moonandme.com

I don’t have an article today, well, I take that back, I may go and dig one up.

What I wanted to post had to do with an encounter I had with Erin on Tuesday. I was picking Gilli up from Pre-K. We were a little early and the class was on the playground so we stopped to play. Erin is a joiner, a participator and a very active little girl who has little fear of anything realted to climbing. She took off for a large play structure and adeptly climbed the stairs and walked across a platform to the bridge. SHe hesitated briefly, put one arm and one knee down on the first section of the bridge. Then looked down at the bridge and stood up. She moved her left foot slowly onto the surface and held onto the handrail. She stopped. She slid her right foot and stopped.
A 4yr old boy came by and stopped briefly before running across the bridge. Erin bounced up and down and then lost her balance. Standing back up, she smiled and moved her legs up and down- bouncing the bridge. Having been silent but giving facial and body cues, I had watched her as she realized that the bridge moved. I said, “yep, it moves. It’s a suspended bridge. You can make it move.”
Erin proceeded to run across the bridge, jump on it (she says jump when one foot leaves the ground) and splay her hands out as she kept her balance.

I am reminded that so many people take learning to be about books, papers and pens and desks. Erin takes learning as play.

I could recount all of the skills that Erin learned and used while on the bridge but instead I will simply say, “she had fun.”

Posted on March 25th, 2009 by karen
Filed under: Uncategorized