Kids Say (and Do) the Darndest Things

This is a pictureless post, so beware. I have been visiting preschools and kindergartens and interacting with the kids for the last couple of weeks, and I'm here to tell you kids are so fun and all soooo different!!! What fun it has been to interact with 3-, 4-, and 5-year-olds. They have such varying personalities, and they are so inventive when it comes to answering questions. Some of them talk a mile a minute, and others won't say a word. They are surprisingly trusting and very delightful.

One little girl today was so taken with the little stories I was telling her that, when we were done, she went and got a little book and brought it back for me to read to her. One little boy, when we were finished with the tasks, promptly gave me and the student working with me a big hug before going back to class. When I went back the next day, he again came up and hugged me as soon as he saw me. You can't believe the stories I heard as I went through the little tasks. These children are so innocent and pure.

As part of my job, I have been working on a set of tasks that are used to assess how well young children can hear rhymes. We do this by showing them a picture, saying to them a little 4-line rhyme about the picture, and asking them to give us the final word that completes the rhyme. This is followed up by another picture that depicts the "answer" word. Interestingly, we hired Julianne as our artist who created the pictures for these tasks. Then it happened that John's wife Megan's classroom was one in which we administered the tasks. Finally, I wasn't originally supposed to be one of the people administering these tasks, but things have worked out such that I have been doing a great deal of it. It has sort of become a family affair, without any planning or intention.