There were multiple elements and interactions that I found interesting among the children, most prominently in how physical interaction and involvement in an activity seemed to increase their excitement and interest drastically. While watching the three year old group in a class, at one point some colorful scarves were given to each of the kids to do the ‘scarf dance’ with. They were far more interested in waving them around and sharing what color scarf they got with each other than they were in actually participating in the dance, until the teacher incorporated a motion with the scarves for them to follow along to in the music. They danced and jumped while drawing shapes in the air with their motions (ex: triangle, square, rectangle, etc..). In this age group especially, and in the group of kids playing outside it was exciting to see how much energy they had, spending time running around with hula hoops dragging behind them. Again an excitement was drawn more so from the simple running with the objects than the objects themselves. Almost every one of the activities that the kids were excited about involved sharing the action or activity with another child or children (or in some cases, adult(s)). Outside on the playground I did not see a single child playing by themselves alone for more than a minute – either someone would join in on their game, or they would leave their activity and join in somewhere where others were already playing. One of the most fascinating interactions that I observed during this time took place between Professor Zeglin and his son. It’s so interesting to see how a child interacts with a parent when the parent is brought into a child’s space. To put it simply, seeing how excited he was to share his father was wonderful. They were not be seen apart during our time there and each of their interactions that I observed involved son directing father around all the different activities and things present in the school , and asking father to share the experiences (some examples: playing driving, reading a book, listening to a story, pool noodle dueling, block climbing, play structure jump and catch, etc…). Nothing kept a child’s attention longer that day than having a parent present to play with. I think that a large part of it was that there was the meeting of the school and home spaces. In a school setting the teachers are those in the “in charge” role, and the kids are the ones who know the space, and this puts the parent in a slightly different role of play, and one that allows the children to show them new things and share their world.
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