Parent Plans: Reflections from Parents

We want to share the parent reflections that have come in so far. Each of you described powerful moments. Each of you shared how your child found this process and connection powerful to them. Your thoughts revealed another view of children’s learning.

KK:

1.  Our first reaction to this provocation was excitement in being able to do "homework" with our child.  She sees her teenaged sister always doing homework, and this was her chance to do "homework," too. We knew we could not draw, but that didn't scare us as our child is ably able to decipher scribbles.  We did wonder whether she would remember our story line, though we had no fear that she would make up a story for us!

2.  We thought to keep our plans simple as our actual days are fairly complicated and difficult to explain to our preschooler.  So, we asked our daughter to describe what we did when we left the house each morning, and we filled in the "blanks" of what happens after she gets dropped off.

3.  Our child corrected our plans with things we had failed to describe and provided us suggestions on what to do next!

4.  We came to realize that our child is a lot more observant of what we do than we thought.

Teacher's Note: I found your observation of K filling in the gaps awesome. She clearly has a grasp of what happens during the day. I like how she provided you with suggestions as to what to do next. This is a piece of theory-making made visible.

TT:

1. Our initial reaction was, "How do we engage T?"  What should we include in our plans that he could relate to and be excited by?  Equally important, how do we avoid boring him with the more mundane aspects of our daily rituals?

2. Our process was to 1) decide what activities T would most like to see included in our plans, 2) draw multiple activities on scratch paper, and 3) decide which of these sketches looked remotely recognizable (is that a vacuum cleaner or a hockey stick?). We also decided against including sketches of M (younger sister) playing at Gymboree.  We didn't want him to feel as if he's missing out on extra playtime. 

3. We shared our plans with T after they were complete.  He viewed it as a big game: "Guess what Mommy or Daddy is doing here."   He laughed and giggled at our barely recognizable depictions. 

We didn't really have an AHA! moment.  It was just a joy to see how curious he was about everything.  Looking at my crudely drawn shopping cart, T tried to determine what groceries I had placed in it, and had I included milk?  And don't forget the chocolate!  The funny thing is that we never buy chocolate. He only gets it as a treat at his nana's house.  I think he was trying to manipulate me!      

Teacher's Note: I think that this process shows us that what we see as mundane is exciting to children. I loved the fact that T entered the moment as he began to fill up the cart! Priceless!

MN

1. My first thought was, "What are we doing this weekend?" I then decided that I would depict the plans for Sunday.  On that particular Sunday, the plan for the day was to take E and her friend to hula, pick them up and take them both home for lunch with M, go get the car washed, go and have some shave ice together, go to the grandparents' home to play with their cousins, go swimming in the pool, have dinner at their house, and then go home.  Whew!  It was a busy day.

I then decided to pick the highlights of the day for M.  He really enjoyed the shave ice.  It was the first time he had requested the rainbow flavor.  In the past, he only wanted strawberry.  He also really enjoyed swimming in the pool with his cousins.

I was a little worried about my artistic abilities because they are limited. I had to practice drawing the shave ice before I drew it on the note card.

 2. As I stated above, I decided to pick the highlights of the day for M. I also chose to represent the plan with visual illustrations of the events. Since M  can't read, I decided to draw the shave ice in rainbow colors and draw a picture of his grandparents' pool.  Both drawings would be easily recognizable to M.

3. I recall telling M early that Sunday morning what the plans for the day were going to be. He'll usually ask on the weekend what we are going to do that day.

I didn't show M the plan until I had completed it that evening.  He reacted by smiling from ear to ear.  He seemed very pleased with it. He knew right away that this plan was what we did that day.
 
4. I don't know if I had an aha! moment, but I did have to really think about how I was going to depict the plan for M to understand it.  I wanted him to be able to see the plan and understand what it represented.  I really had to process my thoughts, and I did realize that this is the same thing that M is experiencing as well: the learning process in action.  Clearly, the plan worked because M easily recognized the plan.

Thanks for the thoughtful exercise.

Teacher's Note: I LOVE how you as well as the other parents have shared your thinking to this point about how you felt and worked through the process. This is clearly what we hoped this would bring to the surface for you. Although we can never go back to being a child, through thoughtful and thought-filled provocations such as these you get to experience a small piece of your child’s learning and thinking processes. Processes that we now take for granted as adults are new to children.

Please continue sharing. As new reflections come in, we can add to these!
 

Posted on October 3, 2007 6:57 AM | Permalink