Wednesday, June 11, 2014

The Sincerity Project

Recently, I have been thinking about my roots as a teacher of early childhood education. As the boys grow into the teen and tween stages, we are leaving early childhood behind in our family, and I've been thinking about what a truly special time early childhood is in life.

I have been thinking about something else, too, and that is the idea of taking children seriously. It's very easy to just blow off a child's ideas, and the younger a child is, the easier it is to make that mistake.

It really is a mistake – a child who gets the message that his or her ideas do not have merit will stop sharing those ideas, and may even stop having them.

So, if you have kids in your home or your life, try to take them seriously. Try to honor their ideas and their attempts at communicating them. Because children who are taken seriously when they are young grow into people whose ideas can have a big impact in our world.

2 comments:

jugglingpaynes said...

Beautifully put! And beautiful photos!

Sparklee said...

Wonderful post, wonderful thoughts. I worry that there are many parents who believe that if they give their kids too much power/control over their own lives, they are "spoiling" them. But teaching children that their ideas, needs, and desires are legitimate and important really does seem to translate into better-adjusted, more confident, and happier human beings. Isn't that what we want?