Heads up: This post is 13 years old. My thinking may have evolved since then — read it with that in mind.
Last Saturday’s light box in the dark play time was a success and the pictures attracted a lot of interests.
Today, we ended up having a total of 28 babies and toddlers.
I observed a couple of things and I addressed the whole group. As there were a lot of new parents joining this time, I wanna make sure that everyone understood the benefits of children’s self directed learning.
An example, 2 long time participants, left their 7 months old babies to play with each other. Uninterrupted, fully engaging with each other. Moms only came over when the baby cried and looked for her. Once he saw that mom is nearby and ready to care for him, he felt safe and could go back to play independently with the other baby!
I explained to everyone that a lot of times, parents say they just want their babies to learn to socialize, but when they bring their babies to playgroups, they are too busy preventing their babies from interacting with each other. Watching it happen right before their eyes certainly helped. There will be a time for teaching them to share, meanwhile, let’s all just relax and let them be.