Our conference was informative, inspirational and so fun. I went to a few okay classes on Thursday and then went to the keynote speaker on Friday morning. Lisa Murphy (The Ooey Gooey Lady) spoke and her subject was; “What If Today Was Their Only Day.” It was SPOT ON!!! I literally cried through most of it thinking about all the kids who aren’t getting what she’s talking about. Whew – thank goodness our kids are among the lucky ones; learning through real life experiences and having a blast doing it. I was signed up for other workshops but ended up attending all of her workshops on Friday and Saturday instead and I’m all fired up (I know, I know – big surprise – Michelle’s all fired up.) Check her out if you like – she’s great for parents too: http://ooeygooey.com/

She also reminded me of what I learned in graduate school and which I’m constantly reminding myself, especially when I come up against the pressures from the world of “what’s next…” and “when will these kids learn…” and “will these kids be ready for…”

So I got out my Piaget (the master/the word on cognitive development.)

You can find the Piaget society at http://www.piaget.org/

“Learning is no more than a sector of cognitive development that is facilitated by experiences.”  ~Jean Piaget, “Piaget’s Theory”

“As for teaching children concepts that they have not already acquired in their spontaneous development, it is completely useless.”  ~Jean Piaget, “A Conversation with Jean Piaget”

See you tomorrow with my arm’s loaded full of new materials I bought at the conference and massive amounts of ooey gooey science-y fun.