“... the mind must be prepared for knowledge as one prepares a field for planting, and a discovery made too soon is no better than a discovery not made at all."
~Louis L'Amour
I love photos. It’s easy to be enthusiastic when you surround yourself with things you love in early childhood education. I am ‘involved’ with the program and curriculum but no longer ‘attached’ to it. It belongs to the kids. The kids must be interested and involved….sometimes that means me keeping my flapping gums shut and letting them figure out things for themselves…other times, well, I have to step in. Teaching isn’t always hovering over hushed cabbage heads-spoon feeding those pearls of wisdom. Sometimes it’s stepping back when you’re fairly aching to speak-but that is when I find out how much the children truly know and understand.
We take pictures of the children thought-out the seasons. Working in different areas, with different friends, or feeling different emotions. After the children have mastered how to use the camera effectively, I let them take their own pictures with disposable cameras and the put them in portfolios they have made. Every now and then we look at them.
“Look how small Hillary was, she doesn’t cry anymore!”
“I bet Ian took that picture, there’s a truck in it-again! Ian, come here!”
“Hey, that tree outside isn’t green anymore, it’s red! Look!”
“Hey my dad has more hair in this picture!”
For their sake I say nothing……I smile and nod…the children buzz with excitement and show one another the pictures. Kids change, seasons change, discoveries mean change, growth means change. It was all caught on camera…I just goes to show, children work and play though change with such a positive mindset, they don’t notice it. Wouldn’t it be nice if we as adults would embrace ‘change’ like that once again?
Picture that….
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