Beth Tracy-Kaliski is a TNSM preprimary teacher who posted this on our school’s facebook page.
We had a child come into the 3-6 environment yesterday and pull out the map of Asia, set it on a rug, and proceed to take out the pieces of the map, laying them on the rug next to the map. As a teacher of young children, we can either respond with an attitude of “this child will not be able to complete this work,”or “it will be very interesting to see what he does with this work!”
So we waited and watched, seeing him try different countries in different places, and an hour later came to his teachers exclaiming, “Look what I did!” He was extremely proud of himself.
As adults working with children, we have the opportunity every day to encourage and help them follow their interests and help them discover new skills which were previously unknown to them. Being able to see the pride and satisfaction on their faces when they’re finished is a bonus.