Balance

Scott McCredie in his book Balance: In Search of the Lost Sense calls balance the sixth sense.  For the most part, we take it for granted not realizing that it affects everything we do.  It operates subconsciously in real time.  Balance is a moving target, never static, because we are always moving and making complex but subtle adjustments to stay upright.  Gill Connell and Cheryl McCarthy in their book A Moving Child is a Learning Child state: "It[balance] must be learned. And the only way to learn balance is through movement---all different kinds of movement experienced many times in many varied ways."(p. 84).

How can that happen in an early childhood classroom?  I actually think it can and should happen all throughout an early childhood classroom.  Instead of looking for examples throughout the room, however, I would like to examine different balancing strategies children employ at the sand and water table around just one apparatus.  I could choose almost any apparatus I have built, but I will choose one of my favorites from 2013 I call tall cardboard tubes and ropes.  

 

In the picture below, the child uses her torso, arms and chin propped against the table itself to keep her balance as she scoops the pellets to fill her metal bowl. 

That type of balancing is quite common, even for adults.  For example. we often lean up against a counter top when we cook.

Below is another way to use the table to perform a more dynamic balancing operation.  The child balances on the lip of the table on his abdomen.

He is able to do that because he bends his knees so his feet move toward the center of gravity closer to his abdominal balancing point.  In addition, he grabs the lip of the table with his left hand for greater stability.  This balancing operation allows him to reach further into the table to scoop pellets with his metal measuring cup.

In the photo below, the child in the lavender shirt is not leaning up against the table for balance.  Rather, she leans over and into the table, but she extends her backside away from the table for counter balance.

Her balancing looks a bit strained.  One reason for that is she grabs the lip of the bucket to help balance.  However, the bucket hangs on the rope by a S hook so it sways with very little force.  Is she steadying herself with her left hand at the same time she tries to steady the bucket?  
 

Below is another nice bit of balancing by a child.  This child is pouring pellets from his metal pot into the top of one of the cardboard tubes.   To do that, he steps up onto the stool, stands on his tip toes, reaches up as high as he can and deposits the pellets into the top of the tube.

This child performs a little different type of balance.  This balance is on a vertical with a fairly narrow base comprised of his tip toes.  Besides the fact that he is doing an operation fully extended and over his head, this balancing requires the child to stay balanced as he hastily pours his pellets. He uses his left hand to grab a hole in the tube to steady himself, but that does not take away from the vertical nature of his balancing act.
 

In the photo below, the child is balancing using the thin ropes threaded through some of the holes in one of the cardboard tubes.

This child leans back as he pulls on the ropes.  If he were to let go, or if the rope would break, or if the heavily duct taped tube broke free of the table (highly unlikely), the child would fall backwards.  In essence, he balancing on a thread.  However, the thread does not stop him from swinging back and forth.  Rather, he uses his knees against the red tub to keep him from tipping over sideways.
 

Here is one more example of a child performing a balancing act on the apparatus.  The child stands on the thin lip of the table almost like a tight rope walker with her body straight and her arms out to the side.  She even splays the fingers on her left hand to help her balance.

She does hold the top of the one of the tubes to aid in balancing, but the look on her face makes me think she is ready to let go of the tube to demonstrate her acrobatic balancing skills.

I have only given a few examples around one apparatus.  Believe me, their are so many more.  And with each new apparatus, the children find new ways to test their balance.  I contend that if we look closely enough, the children  are constantly finding ways throughout the classroom to challenge and fine tune their ability to balance physically, socially and psychologically .  Just maybe being off balance is important for all learning---metaphorically speaking.

Gifts and gratitude

I have over 25,000 images of children in the classroom from my work as an early childhood educator.  Even though I am retired, I am still able to revisit life in the classroom through those images.  Recently I was thinking about how those images testified to the fact that the children offered me gifts every day.  Those gifts often came in the form of attention and engagement to what I offered to them in terms of classroom setup, materials and provocations.  However, those gifts were as unique as each child.  Follow me around the classroom to find just a few examples of those gifts.

Below is a photo of a child who crawled inside a big box next to the sensory table.  He used the small blue pail to plug the cardboard tube.  When the children at the top of the tube indicated that the tube was full, the child in the box pulled the pail from the bottom of the tube and watched the pellets drain into the box.

The gift this child offered me was a gift of wonder, the wonder of experiencing how his actions of plugging and unplugging generated a gush of pellets.  

In the picture below, two children were playing basketball in the large muscle area of the room.  I purposefully set out the steps to add a challenge their sport.

 

Their gift to me was a gift of engagement.  They took my offer of steps with the basketball hoop to more fully engage their bodies.  The endeavor became much more than just shooting a basket.  By engaging with the steps, it encompassed climbing, jumping, reaching, shooting, flying and landing. 
 

The children pictured below were also in the large muscle area.  They were playing their own made-up game of basketball. The child sitting on the ledge held the basket above his head as the others attempted to throw the balls into the basket.  The child holding the basket kept moving the basket so it was not so easy to make a basket.

The gift here was a gift of creativity.  These children created an original game that included an unique challenge of a moving target.
 

In the photo below, the children found a bin of small tree cookies on the manipulative shelf.  They proceeded to build a structure using all the tree cookies.  Since the tree cookies were irregular in size and shape, the children were forced to make many minute adjustments to get all the tree cookies to balance.

The gift here was one of executing a shared idea.   The attention to each other's moves made the balancing and building possible.  The shared idea was not the tower of tree cookies but an active idea of how to proceed step by step.

In the picture below, the child drew a picture from a photograph on the wall of a block structure he had built the week before.  He did his drawing on a white board that I held for him.

The gift here was one of noticing.  He paid careful attention to the photograph of his previous block structure so he could recreate it on the white board.

The picture below was taken in the block area.  In the photo the child put together a large floor puzzle of a tiger.  After completing the puzzle, he used blocks to outline the puzzle.

The gift here was one of original thinking.  The child decided to combine two completely different materials in a unique way to create an original work.
 

The photo below was taken at the writing table.  The child used the plasticine and wire that was provided to make a rainbow.

The gift here was one of bringing her best thinking to her undertaking.  Her best thinking included using her hands to make the wire bows for the rainbow arcs and to embed them in the plasticine. 

The picture below was taken in the housekeeping area.  The child appropriated all the scarfs to accessorize his outfit.

The gift here was one of unbridled experimentation.  The child was able to put a scarf on his head, around his neck and around his waist.  Where did the fourth one go?
 

In the photo below, a child used the window as a vertical platform to create a stained glass with window blocks. 

The gift here was her tacit insight that she had license to transform the classroom.  That is all the more impressive because the child also knew she could stand on the ledge , which was three feet off the ground, in order to complete her masterpiece. 

Though the children did not think they were giving me gifts, they were teaching me to see the world through ever new and ingenious ways.  They were my best teachers who never stopped offering their unique gifts.  For that I am eternally grateful.