Why is early intervention key to your child's success? With student assessments being sent home soon, I thought I'd take a minute and talk about therapy for children, and why when teachers make a recommendation, there is nothing to be alarmed or embarrassed about. It is not a reflection of parenting, nor does it need to be difficult to schedule because it can be done here at school.

After parents, we are children's biggest advocates, so teachers take the assessment process very seriously. If they see any delays in language development, motor development, or neurological development, they want to and should bring it to your attention. By doing their job and using their expertise, you can feel at ease that they have the best intentions at heart.

Delays in your child's development might correct on its own eventually, but at what risk? When children can't communicate or participate with their peers, they start to get excluded from play. Not because other children are being mean, they too are just learning how to navigate in a social world, so this added challenge can cause them to use exclusion as a way around the interaction. In turn, the child being excluded starts to feel bad about themself. A child's self-esteem and self-confidence can be hurt when therapy is ignored or pushed back with the hope they will just catch up eventually.

The Story Behind the Beinecke Building:

Bridgette Beinecke joined St. George Episcopal Church when she moved to a nearby neighborhood. She was attracted by the fact that the Church has a pre-school associated with it and has numerous other outreach ministries. She has served on the School Board and the Vestry of the Church.

She retired as a licensed architect in 2016 after a 40-year career. She has a passion for historic preservation and adaptive use of older buildings and used her skills in this area as a preservation planner and project manager for commercial and institutional employers and clients in Alaska, Texas, and Massachusetts.

She is the widow of Walter Beinecke Jr., the mother of two sons- James and Paul Schleicher, and a new grandmother to Ben.

When she is not volunteering her time to various endeavors she enjoys water coloring, learning classical guitar, and spending time with family and friends in places of scenic beauty.

I am forever grateful for Bridgette’s experience because without her knowledge of project management, design, and architecture this building project would not have happened. She was instrumental in pushing it through all the barriers we came across and using her connections with Bartlett Cocke to get us to the finish line. So it felt only fitting to name the building after her

A long-time vision has been fulfilled.

Back in 2014 when I arrived at St. George’s School and saw the incredible playground space I started dreaming of creating an outdoor learning environment. There was so much potential to create the type of environment I remembered growing up in. I think my tomboy side came back to life and so I put into place a vision to create an outdoor space that children would thrive in.

How do you remember playing as a young child?

Most people when answering this question have memories of playing outside (running, climbing trees, swinging, sliding, rolling, discovering nature, and exploring). Growing up in the Texas Hill Country I remember the beautiful rivers and limestone boulders. The common ingredient in all these memories is free unstructured play.

This type of open-ended play is one of the ways in which children learn to think both cognitively and emotionally. So many skills are developed when children have the freedom to venture out and explore what nature has to offer. Their understanding of how things work and the peace they feel when connecting to nature is unmistakable.

Often times when I tour families or potential new staff I end the tour with this question, “Did anything stand out to you?” And the answer I receive is, “Yes, the children and staff are so happy here.” I am convinced that a big part of that answer has to do with our outdoor learning environment.

Educational psychology has always been a love of mine. While obtaining my undergrad in Human Development and Family Studies, I became fascinated with how children learn. I was highly influenced by cognitive and developmental perspectives when studying how children learn. One of my favorite developmental psychologists was Erik Erikson, probably because I had such a passion and fascination with how children between 0-5 years grow and develop, and the role family members and caregivers play during this time of their lives.

I had already begun my practical work with young children and could directly apply and see the outcomes of not only Erikson’s theories, but also, Piaget, Vygotsky's and others. I recently ran across this article that sums up my favorite theorist and thought it might interest our parents. So often parents struggle with how to react to their child’s behaviors and I think this article gives good insight as to why it’s happening and how to help your child become a healthy and whole human being. Enjoy the read.

It's that time of year when parents of Pre-K students are wondering what the next step for their child should be - - - Kindergarten or ??? Here is a video blog I put together to hopefully give you some things to think about and direction to go, along with a list of private and public schools to investigate. The list is not extensive and in no particular order of preference.