The activity started as it was planned. He sorted through the letters and pictures. It was not a surprise to see that he wanted to start with the letter D. It is the letter that starts one of his names. I was pleased to hear him say each of the letters as he sorted through them. He also said seemed to recognize all the pictures. This was going to be simple for him I thought.
All of a sudden he decided to change the activity. He placed an uppercase G down on a circle on a pea pod. Then he put down a frog. “Frog doesn’t begin with g,” I told him. “I know, but it ends with it,” he replied. The activity was to match uppercase letters and beginning sounds so, this didn’t follow the rule of the activity. It wasn’t suppose to find the ending sounds in uppercase and lowercase letters.
I have to admit I was a little frustrated. Doing this was going to leave a lowercase g without a circle to be placed on. I was sure he knew that frog began with the letter f. This just didn’t make sense.
“You know frog begins with a f,” he declared. “We don’t have the letter f on any of the circles,” I told him. “I can make one,” JDaniel stated. He got up from the kitchen table and went to the junk drawer in the kitchen hutch. Things in the drawer were pushed around and searched under things until he found what he wanted.
“I can make the letter f,” he said wheedling an orange marker. “There aren’t any extra circles,” I told him. With that he took the circle with the elephant on it and turned it over. On the back of the circle he wrote an uppercase F.
He was so proud of himself. He had come up with his own way to do the activity. I was proud of him for a number of reasons. He had taken a simple activity and made it a little more challenging. He had taken ownership of the activity. He had seen there was a problem and he had created a solution.
While I was proud of him and enjoyed seeing how he worked out this activity, I had to wonder what his kindergarten teacher would do if he did this next year.
Technically he destroyed the game and he didn’t demonstrate that he could match the upper and lowercase letters. He prevented himself from completely using all the circles by making the elephant circle an F. The teacher won’t be able to check off that he knew the skills this activity was assessing if he didn’t complete the whole activity correctly
If I hadn’t been sitting beside him to hear he talk about what he was thinking, I might not have known what he was doing. Next year he will be in a class filled with children. The teacher may give him a worksheet or activity to do and she may only have few minutes to assess his understanding.
We will probably talking about the importance of following the directions the teachers given him at school. I will need to be working on making sure he doesn’t complete every activity with an out of the box solution at home.
He is a really smart boy and I worry that someone who doesn’t know him well would miss that he really does understand what to do. JDaniel is just one of those kids that thinks out of the box a lot. His mind is a fascinating place. Things are thought through, analyzed synthesized and developed into new and original thoughts all of the time.
I am hoping and praying that he teacher next year will look at some of his work and ask him to teach her what he is thinking. You teach me is a parenting question I am going to be asking him again and again.
“You teach me” – I love this. It is so easy as a mom (and former teacher) to try to control the activity. I am going to remember this little phrase to use when working (and playing) with my boys.
I go back and forth with this since I am homeschooling. On one hand I like letting my son problem solve and be creative, but I also agree that he has to learn to follow directions. Like you said I know what he knows since I am right there beside him, but I won’t always be right by his side. 🙂
He will shine in Preschool and I am sure his teacher will notice his little brain going a mile a minute. Several months left before school begins and just think how much he can learn academically and socially. 🙂
It’s sad teachers don’t have more time for their students. But you’ll be the best teacher he’ll ever have!
Good for you for taking the time to explore what he was thinking! I know from my own experience with homeschooling that it can be so hard to do that! 🙂
I join you in hoping that the teacher your son gets will really take the time to listen to him. Classroom teachers have such a demanding job these days, but there are some really GREAT ones out there who care so much about their students. I take my hat off to them! 🙂
It’s amazing what our kids can end up teaching us about thinking outside the box isn’t? 🙂 He is definitely a smart bright young man and he is blessed with such a mother to guide him through.
Thanks for this reminder that we all could take a little more time with our kids, letting them teach us about what they’re doing!
It’s great that you took the time to listen to his explanation and didn’t just shut him down. When he gets to Kindergarten he’ll start to understand the difference between being creative and following the directions.
Your child has an amazing gift and I am glad that he has an awesome mom like you to nurture it. Thanks for sharing a wonderful story and I hope to hear more from you and from JDaniel. 🙂
Something tells us that his teacher will see his creativity and ability to think outside the box and run with it! Well done JDaniel! :)-The Dose Girls
Its amazing how we can learn new things when we’re not expecting it. There is always room to grow.
I heart child lead learning! It is hard at times to step back from how you want an activity to go, but we’ve had some of our best learning moments when I’ve let my girls take over the lesson.
I think every child needs the opportunity to try something out of the box. And I think it is awesome he had that chance with you. I agree, it might be challenging when he first gets to school and they run things so differently there. But He is so smart. I am sure he will adapt quickly and all will be well.
Kids do have to learn to follow directions so they can show what they know but it’s wonderful to give them the opportunity to take things in their own direction and se how their thought processes work.
thanks for the post and think its a great idea to let him show his creativity
he is so smart… and he has you to thank for it.. that little mind seems to always be working 😉