As many of you now know, parts of Raise Montana will be coming to an end while other parts are moving to new spaces. Unfortunately, the monthly blog posts are a chapter that is ending. I thought the final blog post should be a happy commemoration of all the posts prior; a final reflection of my favorite ways to be with young children.
If I had to narrow down my three biggest takeaways for providers, parents, teachers, and anyone who works close to people who work with young children, it would be these three things:
Get outside
Let them play
Observe, listen, and be curious
Getting outside: I believe that fresh air and sunshine can solve most problems when it comes to children. Being outside is the ultimate freedom for children. They don’t have to be quiet, they don’t have to sit still, they can move around freely, they can execute their big ideas and figure out cause and effect, and reap the countless benefits of fresh air in their lungs and sun on their faces. If a child is having a hard time, if a whole classroom of children are having a hard time, if YOU as the provider are having a hard time, I suggest a walk in nature or opening the door and letting the children run free. Take a few deep breaths, look up at the sky, look down at an insect in the grass, and encourage the children to do the same. Figure out how to make unstructured play outdoors a regular and mandatory part of your day, the children will thank you for it, perhaps not with their words, but with their actions!
Let them play: This is similar to being outside, but I’ll reiterate. Children need time to just BE. They need time to come up with and test ideas, to make mistakes, to figure out social cues, to hone in on their interests. If you sit quietly away from a child playing and just watch, you’ll notice so much. You might notice intricate fine motor movements, counting, making up a song or story, the most detailed imaginary play, problem solving and kindness toward peers, a willingness to fail and try again and again, and so on. You may see some of these skills during more directed activities, sure, but I think that when children are free to create and be in charge of their own learning, you can see these skills build and build upon each other with each play session. I remember when I was a teacher we would hold small group time before free play and the children were just itching to be done with the small group activity so they could PLAY! Children love to play. It’s what they are meant to do, it’s what they deserve to do.
Observe, listen, and be curious: This goes hand in hand with ideas I mentioned above. Again, this is all about just letting children be. I notice that with small behavior issues, if you were watching before the behavior happened, you can almost see what the child was thinking and why they did the behavior in question. When my daughter got in trouble for taking the ball from her little brother, the untrained eye would have seen her snatch it and run away, but by me paying attention, I saw him drop the ball and saw her try to give it to him, but he didn’t want it, so THEN she ran away with it. I love to watch children be children and try to see what their intentions were or what their mind was thinking which is why being curious about their actions, ideas, behaviors is important. If you see a child “making a mess” in the art center, instead of correcting or scolding, what if you observed and got curious about what they were up to. You might say to the child, “hmmm, I see you pulling all the string, feathers, and beads out. Do you have a plan? What will your next step be once you put all these materials out on the table? What can I help you with?” They might not know their plan at the time, but watch and see if you can help carry it out. When the child is finished, help them to see their idea through by putting all of the materials back where they belong and then discuss what they created. Letting children be children can still have structure and boundaries and I would argue that those two things are very important if you are implementing a lot of free and creative play. Work with the children to figure out the boundaries for play. Talk to them. Give them responsibility. Remember that they are little people just beginning to navigate the world yet their brains are incredible if you give them the opportunity to use them!
If you go back through my previous posts, you will see activities and more examples to back up these three overarching ideas about working with young children. I hope you have enjoyed the posts as much as I've enjoyed writing them.
Happy fall, and make sure you set on a colorful leaf hunt this year as we did today!
Meghan is a born and raised Montanan, mama to a new baby boy, a busy preschooler, and a bonus mom to two amazing teenagers. She holds both a Bachelor's and Master's degree in Early Childhood Education. Meghan is currently working part time with Raise Montana as a project specialist where she writes blogs, curriculum guides, and hosts the seasonal book clubs. Meghan is passionate about using her experience as an early childhood educator and as a mom to bring knowledge and inspiration to Montana child care providers.
Comments