Play on Nick Wang

2 more joined our playgroup - July 21st

Sat, 21 Jul 2012 15:05:00 +0000

My wife posted our playgroup info on one of the local Chinese baby forums and got like 5 moms interested in joining us! So we’re happy to report that today we welcomed 2 new families joining the fun!

Sarah brought many different kinds of balls for L to explore

First came YY with his mom Alice a bit earlier than 10 am, YY was immediately friendly and sat right in front of me, looking at the toy trains and cars. I asked him if he liked cars and trains but he didn’t respond. L quietly observed YY and then both of then went on to play with the trains and cars separately. I think this is probably very normal, toddlers at this age recognize people and places, this is the first time YY has been here so both the place and the people were strange to him. I’m glad we provided some good toys that he could feel safe and happy with.

Playing with balls, trains, cars, crayons and containers

When the doorbell rang the next time, it was C and Sarah. L was simply ecstatic to see his good friend and jumped in joy. Reminds me the (only) best thing about school for me was being with my friends :) C was also happy to find the new toy trains on the floor. Sarah then opened her “magic backpack” and pulled out many different kinds of balls, fabric and cars! L just stood there and watched Sarah blew up the big beach ball! His looks of anticipation was intense!

Checking himself out in front of 2 mirrors

The other mom and child arrived late because my wife gave them the wrong address :P (Sorry!) Overall, the play date went very well, the kids all played naturally together, the parents had time to share their habits at home and we shared the philosophies of the Reggio Emilia and RIE’s way of early childhood education. As “incidents” occurred, for example when YY wanted C’s car and Alice tried to ask him to share, or when YY fell and started crying and Alice asked him to stop, we were able to show Alice how to let the child deal with his own emotions.

The newcomers are learning about uninterrupted play

Watching Alice and YY, I could see myself and L in them. I had the right ideas but had questions about how to deal with certain behaviors. It’s reassuring to see that my relationship with L has improved, and I’m looking forward to seeing other parents experience the same changes as they learn more about Reggio Emilia. I’m still new to this but I really need to get better at observing and capturing the children’s learning moments and put them into these diaries. I hope that by showing stories like that of “Diary of Laura”, I can persuade help more parents to connect with their children and help them break out of the legacy educational system!

Drive the cars through the “tunnel”

Diary - July babies birthday party

Sun, 15 Jul 2012 14:32:00 +0000

Today, there was a “July babies 2 yr old birthday party”, about 40 ~ 50 families cramped into this little Chuck E. Cheese minus the food & giant mechanical rodents store in the mall to have a great party! L had a lot of fun because he loves those ball pits and they had 3!!

It was interesting to see that there wasn’t 1 family who would trust their children and let them explore and figure out how to play. What I witnessed most were parents holding their kids, helping them slide down slides or ride on carts, and taking pictures of their kids w/ their huge DSLR cameras, sometimes asking them to redo something because “Daddy didn’t get the picture!”

Anyways, back to today’s main story. L saw these ramps when we asked him to come with us as the organizers were calling everyone to gather up. There was nothing going on at the gathering, just a cluster of chaos trying to sit their kids down. Naturally, L chose to check out the ramps! There were a bunch of carts in that area and at first he grabbed one that he liked (I think?) but it wasn’t designed for the ramp, the wheelbase fits but the seats were a bit too high. L could ride past the first bump but got stuck in the middle ditch. After trying to ride up to the top and failed a few times, he gave up and tried the other ramp with a different cart. This yellow cart was a little lower, but the result was the same he couldn’t ride up to the top.

Then, he saw an older boy playing with a much nicer looking car (it has a steering wheel!) and he abandoned his yellow cart in the ditch, walked over to the bigger boy and tried to take that nice car! The older boy is, well, older! So he has learned how to deal with other kids fighting for toys. (“I can’t fight back, and I don’t want to bother negotiating! The car seemed to big for the ramp anyway, alright I’ll just move on to play the next thing!”)

L got control of the nice car, he tried to sat on it but it was too unstable up there and it finally fell off. L got on it and rode it to the end of the ramp. He tried to ride it up but this car couldn’t even get past the first bump! He was a little tired and so he just sat there, watching the gathering on the other side of the room, (but didn’t look like he was really paying attention, he looked like he was daydreaming :) An old Chinese lady had been looking at him and at this point she came over smiling, wanting to pick up the yellow cart L left in the middle ditch and help him put it on the top of the ramp. Both my wife and I yelled: “don’t help him… Don’t Help Him!… DON’T HELP HIM!!!” (Together, 6 times!) until we startled the little old lady, stopping her in her tracks! (Sorry old lady! I know you thought you were doing something endearing, but it’s bad for the children!)

It was also interesting that L had seen the other boy push the car up to the top, but he didn’t imitate the boy right away. After sitting there daydreaming for a while, he finally got up, and with a fresh mind he stood beside the yellow cart and pushed it to the top of the ramp! SUCCESS! He didn’t celebrate though, instead he hurried to sit on it! And even though he had his back facing the slope, he pushed off and weeeeee… backwards roller coaster ride!! (I was worried and stood beside him, just in case he fell off.)

He repeated this again and again! Then I think he went away for a while. Next time he came back, he figured out to push the cart up backwards so that he could roll down facing the front.

By the way, while this whole learning story took place, the majority of families were sitting at the gathering watching a clown magician hybrid thing perform. This means the parents had successfully taught their 2 year old children to sit docilely watching their teachers! Sad. Now I’m not saying teaching 2 year olds to sit quietly is bad, there are situations where it’s good, even necessary, to set that boundary! (Like during car rides and meal time).) But I personally don’t think forcing them to sit still to listen & learn from a “teacher” is one of those good situations.

Playing in mud can make your kids smarter!

Wed, 20 Jun 2012 14:25:00 +0000

I grew up in Hong Kong in the 70’s & 80’s, back then, almost all playgrounds were covered in concrete! My most “precious” memory of it was I tripped while running up some metal bars, fell, and my new mechanical pencil, which I kept in my pants pocket ‘coz I loved that thing soon much, poked into my thigh and hurt like hell!! (I was seriously worried about dying from lead poisoning afterwards, I was may be 6 years old!) Anyways, nowadays they use soft rubber mats instead, which to me means kids are wussy these days! Either way, I think kids would like to play more on a lawn or on tree bark (used in playgrounds in Seattle area) than on concrete or rubber mats, but how about mud and dirt? For sure the parents won’t be liking the aftermath - mud soiled clothes! So when I was living in Japan, I was really surprised to learn that kindergartens in super clean Japan actually have a “Doronkoasobi”, literally “mud play” activity for little kids to play in the mud!

Reggio Emilia Approach is all about letting the children experience and construct their own image of the world. Playing in wet mud on a hot summer day is a pleasant sensory explosion! The feeling of cool, wet mud between your fingers, between your toes, on your face, your body, and the smell of earth… kids love it, but parents may be against it due to the hassle of cleaning afterwards. Well, for those of you who are against your kids playing in dirt, consider that there’s scientific proof that playing in mud can actually make them smarter!!

Mycobacterium vaccae is a natural soil bacterium which people likely ingest or breath in when they spend time in nature. Previous research on M. Vaccae showed that it stimulated growth of some neurons in the brain that resulted in increased levels of serotonin and decreased anxiety. Serotonin plays a role in improving learning. - source: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/05/100524143416.htm

Arnold “Shuwa-chan” playing in mud to relief stress while the Predator tries the skin him

I doubt the person who mandated Doronkoasobi in kindergartens across Japan knew about these scientific facts, but I can imagine he made that intuitive choice based on his own childhood experience - probably grew up in poor post-war Japan and remembered whenever he played in the mud, he felt calm and relaxed afterwards. His body had told him long ago what scientists had recently proven! Concrete and rubber are logical decisions made by adults too lazy to deal w/ kids. I applaud the intuition of Japan to keep sand and mud in the playgrounds!

Ultra Water Stomp!!

Tue, 19 Jun 2012 01:09:00 +0000

It rained heavily yesterday morning so I brought extra clothes for L and went to the soccer field. At first he did his usual thing, chasing the birds and checking out the flags. Eventually he stumbled into this big puddle of water, it was deep enough to submerge up to the top of his feet! He stood there for a few seconds, experiencing the new sensation. He moved his feet in the water, first slowly, then faster, until he found out that he could make a BIIIIIIG splash by stomping into it! Boy did he have a great time! I stood there and watch him stomp around in the puddle for over 15 minutes! Afterwards I had to change his clothes before we could go home!