A Writing Rant!

One of my biggest frustrations as a child care director has been trying to convince parents of the value of play and hands-on learning in an early childhood setting.  Between advertising by companies that want to make money and politicians who think that they know about education, many parents are convinced that their child will not succeed in school unless he or she is drilled in academics at an early age.  One example of this is the issue of writing, which can be illustrated by two children in my care.

Child #1 attends a very academic nursery school, as well as our program.  At his nursery school, he sits at a table each week with a pencil and a ditto sheet and practices printing the letter of the week.  It does not matter that he has just turned four, and it will be several years yet before the bones in his hands will ossify enough to allow him to form the letters correctly.  It does not matter that there is almost a two year continuum of development at each age and he might not be developmentally ready to do so.  It does not matter that the lines are closer together than he can write at this age.  Each week he sits and practices. 

A few days ago child #1 was trying to write a friends name and was frustrated because he could not make an "R" correctly.  He worried and worried about that R.  It did not matter that he had written S, A, M, H quite well (some were backward, but that is very normal).  It did not matter that he had made a lower case R.  It did not matter that he was trying to make one of the more difficult letters.  It did not matter that his child care teachers reassured him that his work was fine.  He needed to live up to the unrealistic expectations of the nursery school teachers.

Child #2 is about a year older than child #1.  She has spent her days in a developmentally appropriate, play based child care.  She has been in a print rich environment, where books are read daily, children's stories are dictated to the teachers who copy them to go home to be read, and children and teachers discuss the things that they see and hear.  There are always paper, pencils, markers, and crayons available and as children are ready they can try to copy the letters that they see if they wish.   When we had our first snowfall, the slate floors in the entry room became wet and slippery.  The four year old teacher asked for help making a caution sign.  Child #2, who had learned to enjoy letters and writing, volunteered to help.  The teacher helped with spelling, and Child #2 made the sign that is now hanging in our entry.  While Child #1 is seeing writing as a stressor, Child #2 is comfortable and confident with what she had learned, since she learned it in a way that is appropriate for her age level and makes sense to her.

PS - The person on the sign is upside-down because he has fallen on his head on the wet floor!

I had started to write about Christmas several weeks ago, but ended up being so busy that I never completed it.  I have been feeling guilty about not writing for so long since I had made a commitment to write this blog, but I have noticed that all of the blogs that I follow have slowed down during the holidays.  I usually am very excited about Christmas, and enjoy every aspect of the season except for shopping.  I hate malls and crowds, so my shopping is always done early.  This year, however, I just did not have the usual excitement and Christmas feeling, but I wasn't sure why.  The grandchildren live 1000 miles away now?  They did last year. The 24 hour Christmas radio songs (many of which are not very good music) had been going on for days?  They did last year.  I didn't make cut out cookies this year?  I did have some at the center Christmas program, although a lack of cut outs is a serious problem.

That was as far as I got on my last blog post.  I had intended to write about the hustle and bustle of the season, the love that I have for Christmas, and my thoughts about the unkindness that many adults show to children by threatening them with a fat man in red suit while the children are becoming hysterically over excited about the tales of Santa, all of the parties and celebrations, and the fact that the Christmas season now starts on November 1.  This was my intention.  Instead I wrote blogs in my head while I cooked and cleaned, wrote cards and decorated, shopped and wrapped.  I had thought that since there were just two of us at home now that things would be calmer.  The presents that were going south to our family had to be on the UPS truck at the beginning of December.  The cards were written over Thanksgiving. Two of the parties that we attend were not held this year.  Still, it seemed as though there was always something to do.

As I said, this year I just did not feel the usual excitement about Christmas.  I also discovered that many others felt the same way.  I do feel that the Christmas season is being pushed on us so early that it does not have the special excitement that we used to feel when everything started after Thanksgiving.  I have discovered, however, that the missing ingredient was snow.  Last year the Rochester area had 46 inches of snow by Christmas.  This year we had about 5, although I am not sure where that much snow fell - it certainly wasn't at my house.  If I lived in the South it probably wouldn't bother me, but New York is supposed to have snow.  Last week we finally had snow.  Only about 4 or 5 inches fell, but it was enough to make driving in the dark with a strong wind tricky, and it had to be shoveled off the porches and the drive in 20 degree weather.  It did, however, make me breath a sigh of satisfaction - things were as they should be.  (Or as they should be until the temperature hits almost 40 tomorrow and it all melts!)

When Christmas came, when the tree was decorated, when the candles were lit at the Christmas Eve service, when we went to church on Christmas morning, when we drank coffee and unwrapped stocking gifts, I felt the peace and joy that had been missing.  I was celebrating the day that my Savior was born, and knowing Him is enough to celebrate.  It was a good Christmas.