Developmental + Teaching Stuff

[escuerzoresucitado]

Good morning

[alice-is-a-mouse]

life feels like this

[cholerascum]

oh

[whalesharkcat]

oh

[nekoning]

the use of AI lately has made me feel so hopeless, i translated pages of an unfinished fanzine of mine so i can remember why i love art...i hope it can resonate with anyone feeling the same way

[the-moon-loves-the-sea]

I have a lot of neurodivergent kids in my family. And I’ve worked with a lot professionally. And I often see their parents think the kids don’t want to connect, when they would love to — they just want to do it differently.

If they don’t like jokes and teasing, they might like silly noises or yes-and improv.

If they don’t like playing a competitive or narrative game with toys, they might like to take apart a toy, or sort/stack/line toys up, or get buried under toys.

If they don’t like biking or walking a trail in the woods ‘properly,’ they might like to walk along fallen logs, stand in the creek or look under rocks and leaves for creatures.

If they don’t like hugs and cuddles, they might like to bump shoulders, touch fingers, hand hug, spin around together, or (if they like more intense input) wrestle, push faces together, squeeze each other hard or run into you.

If they don’t like putting on kids’ music in the car or to dance to, they might want to listen to a game or show soundtrack, nature noises, a podcast, binaural beats, house music or metal.

If they don’t like animated movies where sad or scary things happen, they might like younger kids’ gentler shows, or adults’ science and history shows, or live zoo and nature cams.

And so many of them would benefit so much from the adults just slowing down. Not scheduling so much in the day, not rushing them through an activity, not stopping them playing the same song or watching the same bug for an hour, letting them absorb everything their way. Seeing it as a meditation instead of a problem. Joining them there.

And if you were one of those kids being rushed and scolded, trying to make yourself like teasing or competition or intense movies or a full social schedule — I’ve been reparenting myself and you can too. Whenever you notice something isn’t giving you joy — you can do it differently. Not everyone is forcing themselves through things they hate for “fun,” and we don’t have to.

[curiouswisp]

Kids Design Glass

I went to a glass museum recently and they had a program where they let kids design glass artwork and it brightened my day so much that I had to share some of my favorites:

Kids have such neat ideas and I love that a group of artists were willing to bring them to life.

[jareckiworld]

Gianni Frassati (1924-1989) — Untitled [oil on canvas, 1972]

[ahotknife]

the thing is that childhood doesn't just end when you turn 18 or when you turn 21. it's going to end dozens of times over. your childhood pet will die. actors you loved in movies you watched as a kid will die. your grandparents will die, and then your parents will die. it's going to end dozens and dozens of times and all you can do is let it. all you can do is stand in the middle of the grocery store and stare at freezers full of microwave pizza because you've suddenly been seized by the memory of what it felt like to have a pizza party on the last day of school before summer break. which is another ending in and of itself

[clearestbluest]

<3

[shining-bewear]

[greytern]

this one took me 1,5 years details + process under the cut!

[heedra]

not to oversimplify an extremely complex discipline but if i had to pick one tip to give people on how to have more productive interactions with children, especially in an instructive sense, its that teaching a kid well is a lot more like improv than it is like error correction and you should always work on minimizing the amount of ‘no, wrong’ and maximizing the amount of ‘yes, and?’ for example: we have a species of fish at the aquarium that looks a lot like a tiny pufferfish. children are constantly either asking us if that’s what they are, or confidently telling us that’s what they are. if you rush to correct them, you risk completely severing their interest in the situation, because 1. kids don’t like to engage with adults who make them feel bad and 2. they were excited because pufferfish are interesting, and you have not given them any reason to be invested in non-pufferfish. Instead, if you say something like “It looks a LOT like a tiny pufferfish, you’re right. But these guys are even funnier. Wanna know what they’re called?” you have primed them perfectly for the delightful truth of the Pacific Spiny Lumpsucker

[akiragatr]

I was in martial arts for years, and in particular I kinda specialized in working with the younger kids.

The two Big Rules when instructing younger students was- 1. Compliment before Critique 2. Don’t say ‘but’, say ‘now’

Praise kids on what they get right first, especially if they are struggling. Like OP said, kids don’t like to engage with people who make them feel bad. They need encouragement when learning new things.

Number two boils down to this. If you tell a kid a compliment, then say “but you need to fix this”, that ‘but’ completely negates your compliment. It’s gone. It was canceled out like adding a negative to a positive. Using “hey, that punch is looking great, now let’s focus on your stance” doesn’t verbally cancel out the progress they’ve made. It’s like they’ve checked off something on their list of stuff to work on.

Wording can absolutely make or break a child’s motivation and interest.

[problemedic]

Rebloggling as it’s relevant in a Medical Education context

[lizziedoesvetpath]

Honestly I use all of these to teach vet students too. I think people in general respond better to positivity in teaching. Not coddling, but acknowledging when a student got part way to the right answer, or had a good thought process, is something I’ve found keeps students engaged and builds confidence, which encourages them to keep going instead of shutting down and just “getting through” a lab or a rotation

[sandersstudies]

Going to see children and adolescents dance badly, play ball badly, sing badly, play recorder badly because they are young: YES! YOU ARE LEARNING! INCREDIBLE!

[sandersstudies]

People are so rude about going to watch the children in their lives do stuff shittily. “Ugh toddler dance recital,” “ugh tee-ball weekend again,” “ugh nativity play.”

That guy learned what skipping is this year and now he’s playing the piano the worst I’ve ever seen but the best he’s ever done! AREN’T YOU CAPTIVATED BY THEIR ABILITY TO DO A LITTLE BIT WHEN PREVIOUSLY THEY COULD DO NOTHING? Be filled with wonder and joy!

[doctorbluesmanreturns]

PEER REVIEWED

[teaboot]

when my brother was in toddler hockey they had to skate back and forth between the stands to practice going fast and it was AMAZING cause they were so slow and wobbly so it was just a line of a dozen little armoured-up little meatball tanks frantically shuffling away from you, then they’d have to stop turn and come back and none of them were taller than the wall so you’s just see shuffle shuffle shuffle shuffle, ALL OUT OF VIEW, then hear think-thunk-thunk-thunk-thunk as they all slowly collided with it one by one

Children doing things are so motivated and terrible and enthusiastic, they’re like puppies

[doubleedgedhead]

[my-blog-is-a-sideblog]

Bnuy

[drawloverlala]

Just remembered that I had this in my drafts, I think I did this a few years ago 😄

[onenicebugperday]

White-barred tiger moth, Echeta grandis, Erebidae

Found in Ecuador

Photo 1 by jvacl, 2 by desertnaturalist, 3 by rhexia, and 4 by jplove

[quiteliterallyhotsauce]

me remembering i have a name and body and people know me:

[briarrolfe]

Sometimes I think about my old manager at work who, in order to prove that the organisation was safe for trans people, told me about a fellow trans employee—a woman who was passing! who wasn’t out to me or to anyone else!—and about how chill everyone in management had been about her needing to take time off TO GET VAGINOPLASTY. He was not her manager! He was not her friend! He did not work in HR! There was no way he could have come into this PRIVATE MEDICAL INFORMATION without being told by another manager who had gossiped. And even if there had been, why the fuck was it any of my business!

Likewise, a friend of mine was just told by a school principal about how a prospective school was safe for trans kids… because a trans girl whose parents don’t affirm her at home is able to be affirmed at school. This information about this child’s gender and home environment was relayed along with her FUCKING GRADE LEVEL. This incredibly vulnerable kid was wheeled out as a selling point by the school with way more than enough information to figure out who she was.

In order to make the argument that a place is safe for trans people, cis people are wayyyy too happy to give out private information about trans people. With allies like these, who needs enemies!!!

[briarrolfe]

If you are the recipient of this kind of "and here is another trans person" information leak (ESPECIALLY when it outs a trans woman!!) it's imperative that you come down on it like the divine fist of God. We should shame these little weasels like trans lives depend on it (because they might). Might I suggest:

"I'm not sure I'm comfortable about having been told so much."

"I'm sorry, but that all sounded very private."

"And has she given approval for her medical history to be used as an example?"

"How do you know it's safe to tell me this?" (if the answer is 'because you are trans' then that is its own Massive Problem)

"Does (school) always share private information about trans students with prospective parents?"

"So, will you share my personal information like this?"

[tiktoks-for-dead-pope]

[ariaste]

Ok since i saw this yesterday I have grown fascinated and gone on a deep dive. First of all, Kim Beaton invented that concrete-and-rubber-fibers stuff she mentions. It is called Pal Tiya Premium, and there is a whole youtube channel with all the information about how to mix it and use it. https://www.youtube.com/@PalTiya She makes a giant sculpture of The Great A'Tuin and Discworld with it!!!

Secondly, it cures in air alone, no oven or kiln required, and unlike clay it has microscopic shrinkage between wet and dry, so you can pack it around glass or whatever. When she says you can stand on this stuff, yes, you can (though for very large sculptures or very narrow sections of a sculpture, she recommends adding a metal armature for extra strength). It is impervious to water, so it can go outside in any weather, and any metal armature encased inside it won't rust

Additionally, Pal Tiya Premium can be added to at any point in the curing process, even weeks or months later, so you can make a sculpture in several pieces and, like with a mold, remove the foil core you sculpted on so you can use it again and again (though you have to add a sacrificial layer of foil between the core foil-sculpture and the Pal Tiya (see the videos on the youtube channel about it). You can color it with oxides, concrete stain, inks, or acrylics, including exterior-grade house paint so your sculptures can go outside.

Holy crap. My only question now is what am I going to make with this stuff, what do i need to have in my garden, aaaaaaa

[egberts]

they don't want you to know this but being weird and staying silly really helps you feel young forever

[gaypiratebrainrot]

i would add that there is also the weird and silly: adult version, which is not like more mature but instead just Advanced weird and silly