Personalized to suit Me!

                                                   I was 4 or 5. Graduating from Headstart   

"Education is a journey, not a race!" - Author: Unknown
I really love this quote. I fell in love with it when I first heard it. I was at a head start meeting with one of my children years ago and the teacher quoted this. At the time it really hit due to the fact I was already thinking about how I could cram two to three years of knowledge into my five year old (due to him having to start school late) so that he could catch up with my sister's son. At the time I just wanted to show everyone that he could be on the same level if not in front of his cousin. My sister and I began to drill knowledge into our boys trying to out due the other. My son was slowly turning off from school because of this. Academic wise my son was on the same level but my nephew was more mature and fit for the higher grade. I was proving to my sister that although my son was younger he could grasp any knowledge her son could have. ( We both found out we were wrong).  It was after hearing this quote that I understood that academics should be tailored to the child. It was a process my son would have to go through not a race to the finish.
In case you are wondering what this have to do with early childhood I'll explain. It's at the early stages that we educators began to teach our students. If we forget that each child is different and will get from point A to point B through out the journey. As a parent I did not have to push my son just to race my sister's son. While doing so I was turning him off from school, taking something that he once enjoyed and turning it into a competition. All to see which child would finish the race the quickest. The goal was jumping a grade. We did not realize that in each grade it's something very fundamental for each individual child.




My 4 year old son just started school. He brought home a picture (I tried to upload it but I could not get the scanner to work) in the picture was grey lines all over the paper. I asked him to tell me about the picture, He told me he drew waves. I asked him why the waves were grey and not blue. He said because he could not find the blue crayon and the teacher told him to use that one. I was waiting for him to tell me something else. I laughed after her told me only because he did not use the wrong color trying to make a statement or for any reason he knew the waves should have been blue but he used what he was given and used his creativity to draw his picture. The next day he said it was something else..LOL.. With a paper completely covered in grey, my guess is it can be whatever you want the picture to be at any given moment. Way to use the imagination.  Things like this remind me of why i fell in love with early childhood. Children keep you happy.