Yardsticks

POSITIVE ATTRIBUTES—THE TERRIFIC TENS

Chip — 2009-07-16T09:33:07-04:00

Double-digit kids, these tens can take on anything and love every minute of it (well, almost). If you sense my unbridled enthusiasm for this age, you’re not off the mark. It didn’t take me long as a teacher to latch onto the understanding that if you want to teach in “middle childhood,” there is no better age than ten, no better grade than fifth.

In a way, this age represents a kind of end to appreciated dependency, so enjoy it while it lasts. Children at ten generally look up to and admire their teachers and their parents and actually like to be around them and do things with them.

This is a highly relational year. Tens still get real pleasure from family outings and teacher-led activities. They equally enjoy the company of their peers in the classroom and engage productively in collaborative, project-based learning. It’s an age for fruitful classroom democracy and inclusion.

Tens are cognitively the most actively receptive that they’ve been with their memory since the age of four or five. They love to memorize (note the number of copies of the Guinness World Book of Records around), collect and organize things (note the current “card” craze, whatever it might be, the coin and rock collections, the horse collections, and the multi volume sets of fantasy fiction and on-line games (check out the Percy Jackson books by Rick Riordan and bellasara.com, for instance).

With their receptive antennae, tens can solidify their multiplication tables easily, tackle their spelling and vocabulary with relish, recite oodles of poems, choral readings, and songs, and memorize all the presidents or the lines in a play. There’s little they don’t love doing. They can take on real responsibility for organizing the classroom, and most, for a spell, their own bedrooms or bedroom spaces. Now is the time when the musical instrument, dance class, or martial art becomes something they want to stick to, accomplish growth in, move from level to level with, and demonstrate proficiency in doing.

Parents and teachers do well to take notice, take pride in, appreciate, and extend specific recognition for each child’s contribution to classroom, school, friends, and family.

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POSITIVE ATTRIBUTES—THE NOTABLE NINES

Chip — 2009-07-14T10:03:36-04:00

Nine is not always an easy age, but it is an age of growing social awareness, of intellectual stretching, wondering, and clamoring These are the “ing,” kids, the “dangling participles” easily misunderstood, the kids who are doing, encouraging, questioning, doubting, arguing…sometimes seemingly just for the sake of it, with no clear antecedents for their actions always readily apparent. Yet there is a deep inner stirring in nine-year-olds as they become profoundly aware of the intricacies and subtleties of the world around them. Nowhere have I seen this better captured than in a poem by Billy Collins, which appears, with permission, in my book, Yardsticks. It’s called “On Turning Ten.”

Nines need teachers and parents to bring a good sense of humor and a determined lightness to the children’s introspection and challenges. Hyperbole abounds in nine year olds. You’ll hear “This is so boring!” (translation: “This is hard!”) and “I can’t believe we have to do this!” (translation: “I don’t get this”).

“Fairness” begins to become a constant issue toward the end of the ninth year in fourth grade and continues into the beginning of fifth grade (check out the children’s book Nothing’s Fair in Fifth Grade by Barthe DeClements). Parents and teachers: Do not take this personally; the children own this territory!

These cognitive challenges are more than mere posturing by nines. Rather, they are signs of a remarkable developing resilience and intellectual curiosity, signs of maturing moral character and independent thought, signs of nines’ industriousness and impatience with the ways adults have made the world they begin to see they will have the power and responsibility to change.

Nine is an age of learning a lot. Each child’s individual personality and way of presenting himself or herself to their peers and the meaningful adults in their lives stands out in clear relief at this age of reflection and beginning awareness of what adulthood has in store. As children enter the preadolescent years and become full-fledged “tweeners,” they especially need patient listening and understanding from the adult models in their lives.

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POSITIVE ATTRIBUTES—THE ENERGIZED EIGHTS

Chip — 2009-07-09T09:04:14-04:00

When eight-year-olds wake up in the morning, new plans for adventure are percolating before their feet hit the floor. These plans usually involve a friend, or better yet, a group of friends to share adventures with in the neighborhood or at school. It can be as simple as rounding up a game of kickball or as complicated as starting a club for future astronauts or jazz dancers, for this is an age of invention, creation, and cognitive curiosity.

And as you can imagine or are experiencing, eights are in a hurry and very industrious. In school they tackle their assignments with high energy and speed. Getting volumes of work done is the goal as opposed to detail and accuracy. They are first draft fanatics. Journals and diaries are filled with beginnings, illustrations, letters, stories, and poems. Social studies and science projects are favorite activities. Field trips are the best, allowing for new experiences and learning with lots of moving around a museum or exploring an outdoor environment with their classmates and a clipboard. You can’t get much closer to summer camp than that in a school setting.

Speaking of camp, many children have their first successful weeks away from home as eight-year-olds at overnight camp. Eights generally adore day camp, too, whether in a city recreation program or a rural setting.

Eights demonstrate a growing sense of confidence and competence. They’re generally enthralled with learning the tools of their trade, whether pencil, pen, and ruler or computer applications. They also love keeping track of progress on their math facts, how fast they can run, the new dance steps or soccer moves they’re learning. Eights also take special pleasure in comparing and competing, especially on teams in sports and cooperative activities in the classroom.

As quickly as eight-year-olds begin something new, that’s how quickly they’re likely to drop that something in favor of something else new. See this exploratory excitement and enthusiasm for the positive attributes they are, but also realize this is the age to rent musical instruments, not to purchase them!

Children at eight tend to hang around more with their own gender and find comfort and support in this. Not that they can’t enjoy working together in school or at camp—but interests often do tend toward more gender-separated activities in sports, the arts, and whatever fad or toy has their attention.

Children at this age need the sensitivity of adults to respond positively to their changeability. They also need adults to be proactive in keeping up with this energy by changing things frequently. Assigning new chores at home before they get tired of the old and giving new responsibilities on the school job chart each week are examples of really knowing what eight-year-olds need. And surprises! There is no age that benefits more from a positive surprise than the eights. Just something small and unusual can light up an eight-year-olds’ day. Ice cream for breakfast?

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POSITIVE ATTRIBUTES—THE SEEING SEVENS

Chip — 2009-07-07T11:32:52-04:00

Sevens notice everything…in detail. Smallness is characteristic of their drawing, writing, and play constructions. Everything's reduced to the microcosm, miniaturized to an intricate and controllable world they're trying to make perfect.

Dioramas fit in shoeboxes, providing room enough for furniture, rugs, vases, with tiny flowers, people and/or animals smaller than clothespins, cut out of cardboard and adorned with colorful costumes.

Printing is small also, anchored to the baselines of the paper. Illustrations are elaborate and intricate. Sevens are consolidating all that they know in a compact world of both precision and inward imagination. It is wonderfully illuminating to ask seven-year-olds about their drawings and other creative work in art and classroom projects as well as their pretend play inventions at home. They’ll inevitably tell you about details you’ve missed.

Sevens appreciate the beauty in the natural world that they can see with the naked eye and love using hand lenses and magnifying boxes to get a closer look. They likewise love to have order around them, generally keeping their desks just so, enjoying classroom clean-up, preparing snack, setting a table, organizing the blocks.

A predictable daily routine is helpful to sevens in every respect. They appreciate knowing what’s coming next, having time to get ready for it, having time to fully complete the task before them, in which they can become completely absorbed, often needing a reminder or two before the next transition.

Although sevens like working alone and are introspective about their developing skills, they also do well with partner work assigned by the teacher. They’ll demonstrate a strong ability to listen to and learn from what their partner has to say. Sevens also enjoy the company of one “best friend,” and although the best friend might change frequently, they focus intensely on the relationship while it engages them.

There is so much that sevens want to accomplish, but in small steps, in the division of the day. They are positive perfectionists who believe that to do anything in a personally satisfying way means to be able to reach a conclusion, finish what they have begun. They adore teachers and parents who structure their world to honor this essential nature of being seven.

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POSITIVE ATTRIBUTES—THE SENSATIONAL SIXES

Chip — 2009-06-29T17:05:10-04:00

No one is more industrious than six-year-olds. They take on every activity, at home and at school, with unbridled enthusiasm. Work is completed in no time at all, though quantity, not quality, is the measure that counts for sixes, along with trying new things. Being first to read a new book, spell a new word, make a new friend, play a new game…all matter a great deal to sixes.

Children at six love surprises and treats from their teachers and parents. A note in a lunchbox, a message from the teacher, is special each time one appears. Sixes also love jokes, silly songs and guessing games. Their vocabulary is expanding at a rapid rate and their minds are like sponges, soaking up new facts and ideas constantly. At this age, conversation cannot be contained, nor should it be; theirs is an out-loud world. The talk is constant and contagious—in the classroom, the car, and right up to bed time. There is so much to report on and tell the grownups about! They might not know everything there is to know about butterflies or rain or addition or measuring or “Knock Knock” jokes, but they love to talk about what they do know.

Children at this age love to be outdoors, whether to learn a game in physical education, play at recess, go on a field trip, or check on the weather. They love their classroom jobs and get excited to see what their new job will be each time their teachers changes the assignments. Likewise at home, they enjoy having a family job as long as it changes rather frequently. Novelty seems like a birthright to sixes—except when it comes to bedtime routines, to which they generally like to cling.

First grade was named for sixes, who love to be first at everything possible. That’s why teachers rotate line leaders and meeting leaders, message readers and door closers (because the next best thing to being first is being last). The enthusiasm of six is delightful and exhausting. It’s an age that, with so much going on, goes by in a wink.

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POSITIVE ATTRIBUTES—THE FEISTY FIVE-AND-A-HALF YEAR OLDS

Chip — 2009-06-26T11:17:04-04:00

There is a discernable turning point in the fifth year where the focused, centered, rule-following kindergartener becomes the full-fledged explorer. A growth spurt is beginning that will last through the sixth year. “Stretching” is a good word for this age. At home and in class, children are often stretching the truth, testing the rules, seeing what they can do on their own as they become more confident and self-assured.

Like children at 2½ , children at 5½ can be oppositional. But this is more a sign of cognitive and social growth than anything else. Children are much more prone to want to figure things out for themselves rather than to get them right, which was a main focus just a few months before. Learning and social interaction get more complicated and confusing. There are more mistakes, tears, and semi-tantrums over best friends or following directions because children are engrossed in the discovery of the way they think the world should work for them.

Such willfulness and sensitivity are positive attributes at this age. But five-and-a-half-year-old behavior can be confusing and upsetting to parents and teachers who do not recognize this developmental shift with some awareness and sense of humor as they watch and listen to their older five-year-olds want to take on the world.

This is a time when good question-asking is one of the best parent and teacher tools around. It gives children choices that help them to follow routines from the strength of their own decision-making, rather than struggling with an adult directive. So, “Would you like to finish picking up your clothes before or after your snack?” may work much better than “Pick up your clothes or there will be no snack.”

“Do you remember where the counting blocks go?” may be more successful than “Put the counting blocks in the bin, now.”

“How long do you think you’ll need to finish your journal page?” may create less anxiety and more productivity than “You have two minutes to finish that page in your journal.”

There are, however, social and cultural differences in the way parents address their children to get them to follow directions. Some families are used to things being very explicit and authoritative; others are used to things being more open-ended.

Teachers should be sensitive to these differences, but at this particular age in classroom settings, choice is a universally useful tool to advance learning. Maximum learning happens when children have opportunities to “approximate” and discover right answers and right behavior, with the guidance of adults. This sense of having discovered something on your own is the “Aha!” experience that creates young scientists, artists, and problem-solvers in math and in life.

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POSITIVE ATTRIBUTES—THE PHENOMENAL FIVES

Chip — 2009-06-16T12:25:33-04:00

Oh, what fun to be five! Busy and loving every moment of it, it seems five-year-olds may be the happiest people on the planet. Each day is a brand-new adventure, and if the structure of life around them is strong, they’re good to go.

Fives are actively and selectively receptive, as they take in the world through their senses. They see, smell, hear, touch, and taste just about everything, but their secret is that they do so one thing at a time. Fives are focused—they operate in the “near field” of life. This provides them the gift of detail. They do not see just the butterfly, they see the wing of the butterfly, or its proboscis uncurling into a flower, having snuck up on it and squatted down quietly to watch for as long as the butterfly pauses in flight.

The butterfly is a good metaphor for five, for children at this age are active and go from one location to another for food and sustenance but pay careful attention to what they’re doing wherever they land. When they need a rest, they’re not afraid to take it. I was surprised during a recent classroom visit that even this late in the school year I saw three children at the end of Quiet Time, after recess and lunch, who had to be awakened from sleep by their teacher.

Every location in the classroom and at home appears full of possibilities. And fives know how to get the most out of each possibility for as long as it holds their interest. Play, of course, offers endless potential and is the five-year-old’s primary occupation. The adults may call it something else, like “Choice Time,” but five-year-olds know what they are doing. Usually whatever five-year-olds are doing can hold their attention for a half hour or even more if we give them that kind of sustained time. Their imagination will shut out the outside world and create a “play nest” in which their minds feel safe and engaged.

You can observe this focus easily when you see a five-year-old working alone with a bunch of Legos or a lump of clay. But also notice how secure a small group of fives feels wrapped up together in the housekeeping corner or building with unit blocks.

Fives adore their teachers and parents and significant adults. They expect that the grown-ups will create the safe boundaries, tell them what is happening next, where they are going and if they are there yet. Fives are literal. In Kindergarten last week a teacher was leading a class activity to make thank you cards for volunteers who had helped out in the classroom. She wisely asked, “So, children, what do you think the word volunteer means?” There was a slight pause. It was the children thinking.

“Like when the man said, ‘can I have a volunteer from the audience’?” offered one boy. Many other children then chimed in with similar accounts, immediately accepting their colleague’s definition. The teacher acknowledged each of these and then skillfully scaffolded their thinking to other connected concepts of “helping out”. The children caught on.

“I volunteer when I pass out the paper,” said a girl, as she drew her thank you card showing just that. Everyone was happy to make a card for the people they remembered who had come to their class. And the big word, volunteer, took on different specific meanings as the cards emerged from their minds onto their papers.

Ah, but such focused developmental bliss does not last forever, for these children are about to enter the exciting world of discovery and opposition of five and a half. Stay tuned.

Photo copyright Beth McConnell, 2006.

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The Fabulous Fours--Lily's Learning Pad

Chip — 2009-06-08T12:55:27-04:00

Speaking of positive attributes, my wife and I, Nana and Papa, have been the recipients of all this fabulous four-year-old stage of development has to offer…from our granddaughter, Lily, now 4.9 years old.

Optimism isn’t a big enough word to hold the indomitable spirit of this child, but it communicates the idea. Every time we turn around or sit down there is a new personality or role standing, or dancing, before us. Doctor Lily, Nurse Lily (her mom is studying to be a nurse), Pharmacist Lily enters our living room with baskets or a baby carriage full of supplies to set up the hospital, office, or pharmacy, depending on…well, we’re not quite sure what the choices depend on. Dancer, queen, animal groomer, writer, scientist, gardener…the list goes on.

Lily’s imagination fuels her life, engages her mind, helps insulate her from rough patches, her older brother’s teasing (naturally), and other real-life disappointments and sadnesses. She is also blessed with a magical preschool environment in which she is able to explore who she is and is becoming. She explores in the mirror of her peers and in the company of careful, caring, and nurturing adults who open the door of learning each day with happy spirits and well planned schedules and activities.

We’re on the way to preschool, to preschool, to preschool

We’re on the way to preschool, to preschool today.

We’re driving up the mountain, the mountain, the mountain

We’re driving up the mountain, to preschool today.

Lily and I have made up these and a score of other verses that we sing together on the days I drive her to school. Oh, how to capture and bottle this enthusiasm for learning, as our children grow and develop! For Lily has not yet learned or heard that she is not capable in some area of learning. She sees herself as a writer and reader and scientist and healer. And she is. Just as for her fabulous four-year-old peers, the world awakes each morning especially for them, fresh and new and exciting.

Preschool is the first real “college”: “a group of people, usually of the same profession, who have agreed duties and rights” (Encarta Dictionary). Here’s my wish list for all “Colleges of Childhood”:

AGREED DUTIES

o Take turns as song leader,

snack passer-outer, partner

o Share

o Pick up

AGREED RIGHTS

o Safety

o Play

o Friendship

o Learning

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Positive Attributes—The Fabulous Fours!

Chip — 2009-06-04T09:54:54-04:00

It’s so great to be around four-year-olds. In general, they are some of the happiest and most fun people on the planet. Their interest and energy is mercurial. They throw themselves into nearly every activity with enthusiasm and a sense of purpose. They move from activity to activity with a sense of abandon, often forgetting to pick up after one activity as they give in to their excited focus on what’s next. To say that they are eager is an understatement.

Everything about four-year-olds signals rapid development. Their bodies and minds are in accelerated growth mode. Somewhere during this year we notice how tall they have gotten, how clothing and shoe sizes have changed. Just as they are often trying on new clothing sizes, they are also trying on and taking off different personalities, roles, and interests. This they do with an amazing sense of imagination and humor. Nothing is more fun and delightful to a four-year-old than pretending. They are equally interested in playing grown-up roles of doctors and firefighters, mommies and daddies, dancers and soldiers, teachers and students, as well as fairies and princes, lions and tigers, super heroes and monsters.

Imaginative play is one of the best avenues and critical for the development of a child’s understanding of right and wrong, early application of social rules, and manners. Whether they’re playing by themselves, with an imaginary friend, or with one playmate or a small group, you can watch and listen to them “directing the play,” telling themselves or others out loud what to do and how to behave. They sometimes can seem especially “bossy” (particularly with their imaginary friends), but this assertiveness is positive rehearsal activity for learning acceptable limits and for learning how to be a real friend and helper.

Fours especially love to play out of doors. Expansive play space matches their expansive sense of self. They are quite literally and physiologically drawn to the horizon and love to run and ride, pull, dig, and climb. Their expansive horizons for learning new things are enhanced by the opportunity for outdoor play.

It’s hard to miss the rapid expansion of vocabulary at four, a key indicator of intellectual and cognitive growth. Fours are trying on new word outfits all the time…nonsense words, rhyming words, unacceptable words, gigantic words, words that grown-ups say, nonsense babble that babies say, sounds that animals say, languages that other people speak, imaginary languages that fairies speak.

Four-year-old activity is a special language, too, full of statements about what they’re trying to learn. They want to try on jobs—at home and in the classroom—setting the table, passing out things, leading grace at table or a game at circle time, being the teacher, being the parent.

They like feeling independent, but when they want our help they want it eagerly and immediately: a push on the swing, a snack, help with making a letter look right, knowing if this is the right foot, tying a shoelace, getting us to play with them. They look up to us and they are constantly trying out who they are with the models we present to them. Parents and teachers can see and hear themselves in their four-year-olds by the ways they hold and move their bodies, their gestures and facial expressions, and the very phrases and nuances of tone of voice and choice of words. These are some of the more endearing qualities of four.

For more of the challenging attributes of fours, you can read a thorough account in my book, Yardsticks, Children in the Classroom, Ages 4-14 available from the Responsive Classroom website. If you have questions about your four-year-old or four-year-old behavior in school settings, feel free to post a question, thought, or comment here on the blog.

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Positve Attributes--Earliest Thoughts

Chip — 2009-05-29T09:12:45-04:00

The idea of spending more time thinking about and attending to children’s strengths and positive attributes at each phase of their development can provide a refreshing perspective on our jobs as parents and educators. It helps us see what we can learn from our children, rather than what we need to do to fix them. In fact, this is probably the greatest single message and contribution to education and parenting from the field of child development…watch your children!

The art of observation was the basic tool of the first scientists in the field. Jean Piaget developed many theories at the beginning of his work by watching his own children grow and develop. Arnold Gesell watched children in nursery and laboratory settings and pioneered the use of cinematography to record the progressions of physical development. Maria Montessori and Lev Vygotsky were keen observers of children’s behavior and modes of learning and carefully taught their students how to observe children at play and work in school settings.

Today, we have more sophisticated observational protocols to record and analyze children’s development through the use of video techniques as well as scientifically normed and validated scales and benchmarks. Brain research and use of brain scans is giving us new insights into the way the child’s mind develops. These understandings provide new insight into why children develop as they do and what we can learn from attending to the positive attributes marking each phase of development.

“Inside the Baby’s Mind,” a powerful article by Jonah Lehrer that appeared in many newspapers recently, highlights the positive mental attributes scientists are beginning to discover about children’s thinking in infancy. This article provides fresh insight and evidence that even in infancy the developing mind is mapping and building vital and enormously positive attributes. Reading this article reinforced two things for me: first, the critical importance of preserving childhood and childhood activity, and second, as parents and teachers, learning to let the children’s interests and ways of seeing and navigating the world guide us as we guide them into their futures.

In my next post I’ll begin to share my ideas about ways we can attend to children’s positive attributes during the school-age years, starting at age four.

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