Today, as we were cleaning up the classroom to prepare for lunch, I overheard Corbin and Jalie arguing. They were pulling the hexogonal puzzle (that the children often pretend to be cake) back and forth, neither child willing to let go.
Corbin: I want to put it away!
Jalie: I want to put it away.
Corbin: No, I want to put it away!
Christine: It looks like you both have ideas about this cake. Can you tell me what your ideas are?
Corbin: I want to put this cake away!
Christine: Jalie, what's your idea?
Jalie: Well, I want to put this cake away.
Christine: So it sounds like Jalie wants to put this cake away and Corbin also wants to put this cake away. You both want to put it away. Is there a way that you can both put it away?
Corbin and Jalie resume expressing their desires to put the cake away.
Christine: So I was wondering if there was a way that you could both put it away. Do you have any ideas?
Corbin: Well, maaaybe, we can put it away TOGETHER!
Corbin and Jalie, still both holding the "cake," walk together to the shelf and put it gently on the top shelf. They looked at each other with wide grins on their face. They turned and grinned at me too. They quickly ran to Ms. Krista and told her the good news that they put the cake away together!
When we're angry, it's hard to think about anything else besides our own needs. It's hard to think about another person when we're in an emotionally charged situation and it's often hard to listen - really listen - to another person and their needs. As Jalie and Corbin demonstrated, sometimes there is a solution where you can meet your own needs AND someone else's needs. What I also noticed was how proud they seemed after they came up with a solution themselves. This was definitely not the solution I would have come up with, but with a little guidance and a little space, the children were able to have pride in accomplishing difficult tasks - reigning in their emotions, and solving their predicament on their own!
Posts
3 comments:
Great post, Christine! We are so lucky to have you @ TL interacting and sharing with us these great stories.
It is inspiring for us as parents to see with how much ease you stepped into their world and created the space for them to come up with the solution.
I already see patterns from the last 3-4 blog posts and things I've observed with Eddie @ home.
I wish there was a way more families would experience the TL environment.:)
Little late to post - but love that they solved the problem together and that they were so proud about it afterwards - awesome
Post a Comment