Out of all the pictures we take, why am I stuck on this one? Because this seemingly simple picture of the children drawing just has so much to tell us about the children. They are all doing the exact same activity but if you take a close enough look, you can see their different approaches to the activity.

You can see some of these kids focusing on actually drawing; a couple holding just one crayon, one had a crayon in each hand, and one had a crayon in one hand and a fistful of crayons in the other!

Another of the children is really studying the crayon. It is not the first time they have used crayons, so one can only wonder what had her so intrigued! One child is hesitant, but he eventually scribbles something and the last child is trying really hard to peel the paper from the crayon; a challenging task which she eventually put aside in order to be able to actually draw something.

These little differences are just so significant both in terms of independence and learning, and it is one of the best things about the curriculum at our daycare in Pierrefonds! We allow children to experiment with the materials and make use of them at their own pace.

Childhood is Not a Race[5]

You see the girl with the fistful of crayons? What if the educator had told her she could only have one crayon? Maybe she needed the crayons in her hand. Maybe she liked the feeling, maybe she liked the colours, maybe she was learning a lesson about possession (important to learn, before they can learn to share!)

What if the hesitant child had been hurried to draw (which unfortunately, is not too uncommon across daycare establishments)? Maybe he would have gotten upset and not drawn at all. Maybe it would have given him a distaste for drawing.

All this to say that a seemingly simple picture like this one can tell us a lot about the children in it!