In this episode of The Preschool Podcast with Jo and Maddie, our hosts talk about one of the biggest challenges in childcare: burnout.
WebMD describes burnout as “[A] form of exhaustion caused by constantly feeling swamped. It’s a result of excessive and prolonged emotional, physical, and mental stress. … Burnout happens when you’re overwhelmed, emotionally drained, and unable to keep up with life’s incessant demands.”
Sound familiar?
Jo and Maddie start the episode by sharing their own experiences with burnout, then consider other professions with high burnout rates and how they compare with early childhood education. From there, they discuss why burnout happens and how childcare providers can avoid it with suggestions from HiMama’s Early Childhood Education Blog and the HiMama Helps Webinar Series.
Join the conversation and share your thoughts in Circle Time!
Additional Resources on Burnout:
[Blog Post] Overcoming burnout in childcare
[Webinar] Addressing staff burnout at your childcare center
[Webinar] How to break burnout in 2021
In the first full episode of The Preschool Podcast with Jo and Maddie, our hosts discuss one of their favorite topics in early childhood education: Process vs Product.
What does it mean to focus on the process rather than the product when it comes to making art with young children?
Jo and Maddie start with a definition taken from our Circle Time Facebook Group:
Product-focused art has a right way and a wrong way to work on the project and typically requires a specific skill and technique to reach that end goal.
Process-focused art is when a child is given an open-ended project and they have the opportunity to express themselves through their work.
From there, our hosts dive into their own experiences with artwork in the classroom and share their personal educational philosophies. (Spoiler: Jo and Maddie are both Team Process.) Plus, ideas for process-based projects for holidays, communicating the benefits of process art with parents, and striking a balance between giving children the freedom to explore their creativity and preparing them for kindergarten and beyond.
Join the conversation and share your thoughts in Circle Time!