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children love to clean. not always, not always in ways we want them to. but in their own time and ways, they’re happy to put things away https://t.co/rih8KV9wPk
yesterday, a little girl loved helping me clean the crafts table when it was snack time. the children at the sand area love helping me fill holes and rake the sand after snack. once, when I started dragging my rake behind me as if i was in a life-size zen garden, they all joined in. It was the quietest moment i would ever have at the nursery surrounded by 10 children, all wordlessly raking in some amazing semblance of monastic peace. i only wish we had a video of it
the little girl wasn’t even at the crafts table prior; she just saw me putting away things and wanted to help too. likewise, children join in the hole-filling and raking the sand area, even if they hadn’t been the ones playing
it reminds me of how children love playing with mum’s glasses, dad’s glasses, the TV remote, the AC remote… basically anything but the toys bought for them… because they see the adults interact with those things and be interested in them! https://t.co/lYk5tiUdsO
from an adult perspective, they’re done with that area, so they should clean up, but from a kid perspective, it’s still playtime; they don’t want to clean. i still remember feeling this way as a child and being told to clean up: im still in a playing mood!!! don't tell me to stop
I suspect this is exactly why parents land on a regular bed time routine for kids to brush their teeth; it’s understood to be the time when you do that thing we ritualise the sacred, but we also ritualise the tedious