Feb
23
2015
Childlike Wonder
Posted in Family Life 2 Comments
Important work was happening on the rug in my family room.
Math was being studied.
Battles were being fought.
Far-away places were being visited.
Magnetic properties were being discovered.
Architecture was inevitably practiced.
Engineering was beginning to be understood.
Artistic endeavors were being realized.
It all happened during play.
Play.
According to Webster, play is a recreational activity.
Another definition states that play is the spontaneous activity of children.
The spontaneous activity of children.
Where else can delectable dishes of leaves and twigs tease the palette?
Where else can the art of Rembrandt and Monet be challenged?
Where else can a building be built out of connecting blocks and withstand a dog’s tail wag?
Where else can puzzles be solved and life skills practiced?
Play: that wonderful time of childhood.
Play: the time spent outdoors until the streetlights called you home.
Play: the front lawns, back yards, and sidewalks where all the bikes were parked.
Play: the real work of childhood.
Play is being usurped.
Play is not seen as beneficial any longer.
Play is deemed unproductive.
Play is an act of futility.
Go into the kindergarten classes across the country and you will see the usurpation of play.
Gone are the play kitchens with utensils, the pretend food, the groceries, and play money.
Gone is the back corner that was appropriately called the play corner.
Gone is the kindergarten class of yesterday.
Kindergarten was a place where you learned to get along with others.
It was a place where you learned to sit still, learned to listen well, and wait your turn.
It was a place where you learned your letters and numbers, your shapes and your colors.
You learned to count, you learned how to write your name, you learned to cooperate.
In His poem, All I really need to know I learned in kindergarten, Robert Fulghum said,
Most of what I really need to know about how to live
And what to do and how to be, I learned in kindergarten.
These are the things I learned:
Share everything.
Play fair.
Don’t hit people.
Put things back where you found them.
Clean up your own mess.
Don’t take things that aren’t yours.
Say you’re sorry when you hurt somebody.
Wash your hands before you eat.
Flush.
Warm cookies and cold milk are good for you.
Live a balanced life, Learn some and think some.
And draw and paint and sing and dance.
And play and work everyday some.
Take a nap every afternoon.
When you go out into the world, watch out for traffic,
Hold hands and stick together.
Be aware of wonder.
A young mother, expecting her second child, visited a pre-school with her husband.
They were inquiring about a play school program that met two days a week.
They visited the school to sign up their little two-year-old daughter.
The young mother was saddened by what she heard.
Yesterday we registered her for a 2-day a week preschool program for the fall and the director brought up the common core and PSSAs! She’s 2!!!! We just wanted to know what kind of snack to pack and if there was circle time.
When I read her words, my heart hurt.
Childhood is being usurped.
Playtime is being kidnapped.
A methodology is in place that sees value in catapulting children into maturation.
Children walk and talk at various times.
Why are we so insistent that they learn at the same time and at the same rate?
Why are we determined to have them learn in the same way?
Why do we rely on tests, data, and methodology to tell us what our heart already knows?
Children are children for such a short time.
Children will be adults soon enough.
They need a solid foundation, not of academics but a foundation of love and caring.
They need to learn to love others, get along with others, and live in community.
The first place a child learns to be a child is in the home.
The first people they learn to imitate is their mom and dad.
The first truth they need to be taught is that God loves them.
God made them very special and no one is made like them.
They learn they are unique and made in the image of God.
They begin to see that others are made in God’s image as well.
They are valuable simply because God made them.
God desires us to be kind to one another and tell others about Him.
Those foundations go with them to play group, pre-school, and kindergarten.
Robert Fulghum’s poem is really nothing new.
God has enshrined those very things in his Word.
Children need to know that God is sad when they do not obey Him, when they sin.
Those foundations lay the groundwork for childhood.
No testing or curriculum can guarantee success in the things that God says are important.
Rushing a child into academic performance before the foundations are set is futile at best.
You will have numbers on graphs and charts, but will you have wonder?
Will you have battles being fought and won on the carpet?
Will you have masterpieces being drawn with a crayon?
Will you have culinary feasts served on toy dishes?
Will you have buildings that stand the test of time made only of wooden blocks?
You will, if there is play.
You will, if there is time to be a child.
You will, if there is freedom to explore, create, and construct.
You will, if you allow a child to rejoice in their childhood.
Data cannot measure the value of a child’s heart.
Testing cannot determine the state of a child’s soul.
Catapulting a child into man-made stages of development will stifle them.
We will have a society of quasi-adults who do not know how to get along with each other.
When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me. Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, as I am fully known. And now these three remain: faith, hope, and love. But the greatest of these is love.
(1 Corinthians 13:11-13)
There will be a time soon enough to put childish ways behind them.
Childhood is not the time to lay those precious things aside.
The spontaneous activity of children is play.
We must be intentional to encourage children in their spontaneity and wonder.
We must keep a bit of that childlike wonder alive in ourselves as well.
I agree–many children grow up way too fast. Remember the days when we were young and didn’t have so many toys (esp. electronics) and had to rely on our IMAGINATION for play. I remember blocks and perfume bottles and scraps of fabric–they became people who lived in houses I created. Such fun! Parents need to “schedule” playtime for their kids, a time to let their imaginations soar. Imaginations that will make the new inventions of tomorrow.
Sue, the simplicity of play is something to be treasured. Important work is happening when a child plays. The child is learning about God’s world. We should do everything we can to protect children: those born and those unborn.
Gina