The Child Is Always Becoming

Whether we know it or not, each of us is on a continuum of growth. Not being open to growth and change, though, can make us falter on our journey through life.

We all know people who have eddied out of the flow of life. They appear stuck in a routine and can't seem to find a way out.

Other folks seem to thrash around, caught in dramatic currents and undertows of life, struggling and expending great effort for little or no results.

When we are open to growth and learning, we become child-like again, enjoying the excitement and exhilaration of change, moving past obstacles.

''When I'm in 5^th grade, I’ll be as cool as Andrea,'' I thought as I stared out the bus window.

Andrea was a fifth grader when I was in third grade. Andrea was energetic, athletic, confident and tan, and she lived a few blocks away. I searched for opportunities to watch her.

In our neighborhood of over fifty kids, Andrea rode her bike with an air of authority. She skated backwards down the street, turning effortlessly in circles. Andrea laughed easily, whistled two-fingered with earsplitting precision and was surrounded by friends. Andrea was my vision of Nancy Drew as a ten-year-old.

As I swung my pigeon-toed orthopedic-shoed feet on the bus, I dreamed of becoming. Becoming someone like Andrea, not the shy, self-conscious, awkward bookworm that I was.

Summer vacation gave the neighborhood kids opportunities to roam the woods and creek in groups of two or three.

One day, my group came across Andrea's in the creek bottom. ''Come on,'' Andrea said. ''I’ll show you a place where we can swing across the creek like Tarzan.''

We hiked what seemed like an hour to a part of the creek I'd never seen. Thick muscadine vines dangled like pythons from high dark oak branches.

I was in heaven. An adventure with Andrea. Even if I was breaking my mother's ''stay-within-earshot'' rule.

Andrea grabbed a vine, ran backwards and swung easily to the opposite bank. Every girl sailed across multiple times, as I watched.

''You can do it,'' Andrea yelled across the water. I was paralyzed. ''We're leaving. Come on.''

The girls walked ahead. ''Run and go and hang on tight,'' Andrea shouted as she landed at my side.

I grabbed the grapevine, twice as thick as a baseball bat, walked backwards and ran. For a few seconds, my arms burned as they held my body in space. My landing was not pretty. But Andrea was there, smiling.

As I stood up, my school-bus daydreams became blazing potentialities. With dirty bleeding knees, somehow I knew that I could become the person I wanted to be. I could change.

In those flying seconds, I saw that each of us has a vision of who we could be, should be and would be, if only we remain open to the possibilities that appear before us every day.

Every child is on a path of becoming. Developing a habit of becoming creates a way for us to remain open to a lifetime of opportunities and growth. Let us always remain open to the challenge of change. Let us help guide children over the bumps, the ups and the downs, as we all venture on this journey called life.

Run, go and hang on tight.

Next week: A Child Has Time-Sensitive Opportunities for Growth

This is the third in a series of articles focusing on a child's perspective.

Kids Talk™ is a column dealing with early childhood development issues written by Maren Stark Schmidt. Mrs. Schmidt founded a Montessori school and holds a Masters of Education from Loyola College in Maryland.

She has over 25 years experience working with young children and holds teaching credentials from the Association Montessori Internationale. She is also Creative Director for a video-based reading series for children ages three to six, The Shining Light Reading Series. Contact her via e-mail at maren@shininglightreading.com.

Complete Collection of the Shining Light Reading Series Now Available on DVD
Visit www.shininglightreading.com for more information.

Ask your local newspaper to carry Kids Talk. Call, write or e-mail your local newspaper editor and recommend Kids Talk.

Would you like to send Kids Talk to friends and family or receive Kids Talk e-mail updates in your own inbox? Sign up for FREE here:
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©2006 KIDS TALK™
25877 East Bright Avenue
Welches, OR 97067
503.550.3143
maren@kidstalknews.com

Kids Talk is published in conjunction with Scribe Marketing

The Child's Love of Place

''Education should be a social and human endeavor of interest to all.''

~Maria Montessori

''We want to go see Ms. Maren,'' requested three of my former preschool students. Their mother, Pat, made arrangements for the boys to visit after school. The day arrived, and the boys came through the door, gave me a hug and then selected work off the classroom shelves. Pat and I visited over a pot of tea in the kitchen alcove. I waited for the boys to come ''see'' me, but they worked away and didn't say a word. Two hours passed, and it was time for them to leave.

''Thank you, Ms. Maren. I love you,'' each boy told me, but I felt a little like a girl who had been taken to the prom and never asked to dance. It didn't seem like the boys wanted to visit me at all.

The next day their father called and told me how much the boys had talked at dinner about visiting me. That is when I discovered the childs point of view. To a child the adult in the environment and the environment are perceived as one and the same. To the boys, I was my classroom, and every activity in the classroom was me.

The child's love of the adults in his or her life extends to the surroundings that include those adults. We are given, just by being present, our children's love and trust. Children, by nature of being human, love and trust the adults in their lives, and everything around those adults. Being at grandma's feels a lot like being with grandma.

It is this encompassing love that allows us as parents and grandparents to be powerful teachers, even if we are unaware of children learning from us. For those of us who choose to teach, we need to be fully aware of this magnificent gift of love the child offers us.

On summer days, the music from the neighborhood ice cream truck brings bring back memories of my childhood: long shadows in the afternoon sun, the Oklahoma blue sky filled with cotton-candy cumulus clouds, the scent of the mimosa tree, the houses across the street, my father's aqua 1958 Fiat in the driveway.

Because these memories were created by a child's intense love of place, or the love that surrounds family, they are vivid and fresh. As an extension of the love I have for my family, these remembrances remain intact after nearly fifty years.

All of us, from the driver of the ice cream truck to a neighbor a block way, create a child's sense of place, a place where love will be directed, attention will be focused and life will be lived.

Each of us plays a vital role, whether we are aware of it or not, in creating a child's love of the world. The part we play in a child's life, conscious or unconscious, large or small, should compel us to be the best we can be.

Next week: The Child Is Always Becoming

This is the second in a series of articles focusing on a child's perspective.

Kids Talk™ is a column dealing with early childhood development issues written by Maren Stark Schmidt. Mrs. Schmidt founded a Montessori school and holds a Masters of Education from Loyola College in Maryland.

She has over 25 years experience working with young children and holds teaching credentials from the Association Montessori Internationale. She is also Creative Director for a video-based reading series for children ages three to six, The Shining Light Reading Series. Contact her via e-mail at maren@shininglightreading.com.

Complete Collection of the Shining Light Reading Series Now Available on DVD
Visit www.shininglightreading.com for more information.

Ask your local newspaper to carry Kids Talk. Call, write or e-mail your local newspaper editor and recommend Kids Talk.

Would you like to send Kids Talk to friends and family or receive Kids Talk e-mail updates in your own inbox? Sign up for FREE here:
Click here for a free subscription.

©2006 KIDS TALK™
25877 East Bright Avenue
Welches, OR 97067
503.550.3143
maren@kidstalknews.com

Kids Talk is published in conjunction with Scribe Marketing

Imagination in the Young Child

Imagination is the ability to visualize something that is not physically present.

Infants have little, if any, imagination. If the familiar is gone, distress and tears usually follow. A new situation, such as being left alone, can be painful to the child until the child learns that this situation is safe or parents return.

Experiences, positive and negative, create a certain level of expectation in the young child. The child is learning: If I'm hungry, will there be food? If I'm tired, will I be able to rest peacefully? If I'm wet and uncomfortable, will someone come and change me? Experiences create what the child can visualize with objects not being in sight.

As a child's basic needs are met, or not met, as the case may be, the child learns to picture things that are not with him or her. The child learns that food appears when he cries, at predictable times, or haphazardly. As physical needs are met, the toddler begins to learn to imagine.

Imagination in the child under six is experience-driven. To help the child build correct images of the world in his or her mind, reality and language content around those experiences need to be accurate.

We can be of great assistance to the young child by giving them fact- and reality-based experiences involving all senses--seeing, hearing, touching, tasting and smelling.

Until about age seven the child is in a sensitive period of growth for taking in information. The child's mind perceives every event as real. For example, the emotional and mental impact of seeing violence on television or video games affects the child's brain as if the incident had occurred right in front of the child. The child's mind cannot differentiate between real and make-believe. A murder on the T.V. screen is perceived as real.

The young child needs a diet of accurate information and facts in order to help the imagination develop effectively. After age seven, learning is fueled by the imagination. As adults, we must draw on our imaginations to decide the life we want to live. These seeds of imagination in the young child need to be protected and nurtured.

We protect the child from violence and hostile images. We use the right word for objects in the child's environment. Water is not ''wa-wa.'' A rubber duck is not a ''duckie-poo.'' We model acceptable behavior with our movements and our words.

We can nurture the imagination with a fun and simple game called ''What's Missing?'' To play, gather six to ten small items: for example, a comb, a pencil, a fork, a spoon, a clothespin and an eraser. Name each item with the children, so they will know the correct names. Ask the children to turn around or hide their eyes for ten seconds by counting to ten. For an added challenge, count in another language, or lengthen attention by counting to twenty or thirty.

While the children are looking away, take one item and hide it behind your back. Ask, ''What's missing?''

If the children have difficulty, bring the item out and say ''The comb was missing. Let's do another object.''

Most children from age 2 1/2 to 6 years love this game and will play everyday for months with a variety of items. Increase the number of items every few days, or take multiple items away to increase the level of difficulty. Kit Carson, of Pony Express fame, purportedly could recall a hundred items after viewing them for one minute. That's imagination.

The imagining mind of the child younger than six years needs to be nurtured and protected. We need to protect the child from hurtful and violent incidents, real or make-believe. The child needs accurate experiences and correct language to nourish imagination. We need to offer games like ''What's Missing?'' to help the child learn to visualize things that are not physically present.

A vivid and accurate imagination will help our children design and create a marvelous life with the resources they have available.

Next week: The Child's Love of Place

This is the first of a series of articles focusing on a child's perspective.

Kids Talk™ is a column dealing with early childhood development issues written by Maren Stark Schmidt. Mrs. Schmidt founded a Montessori school and holds a Masters of Education from Loyola College in Maryland.

She has over 25 years experience working with young children and holds teaching credentials from the Association Montessori Internationale. She is also Creative Director for a video-based reading series for children ages three to six, The Shining Light Reading Series. Contact her via e-mail at maren@shininglightreading.com.

Complete Collection of the Shining Light Reading Series Now Available on DVD
Visit www.shininglightreading.com for more information.

Ask your local newspaper to carry Kids Talk. Call, write or e-mail your local newspaper editor and recommend Kids Talk.

Would you like to send Kids Talk to friends and family or receive Kids Talk e-mail updates in your own inbox? Sign up for FREE here:
Click here for a free subscription.

©2006 KIDS TALK™
25877 East Bright Avenue
Welches, OR 97067
503.550.3143
maren@kidstalknews.com

Kids Talk is published in conjunction with Scribe Marketing

Pull an Art Box Out of Your Hat

''I'm so bored. There's nothing to do.''

The-Rainy-Day-It's-Too-Cold-To-Go-Out-Cat-In-The Hat-Blahs. Every year these days arrive, and every year parents and grandparents wish they were more prepared.

Get ready by having a special art box organized and ready to pull out on short notice. For a small investment--about the cost of taking four people to the movies--you can create an art activity box that will jump-start kids' imaginations and creativity and banish the ''blahs.''

Here is a list of supplies and the prices from a local discount store. Some of these items might already be in your home.

• Plastic tub with lid (12 x 17 x 5) - $4.00
• Washable markers - $2.00
• Cup to hold markers - $1.00
• Colored pencils - $2.00
• Pencil sharpener (hand held) - $1.00
• Cup to hold pencils - $1.00
• 500 sheets typing paper - $4.00
• Colored construction paper - $4.00
• 2 pairs children's scissors - $4.00
  (one left-handed and one right-handed)
• 1 washable inkpad - $3.00
• 2 glue sticks or school glue - $1.00
• Watercolor set - $4.00
• Two vinyl placemats - $2.00

The key to successful art and craft projects is to give short lessons on how to use and clean up each material. For example, with the glue sticks, show how to turn the tube to a certain level, how to turn it back and how to replace the lid. With school glue, show how to squirt it out, clean the top and twist the top to close. Use school glue in a small dish with cotton swabs for easier application.

Show how to safely use scissors and that they should only be used to cut paper. If you think a child is not ready for scissors, wait to do any cutting projects. Give lessons on how to use an inkpad, watercolors and washable makers. Show how to clean up water spills and how to use vinyl placemats or a tablecloth to define and protect a work area. Be prepared.

Cut typing paper into half sheets, 5 1/2 x 8 1/2, to have a supply for smaller projects. These half sheets are perfect for making cards or small books. Any of Ed Emberly's books, such as Make A World, or the Big Orange Book are great for ideas with step-by-step drawings for books or cards.

Cut colored typing paper into 8 1/2 x 8 1/2 inch squares to use for origami projects. Used wrapping paper, cut into squares, makes attractive origami and other undertakings. A good web site for origami ideas is www.paperfolding.com.

Save bits of ribbon, stickers, magazines, old wrapping paper and other fancy stuff to add to projects.

Now you have a box that is ready to make fun objects such as:

• Birthday Cards
• Christmas Cards
• Reading Books
• Origami
• Paper weavings of colored paper or old wrapping paper
• Drawings
• Paper mosaics
• Snowflakes
• Collages from magazines

Here are some ideas for drawing projects:

• Draw a map of your neighborhood, your house, your room and more
• Draw yourself, your family and your pets
• Do a still-life drawing by grouping three to five items
• Make potato prints with the ink pad

Working with the objects in this box will help break the ''blahs.'' Cut out this article, and keep it in your art box, and while you're at it, add a brownie mix to the box. An art project and a warm brownie seem to make life a little more, well, satisfying.

Happy Parenting!

Next week: Seeing from the Child's Perspective

Kids Talk™ is a column dealing with early childhood development issues written by Maren Stark Schmidt. Mrs. Schmidt founded a Montessori school and holds a Masters of Education from Loyola College in Maryland.

She has over 25 years experience working with young children and holds teaching credentials from the Association Montessori Internationale. She is also Creative Director for a video-based reading series for children ages three to six, The Shining Light Reading Series. Contact her via e-mail at maren@shininglightreading.com.

Complete Collection of the Shining Light Reading Series Now Available on DVD
Visit www.shininglightreading.com for more information.

Ask your local newspaper to carry Kids Talk. Call, write or e-mail your local newspaper editor and recommend Kids Talk.

Would you like to send Kids Talk to friends and family or receive Kids Talk e-mail updates in your own inbox? Sign up for FREE here:
Click here for a free subscription.

©2006 KIDS TALK™
25877 East Bright Avenue
Welches, OR 97067
503.550.3143
maren@kidstalknews.com

Kids Talk is published in conjunction with Scribe Marketing