Articles About Separation for 2009-2010

Dear Families,

As my welcome letter suggests, separation (the tears or laughter that accompany saying goodbye to Mom or Dad on the first days or weeks or months of school), rather than being a distraction from the nursery curriculum, is at the core of the nursery curriculum.

Here is an article from 1, 2, 3 The Toddler Years about separation entitled "Saying Goodbye is Sad."

Here is an article from a well written early childhood educator textbook that relates separation and separation anxiety to child development.

I realize that pdfs can be more than a little difficult to read on-line. Here are two documents I produced in a workshop for teachers about supporting separation. They bring together ideas from the above two pdfs and may be much easier to read on the screen.

This selection relates the developmental phase of trust to separation. Although it is about infants and young toddlers, the ideas apply to the nursery as well.

This selection, written for teachers in a workshop, provides ideas for ways to support a child with the separation process. Some of the ideas may be helpful for parents as well.

Blessings on our year ahead and farewells and hellos.

With warmth and light,

William Geoffrey Dolde