At the beginning of the month, because I write kindergarten readiness posts from Mon-Sat but not on Sunday, I missed doing one for April Fool’s Day. I had a great idea, too. Instead of blogging about something kids can learn from us, for April Fool’s I thought of doing the opposite — something that we can learn from kids.
When doing some crafts with a 3 year old, I saw how she struggled with some of the small coordination skills. As I was helping, my right hand needed to hold part of the project still which meant I had to reach and do with my left-hand. This was really challenging for me because I am not left-handed. I found my left-hand would not do what I wanted it to do and I felt very clumsy and uncoordinated. I realized this must be how kids feel as they are learning to coordinate eyes, fingers, hands and other parts of the body as they develop physical skills. It’s easy to see this with babies as they learn to clap their hands and wave bye-bye. Toddlers fit blocks and other toys together, turn shapes to fit in holes, slide clips open and closed, and pile blocks higher and higher. Older kids begin to use crayons and brushes as they draw and paint, and pencils as they learn to print their names.
While helping with this project, one of the things I learned was that sometimes we need to do things a different way. I had to use my left-hand instead of my right even though this was difficult. This is a strategy that we can share with kids. When we see them struggling with something we can ask, “Is there a different way that you can do that?” As your child is working and playing, there may be an opportunity to suggest that s/he do it differently. Learning isn’t just about what, it’s also about how. What can you and your child do differently today?