Thinking with things - The hands on way to creativity

The one philosophy that guides me is 'Play is the work of childhood'. Different philosophers over time and great thinkers such as Maria Montessori, Friedrich Froebel, Loris Malaguzzi and many more who have explained the benefits of having materials in the child's environment that allow the child to develop the understanding of concepts and lay foundation for the real world experiences. As early childhood educators, none of us can escape the charm of the didactic Montessori equipment or the use of Froebel's Gifts to children. Research has proven that children learn complex science, math and literacy through manipulatives in a rich tactile environment. It is a proven fact that children who are exposed to hands on learning in the early years do better in later grades as the foundations are set solid. In this race for 'sooner the better' children nowadays are being exposed to more and more 'academic work in the earlier years. This trend is leaving very little time for children to play, let alone use THINGS. As educators and parents, there is an urgent need for us to push against this trend.

This being my beliefs (resonating with the beliefs of my school), I am fortunate to be part of the Think With Things Ambassadors program. This UK based company founded by two women, Julie Anne Gilleland and Isobel Demangeat, with the aim '... digital to real world experience transforms THINGS into learning tools in the hands of every child.' 

As an ambassador in this program, we were required to incorporate materials in our educational environment for a minimum of 6 weeks. The first pilot phase began in April with 50 ambassadors and the second will begin in September 2015 with all 200 educators from around the world.

This is the fifth week of the program and here are the top five things that have deeply inspired me:

1. Creativity: The program required children to work with circles, things that fit in their hands and things that would have otherwise been thrown away. With these clear objectives in mind, we set out close to six weeks ago, on a quest to discover 'loose parts' in our surroundings. I was amazed with the creativity that came out at every step of the way. 

The following is the conversation that happened when the facilitator and the children were on a quest to collect things. We were amazed at the acceptance of the environment and also the problem solving abilities.

Facilitator:  Why did you choose all these objects?

Children: Because these fit in our hands.

Facilitator: But does the chalk piece fit in your hand ? (It was a big piece of chalk)

Child: (Breaks into 2 pieces) Now it does : )

Facilitator: Any further observations (Hint : Shape)

Children: Natural things may or may not have a perfect shape like square, circle or triangle etc. but the man made things have more or less defined shapes like cylindrical, round, square.

Facilitator: So when natural things do not have perfect shape, whats the solution?

Children: We either cut those out with machines and give it a shape that we want or accept  and love it as the nature has provided us.

2. Expressing through things:  Through these last few weeks, the facilitators have been astonished with the expressiveness of the children. Maybe it is in our culture, but children are not as expressive and hold back their emotions. Our facilitators felt that using loose parts allowed children the necessary impetus to open up and express themselves. Since the activities were open ended, it encouraged the children to communicate. This is one of the reasons why loose parts is going to be a BIG part of our environment.

3. Focus and Attention:  We got to observe children engrossed in their exploration for longer periods of time. When the activities were unstructured, it allowed the children to pursue their interests. This was one of the reasons that the children spent more time on investigation and coming up with ideas and suggestions. Problem solving seemed to be an easy by product and a very welcome one. 

4. Sharing is natural:  We also were happily surprised to see children who were previously reluctant to share, did not mind another child taking a few of 'their' items. There somehow seemed to be a sense of 'enough for everyone to have'. Since we were finding things that were from the child's environment, it showed that nothing was as it seemed. Suddenly, everything had play value. We only needed to be opened up in the right direction. With this new found feeling of contentment, the children did not mind sharing their things.

5. Everyone needs inspiration: At the end of the program, what I have learnt most is that everyone needs inspiration. During these last few weeks I have been seeing the posts by the other ambassadors from around the world and am so inspired by them. These have been so helpful as sometimes we are limited in our ideas and our environment. Seeing these posts and being a part f this community has broadened my world and I am definitely looking to all of them for inspiration. 

I'd like to thank Ms. Sarika Manoj for helping me in this program and making sure I complete the given tasks in the given time!

I'm glad that we have the kind of technology today that made this program possible. In my quest for the perfect childhood, this has been a wonderful addition and I'm sure will shape all my future interactions with educators and children too. 

Happy Parenting!

Superhero Play : Hero or Villain?

As I walked in during lunch time at one of our centers, Pranshu, a boy all of 5 yrs, and wearing a Spiderman pajama set approached me. He said, ‘Ma’am, look I’m Spiderman.’ He struck a pose, folded two fingers and flung a pretend web at me. When you recognize the pretend play at work, you just love that the child is internalizing the character! This was followed by all the kids in the lunch-room picking to be a superhero of their choice. There were ninja hand chops that flew, followed by high in the air kicks, and some laser vision cutting the rest of us into two.

All in all, one single statement triggered a whole lot of play opportunity. Children love superhero play. It brings out their imagination, letting them take on many roles. Superhero play is often rambunctious and nearly always has violent content. Superheroes are vigilantes, they protect the society and hence children don the role of protectors who have to fight and break rules in order to protect. That raises the very pertinent question, does fighting for right mean fighting is right?

Chotta Bheem has become a hot favorite of many of the children. Don’t you ever wonder what are the lessons that children are taking back from this particular character? Are we promoting rowdiness in children by allowing superhero play? At what stage should we interfere and stop the impact of the superheroes on our children?

Before we set about answering these questions, let us understand a little bit more about superhero play. When a child pretends to be Wonderwoman, she is essentially thinking about good and bad. Children are applying rules and expanding their understanding of ‘right’ through superhero play. Children learn to regulate their behavior as they have to conform to a particular type of behavior to be a particular superhero. Acquiring self-regulatory skills is a desired outcome of any form of play.

Children learn to co-create and cooperate during superhero play. In an age when bullying is not uncommon, or when children are exposed to much more violence due to the media explosion, they need a medium to express it. The pretend violence opens up a dialogue about real-life violence and real life problem solving. It is important as adults for us to place this play in context. We need to be able to read the subtle signs that the children are giving us through this medium. If we do not allow superhero play, we lose an opportunity to understand our children better.

Many educators have consciously chosen not to allow superhero play in their classrooms and maybe they have good reason for it. While some other educators have acknowledged children’s desires to play superhero themed games, but they coach and guide the play into more peaceful play.

Superhero play is an important element of growing up. Whether children learn from it is left up to you, the great dictator of justice.

With great power comes great responsibility!