Today we’d like to introduce you to Kathryn Price.
Kathryn, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
I have always been a teacher!! When I was in college, I got my start volunteering at a local location of Head Start and knew I wanted to teach from that moment on.
I started my career teaching at a private preschool in Weston, MA for 2.5 years, and then taught First Grade at a public elementary school in Andover, MA for seven years. While teaching preschool, I sought my Masters in Education in Early Childhood at Lesley University because I was always certain that I enjoyed working with our youngest learners. The strides my students made in the course of their time with me was SO rewarding to be a part of!
I have always been someone who enjoyed innovating and learning about how the thinking in the world of Early Childhood Education was changing, so I think the groundwork to do something like this was always there for me, but many things have given me the inspiration to start my business. My oldest child, now 8, has always been a thinker and an explorer. Once she began walking, she would spend hours in our garden with a bucket, collecting things and investigating her “treasures.” I was in awe of the way that SHE was in awe of what she found and it piqued my interest in outdoor education in particular.
When my youngest, now 6, was born, I began to consider how I could continue to teach and to innovate, but do so independently, and creating my own schedule and structure. The largest influencer, however, was when my oldest entered Kindergarten and began to refuse to go to school for the first time ever. While learning came easily to her, something about the more structured setting and a full-day structure was taxing and stressful for her and I had trouble finding within that stress my happy-go-lucky cheerful little person.
We had lots of hard days, and it was difficult to watch her feeling that way and, while putting support into place with her school, still feeling powerless to help her until she learned to cope with it herself. That all changed when her school constructed a Makerspace – a classroom where she could work with tools, parts, and recyclables to make anything she could conceive of. She LOVED her time there and looked forward to spending time there – a real turning point in her school refusal.
For me, it was an “Aha Moment”: if my child loved learning in a Makerspace, there must be others who felt the same – and was there a model for the use of a classroom and materials like this with even younger kids? After reading a lot about Reggio-Emilia and doing some research, I discovered others were using this model in their classrooms and knew I could make this my own – and Curious Kids was born. Today, I teach two types of classes:
1) STEAM School, which is a general STEAM workshop relating to a theme, such as “Ice” or “Insects,” in which I offer play-based learning experiences with learning facilitated by explicit teaching of important STEAM concepts.
2) Makers and TInkers, in which I teach a specialized workshop that leverages what I’ve learned about the Reggio approach, Simon Nicholson’s Theory of Loose Parts, and the Maker Movement into opportunities to learn and play with Loose Parts and recyclables to explore important principles in Engineering and Physics.
I am a weekly “specialist” teacher in several local preschools using these two workshop models, and also visit a larger number of local preschools and elementary schools on a more periodic basis (Kindergarten through Second Grade only) as an Enrichment Provider. I have also visited a number of local preschools to offer professional development seminars facilitating their understanding of developmentally-appropriate practice with STEAM instruction and with introducing “Tinkering,” I also spoke at a state-wide Early Childhood conference last year, which was a wonderful experience! I have really enjoyed working with adult learners.
The whole picture has been a great fit for me. I love the innovation, the creation of curriculum, the opportunity to meet new learners and to maintain ongoing relationships with my weekly visits. It is hugely stimulating and very flexible – I am REALLY enjoying it!
Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
I think the biggest obstacle for me has been the transition from “just” teaching to also owning a business. I just want to put my head down and come up with fun and meaningful material for lessons. I don’t love invoicing, or other facets of owning a business that doesn’t jibe with how I view myself – as a teacher. Fortunately, my husband has owned a small business for over ten years, so he gives me great advice, and also forces me to sit down with my nemesis: QuickBooks!
The other struggle for me is being thoughtful about my materials. I try to buy unique, high-quality materials to make my classes engaging – and it’s a model that works, but when I started out, it was hard to make any profit. Now, I buy in bulk, which helps, and I try to recruit help with accumulating things from friends (such as recycled boxes, old CDs, you-name-it!).
Lastly, this job is hard work!! Unlike when I was a public school teacher and expected to teach out of curriculum guides, I write all my own lessons and… it’s a labor of love! Every half hour or hour class takes about three hours to plan and then prep for. I analyze the things I say to make sure my teaching is explicit and to make sure I am a knowledgeable resource for my curious students. It’s easier now that my children are both in school full time, but starting out and working around a part-time preschool schedule was tough. With a lot of late nights working, especially because I also volunteer actively in my town (as president of the PTO at my kids’ school and sitting on the board of a local non-profit that fundraises to improve outdoor recreational spaces in the town where we live).
I am not afraid of hard work, fortunately, and it all matters to me too much to sacrifice any of it. But I make use of every minute my kids are at school!
Curious Kids Lynnfield – what should we know? What do you guys do best? What sets you apart from the competition?
Curious Kids’ Philosophy of education is tied to the old education adage,
-I hear and I forget
-I see and I remember
– do and I understand
I strive to help children learn by doing, and by honoring their process. I have learned SO much from the students I’ve taught, and from the teachers, I’ve worked with in doing this. Together, they have taught me to SLOW DOWN and marvel at the world around me, alongside the children I teach.
Anyone who knows me would probably say my best (or sometimes worst!!) qualities are that I am PASSIONATE about the things I care about and that I am very hard-working. I refuse to offer less than my best, and I work closely with directors and program supervisors to make sure the program I’m offering is exactly what they want. I love what I teach and I am a very warm person, so I think I do a great job of conveying that to my students and their families. I rarely have to manage behaviors because my learners are engaged from the very start to the very end. I don’t know if that sets me apart from others – or even how many “others” there are.
I think what I offer is unique and extremely high quality – and that goes for both the content taught and the purveyor of that information. I love what I do and I care deeply about how I do it. This is what I’m most proud of!!
What is “success” or “successful” for you?
For me, success is if the students in my classes demonstrate a solid working understanding of the concepts I have taught. I make my goals for outcome clear at the beginning of each class when I introduce myself, and we check on this at the end. I am successful if we have accomplished this at the end!
On a less granular scale, It’s very fulfilling to hear from local families that I know whose kids attend my classes about how they see the concepts I’ve taught their children cropping up at home. A model of a chipmunk burrow became Henry’s “pet hamster”; Hannah grew tons of plants from seeds we planted together. If I can reach a child, impart how awe-inspiring the world around them is – whether that’s a principle in Physics or a closer interest in the behavior of local species in the winter – I have done my job and done it well. I’m not looking to “kill it” financially; I’m looking to find a space for myself to teach, to innovate and to make an imprint on young learners while growing as a teacher myself in the process!
Contact Info:
- Website: www.curiouskidslynnfield.com
- Phone: 617-680-2728
- Email: curiouskidslynnfield@gmail.com
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CuriousKidsLynnfield/
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