“Stand aside for a while and leave room for learning, observe carefully what children do, and then, if you have understood well, perhaps teaching will be different from before.”―Loris Malaguzzi
This past Tuesday we had the awesome opportunity to observe four different toddlers interacting in our very own classroom. What made the experience even more special is the fact that these were children came from Butler alumni families! We had four little kiddos with us from two different families. Sarah has two daughters, Margo and Annie and a four-month old boy named Teddy. Mary Ellen has two sons, Amos and Cash. What is so unique about these two families is that their kids are the same ages but opposite sexes. Margo and Amus are both 2 and Annie and Cash are both 4. Mary Ellen and Sarah prefaced to us that their families are extremely close so the kiddos have a lot of exposure to one another and spend a lot of time together. That being said, it was so interesting watching these children interact with not only us Butler students, but also each other! It was cool to see how different each of the kiddos were, especially the ones who were the same age. I learned that boys and girls are extremely different at ages 2 and 4. |
Mary Ellen and Sarah |
Cash showing me the new superhero book |
While having the toddlers here at Butler, there was an incident that occurred with Cash (4) that really stuck out to me. Mary Ellen, his mother, told us right when they arrived that her boys are extremely infatuated with all things superhero! That being said, while we were all sitting around in our big classroom FULL of books and toys etc., Cash walked over to the bookshelf and pointed to a superhero book. What stuck out to me most about this incident is that this book was TOP SHELF! I found it so interesting that out of all of the books on the shelf (and there are lots of them) his eyes went straight to the one with a superhero on the cover. This incident proved that kids are very tunnel focused on interests, which proves Louis Malaguzzi's theory on 100 languages. His Reggio Emilia approach focuses on children's interests in relation to learning. |
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