Nurturing Creative Thinkers

Since the death of Steve Jobs, co-founder of Apple Inc., much has been written about how to educate children to become future inventors and innovators. If you aren't familiar with his personal story, Jobs was a college dropout who spent 18 months dropping in on creative college classes. He stated that Mac computers were designed with such a wide variety of fonts because he once sat in on a calligraphy class. 

Does our current educational system encourage learning that will produce future inventors like Jobs? Or do children lose a vital part of their education when schools concentrate too heavily on tests and not enough on art, creativity and imagination?

Northampton Christian Preschool believes it is essential to nurture imagination skills in children. Our teachers prepare the classrooms to allow for long periods of pretend play, block construction and creative art activities. Crayons, markers, colored pencils, scissors, paper in different colors and textures, feathers, tape dispensers, and toilet paper tubes are some of the items routinely found in the Art Center.

The role of the teacher is to order the environment so that it is organized and inviting. Like this:

 

 These simple materials enabled this little Buzz Lightyear to create this:

If you look carefully you can see he's added "buzz wings" to his "buzz helmet." This young man worked all morning adding new details to his costume. The idea was his and the teachers provided encouragement and help when needed.


Due to the strong emphasis on standardized testing beginning in early elementary school, these experiences are often eliminated in preschools to concentrate on activities deemed more academic. We falsely believe that children who are just playing or using an entire roll of scotch tape on some silly project are wasting time they could be using to learn something important. But it is precisely during these times that children develop much-needed skills. Not only are they becoming proficient at using scissors and glue and pencils, but they are learning how to experiment and create and take chances. We want to encourage children to come up with an idea and act on it, even if it doesn't turn out the way they planned. As adults we know the best lessons are learned from mistakes and when we don't succeed we need to try again. We want to empower our children with this same sense of confidence.

But don't children need to know the alphabet and shapes and counting before entering Kindergarten? Absolutely, and those skills are taught in a developmentally appropriate fashion every day. But we also need to teach that joy comes from creating something all your own and there is great satisfaction in working hard to bring an idea to fruition.

I'll leave you with this link about a little boy who had a good idea that morphed into something completely unexpected. Thank you to Nora Davis who shared this gem with me. The joyful guy depicted in the video may be a future inventor. Northampton Christian Preschool hopes to raise a few of our own as well!



Cheryl Hoover works with future inventors each day at Northampton Christian Preschool. 

Can't Say Fat

At Circle time today, my little friends and I were running through some of our favorite finger plays. We began with "The Thousand-Legged Worm", which gave all of us (including me) the chance to practice our hopping. We moved on to "God Loves You" followed by "Leo the Lion". The children love to open their arms wide and let out a great "roar!" Afterward we turned our lion jaws into elephant trunks and repeated:

 The elephant is so big and FAT

he walks like this

he walks like that.

He has no fingers

he has no toes

but oh my goodness, what a nose! 

As we were trumpeting like elephants at the end of the song I heard an excited, "teacher, teacher!" "Is there something you'd like to share?" I asked a little boy. And his sweet voice replied, "you can't say fat."

Taking advantage of this teachable moment we talked about how the word fat would be a very mean thing to say to a person. Mean words make your heart hurt. We decided it was okay to say an elephant is fat because animals are different than people and don't have feelings. The children then named some animals that were large like elephants and thin like snakes. 

Preschool children are by nature egocentric which is why sharing is difficult for them. They are just beginning to understand that other people matter. The concept of feelings is new to them as well so I found it unusual that a child this young would be sensitive to a word like fat. I'm sure he's learned this lesson at his family dinner table. 

An important goal of our school is to teach children, after the example of Jesus, to love your neighbor as yourself and to be kind to everyone. It's a very simple concept. Or is it? I don't usually call people fat but am I always kind to everyone? Do I kindly wait behind the woman in the Produce Section who is taking her good old time when I'm in a hurry? Am I kind to people whose political views or opinions are vastly different from my own? Do I offer up a smile to the grouchy looking man at the post office or do I put my head down and avoid him? And am I always careful with the words I use?

Schools across the country are investing great time and money to institute anti-bullying programs. How much easier it would be if all children were taught at a young age, like this little guy, to keep your tongue from saying something mean.

A Sad Day and a Happy Day

In preparation for Holy Week my husband and I re-watched Passion of the Christ last evening. This movie does an amazing job of placing the viewer in the midst of Jerusalem to witness the horrific events of Good Friday. The violence, brutality and humiliation Jesus endured is graphically depicted. For adults of the faith it's important to re-visit this scene each year, but what about children? Are preschoolers ready for this information and is it something their young minds can understand?

Many years ago our school purchased a set of Read Aloud Bible Stories by Ella K. Lindvall which we frequently use in our classroom. The illustrations are large and simple,  perfect for reading to a group. The author uses text that is easily understood by children ages four to eight years old.

The Easter story is titled; "A Sad Day and a Happy Day."  The story begins by saying some bad men did not like Jesus and put him on a cross to die. It then goes on to talk about the tomb and how sad Jesus' friends were when they couldn't talk to him anymore. The main focus is the miracle of Easter morning when the women arrived at the tomb to see the stone rolled away and the angel's announcement "He is alive!" It concludes when Jesus appears to his friends, shows them his scarred hands and says, "Don't be afraid, I am alive!"

At Northampton one of our goals is to plant spiritual seeds in the lives of our young students. We want them to leave our program knowing they were created by God--just the way they are, that He loves them dearly and He is always with them. The telling of "A Sad Day and a Happy Day" is the first seed in the concept that He is alive and always watching over us.

We'll be celebrating new life at school this week. The children will be bringing in items from home to share or looking for examples as we hike to the garden and play outdoors. As we marble paint crosses and hunt for eggs we will remember the story of Easter and the hope we have because Jesus is alive!