This week I’m basking in the afterglow of the Transform Challenging Behavior Online Conference.

It’s such an inspiration to see how you all showed up, learned, asked questions, were open to new ways of thinking and doing, and put many of the ideas you learned immediately into action.

I’ve been thinking about creating a community where we could continue this experience not just for one week each Spring but all year long.

I wonder what that might look like…

…and I’m curious about your thoughts on that.

I’ve been thinking about it since the end of February…

….it’s almost been a year.

The dates are etched cleary in my brain because on Monday March 9, 2020 I was honored to give a keynote talk at the annual National Migrant and Seasonal Head Start Conference in San Diego.

The next day I went out to dinner, so at least in my world the pandemic was...well, not known to be a pandemic yet.

From there things changed quickly.

Today, I want to share something I wrote almost exactly one year ago today.

It felt important to revisit my hopes, fears and concerns for the early childhood field.

Here's a shortened version of what I wrote just about one year ago...

Dylan (almost 4 years old) seemed to want to be in control.

He's sensitive to anyone standing too close or telling him what to do.

He responds with hitting, pushing, and even hitting his teachers with blocks.

Do you have children in your classroom who react with aggression when anyone comes too close or tells them what to do?

If so, I want to offer you a tool…

Creating the Transform Challenging Behavior Online Conference is arguably the most exciting thing I’ve ever done.

The conference originated as an unreasonable idea that honestly felt like it was stalking me.

Create an online conference? What!? How? How will I find people to come? Why can’t I stop thinking about this? Get out of my head!

But due to a series of lucky and synchronistic moments as well as dash of faith...

Do you have children in your class who hit, push, or yell whenever someone tells them what to do or even just stands too close to them? Maybe they even hit kids and teachers with blocks (scary!).

...or, maybe they just don’t like it when someone starts playing with the bucket of toys they’re using or attempts to clean up in the same area they are cleaning?

Well, that’s exactly what was happening in Loretta's classroom. She told me…

That’s one super important thing we need more of in the world, support for early childhood teachers..

Yes, I want to support the kids who exhibit “challenging behavior” (kicking, biting, tantrums, yelling, hitting, running out of the classroom and throwing chairs)....but first and foremost my mission is to support YOU.

If preschool teachers don’t feel supported in their work…

The other day I was texting with Dylan, a PreK teacher in a public school. Dylan's school has been Zooming (or maybe they use Microsoft Teams?) since sometime last March.

Dylan told me that one morning recently he was feel tired and overwhelmed. There's so much going on in the world and he hadn't slept much the night before.

Planning and implementing lessons that day felt daunting.

...but then he remembered that supporting children's social emotional development and building community is THE most important thing we do in preschool.

He realized that some days the most important thing is to just show up and hold space.

Luckily, that's Bunny, the class puppet's specialty.

Dylan explains...

In another article I spoke about what to do with children who want what they want when they want it or who say things that aren't true.

Both of these scenarios can result in adult-child power struggles and sometimes even aggression.

I received a follow-up question that's worth a quick chat, let's call this child, "Leo"...

Just a question in the instance of a child who wants something, is asked to wait for another child to finish with it and then said child begins calling everyone [SWEARWORD NAMES] and begins throwing chairs at children and staff?

Great question…

Is this a behavior you are currently struggling with or have previously struggled with..

...the child who wants what he wants when he wants it and there is no reasoning with him or her?

What about a child who says things that aren't true?

Maybe they say there is a pink unicorn in their yard.

(How cool would that be!?)

At first glance a child wanting what they want when they want it or insisting there's a pink unicorn in their yard may not appear similar in any way.

But to me they are.

My #1 guiding principle in responding to children is…

How's it going this week?

I wanted to remind you that everything we know about how best to teach young children in developmentally appropriate ways still applies.

This is true, even if…