Empowering Young Children: a show for the parents

At my kindy, we use the children action song "there was a princess long ago" very often. It is a song about the story of the Sleeping Beauty. Today, the children put on a show of the song independently, organizing the cast, costume, props and tickets all by themselves. What's the teachers' role then? Empowering the children by encouragement...

The story began when a girl made a princess crown with a student teacher. As the student teacher did not know the song, the girl decided to show her how the song went. She asked me whether she was allowed to perform the song at my lunch mat-time. I said yes, naturally, to let children take the lead in programming. And then, I checked on her whether she had found a prince. With that prompt, the girl stepped up as the "producer" of the show and asked around for a prince. While her friends all wanted to be a princess, my producer decided to have a few princesses on her show. She showed them how to make a crown and demanded that her twin brother to be the prince.

Interestingly, my producer noticed that her cast would not have enough time to finish their crown before lunch time and persuaded me to postpone the lunch mat-time. Instead, I suggested to do the show at home mat-time, so they were able to get more organized, such as finding some costumes and having a little practice.

My producer happily agreed. After lunch, as expected, my producer remembered her responsibility. She searched the costume boxes for dresses for all the princesses. And then, she called her cast to get together and have a rehearsal. I watched as she instructed her friends to line up chairs for the audience. When she was arguing with the ticket sellers about who could come to the show, I did not intervene and simply asked them to talk with and listen to each other. Also, I encouraged her to think what she wanted to do, when more children wanted to join in the show. I can tell my producer was ready for the challenge, as she was able to draw on previous experiences observing the teachers organizing a show.

Eventually at home mat-time, I announced, "ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, welcome to our princess show!" After that, I introduced my little producer and asked her to name her cast and start the show. The performance amazed the parents who were present at the mat-time. My producer and her cast felt proud and so did their mother. What's my role again? Trusted the children, asked questions, offered advice, gave supervision, and celebrated the success with the children. Back off! Teachers do not need to be always hands on.

Valuing children's art

Ann Pelo advises early childhood teachers, "honour the courage and boldness of creating!"

Something to ponder: " It is no small thing to put a strong black line on a waiting piece of paper, or to make the first stroke of color across a canvas, to press a thumb into a smooth slab of clay or put the first crimp in a length of wire. It takes courage and daring and humility, and deserves our regard," as said by Ann Pelo.

I asked, "Your picture looks amazing, can I put it on the wall, so everyone can see it?" The child says, "No! I want to take it home. You can make a copy." So, I let her use the printer.

Organizing a supportive environment means a quiet space, a chair to sit on...

Christmas Preparation with Young Children

Christmas is around the corner. As usual, the kindy is busy preparing for the festival. We are making gifts to families so children learn to show gratitude during the festive season of kindness. We are learning Christmas songs for a family concert.

However, this year, we have decided to do things differently because of the better awareness of the diversity of cultures of the kindy community. We have Muslims who requested that their daughters be excused from musical activities. Another family specially asked us not to involve her girl in any spirtiual events. As we know that some kindy families do not celebrate Christmas, so we tell children we are making a special gift to bring home for the end of year celebration. We avoid making festive food, nor making Christmas decorations. To tie in with the green culture of the kindy, we let children paint jars with glass paint, which could be used as a decorative jar or for holding a tealight candle.

Before we started practicing for the christmas concert, we sent a letter to families, talking about the upcoming concert and asking them whether their child will participate or not. As such, parents can opt out according to their values.

I don't think we are too PC. it's a natural development out of respect for everyone and all cultures. Most families of non European cultures embrace the Christmas celebration, and they happily let their children get involved in the experiences. Just a bit of extra thoughts and paper work, and everyone feels comfortable!