Exploring Social Studies in Family Child Care Settings

Exploring Social Studies in Family Child Care Settings

Saameh Solaimani: Hi, everyone. Thank you so much for joining us today for today's Family Child Care Connections episode on exploring social studies in family child care settings. I'm Saameh Solaimani, and ...

Virginia Tse: I'm Virginia Tse, and we are from the National Center on Early Childhood Development, Teaching, and Learning. And in today's webinar, we will be discussing what we mean by social studies in early childhood and why it's important to intentionally engage children in exploring social studies concepts. And we want to recognize that you are likely already engaging in social studies exploration in your daily practices. A lot of what we'll be discussing today is to support recognizing where and how this is already happening and how to share that with colleagues and families to help children develop across all areas.

Saameh: We are so happy to see so many of you back here with us today. And we had so much engagement in the last webinar that we have expanded our Q&A team, as you can see here. A big shout-out to our Q&A team, Becky, Vanessa, and Adriana, and our producer, Ryan.

This is only our second time together as Family Child Care Connections, and we feel so grateful for this space to do just what it says in the name of this webinar. We're so grateful for this space to connect. And that's what this is all about – connecting, sharing, and learning alongside one another.

We'd love to now call your attention to the Viewer's Guide. You can find this in the resource widget. And it's full of resources and note-taking spaces. You can also download this guide and use it throughout our time together for taking notes, reflecting, and planning how to use what we explore together during this Family Child Care Connections webinar in your own settings. It's a really wonderful resource.

During our time together today, we will be defining what we mean by social studies and understanding its importance for development and learning. We're going to be making a connection between social studies and the Early Learning Outcomes Framework, also known as the ELOF. And we'll be discussing practical strategies for integrating social studies in family child care programs, and recognizing how social studies is naturally part of what you do every single day and drawing upon all of the wisdom that we have in this learning community here today.

Now we'd love to hear from you. What's one word that comes to mind when you think of social studies and early childhood? You can share ideas in the chat. And as you're doing that, we will share words that come to mind. Let's see. The first word that comes to mind for me when I think about social studies in early childhood is the word "friendship." How about you, Virginia?

Virginia: I think about the word "community," and specifically when young children are learning about and understanding their local community, the neighborhood that they live in, and the different roles that people play and how they fit into their community.

Saameh: It looks like Alisa also says “community.” “Culture.” “Environments.” Thank you so much for sharing everyone. This is wonderful. Oh. Sorry, Virginia. I cut you off there.

Virginia: Oh, no, no worries. I just said another “culture.”

Saameh: Yes.

Virginia: “Studying of how/why people do what they do based on the frame they live in, possible language barriers.” Yeah. For sure. 

Saameh: Keep those coming in.

Virginia: Thank you so much. Yes. Keep your responses coming in.

Social studies as a learning area can seem overwhelming. At least, I know it was for me when I was working with children.

But social studies is something that you help children understand and engage in every day. It's when you help children recognize that they speak the same language or have different but equally loving family structures. It's when you help children listen to each other's ideas when thinking about how they're going to take care of a pet guinea pig. Or it's when you encourage an older preschooler to help the toddler put on their jacket. And it's even when you're helping children navigate a conversation about what it means to be fair.

Social studies is about helping young children develop an understanding about themselves, about their community, and about the world that's around them. Today we will be thinking and talking about social studies in these three categories.

The first category is thinking about identity and belonging. Identity and belonging involves children learning about themselves and how they are similar and different to other people. It's about helping them foster a sense of belonging in their learning environment, with their family, and in their immediate community.

And then the second category we'll be thinking about is community and collaboration. And community and collaboration is about supporting children's understanding, their local community, the people within it, the places and the groups. Children are learning about the diversity within their community, including different cultures, different roles, and different viewpoints. Children are also developing social skills like working together, talking with others, and solving problems. Collaboration teaches children about empathy and caring for others and their community.

Then the third category we'll be talking about today is justice and activism. And justice for activism for children involves teaching them about fairness and equity and standing up for what's right. It includes empowering them to recognize and address issues of inequity, discrimination, and social injustices in their community and also encouraging them to take action for positive change. For infants and toddlers, this primarily involves creating respectful and empathetic environments through nurturing caregiving practices that promote emotional, social, and physical well-being. It also includes providing opportunities for inclusive play and interactions that celebrate diversity and modeling positive social behaviors, such as sharing and cooperation.

And then for preschool, justice and activism builds on these nurturing and inclusive environments by incorporating strategies in daily activities and discussions to cultivate a sense of social responsibility, empathy, and activism. This can be done through things like role playing, through things like storytelling with books that talk about themes of fairness and kindness and diversity and standing up for others. It's through things like community exploration and celebration of diversity. It's also through things like problem-solving scenarios and discussions of current events that are relevant to their lives.

Let's talk about the first category, which is identity and belonging. So, who am I? This seemingly simple question is the foundation to who we are as human beings. Our identity impacts how we construct knowledge, build our self-confidence, contribute to our individual, personal, and social identities. And as you experience, many family child cares have the joy of caring for mixed age groups of children. And you have a big role in helping all children build a sense of identity. And we also have the honor of supporting children and understand how they belong, how they belong to their family, your family child care, and also their local community.

When children – and anyone, really – feel like they belong, it helps build a sense of confidence in themselves and proud of their background, their culture, and their heritage. It helps them build self-esteem and a sense of resilience. And it helps children feel proud of themselves, of what they are capable of, and what they can contribute.

For young infants who are experiencing the world primarily through their senses, they are just figuring out who their physical self is. And we can help infants put words to their discoveries by narrating their movements, saying things like, "Oh, it looks like you found your foot," or, "You're swinging your arm back and forth." And we can even encourage infants to discover things about their own bodies.

For example, in this picture on the left, a family child care provider might say, "Look how you scooted yourself closer to the mirror." And if we're working with a mixed age group of children, we can encourage older children to comment on what younger infants are doing. And we can also help infants understand how they fit into this world by telling them information about themselves or their family to help them hear language. For example, "I see Auntie dropped you off today. She loves you so much."

And then for toddlers, they are starting to understand similarities and differences, and they're also learning to express confidence in their own ability. For example, when a toddler says, "I do," or, "No help," or pushes your hand away when you're reading a book, we can help toddlers continually learn about themselves and build confidence when we talk about them in relation to concrete people or experiences that are meaningful.

For example, in the top right-hand picture, a family child care provider is using books to perhaps talk about similarities and differences. Maybe she's saying something like, "That is a yellow tricycle. You are both learning how to ride the tricycle that we have."

And then, for preschool-age children, they may show that they are aware of themselves. They're also learning how to connect with others who are similar and different and express confidence in their own skills, their own abilities, and their own ideas. For example, the bottom-right picture shows a family wall, and then the family child care provider can use this to initiate conversation and pride about children's families.

You probably have experience with children loving to see and talk about their family. Supporting children in developing their sense of identity and belonging begins with our relationships with families. Our relationships with parents and family members are key to learning about and understanding how we can foster a child's sense of identity. Conversations at pickup and drop-off time, as you know, can offer these little gems of knowledge that help us know more and do more to support children in our care. And meeting with families to discuss their child's progress towards learning goals is a chance to dig deeper and to learn more about families, such as their culture and their language, and their child's progress toward learning goals.

And we can also learn about family rules and expectation and how the family describes fairness. We can also learn about community connections that are important to the family – for example, what their favorite local market is or how many families members live by. Because when families or the adults feel comfortable with you, they project that comfort onto their child. And this supports a sense of belonging. And it also sends a message to the children and family that they are an important part in the day-to-day of your family child care program.

Let's watch an example of a family child care provider supporting some of their children in her care and talking about their caregivers during the meal time. And while you're watching, think about and feel free to enter in the chat how you think this family child care provider is supporting children in understanding their identity and fostering a sense of belonging. Let's watch.

[Video begins]

Gladys: I love it. That is so healthy … that’s so cute! Who did it for you?

Girl: Mom.

Gladys: Do you want to have more?

Joanna: Gladys!

Gladys: Joanna?

Joanna: Tell the babies be careful with my mom's foot because she has surgery.

Gladys: Who? Your grandma?

Joanna: No. My mom.

Gladys: Your mom had a surgery? What happened to your mom?

Joanna: Her foot is hurting.

Gladys: Oh, yeah, I remember. It's your grandma. Yeah, I know. But now she's good, huh? Yeah. She feels good. She feels better. Today your grandma come and see me. She will come and see all of your friends and our child care. Mm. I love your grandma.

Joanna: Tell them to be careful.

Gladys: Yeah, OK. I will tell ...

[Video ends]

Virginia: Alright, I just love that video clip. So, so sweet. If you had thoughts while you were watching, how do you think that this provider is supporting children in understanding their identity and fostering a sense of belonging?

Saameh: Share that in the chat.

Virginia: Yes, definitely. Talking – Oh, go ahead.

Saameh: Oh, no, you go ahead, Virginia. Sorry about that. I was getting excited. I was seeing everybody's responses coming in, jumping the gun.

Virginia: Yeah, definitely. I see “by talking to the girl about her grandma.” Mm-hmm. “Asking questions while sitting with the children.” Yes. Thank you.

Continue to put in what you noticed in the chat. But I just love this wonderful clip of this family child care provider acknowledging the information that these two girls are wanting to share about their mom and grandma. You can really tell the first girl feels proud that her mom did her hair and the second showing care and concern for her grandma who has an injured foot.

And we can see that the provider knows about this child's familial makeup and provides some additional information that it was her grandma that hurt her foot and that her grandma will be coming in today. And the children are getting positive feedback about their family members, which can help them build their sense of identity.

And, yes, thank you. I see also “family dynamics,” “talking about the grandma and the girl.” Yes. Thank you so much for sharing what you noticed.

Saameh: Right. “Eating with the children.” Yeah, I noticed that, too. She was eating the apple with the children and was really being one of the members of the learning community alongside the children.

Virginia: Absolutely.

Saameh: OK. Now what we're going to do is we're going to watch a clip of a family member sharing how recognizing her child's knowledge and pride in her culture and identity contributes to her child's sense of belonging, which we just spoke quite a bit about, in a family child care program. Let's watch this video together.

[Video begins]

Iris: They're Native Americans. And taking that little bit of time to seeing your children that you have with you and seeing their backgrounds and learning that for yourself, so that way you can make a connection with that child and say, "Oh, she knows that I'm Mexican. She knows that we celebrate Cinco de Mayo?" That would just brighten a child's eyes that somebody else knows about them.

Because right now, Tekala, my daughter, is the only Native American child here. And we live in this big city, and we don't always run into another Native. And so for us, we feel like a little family on this big island with nobody else on it, and we don't have that connection. And so for her to be able to celebrate herself and her background that she has at home, it's just exciting for her. She feels so proud to be who she is and wants to learn more about being Native American and wanting – Right now, she wants to dance in a powwow. And she's like, "I can dance, I can dance."

Being able to have that opportunity, maybe bringing in a powwow song, and say, "Hey, let's hear the music," and taking that time to learn a little bit about who your children you're working with and what kind of music, what kind of food do they eat, what kind of activities they do or celebrations they do, just taking that little bit of time and maybe having just a little book or picture or something in your preschool to show that culture and show that this kid is not in some alien world where they feel very scared and very timid to come out of their shell – I think having that around them is going to help them to really...

[Video ends]

Saameh: This parent, Iris, we hear her. She describes the importance of providers taking the time to understand the backgrounds of each of the children in the learning environment. I just love her story about her daughter, Tekala, wanting to dance in a powwow. And she was so excited to share with her peers. And that's just such a powerful example of how identity and belonging show up within early childhood settings.

I also really appreciate how she put it, about encouraging children and families to share about their cultures and how this really helps children feel comfortable to come out of their shells and to really bloom. I just really love that visual. I love just what we can do to nurture children as they blossom and bloom, that that visual of a flower blooming. It's just so beautiful to me.

And another thing she says that I love is a little family on a big island. Iris and Tekala live in such a big city, and that feeling can also be felt in rural areas, as well. Oftentimes families, they have to drive a great distance to get to their provider's home, and so the family child care becomes a hub for connection, not only for the children but for the families, as well.

And we also just wanted to take a moment to note that Iris mentioned Cinco de Mayo. And while some Mexican-Americans celebrate Cinco de Mayo, it's not a holiday that's celebrated in Mexico. We just wanted to definitely note that.

This quote – it's a wonderful quote by an author and developmental psychologist, Ann Epstein, and she reminds us that social studies, which includes children gaining an understanding of their identity and feeling a sense of belonging, is foundational for both school readiness and for life success. She writes, "A sense of belonging contributes to children's overall social and emotional development and is an essential aspect of school readiness."

Now, again, we'd love to invite you to reflect on this question, and we'd love you to share in the chat. Think of a group of people you feel a strong sense of belonging with. And this could be one person. It could be a group of friends, your family, a community group. What's one word to describe what it feels like to be with this person or group? And please share that in the chat.

And while you're sharing, while you're reflecting and sharing, we're going to share some examples. Maybe “safe,” “trusted,” “loved.”

Virginia: “Valued.” We're seeing some in the chat now. “Calm.” I love that one. “Comfort.” “Joyful.” “Peaceful.”

Saameh: “Peaceful.”

Virginia: Oh, such good words. Oh, “free.”

Saameh: “Accepted.” Oh, these are beautiful. Thank you so much, everyone. “Know where I'm coming from.” Yeah. Yeah. Thank you so much. And all of these responses, they really help to emphasize the importance of belonging because it's our goal to ensure that all children feel these things, right?

A little later on, we're going to be exploring practical strategies of how to nurture identity and belonging in your family child care settings. We will explore that more together a little bit later.

Virginia: Absolutely. Keep them coming. I'm seeing so many great words, great responses about what it feels like for you to belong. Amazing. Thank you. 

Children's identity and belonging plays a crucial role in their development of community and collaboration skills. When children have a strong foundation about who they are, they can meaningfully engage in their community and collaborate effectively with others. And it enables them to appreciate diversity, build relationships, and take on roles as active and responsible members of their community as they continue to grow and learn. For children entering your family child care home, this may be their first experience developing a sense of community outside of their families. This just reiterates what an important role you play as you help children grow in their understanding of what it means to belong to a group. And you are also helping to foster a sense of community among your families through their shared connection with you and also their children's relationships with each other. 

How can we break down the idea of community and collaboration a bit further? One way is to think about community and collaboration as understanding who and what is in my community. Learning about who and what exists in their community involves understanding the people, the places, and the roles that make up their everyday environment. And this knowledge is crucial, as it helps children develop a sense of belonging, empathy for others, and an appreciation for diversity.

And it also lays the foundation for building social skills, fostering relationships, and developing a deeper understanding of the world around them as they continue to grow. Children are also learning that they have a unique position in being a part of a community. For infants and toddlers, community involves creating a nurturing environment that introduces them to basic concepts of their surroundings. This can include using picture books and simple stories to illustrate different community members, like doctors or teachers, and includes engaging in sensory play that reflects elements of community, such as playing with toy vehicles or miniature buildings. It can also include encouraging interactions with caregivers and peers to foster early socialization skills.

Through these experiences, infants and toddlers begin to develop a foundational understanding of their community and their place within it. And then for older children, you can extend this by selecting a variety of books, inviting different community members to visit, and visiting local places like libraries or parks, if able and available.

Community and collaboration is also about recognizing and respecting diversity. Recognizing and respecting diversity means understanding and appreciating differences among people, such as different cultural backgrounds, different languages, different abilities, and different family structures. It also involves teaching empathy, celebrating uniqueness, and fostering an inclusive mindset where every individual is valued for who they are. This learning process helps children develop a respect for others and prepares them to interact positively in a diverse and interconnected world.

Family child care providers can support infants, toddlers, and preschoolers in recognizing and respecting diversity by creating inclusive environments with diverse materials, modeling inclusive behavior, using age-appropriate activities to celebrate cultural differences, and also engaging families to share their cultural practices and their languages. Excuse me.

Finally, community and collaboration can be about promoting collaborative problem solving. This helps build essential social skills like communication and teamwork and negotiation. And by working towards shared goals, children are learning to consider different viewpoints, develop empathy, and cooperate effectively. These experiences prepare children for future challenges, fostering a foundation of critical thinking, and collaborative ability that is essential for success in both academic and social contexts. For infants and toddlers, you can create opportunities for interactive play with peers and caregivers, such as turn-taking games and cooperative activities like building blocks together, which can foster foundational teamwork and communication skills.

For older children, you can organize group activities like projects or art tasks and games that require teamwork and communication. These activities encourage children to share their ideas, listen to each other, and work together towards achieving a common goal. These all support children in fostering skills in negotiation and empathy.

These are three ways to think about what community and collaboration mean, but it's certainly not the only way. We'll be discussing some practical strategies a little later on, on how to nurture community and collaboration in your family child care setting.

Let's now take a look at an example of how Gladys, our family child care provider – or one of family child care providers – supports children in her home to recognize and think about community and collaboration. Again, while you're watching, please feel free to share in the chat what you notice about how this provider is nurturing community and collaboration in her family child care. Let's take a look.

[Video begins]

Gladys: Mya jan, mya jan, can you pass your plate, please? Thank you so much for helping Gladys and Lida. How about your cups? Thank you. Thank you. You're always helping Lida and Gladys.

Lida: Oh, good job, Ashu.

Gladys: You're done, Ashu? You don't want to drink? OK. Thank you, Lida.

Lida: You're welcome.

Gladys: Mm-hmm. You are done. Yes. Yeah.

[Video ends]

Virginia: Alright. Another amazing clip. Feel free to share in the chat. Again, what did you notice about how this provider is nurturing community and collaboration in this family child care program? Oh, great.

Saameh: “Manners are happening, and she's praising the children after they complete a task.” Yes. I also noticed the warmth in which she was – her tone, which is incredibly warm and welcoming.

Virginia: Mm-hmm. Absolutely. “Way of transitioning.” Yes. Yeah. I really love the way that – Oh, now we're seeing more. “Some language being used.” Mm-hmm.

Saameh: Actually, when she says, "mya jan," she's speaking Farsi. My home language, my first language is Farsi. And it means kind of like – it means “my soul.” When she says "mya jan," it's kind of like "my love, my soul." It's very, very, very warm way of referring to somebody.

Virginia: Oh, I love that. That is very heartwarming. Such a heartwarming term. I love that. Thank you for sharing that with us, Saameh.

Saameh: I love it. I can definitely feel that warmth, and maybe because I understand what she's saying, too, there's that extra layer there.

Virginia: Yeah.

Saameh: Speaking of identity and belonging, right?

Virginia: Exactly. Yeah. I'm seeing lots of wonderful… “Modeling,” “consistent routine.” Yeah. I just love the way that this provider thanks the child, but she also thinks Lida for helping clean up. And this really models respect for the various roles that contribute to this learning community. Yes, thank you so much for sharing that.

Saameh: Yeah. There's so many wonderful comments coming in. Thank you, everyone, for sharing. As we watched in the video example and through all of your beautiful shares, we can see and hear that social studies is all around us and the children we care for all of the time throughout the day. Now what we're going to do is, we're going to shift our focus to our last component – last but not least – last component of social studies, justice and activism.

And we have a quote here. We're going to look at an excerpt from the National Council for Social Studies' Position Statement, NCSS. "Through the social studies, children explore and ask questions about social systems, the abstract societal norms and values affecting human relationships and interactions in everyday life. These include nonverbal yet observable social cues that reflect subtle forms of bias, discrimination, and inequity."

An anti-bias education involves creating a community that supports all dimensions of human differences, including culture, race, language, ability, learning styles, ethnicity, family structure, religion, sexual orientation, gender, age, and socioeconomic differences. It introduces the concept of diversity that addresses the impact of stereotypes, bias, and discrimination in children's development and interactions. An anti-bias education empowers children by supporting them and developing the tools to feel confident in their identities, to interact empathetically, to develop their critical thinking skills, and to participate in activism, which we'll discuss more about in a little bit.

And this framework is comprised of four goals, these four goals we see here, these colorful circles: identity, diversity, justice, and activism. And anti-bias education is grounded in what we know about how children construct identity and attitudes. And the goal is they help us to create a safe, supportive learning community for every child. They support children's development of a confident sense of identity, an ease with human diversity, a sense of fairness and justice, the skills of empowerment, and the ability to stand up for themselves and for others.

And today, we've touched on the first two goals through our discussions on identity and belonging and community and collaboration that we just went through. We wanted to introduce this important framework as we go on to discuss justice and activism. 

Here are the National Association for Education of Young Children's description of goal numbers three and four. And it's important to note that NAYEC uses "teacher" in the description of these goals. And we recognize that not all family child care providers identify with that title. And some prefer provider or caregiver, and some prefer teacher. At DTL, we include all educators of young children, teachers, family, child care providers, and home visitors in these goals.

Goal number three, here we see justice: “Teachers will foster each child's capacity to critically identify bias and will nurture each child's empathy for the hurt that bias can cause. Children will increasingly recognize unfairness or injustice, have language to describe unfairness, and understand that unfairness hurts.” In a family child care program, this might look like supporting children through problem solving when unfairness arises. We're going to explore that more together when we talk about practical strategies.

And goal number four, we see here activism: “Teachers will cultivate each child's ability and confidence to stand up for oneself and for others in the face of bias. Children will demonstrate a sense of empowerment and the skills to act with others or alone against prejudice and/or discriminatory actions.” Again, in a family child care program, this might look like age-appropriate books, which again we're going to give examples of later on in today's webinar when we talk again more about those practical strategies.

And you can check out the resource widget for a table that provides examples of how the NAYEC core goals that we spoke about, and of anti-bias education, and how those align with the Head Start ELOF for children birth through 5 and the Head Start Multicultural Principles for Early Childhood Leaders, Head Start education staff, we can use it to make connections among these three very important frameworks for promoting anti-bias teaching and environments. You can see a lot of these resources, also, in your Viewer's Guide.

We're going to be discussing together, like I said earlier, about the practical strategies about how to nurture justice and activism in your family child care settings in a bit here. We're kind of just setting that up for us to be able to discuss together and share and connect around these principles, these very important principles.

Now many of you may already be familiar with the Head Start Early Learning Outcomes Framework, also known as the ELOF, and for those of you who aren't, the ELOF describes the skills, behaviors, and knowledge that programs must foster in all children. The framework is designed to show the continuum of learning for infants, toddlers, and preschoolers, and it's grounded in comprehensive research around what young children should know and be able to do during their early years. Let's explore how social studies shows up throughout the ELOF.

While the ELOF does not have a domain or subdomain for social studies itself, social studies are an integral part of children's learning and found across all of the domains. For example, a cooking project with children using a recipe from a child's family may be supporting physical development: cutting with tools, language and literacy, expanding vocabulary with names of tools and ingredients. Cognition: measuring and cause and effect of mixing ingredients. Approaches to learning: supporting curiosity. What will this taste like? What does that smell like?

And social and emotional as a shared project, so it helps children build relationships with peers and adults. Many activities you all are already doing, as you can imagine, likely have a social studies connection. Noticing these connections helps emphasize their importance. And in our example, it was a cooking project, and there's so much more.

Virginia: Yes, definitely. Thank you for sharing that wonderful example, Saameh. It really captivates and shows how social studies experiences provide children with opportunities to explore and grow across all five of these domains. This Early Learning Outcomes Framework is grounded in a comprehensive body of research about what infants, toddlers, and preschool-age children are learning, doing, and exploring at different stages throughout their development. This framework describes how children progress across key areas of learning and development and specifies learning outcomes in these areas. And this is especially important for family child care providers who care for children across these age groups. And as you know very well, children's skills and behaviors vary widely as they develop from infancy to preschool age.

This is a great tool to use to check in. Are my expectations of my toddler on target? Maybe, should my 3-year-old be able to do that independently, or do they still need a little more guidance from me? You can use the ELOF to support your work through your day-to-day interactions and activities. You can use it to guide planning, to understand more about child development. And you could also use it in your communication with families. And you can also learn more about the ELOF in your Viewer's Guide.

Saameh: We're going to take a look at a couple of examples of how social studies is integrated throughout the ELOF. The two examples we are going to discuss are in the social and emotional development domain that are highlighted here, so you can see highlighted in the yellow here.

Virginia: Thank you, Saameh. If we selected that social and emotional domain for infants and toddlers, it would reveal these four subdomains. And then, under the Sense of Identity and Belonging subdomain, we could find this infant and toddler goal for Social Emotional Number 13, which is about child developing a sense of belonging through relationships with others. And preschool age children have a similar goal, but again, those behaviors children will use to demonstrate their developing sense of belonging will naturally be different as they live and grow.

Then, on the bottom half of your screen, we see this example of a developmental progression for 3- to 5-year-olds. We kind of mixed and match the toddler and the preschool pieces here.

And then, within each goal, just a reminder that there are indicators along a developmental progression that provide examples of what we might see children doing within that specific goal. And it's important to note that, at the end of the developmental progression, we see that there's this indicator that states "by 36 months" for infants and toddlers. But it's important to remember that this means there could be a lot of variation in what we see, depending on the specific child and their unique place in their development.

In this picture, we see an infant and a toddler interacting with one another. They're playing peek-a-boo in their family child care program. And in mixed age groups such as this, older toddlers and preschoolers can model caring behaviors for young toddlers and infants, and in this way, older children are actively helping to shape the community and be welcoming to support as things go along. And younger children are learning from the modeling of their older peers and can practice these behaviors with others.

Saameh: If we selected the Social and Emotional domain, it would reveal these four subdomains for preschool-age children. And then, under the Relationships with Other Children subdomain, we can find the Goal P-SE 4: “child engages in cooperative play with other children.” This, again, will look different for infants and toddlers because they're in an emergent stage within this subdomain. For example, Infant-Toddler Goal Number 4: “child shows interest in, interacts with, and develops personal relationships with other children.” It's important to note which age group you're looking at.

Here we see an example of the Preschool Goal Number 4. This one's under the Social and Emotional development domain, Relationships with Other Children subdomain. That's a mouthful.

Again, just like with our last example, it's important to note that the indicator states "by 60 months." This means that there will be a lot of variation in what we see depending on the specific child and their unique place in their development.

In this picture, we see three preschool-aged children playing cooperatively with each other as they gently invite a toddler into their game. The older children are finding a way to include the younger children in their learning environment. And the ELOF, it can be particularly supportive for mixed-age group settings, in that it provides information about key areas of development across all ages, and it can be helpful to see where there's overlap and where older children support and even model for their peers as they move to the next stage of their development. And it can also give providers ideas about where they might go next with their curriculum, including how they might set up certain activities to maximize learning and growing opportunities for all children in the program.

Virginia: OK. Now we've reached the point in our webinar where we are going to share some strategies for each of the three categories that we've talked about today. The first category, remember, was identity and belonging. Some of the strategies that we thought about to help support children in developing their sense of identity and belonging include providing books, toys, and images that reflect diverse cultures, languages, and abilities to help children see themselves in others.

Then, a second strategy that we wanted to highlight was to encourage families to share stories about traditions that highlight their cultural heritage, and this can help children understand their own identity within the broader community context. And then, a third strategy that we wanted to highlight was to include photos of families in your family child care setting so that children and families can feel seen and a part of the group. We recognize that you are likely already doing many of these or all of these, so you've been supporting social studies maybe without even knowing it all along.

We also know that we have a wealth of knowledge and expertise with us today, so we would love to give you a chance to share some strategies with each other. After all, this webinar is called Family Child Care Connections, so we'd love to give you a chance to connect with each other.

Please share in the chat how you support children in building their sense of identity and belonging. It could be a repeat, maybe something that along the slide before, an idea that we haven't talked about, or maybe you have an idea now that you want to try. Maybe something has sparked. Feel free to share in the chat and with each other how you support children in building their sense of identity and belonging. And while we wait for some of the responses to come in, Saameh, what are some of your favorite strategies?

Saameh: When I think about identity and belonging, a strategy that I've seen, and I really love this, was when an educator invited families to bring in an item from their home that represented their home and culture to include in the dramatic play area. Example of things, families shared their – it was like a spice container of a spice they regularly used at home, different clothing items, like a scarf, a little decorated box. I remember there was a little decorated box that came from that family's culture. And all of these items represented the families and the children in that specific learning community, and it was such a beautiful way to nurture a sense of identity and belonging. And children were so excited to share with each other, "This is from my home, and this is what we use to cook," and it was just really beautiful.

Virginia: I love that. One of my favorite strategies, and I'm seeing a lot of the same favorite strategy in the chat, which is sharing photos, family photos, in the learning environment. And I especially loved adding pictures of children and families in picture frames and then putting them up on the shelf or on a wall. And so they really feel like they're a part of the whole. That's one of my favorite things when I visit friends' and family's homes is to look at the pictures on the wall, because that really just shows the belonging of the space.

Saameh: That's so true. Look at all of these wonderful ideas coming in.

Virginia: Yeah. Continue to share. Let's look at some of these. I love that everybody has the opportunity to share with each other. The photos, yep. That's coming up.

Saameh: “Families reading books in their language.”

Virginia: Mm-hmm.

Saameh: Yeah. “Family blanket.”

Virginia: Catherine says, “celebrating holidays together.”

Saameh: Wonderful. “A family wall.” Yeah. Please keep those coming in. 

Virginia: Yeah.

Saameh: We'll get more strategies. “Songs and books.” Wonderful. 

Virginia: Yeah. And I love Martha says that she's always greeting parents. She does home visits, so that helps. She also sends a bag so they bring a book to share, and all the children write what they have learned from their friends.

Saameh: Oh, I love that.

Virginia: Yeah. “Reading home language.” Wonderful. Thank you so much.

Our next category that we talked about for how to think about social studies was community and collaboration. Some of the strategies that we wanted to highlight to support community and collaboration include arranging visits or virtual tours to community places such as markets or libraries or fire stations or local parks. And these all help children understand the roles of different community helpers.

Then another strategy is to facilitate activities where children are working together to build structures, to solve puzzles, or to create art, and these all can help promote teamwork and cooperation.

I see that we're still getting lots of wonderful ideas and sharing in the chat about identity and belonging. Now we're going to shift and have you continue to share, but now we want you to share with each other how you support children in fostering community and collaboration. Again, this could be ideas that – ideas and things that you've already done, or maybe you have some new ideas that you want to try. And Adriana says, "We usually include dramatic play centers with different themes, like bakery, post office." Love that.

Saameh: “Play songs,” “playing music.”

Virginia: Yeah. And one of my favorite strategies to support community and collaboration in the learning environment used to be what I called "Ask a Peer." When a child used to ask me for help with something like tying their shoe or finding something, I love saying, "Why don't you ask Josiah?" or the child's name. "They're really good at tying shoes," or doing whatever skill the child is asking for help in. This helps the child build confidence and build their identity and also reinforces that we are a community of learners and everyone has something to contribute. Or if we have a problem, I like to ask, "Hmm. How should we solve this? What's everyone's ideas?"

Saameh: I love that. Yeah.

Virginia: Mm-hmm.

Saameh: It's a wonderful idea. And let's see what we have coming in. "When some of my kids play family.” “My kids draw, I ask them about it, asking the children about their work."

Virginia: Yeah. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Neat. Well, keep those coming. We know sometimes there's a little bit of a lag in the chat. "Ask a friend," yep. Thank you, Katie. We're going to move on to our final category, which is justice and activism. Some strategies and supports that we wanted to highlight for supporting justice and activism include teaching children how to solve problems fairly. And specifically, you can use naturally occurring opportunities to work problem-solving words into the environment.

For example, when there aren't enough glue sticks or too many people wanting to go to a certain area, you can say things like, "Hmm, we have a problem. What can we do to fix that?" Or another example of this might be when there are only three trucks and four children want to play. Another example might be when you can use puppets to act out problem situations during group time and then ask children to come up with solutions to the problem.

And then, the second thing we wanted to highlight was to use age-appropriate books, stories, or pictures to discuss fairness, kindness, and helping others, and this reinforces the values of social justice, because books are a wonderful way to support and encourage young children in exploring all the social studies topics we've been discussing throughout today's webinar.

Saameh: Here are examples of age-appropriate books that can support and nurture identity and belonging, community and collaboration, and justice and activism in your family child care settings. The first one we have here, "Who Takes Care of You?" by author Hannah Eliot and illustrator Jade Orlando. It's a board book about the many different caregivers in a child's life.

And in the middle here, we have the "Thank You, Garden" by author Liz Garton Scanlon and illustrator Simone Shin, and this is about friendship, community, and working together for a better world. So beautiful.

And the last book here, "Something, Someday," by author Amanda Gorman and illustrator Christian Robinson, is about each of our power to make a difference in the world and how we can work together to solve problems in our communities and world. And this book, I've had the pleasure of reading this book, and just the illustrations are so incredibly beautiful and heartwarming.

You can please see your Viewer's Guide for additional resources that include children's books around these social studies topics. And you can remember to check out your local library for these and other books you'd like to include in your family child care programs. That's actually where I got this book was from my local library. Yeah.

Virginia: Thank you, Saameh, for sharing those. Now we would like to give you one more opportunity to share some strategies with each other. Please take a moment in the chat to just share how you support children in engaging the topic of justice and activism. And while we wait, Saameh, do you have a strategy you would like to share with us?

Saameh: Yeah. OK. A strategy that I love is using puppets or dolls to play out a scenario, like something that may be coming up frequently in the classroom. For example, there may be some conflicts arising around sharing or taking turns, and so I've used puppets to play out the scene and then invite children to share their ideas and possible solutions. And questions can be posed in ways that encourage reflection on topics of fairness and kindness, and this provides children an opportunity to take a step outside of the scene and to use their problem-solving skills and experience to reflect on, think about, and practice fair and kind solutions to support the entire learning community. And it's also a wonderful way to foster a sense of responsibility for each of our part in ensuring our community is a safe place for all. I've used puppets and dolls many times, and it works like a charm. Let's see.

Virginia: I see “role-playing.”

Saameh: Mm-hmm.

Virginia: And “asking questions to understand where they're coming from.” “I sometimes will give them options to choose from.” And Stephanie says, “visuals, acting, puppets, books.” Great. Thank you so much for sharing.

I know it is the minute to the hour, but we just wanted, as hosts and the QA team, we'd really like to thank you today for sharing all of your strategies and ideas. Your willingness to share and your engagement throughout today's webinar really makes it what it is. And we're so excited to see the connections that were made in the chat, and we hope this experience has provided a space for you to connect and collaborate with other family child care providers.

And we'd just love to turn back quickly to something we heard Iris, one of our parents, say about how community and collaboration can help us feel like we're a little family on this big island, and hopefully this time of connection can help you feel like we are a family here at Family Child Care Connections. With that, thank you, everyone.

Saameh: Thank you, everyone!

Virginia: Yep, and we will see you all soon. Have a great day. Thank you. 

Saameh: Thanks. Bye, everyone.