Dreaming of a world where young children are seen at their full potential
- Frédérique and the Wooden Fellows
As you may remember, I posted last week a picture of four wooden puppets admiring a child’s painting, four wooden Fellows created some years ago by young child Rosie and her imaginative world.
But how did you react to the painting itself? What caught your attention? What would you say if the young artist was right next to you? What questions would you ask?
We live in a society where young children’s lives are often driven by grown-ups’ goals and time constructs.
“To be ready for Kindergarten, children should know their letters!”
“They should be read to at least 30 minutes a day!”
Although those goals have their own legitimate justification, they often prevent grown-ups from taking the time to quietly step back, listen to young children, and enter their surprising minds.
As I started this week working on the Land of Smooths & Mellows and the “Doudou Tout Doux”, I let my brain dream of a world where grown-ups take the time to enter young children’s thoughts and hence, embrace the full potential of young children.
Opening the door to a child’s “river of thought” (Ginsburg, 1997) is a journey I encourage anyone and everyone, any educator, any family member to embrace.
I encourage it even more that those step-back moments sometimes lead to a true aha moment, which makes us reach the point of no return in seeing young children for who they truly are and how they truly think.
So, before sharing a few ideas to engage with young children’s thinking, I thought I should share my own aha moment.
When Rosie was born, I returned to college to fulfill my dream and switch careers to early childhood education. Working on obtaining my birth to kindergarten license to teach, I had all kinds of classroom supplies at home, including various colored plastic bears. And Rosie loved using them.
One day, I found some cups with bears sorted by color.
All, except one bear, alone in a cup of red bears.
Curious, I asked Rosie about the green bear. Mischievously, she said:
“He doesn’t want to listen!”
You may be wondering if you had been tempted to move the green bear or how you may have reacted, but I hope those bears illustrate well my point of how stepping back and entering into a young child’s mind can lead to a fascinating journey. Indeed, our society may make us move the bear in what we think is the right place for us, leaving out the opportunity to take into account and fully grasp the imagination of young children. Such misunderstanding may, later on, limit their creativity and affect their self-esteem and confidence, thinking that they were wrong with the “misplacement” of their bear.
As with creating wooden Fellows, having the “right tools in our toolbox”, is helpful, as we interact with young children, to remind us to step back: some generic prompts to engage with young children as they play and explore their environment or activities providing a natural starting point to enter a young child’s mind.
“Tell me about what you are doing” is one of my favorite prompts. It works whether the child is drawing, playing, walking around, etc.
“How do you know?” comes a close second, as young children always have much to say about everything and anything.
Regarding activities, a wordless book, i.e., a picturebook without any story or text to read, naturally leads any grown-ups toward an engaging conversation with a young audience. There is no other choice; there are no words to read!
I will talk about Anno’s counting book soon, one of my favorite books to engage young children with counting items, but “I walk with Vanessa’, by Kerascoet, is another one I cherish. Here is an example of discussion that may start from the cover page.
“Umm, I am wondering what the two children on the front page are talking about”.
“I think they talk about cats”
“Cats? What makes you think they are talking about cats?”
And here you go, entering the child’s mind. A trip to the library made me discover more gems from the world of wordless books. “Archie“, by Gordon, has beautiful illustrations, and the onomatopoeias still guide the first-time readers of wordless books. Lehman wrote several wordless picturebooks, with a diverse representation of characters — “Red again“, around new friendships, “The secret box“, and secret messages in secret boxes, or “Museum trip“. Finally, I would suggest “Inside outside“, by Boyd, with dozens of windows to look through, and “The boy and the airplane“, by Pett, taking us through a moving lifetime journey. There are many others, of course, that I will continue to suggest in the future.
Another activity that may lead to surprising discoveries is to let young children take their own pictures — the shots may be uneven or blurry, but it does help see what may catch their interest. To which you can add on
“Tell me more about this picture. What caught your eye?”
I will continue to dream about a world where every young child is seen at their full potential as I continue to build the Land of Smooth and Mellows. Soon a Doudou-Tout-Doux will join us in our quest.
I will start working on the Land of Seven Colors next, taking the chance to reflect on books and games to engage young children with another fellow, a Rigolo!
Meanwhile, as always, please share your thoughts (and your own aha moments!), either through the Contact form or comment box below.
Thank you so much for being here.
Ginsburg, H. (1997). Entering the child’s mind: The clinical interview in psychological research and practice. Cambridge University Press.
