"thinking about sharks"

maybe painting about the word HAPPY makes this child happy.

What

makes

a child

happy?

[pause...tilt your head, squint one eye, twist your mouth...ponder.]

Now, let me pose the question in a different way:

Ask a child to explain to you what makes them happy.

And Then, tell me the answer.

LIKELY ~ what YOU think makes a child happy

might be quite different than what THEY say.

LIKELY ~ your child might answer right in the moment, right then,

and tell in their own colorful way what makes them happy.

[quite likely.]

So, certainly, what YOU think makes them happy might well be true, no doubt.

sure looks like happiness to me!

YOU KNOW your child loves soccer or ice cream or all-things-glitter...

Yet, isn't part of the joy of happiness how each person can have their own sense of it? Their very own version of how life feels to them, tastes, quiet, loud, big, bright, funny, purple?

Young children know very very early on what makes them happy.

They really do know.

My former colleague, Megan, a dear friend and mother extraordinaire to 3 year old Tavo, was my inspiration for this post. She had shared on a social network about Tavo and his musings to her about what makes HIM happy. Here is the short - yet so very sweet and insightful - exchange:

Mom Megan: "Tavo, what makes you happy?"

3 year old Tavo: "Thinking, drinking hot cinnamon, and relaxing."

I imagine Tavo sitting next to Megan or maybe looking right up to her, offering this answer in a way that surprises her in a charming way and yet probably doesn't surprise her as these 3 things are likely very dear to him in his life. Likely, the relaxing or the thinking are part of his personality already. Likely, the hot cinnamon is something Megan and Tavo share occasionally (I don't know what that is, but it sure sounds good on this rainy California night!).

I imagine how wonderful that a 3 year old has a sense of "relaxing" and that it is something that he seeks out to do.

I imagine how powerful that a 3 year old has a sense of  "thinking" and that he is the boss of his own thoughts.

Makes me happy just thinking about Tavo's response.

I asked my Zella friends on FB about what makes their child happy.

Some shares included the parents' ideas about what they know their children enjoy: play time, cheese, Dora, basketball!

Hmmm, maybe the boy would also be happy swimming with alligators?

Another reader who is an early childhood teacher shared a child's answer from a class discussion [which became the short title for this post]: "The boy said he felt happy when he was swimming in a cool pool thinking about sharks."

wow. who could have known this? only the boy.

ask your child. 

and then, please share their response - you'll be happy you did :)

for the love of dirt

Mariana, age 25 months, helping with the gardening at home.

Where does the love of dirt begin for a child?

Are certain children more likely to love the FEEL, the coolness, the texture, the color, and the DIRTiness that comes from dirt?

Maybe it is learned? Maybe it is innate? Because - let's face it - dirt is so very dirty.

My friend and teaching colleague Vanessa posted a "hands-on, body-in" photo of her 25 month old daughter Mariana.
Mariana is focused in her garden at home, working at transplanting with  the vigor and finesse of a two-year-old : hand in a fist and giving a good yank to the start up plant from the small container.

Gift #1: Mariana is dressed for getting into her work and contributing her efforts to the family garden.
Gift #2: Mariana is allowed by her parents to sit right in the middle of that garden patch - right in the middle or the corner or wherever she plopped herself down.
Gift #3: Mariana was offered the plants to grasp [good luck, little plants!] and had the opportunity to experience for herself the feeling of the dirt dirt dirt.

From the early childhood educator lens, I loved this photo so much that I had to ask for permission to use it for a blog post.

Consider: Many educators are in favor of offering no-mess experiences because  - well - it is easier.
Consider: Many educators are in favor of directing children exactly "the right way" something needs to be done (whether 2 years old or older).
Consider: Many educators have a whole List Of Rules of  how and when and why not and don't. 

In YOUR classroom:
Can you allow for exploration?
Can you allow for the child to lead her own discovery?
Can you allow for a little dirt to be the source of an invaluable sensory experience?
Maybe the experience might look like this:

boys hands-on in the muddy sand.

outside mud kitchen

*Thank you to Vanessa and Mariana for inviting us into the middle of their garden to feel the wonder of dirt.

got dirt?

what children hear...

Was out shopping today at a gorgeous outdoor shopping center in California.

Was sitting on a bench that had two lovely trees as bookends.

"Look! This tree has an umbrella shaped top!" -- "What? We are going to Jamba Juice?"

Each tree had been specially trimmed to have its branches arranged in a flat top that fanned out, almost like a spider web design, and also was twisted with small lights which turn on at dusk.

As I was sitting having coffee, a mother with two young boys started walking by.

The mother stopped the boys right in front of me and said:

"Boys, look at the top of this tree. When the leaves come in it will look like an umbrella!"

The youngest boy spun around on one foot and looked all around.

The older boy, perhaps five years old, looked straight at his mother and replied:

"What did you say? We are going to Jamba Juice?"

[Jamba Juice is a well known chain of juice stores  - there is one in the background of the photo.]

The mother burst out laughing, as did I. 

The mother said, "No, I didn't say we were going to Jamba Juice. I said, look at this tree and see how it has an umbrella shape at the top."

"Oh," said the older boy. "So, we are not getting juice?"

"Come on, boys, time to keep walking..."

The mother and I smiled at each other.

Off they went.

I am still smiling.

How often do YOU have the experience of the "selective listening" or the "edit to one's advantage" kind of listening by your children or students? It does happen, I know it does.