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[00:00:00] Hello. And welcome to this week's podcast. So this week's podcast. Comes because miss Jody sent me an email and said that she loved last week's podcast so much. That she's listened to it four times already. And she is keen to do the workshop. That'll be coming up in March called helicopter to hands off.
Uh, so I thought I'd delve into this topic a little bit further this week because I find it. Super interesting. It ticks all of my boxes as an educator and. I'm just so thankful to have found the term slow pedagogy, because I have created an entire body of work and everything I've talked about. Uh, since Jesus was the babe now. Just kidding.
Since I started being hearted education in 2020 has all been designed to [00:01:00] slow down and to give you an opportunity to be more present in your day. I had no idea about soy pedagogy, none whatsoever. And now that I've found the words to put to it, I'm really excited and have this new enthusiasm for talking about what I do.
So, because I know as an educator, myself, and having run my own family daycare service, whilst being an approved provider, ankle ordinator, and educational leader, all at the same time. Like I had to ninja my time. And not wind myself up to be stressed because the minute you're stressed, the children are going to be stressed and the children are going to respond to the energy and the space that you hold.
So I really had to Menger my time and work out how to ensure that I was getting everything done I needed to get done with in my work hours. Whilst maintaining [00:02:00] presence and a really calm state so that the children were calm as well. So I'm going to share some of those. Tips with you today in today's podcast.
So it is version two. Of slow pedagogy and how that will work in your service. Buckle up my friends.
Hello, hello and welcome to the Big Hearted Podcast. My name is Victoria Edmond and I am your host. Our aim here at the Big Hearted Podcast is to nurture a community of heart centered educators to change the perception and delivery of early childhood education and care in Australia and ultimately around the world.
We want you to be inspired by our guests and the topics we bring to you to think of new ways of being as an educator. We want you to feel a sense of belonging via this podcast so that you can engage any time of the day or night in any place [00:03:00] that suits you. We want you to become an educator that delivers education from the heart as we believe this is how we create great change within our world.
So join us as we discover new ways to inspire each other here. On the big hearted podcast
I ki ducky, here we go. I did some research last week and I have some quotes that I didn't share last week that I'll be sharing with you today. So what I wanted to talk about was the long term benefits and impacts that slow pedagogy can have on not only the children, but you as an educator, but mostly on the children. But also you, but mostly that you get where I'm going with that. Uh, so. What. Implementing and having a real focus on long-term pedagogy can do for you.
Is it creates a sustainable and a fulfilling work for you. It means that you don't get burnt out. [00:04:00] And I think we really need to swing this pendulum back. Um, it's funny that I should say that. Cause that's the name of this year so much. Um, swinging the pendulum. Uh, because we've gone too far. And I think COVID really tipped a lot of us over that edge where so many things changed.
There was compliant. Uh, rule changes, compliance changes, law changes. Uh, there were a whole heap of policies that we had to implement and things that we did, some of which we're really grateful to keep like a zoom. That's been a really great way to connect with people and to continue to connect with people. Um, but there were some things that we're really, really happy to farewell of like looking at local LGAs and how people can get passes. To go through those different LGAs just to get to work or childcare.
That was not a fun time friends. But what it did was it wound us all up collectively. And collectively, we [00:05:00] started to pile the pressure on ourselves more than what we were already feeling and working in early childhood education. We are one of the most highly regulated services. Or all professions out there. As it should be to a degree, but I also think we've gone too far and there's so many rules.
It's like rule upon rule upon rule upon rule. That it can get really challenging to remember it all and to keep it or in check. So implementing this idea of slow pedagogy doesn't mean that you. Don't make compliance and put what it means is that you reduce the amount of things that you have in your day that you need to maintain responsibility for.
And what we do is we. Get rid of the stuff that doesn't matter. And we do the things that do [00:06:00] matter. And so it helps you to step away from that rushy, rushy feeling. Of routine like routine. And I talk about this in the essential elements in the first module called ebb and flow. The difference between a routine and a rhythm. Or the ebb and flow of a day is that routine happens on the dot, like it has to happen now. And it has to happen. In this particular order. And, you know, it's, there's, there's no bending, there's no flexibility on that.
And sometimes we need to have some of that, but mostly what we need when working with early children or early childhood is that beautiful air and that flow. So what I talk about in the essential elements is. Setting up your day for success. And this works like it is the whole basis of slow pedagogy. Is that you have meaningful, intentional interactions with the children? [00:07:00] And to do that. You the educator. Uh, steering the ship. And the children get to just do what they want whilst on the deck of that ship.
Right. A ship doesn't sail without order. There has to be order in the nature and process of things. But it's not the children who run that order necessarily. It's you it's and when we're talking. Probably a really silly analogy. Um, but a ship. All right. It has to happen in, in time, on a ship because it's mechanical and that's how things work.
But when, if we can look at that, you being the person who's managing all of the things behind. Hind the scenes. Right. The children just get to go on and things just magically appear like, oh, they're hungry. Oh, funny. I thought you might be getting hungry. So here's morning [00:08:00] tea that I prepared earlier. Um, and what you do as an educator to help with this slow down process. Is that you extricate yourself from their play and you do the things that keep things running smoothly and efficiently behind the scenes. So there's Eben the idea of ebb and flow this in breathing in this outbreeding is, and I talk about this as like a whole module in the essential elements, but I think it's important for educators to know. Uh, because essential elements isn't going to be for everybody. Um, but I think it's still worthwhile sharing.
So this idea around ebb and flow is that. Some like the tides, like they change times there. There's not a high tide at the exact same time every single day. And there's not a low tide at the exact same time. Every single day. It's dependent on. The weather, it fluctuates based on the [00:09:00] moon. Like all of these, now these things happen. And it's always a high tide followed by a low tide followed by a high tide. Followed by a low type.
Like it happens in order. But the timing of it is always different and this is the same with children and this is how we can implement so slow pedagogy. And this idea of this in breathing and outbreeding so. The idea of in breathing and outbreeding is in breathing, is the children. Are expected to hold themselves.
So it might be like mealtimes or you might be doing an activity that you've planned. To do, because we have to do that. It's part of the rules that we have to operate by in Australia. Um, and this is still a child led program. You can put activities in your daily program that relate to the goals you have whilst working with the children. So you might, for [00:10:00] example, be wanting to, and I use this analogy all the time, but painting with the children have so many educators go, but you can't have a day of painting because not everyone wants to paint.
I'm going well. Yes, that's true. Not everybody wants to paint. But when we offer children many different ways of painting, we engage their interest and their curiosity and painting could be getting big brooms and. A bucket of water and getting the broom and brushing the wet water. Of course the water is wet. Brushing the water across the concrete that's painting.
You're using gross motor skills. So you might have a child that you're wanting to really work on their core strengths. What's one way you can work on their core strengths, give them heavy lifting manual tasks to do. That's helpful. And these children will often want to engage in this stuff because it's a fun way of doing it. Whereas, if you said let's do sit-ups, they'd be like, whatever, no way.
Well, maybe that's just me, but. You know, if you said to [00:11:00] me, come on, let's brush the deck down outside and get all the leaves off and let's do it with water and see what happens. You know, I'm going to be way more engaged and interested in doing that and be like, wow, look at dry. It's disappearing. Aw, there's a hole. Host of other stuff that goes along with that, but your planned experience was painting with the children.
So you've met that. It's just not in the traditional painting on a easel. You know, with two different colors or three different colors or whatever. So we've got to think outside of the box as to how we can meet the requirements that we are needing to meet with the EYL F. At the same time as reducing our workload.
Now, one of those ways is to have experiences that the children get to revisit time. And again, Now we rush children through things. There is nothing wrong with having six weeks of painting. And then coming back and revisiting that six [00:12:00] weeks again. So you might paint with ochre one week. You might paint with watercolors another week.
You might do the water painting with the brushes on another week, and then you might have some berries in your garden. Um, we used to grow a salon spinach, and it used to grow these incredible purple berries. Uh, that we would crush up and make paint. So we could paint with that on another week. And then another week we might make paint, brushes out of pine needles that we find at the park. Like those are going to meet all sorts of different interests for the children.
They're going to get an opportunity to experience painting in six different modes and mediums. And then you can repeat those and do an observation based on what you've observed, the difference between the first time they tried it. And the second time. But what it means is that children get to revisit this idea of painting time and again, and you're giving them different [00:13:00] structures and different mediums to look at, which is just giving them new skills, but it's still in the realm of painting. Right.
So it's a deep exploration. All of a topic that the children get to revisit time and again, and that's over an entire season. 12 weeks. Uh, so if you've got social skills that you're trying to. B, one of the goals that you have for one of the children in your care. You can get them handing out the things. You can say, oh, would you like to give little Johnny this?
Or would you like to help me set up that? Would you like to Bobo? You can meet those social skills for that child in that planned activity. Uh, someone else might have language skills. So you might spend a bit of time talking with them around what they're seeing, what they're doing, getting them to describe what they're doing, really engaging those, those things.
You might also, um, [00:14:00] look at early literacy for some children. And you might be noticing that. Um, they, uh, attending to right things. So you might give them, find a paint brushes to write with or big P like, whatever. There's so many different ways that you can meet all of the goals that you have for the children in one experience.
And this reduces the amount of work that you have to do. So therefore, the rest of the day is devoted to those M breathing moments where they need to contain themselves for a little bit. And always followed by an outbreeding moment where the children have total freedom and creativity and flexibility, and they can run around and shout and jump with joy and all those sorts of things like there's no restriction, but then we bring them back into an inbreeding moment where we're asking them to hold themselves in a certain way.
It might be sitting up at the meal time table. It could be laying down on their bed. Uh, it could be having [00:15:00] to follow some complex rules. It might be a game that you're playing with. I have to wait turns and things like that. Like they are all in breathing moments and those outbreeding moments are the creative play. Uh, that the children need to be able to do. So when we look at creating those sustaining and Philip fulfilling work balances for educators. It's not that you are just free flowing the day.
That is not adequate because you're not going to be able to adequately ensure that you're meeting all of the requirements. But you're also going to burn out because coming up with the ideas on the spot is challenging. Knowing that you're meeting all of the requirements is challenging. Knowing that if the department or your coordinator comes and says, Hey, why did you do that? You go, oh, just cause it felt like it, or because so-and-so asked, well, what's the rationale behind that?
So this is where [00:16:00] we increase our professional. Um, Engagement and understanding. And that then reduces the stress that we have. So for department of ed, Education turned up and you're out there with the children, with the giant big brooms and. You know, a small bucket of water for each child or one that you're maintaining and the children come and dip in and they go, wow, why are you doing that? Well, I noticed that little so-and-so is struggling when they're, you know, Riding their bike.
I think their core strength is not as. Um, you, you know, well-defined as what it could be. So I'm actually engaging this child over this whole season in a lot of big body movement. A lot of the heavy lifting and things like that, because I'm really focusing on engaging that child's call so that we can improve their balance.
The department of education is going to go. All right. Oh, you know what you're [00:17:00] doing? And I they'll either ask more questions and be really interested in what you're doing as an educator, or they'll just tick their box and move on because you've been able to adequate adequately explain what you're doing. But when you come at your work from this sense of purposefully disengaging from being overly involved in. In what the children are doing. And you are running the things behind the scenes.
You are then more able to observe the energy in the space and you'll see, there'll be a minute just before morning tea time. When someone gives you the cue that they've had enough and they're ready to eat. They'll either ask. Ah, some kind of squabbling will start to happen. And that's your cue to then start the transition to washing hands and then sitting down for morning tea.
Now that's easy because you already put their morning tea out. You already have sorted [00:18:00] their morning tea. It could be that you've got the lunch boxes out. You've taken the leads off or whatever it is that you're doing. And depending on the ages that you have, some children you'll be wanting to sort their own, but there's a variety of ways to ensure that you're ready for morning tea. Um, it could be that that child that's starting to become louder in that moment.
You might ask them to come and help you get things ready, because then that tells them that this is what's happening next. And we're moving on. So some mornings. You're going to not want to interrupt the children. Because they're playing beautifully. They're deeply engaged. Things are going really, really smoothly.
So you might have an hour and a half in that. Timeframe before they even have morning tea. We never interrupt children that are happily playing right. That's the golden rule. In that case, you get to do observations, or if you are making toys for your environment or repairing toys in your environment, you get to do that while [00:19:00] observing the children and maintaining supervision, because you're doing things that are related to your work. Right.
So this is how you step back and how you don't put yourself fully and firmly in the play. And don't. Don't get me wrong. It takes time. For you to set this up. If you've been an educator that has really. You know, put. And led the play. You have a lot of work to undo to get to having your hands off. So slow pedagogy pedagogy allows us to pause and dwell in spaces for more than a fleeting moment and encourage us, encourages us to attach and receive meaning from that place.
Now that's pain and watch out from the 2009.
Uh, sorry. Pain and watch out. I stated that. Um, I don't know what that was from. Actually, I didn't record what that was from. Um, I should go back and try and find that, [00:20:00] uh, but what it does is when you are professionally. Like holding yourself accountable as a family daycare professional. You start to put different meaning on the work that you're doing. And it becomes far more professionally fulfilling for you. When you have purpose and you understand why you're doing what you do. So that's a really positive benefit for educators because when things are slowed down enough, It gives you space to actually ponder and ask questions. Of yourself around what's actually happening and it takes practice. Two. Keep yourself. Pulled back a little bit so that you don't just immediately jump in and start. Intervening and directing the children.
We want the children to be able to practice the skills. I have communication with their [00:21:00] friends. To practice, how to connect to their feelings. To go well, I understand that you're angry. I can tell that by the way, you're using your voice. Is it working? Are you getting what you want right now? No. No, you're not.
So how else could we do that? Like, what are you actually frustrated at? So, and so took my bucket. I, okay. Okay. So. What do you want to see happening? I want to back it back. Okay. Well, how would you ask for that? Jimmy, give me my bucket back. That's one way you could do it. Ms. Jamie giving it back. No, maybe because you bumped him on the head five minutes ago because he took it.
And I understand why you did that. But w. What else could we do here? And, and we want to. Approach this in a way that is developmentally appropriate for the children. And one of the things that I often see too is [00:22:00] educators will push. Down the throats of the children, this notion that we must share. I don't think we do need to share if I'm being perfectly honest with you. I don't share everything that I have all of the time. Um, I share a lot of things out of my garden.
Uh, but you know, if I have a chocolate stash guaranteed, I'm not sharing that. Do not ask for my chocolate because I won't give it to you. Um, I will maybe depending on who you are, but there's things that we don't share and that's absolutely okay. Like I wouldn't give my computer to my next door neighbor. Just because there's broke down and they think they can come over and take my computer.
No. No. So why do we do this thing where we have to share? We make the children share. What we need to be doing is teaching the children how to ask for what they want. And how to process [00:23:00] disappointment when someone says, no, I'm not giving that to you. Because I'm not finished yet. Now I was just talking with another approved provider this morning, and she was saying that she noticed a difference in the children. Uh, from when she was last working with the children to, to now and. She called it soft parenting.
And I would absolutely agree with that. And I asked her what soft parenting meant to her. And she said, well, I think parents are afraid to say no to their children. And I think parents are afraid of their children being upset. So they give into everything that they want. And then when they come to kindie, And there were three other children. Uh, they really struggle in not getting their own way all the time.
So these children. Are having massive emotional tantrums. And I'm like, yep. That's, that's kinda what I see a lot of too. So we want to give the children the [00:24:00] skills to be able to process what they're feeling, how they're feeling, why they're feeling it at an age appropriate level. So we can manage that and do that very easily.
When we aren't worried about 50 million other things that we could be should be. And need to be doing. Because we're organized in a professional sense, and we've already got a plan for what we're doing and we've put these plans in place. And then the rest of your time is spent. In managing those moments of transition. And running things behind the scenes.
So that the minute you notice that energy shift in someone starts to get a little bit. You're already, the meal's already ready. It's already there to go. You've just got to get the children to wash their hands and then go and sit at the table. It reduces that rush. And this is a real core. Essence of what Sloan [00:25:00] pedagogy is around. So that's what I wanted to talk about this week.
Next week. I want to talk about the impacts, the lasting impacts on children. And how that can relate to transitions to school and the benefits of that, uh, and what we can prepare for, for that. So my friends, I hope that that gives you a little bit of food for thought. Um, we do have lots of things coming up in big hearted education.
We have 10 days left for you to purchase your early bird tickets to the dream lead play conference. You can do [email protected] forward slash conference. And that will take you directly to the page where you can purchase that. We also have our planning session coming up the 90 day planning session, and that is going to be held on the 15th of February.
[00:26:00] And I will put the link in the show notes for that. And I'm pretty sure I can actually tell you the link. If I can get in there quick enough, I should have written it down, uh, where I can direct you to go there. It is big hearted education.com. Forward slash. Gosh, let me get the link for you. I tell you exactly what it is. Because I was not prepared. Um, oh, and it didn't copy what I wanted it to.
Oh, I was the wrong one.
I was going to send you to anyway. So that's just as well. I'm a cop find my autumn planning. I, here it is. Here it is. I've got my link. Autumn planning is. At big hearted education.com forward slash autumn. Dash planning dash 2025. So that will be in the show notes as well. So if you want to get yourself organized way, [00:27:00] you know, that you're meeting all of the compliance requirements. When it comes to programming and planning, because I know so many educators struggle with that. If you can get to being confident in your programming and planning, that takes a massive weight off. And it will give you more brain space and capacity to be more present with the children in day to day interactions, which is a huge benefit to slow pedagogy.
And then next up after planning, we have helicopter to hands-off, which is. Opening the, um, essential elements. So essential elements is the 12 month course, which is like a blueprint to your family daycare business. It gives you all of the things you need to know, uh, including access to an incredible community of educators. Um, and you also get bonus membership to the FDC membership hub, which is all of our master classes and Q and a sessions.
[00:28:00] So that, that helicopter, the handoff is the free course that I'll be putting on that you can jump on and join. Uh, and, uh, I have presented it in the past, but it's a little bit rejigged and. Even if you've attended one time, you'll get a whole heap of different stuff out of it. On the second one. Uh, and it's just an, a chance to really address and look at the way you are as an educator and things you can do to really embrace this slow pedagogy and take a lot of work and a lot of weight off your shoulders.
So that is launching on the 3rd of March. Uh, and then we go into summit as well, which is all around swinging the pendulum back, which again is touching on and really reducing the stress that we've really wound ourselves up into. And I've got some incredible [00:29:00] speakers who are going to be talking about how they do things. Uh, and sharing some really incredible knowledge and wisdom about how to bring things back to, you know, slow down.
So there's so many opportunities this year. Uh, and the first half of the year, including the dream lead play conference. Uh, which again, you've got 10 days left. Today's the 21st of January. Um, early bird tickets finish on the 31st of January. So if you want to get a cheaper ticket, a discounted ticket, you need to jump onto the early birds to get that. Um, that's on the beautiful gold coast in June.
So there's so many opportunities for you to. Get, uh, Strategies and, and inspiration. On how to slow your progress. Um, not your progress, but slow your program down. So my friends that is it for today. Thank you for joining me. [00:30:00] And I look forward to seeing you on the interweb. My friends. Have a great week be glove by. Ah,
