Sunday, July 08, 2007

Lessons From My LIttle Ones

Hanging out with Graham and Lauren this weekend, I see two key behaviors that I could benefit from applying to my adult life. Following the little ones' lead could result in a pretty joyous time.

First, the kids create like crazy. They are constantly building, drawing, painting, collaging, making me bookmarks, asking to write poems and stories. Yes, they can be couch potatoes too, but their first and primary orientation is to make stuff and express themselves. They do this with whatever is on hand and are not bound by materials or any other constraint.

(The question that follows from the above activity is "what do you do with all that stuff once it's "made."" However, I won't trouble myself about that right now.)

Secondly, the kids are always learning. It's Graham practicing his lower case letters, Lauren doggedly trying to write her name, both of them seeing what new colors come from mixing paint. When we read, they're always asking "why" and "what does that word mean." The kids are continually taking it all in, processing it, and trying their best to use it. None of this is a chore but rather a simple joy. They reach for learning as easily as they reach for a pencil.

My resolutions: a) focus on creating more . . . more stuff, more freely, with a greater sense of play b) pay attention to what I can be learning at any time, embrace it, and use it!

2 comments:

Cornpoppy said...

Hey Sharon! Just taking a random walk through your blog. Hope things are well with you and yours. One can learn much from the little ones.
Be warned - they get bigger! ;-)

You can see some posts of mine on
Kodak's blog.

Take care, tom

Drop a line to me sometime - e-mail address at Kodak is still the same.

mermaid said...

Whenever I am running too fast in my life, my daughter teaches me to slow down and take everything in slowly, even if she is running around. This post reminds me of how we can underestimate the wisdom of children.