists and cognitively oriented curriculums as well as years of experience with young children.

When old ideas, assumptions, and theories converge with new ideas, needs, insights, and technologies, we evolve as a species and move a step forward in our thinking. With the release of the brain development research, we now have access to exciting new information that enables us to offer children the best possible foundation for learning. Making the Early Years Count is filled with practical, easy-to-do ideas to apply this brain research every day. It offers simple, straightforward ways to boost brain power with fun activities to give your child the best foundation for future learning.

The purpose of this Workshop is to support and encourage Teachers, no matter where you are in the process of using learning centers. If you are contemplating centers in your classroom, if you have just begun to use centers or if you are an “old timer” this Workshop will answer all your questions and give you plenty of new ideas.

Children learn by doing – play is the work of the child. Their world is firmly grounded in the concrete, and consequently, so is their thinking. Manipulations of objects of all kinds and in all combinations is extremely important in building a conceptual framework necessary for the extension and elaboration of their logical mental structures. The more senses involved, the better: for learning conducted in several modalities is sure to be more meaningful, more useful, and more long lasting.This Workshop focuses on every aspect of working with young children.

Workshop participants need to come prepared to have fun by brining their own scissors, glue, crayons, markers, pens and pencils as well as small plastic bags or containers to place their new learning materials in for use in their classrooms. Come ready to have fun and to learn to create a year’s worth of learning activities for your Early Years classroom.

This Workshop focuses on phonemic awareness, alphabet recognition, beginning sound symbol correspondences and reading simple CVC words through activities and games. These activities will enhance literacy development and prevent reading difficulties. This interactive Workshop focuses on those skills that children need to begin to read.

This Workshop is filled with ideas for introducing math as play. Teachers learn to encourage children ages 3-6 years old to explore a variety of materials for understanding sorting, patterns, numbers, geometry, measurement, time and problem solving. Language development is strongly emphasized through this program.

Most Teachers and Parents do not receive courses or training on classroom and home discipline and yet discipline problems can be one of their biggest headaches. 1-2-3 Magic will teach you some very simple, precise and effective ways to manage your children in approximately the two-to-twelve year old range.

As early childhood educators and special educators we recognize the value of including young children with disabilities in classrooms with their typical peers. We believe the benefits for all children are considerable and that children from birth through age eight are at a formative period for getting to know each other. The purpose of this Workshop is to share our experiences, visions, and strategies for initiating and implementing inclusive programs for young children with disabilities.

During this interactive Workshop, Teachers will learn to develop lessons that engage and stimulate young children through multi-sensory, hands-on learning, while meeting the specified learning objectives. This Workshop assists Teachers in developing effective learning objectives, program planning, lesson evaluation and record keeping.