What Can A Two-Year-Old Teach Us About Visiting Seniors?
Visiting one of our Grandmas
At All Seasons Preschool we work hard to center students in our educational plans, goals, and activities. Teachers observe children with deep attention and work to understand their thought processes, why they do what they do, and what we might be able to use or learn from their thinking, play, and struggles. Sometimes as a parent, this same kind of deep observation of my own children can reveal similar useful insights.
In the midst of this back-to-school season, I sent my eldest child to kindergarten, leaving me lots of time with my youngest, an ebullient and curious two-year-old. With this time, I’ve found myself watching my little girl carefully and as I do, I’m discovering something interesting about her. On our walks through the neighborhood, she grabs any flowers she finds beautiful right off their stems and cheerfully waves hello to each person we pass. She asks to knock on the neighbors’ doors, even though the chances of them being home are slim. Her litmus test for whether or not to do something is much simpler than ours is as adults. While we weigh the consequences, the morality, and the safety of the choices before us, she seems to ask herself: “Would this be fun?” “Is it exciting?” If the answer is yes, then it’s something she should do right now!
While this spontaneous approach isn’t right in every circumstance, there is a real lesson to be learned from it, and it’s one we’ve taken to heart here at the beginning of this year with our seniors at Inver Glen. Visiting the seniors is of course introduced very intentionally, with lots of role playing and norms shared, but that’s where the rigidity ought to end. Too often, when working to interact with the seniors at school, we teachers overthink it. We worry we might be interrupting or messing up a schedule; we wonder if they’d even care about the visit or activity, or if we’ve given them enough time to prepare. Sometimes we, as educators, would be much better off adopting my daughter’s thought process: “Would this be fun? Is this exciting? Let’s do it now!”
So far this year, the Autumn Room has had tremendous success with this approach. For example, our class decided, on the absolute spur of the moment, to invite the entire building to our butterfly release the morning we planned to do it. Posters decorated by students went up in the elevators and mailroom only three hours before the event. On the walk to place the posters, students knocked on any doors they chose to invite the residents to the butterfly release. When the time came, we had an enormous crowd of fifteen buzzing, delighted seniors waiting for us on the patio! Students and seniors cuddled together to share information about the monarchs, and everyone clapped as the butterflies flew off.
Looking at a photo of a monarch chrysalis together
Another time, we stopped by our classroom-reader-Grandma’s home unannounced, and she was thrilled to see us. She gave each student a Hershey’s kiss as a thank you for coming, which of course endeared her to the students even more! Following excitement and fun helps to set the tone for the magic between seniors and students to happen. Organize a loose party, knock on a door. The rest takes care of itself!
Now, of course this kind of unplanned, spontaneous approach doesn’t yield success 100% of the time. When my daughter asks, “Is this fun? Would this be exciting?” it sometimes leads to unsuccessful ventures. As she attempts to decimate my neighbor’s marigolds, she’s met with a stern “Stop, please!” When she asks to stop by her grandparents’ home to see if they are around, often they are not. What is refreshing about reframing your approach to that of a young toddler or preschooler is that achieving success isn’t the point. Perhaps on a random visit to the seniors, you encounter a grumpy grandma. Oh well; good try! The fun and exciting part was knocking on the door, not the expectation of what comes next. Not only does this lighten the lift for the teacher, but it also teaches students to manage disappointment and reflect upon what has worked or not. Lessons abound!
Using my daughter’s approach as a framework for considering what might be fun or exciting for both my class and the seniors has made introducing our seniors a delightfully painless process. All I had to do was take the wisdom my 2-year-old had to share about interacting with her world and tap into what it is the seniors enjoy most about our preschoolers: their spontaneity, curiosity, and joy. It’s contagious and everything unfolds from there!
Releasing the butterflies