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April 19, 2007
Two and Four Months
Yesterday I spent a good deal of the day with preschool activities. The new Learning Foundations are now being reviewed and will be released soon. For us educators the Foundations are the learning standards we want children to know and comfortably do in preschool. They help guide what kinds of learning activities go on in preschool classrooms much as the Standards have guided school activities in the past few years.
So later in the day, I got to watch some of those new Foundations in action. I had an appointment in a school district office and was waiting in the lobby for the person I was to see. School offices are fun because there’s always a lot of activity, people are usually quite friendly, and there are often kids coming and going with interesting tales to tell.
While I was waiting a man and his son came in. The man had a good deal of work to do at the front desk and was chatting with the people he knew. His son in the meantime was to sit in a chair with his Tommy Tippy cup and something to play with. That lasted about 32 seconds.
While Dad talked I watched Kenra. I heard his Dad mention his name a few times so I picked it up. Kenra never made a sound the whole time he was there. He was quiet, but oh was he curious.
First it was just looking. He looked down the hall that left the lobby on the right. Then he walked over and looked down the hall and around the corner to the left. Next was the big glass double door leaving the lobby to the room outside. He spent a great deal of time pushing each door one at a time to see how far he could open it. They were quite heavy, but he’d put his body into it and open it just about far enough to slip through. Surprisingly, he never went out nor did he mash his fingers as the door closed. I was concerned he might do either, but he didn’t. He was very careful.
Once satisfied with the doors, he watched several people go in and out of an iron gated half -door to the back offices. The gate itself was just a bit taller than his head and he had to reach up to touch the dead bolt knob at the top of the door, but after watching several people he had the idea how they’d gotten in. He walked to the gate and put his hands around the bars. He pushed on it like he had the glass doors, but it didn’t move. He put his hand up to the knob, but that didn’t move either. He looked puzzled, but moved his hands down and tried pushing again. It didn’t work.
Just then someone wanted through the gate from the other side. A buzzer went off and the person walked through. She didn’t completely close the gate and Kenra didn’t miss a beat. He pushed on the bars and was through in a second.
“Oh, look what I have,” said one of the secretaries scooping him up. She gently placed Kenra back on the other side of the gate and I heard the click. She was nice about it, but he wasn’t going back through. Several more ladies filed through, but the click was clear this time as they filed out.
Not daunted Kenra wandered back over near me. I was sitting in a chair near the doorway to the hallway on the left. There was a door open to the hallway. Kenra put his hand on the door and then touched the knob on one side. Then he reached around and touched the knob on the other side. He found the lock side and tried several times to move it, but it wouldn’t budge.
Satisfied for the moment, he went back to his chair, but watching his eyes I knew he wasn’t through yet. There was more to explore. His Dad had kept an eye on him and talked to the ladies about him while he was exploring. He hadn’t made a sound the whole time, but he hadn’t missed a single thing in that lobby. He’d explored and made connections with everything in the room at his height.
I chuckled as I thought about what I’d been doing all morning. I’d been fussing and concerned we might be asking too much of our 3 and 4-year-olds in the Learning Foundations. Kenra was only 2 years and 4 months according to his Dad, and he had nicely put my concerns to rest. This young fellow had easily understood everything he touched and explored. He knew all there was to know about doors-glass, wooden, or iron gated. He understood looks and door knobs, what they were for, and I figured he could get into just about any room he choose with a little perseverance.
I appreciate learning lessons. I especially appreciate them coming from a source who is less than two years old and doesn’t talk, but who so completely let me know he’s very competent and capable. He'd certainly let me know how ready these little ones are to learn and explore their world. Thanks for the reminder Kenra.
Posted by Dr Joni at April 19, 2007 08:22 AM