The moments I love in teaching and in parenting are those moments were I force myself to bit my lip sit back and watch what happens. These little snippets of time are magical to me and I marvel in the learning that happens without any intervention.
Baby T trying to figure out the clasp. She was struggling, I let her, it that's part of learning. There needs to be that dis-equilibrium sometimes.
All to often as adults we narrate "what do you think would happen if.......?" and intervene "why don't we try it like this..?" It's not that narrating or intervening are incorrect when interacting with children but perhaps there is a time and place for both. Maybe we need to do less interrupting? It's picking the moments to either sit back and observe or get in there that can make the difference to how those moments play out.
To put this into perspective, have you ever tried to learn something and another peer who already has that knowledge takes over to 'show' you or 'tell' you when you really wanted figure it out for yourself? Now thinking of that experience when do you absorb and remember what you learned more when you were told or shown OR when you tried or did it yourself? It might not be an all or nothing approach there is a time for both ways and some learn better with more involvement or less. Sometimes with children our great intention to be part of their learning actually detracts of what they were actually doing, sometimes in our haste we don't see or can't see were they were going with their own learning an we hijack their moment of discovery.
Baby T discovered that books can stick of the wall at bath time. This was the first thing she did with them so rather then correct her and say 'there books you can read them!' we watched her satisfied face at what she accomplished.
It is so easy to correct and stop a child from their exploration with a comment like "this is how you do it" then showing them the specific way to do something. This interaction puts a stop to what they were doing and the possibility of you both discovering something new.
I didn't see this as it happened but when I saw it I thought it was brilliant! The origonal puzzel peices had been set the the left and the lacing block set had been moved over to the puzzel board... but of course! Holes are holes why not try this version out.
When you do sit back, still engaged but as an observer, amazing things happen. Things you never would have thought of doing yourself. Perhaps it is because we have already learned so much as adults, maybe it's because we have gone to school were we have learnt the 'right way' to do something, to complete tasks certain ways, maybe we have forgotten to think out of the box? In these moments children teach us and that is an amazing thing. They aren't programmed to follow the 'rules' yet. They may teach us how competent they actually are all on their own without our help no less! They may teach us a new way to look at something but best of all by us sitting back we are teaching them how to learn on their own and to love learning.
