Usually, however, when I work with kids I tend to stay within the guidelines. Not everything in the field of Child Development has stood the test of time. There is a lot of "pop psychology" that briefly finds its way into the field, only to be forgotten a few years after the thousands of books get published. I figure that if I combine the theories of Piaget, Vygostky, Bronfenbrenner, and other big shot Child Developmentalists I figure I'm pretty good. And ultimately, I feel that if I go into a house with a dedication to love (the child and their family) I am going to do some good.
A few weeks ago I decided to break the rules a bit. In school I was taught to pretty much keep food out of the equation when working with kids. Never use food as a reward. Food is for eating and keeping the body healthy - not playing with. If you absolutely must use food with kids, make sure it's healthy food, to teach good habits.
Right.
I made Christmas graham cracker trains with a few kids. And how do you make a graham cracker train without frosting and candy? Just call me the Rule-Breaker.
Officially these are the areas we worked on while making the Christmas graham cracker trains:
- Fine Motor Skills
- Hand/Eye Coordination
- Problem Solving
- Abstract Reasoning
- Spatial Relations
- Expressive Language Skills
- Receptive Language Skills
- Number Sense
- Self-Control (let's be honest here: I was incredibly impressed that the 2-year-olds were able to do this and only eat the candies they were given permission to eat)
A lot of great areas of work. But really, the main reason I did this activity was because it was Christmas time.
And it was just fun.
That's my girl!!
ReplyDeleteAs always, you make me proud.