What are we doing here? A question that’s all too familiar, but perhaps not familiar enough. As an early childhood educator, I’ve found myself asking this question in the following situations. perhaps you can relate…
1. I look up from logging a diaper change on a daily sheet and see little Ava and little Greg are busy licking each other and laughing. Yes, you read that right, licking.*sigh* “what are we doing here Ava and Greg?”.
2. Little Daphne is busy finger painting and enjoying her art making experience. Across the room, little Charlie has fallen down and has skinned his knee and is bleeding. I rush across the room to help get Charlie (and his blood) to a safe area where he can be attended to. After helping little Charlie get all fixed up, I go back over to the art table where little Daphne has spent the past minute or two fully absorbed in her art project… which is now covering not only her paper, but also her hair and entire length of her arms. *sigh* “what are we doing here Daphne?”.
3. Little Levi is learning how to potty train. I ask him to sit on the potty while I help another friend wash their hands. When I turn around, little Levi has taken the toilet paper, still attached to the roll, and is flushing it down the potty and laughing as the toilet paper unravels. *sigh* “what are we doing here Levi?”.
As early childhood educators, our days in the classroom are full of “what are we doing here?” moments. In fact, I’d argue that one of our main purposes for being in the classroom is to help children navigate the “what are we doing here?” moments. For rookie early childhood educators or non-early childhood educators reading these scenarios, I’m fairly confident of a few words that might come to mind: annoying, messy, frustrating, terrible. But after navigating countless “what are we doing here” experiences in my time as an early childhood educator, I’m happy to say that my viewpoint has changed. The words that come to mind instead have become: opportunity, exploration, child-led, discovery and to be honest, still at times…frustrating.
So, what are we doing here? Here’s what we are doing here at Big Steps Little Feet and on this blog:
- Supporting one another as parents, caregivers, students and teachers
- Learning through play, LOTS of play
- Developing social skills, science brains, math minds, art talents, motor skills, music creators, literacy lovers, and self care skills
- Teaching the art of simply being a human being
- Making friends
- Having fun!
- Promoting creativity and problem solving
- Sharing ideas, ALL of the ideas
- Sharing the ups and downs of the early childhood education world
- Celebrating the little things, because the little things matter
We’ll be sharing plenty of play ideas, learning strategies, stories, and interesting facts about early childhood development. So please, come along for the ride on this crazy thing that we call life with little ones! Looking forward to being on this journey with you!