May in Canada: Early Childhood Education Conferences

What an amazing month of May it has been.

First, I was in Moncton, Canada for an exciting conference sponsored by the Early Childhood Centre at the University of New Brunswick. During the planning and at the conference I had the opportunity to work with Dr. Ann Sherman who is on the faculty in early childhood education. Ann is a delightful person who carefully planned and implemented a wonderful conference!

My keynote was “Understanding, Supporting, and Inspiring Young Creative Thinkers”.  The educators who attended were so warm and responsive that they made it an exhilarating experience for me too. We interacted, laughed, shared ideas, and ate together.

Later in May, I went to the Manitoba Child Care Conference that included around a thousand early childhood educators from all over the Providence. Many educators traveled long distances for their yearly conference in Winnipeg—this was their 39th year! Karen was the conference planner who made the conference, sessions, activities, and market place run so smoothly. The timing, quality of sessions, and involvement of participants was so well orchestrated – we all knew where to be and what to do. Karen and her team certainly made the whole conference enjoyable as well as educational. Marilyn, conference committee chair, added her warm special touch to the conference, working to make everything flow.

The conference theme was “Be Inspired! Be Incredible!” My keynote was closely related, “Young Creative Thinkers Can Change Their World and the Future”. Since I was able to be involved for two days, I did a variety of two hour breakout sessions ending with “Hilarious Moments in Early Childhood Programs: Laugh, Love, and Be Happy.” This shared time together regenerated our joy for working with young children and being in our wonderful profession!

My time in Canada was certainly a joyful time!