H decided to prepare a “birthday present” for B, although B’s real birthday is still months away, she did not seem to mind at all. She took a toy police car from the bin, and placed it right in the middle of a big square magnetic tile. Then she took some more pieces and tried to build a cube with them. She quickly built three sides with proficiency, but when she was building the fourth side, something did not feel right to her.Puzzled but determinate, she went on to close the cube with one last tile on the top side. A “crack” appeared in this present box, and for Hazel, that did not mean a good present. She tore the cube apart and started all over.
The second try was almost identical to the first one. Everything went well before the fourth side, and again, the box was left with a crack after the closing.
H then started to adjust the position of the car by turning it 90°, but the crack was just too stubborn to go away. Nevertheless, more stubbornwas Hazel’s determination to prepare this present for her friend, therefore she sat there for a long while, adjusting different angles for the car tofit in, until finally, she managed to find a perfect angle and the crack did not appear when she closed the last side of the cube.
To my surprise, H did not let out an exciting cry or anything alike. She was calm and still focus on her work. She made sure that the cube wasperfect, picked it up from the floor, stood up, and walked gently to B, who was busy with other toy cars at the moment. “Happy Birthday toyou, B!” H exclaimed happily. B was thrilled to see this present and gave a big hug to Hl.
Now, it was B’s turn to make a birthday present for H.
About the learning and my reflections
I always see H as a girl who prefer to ask for help rather than give a try, so I was surprised to see her fully engaged in finding out a solution, and it is this surprise that made me to document this moment at the first place. I watched closely to every single try that she had made, and to be honest, I was holding my urge of reminding her about the position of the toy car. Nevertheless, I chose to give H time and space to explore, so that she can stay focused and motivated to solve the problem.
In this documentation, H was building her own knowledge of structure and space through the pretend play; her first intention in this pretend play, was to give B the present box, but to make that happen, she had to explore the way to fit the toy car in the box made of magnetic tiles, and the learning of structure and space came to her naturally during the exploration. Play, despite of being spontaneous and experimental in this case, provided opportunities to H’s learning. What’s more, this play is relational. H’s strong will of preparing a present for her friend was what motivated her to keep on trying, and upon seeing H’s present, other children copied this play, and started to prepare all kinds of presents using the magnetic tiles.
After putting the moment into narration, I began to realize two things. First, H seems to be very into the context of birthday. I remembered that the day I bought my ukulele in the daycare and sang with children, she asked for a birthday song as well. During play-dough time, she also liked to make “birthday cakes” and sang happy birthday song to everyone. To interact with her after that big present with her, and to encourage her to tell me more about the birthdays in her eyes, could be another possible choice.
The second thing that I realized, or wondered, is why I had this impression of “you like to ask for help, not to solve the problem by yourself” on H? And how does this impression affect my expectation from H? What if, I see her as an independent and capable child, and offers her other materials (paper, glue, blocks, boxes) to encourage her to make the present? Maybe that is another possibility?