Things that are important...

Today the project "Through the Eyes of the Child" was officially shared with the children... we have been supporting the children's discovery and use of the camera for a while, trying to get them to think about what they are taking photographs of and not be click happy...

We presented it as a "mission", a "challenge" - and the children were immediately interested... and even more interested when they found out that this was something that the children were to decide and not us adults.

It was interesting to see that it was not SO easy to stop saying "we" and instead say "you" - in Vinden we always make decisions together - adults and children together. BUT this time the children are to make all the decisions, and we are just facilitators for the entire process.

It was also interesting to hear how some of the children thought that the adults could take the photos... and they needed reminding how it was only the children that were to take the photographs.

We asked the children what is it that they in Vinden think was important and wanted to share with other children around the world. Each child had the opportunity to share what they thought was important... for some these things were very personal at home important things that had nothing to do with the preschool... or even common ground wth others in the group. BUT at the end of the discussion we discovered there were four areas that the children valued the most...

PLAY... with ALL the children agreeing that this was something important...
LOVE... with all but one thinking this was important
TO PAINT... with all but one thinking this was important
TRAFFIC SAFETY... with all but one thinking that this was important

"mamma" was also there as a possibility, with all but two... but it felt that four possible topics with the most interest was enough for the children to focus on.

The children were asked HOW they were going to make a photograph of PLAY; LOVE; PAINTING: and TRAFFIC SAFETY and they had various ideas... so the seeds were planted and now it is in the children's hands, with scaffolding from us...

The children played outside, taking photographs of their play, arranging cuddles to show love... and later in the afternoon they took photographs of their painting, of playing "magic potions" which turned out to be a "love potion" and of toy cars... they even created LOVE arrangements that they took photographs of...

SO
Over the coming week we are collecting photographs... and next week we will start the process of choosing WHICH photograph they want to share with the world on "Through the Eyes of the Child"

I have seen them, and I have favourites already... but I am keeping quiet. I am SO curious to see what the children will choose... will they all think the same, and what will the decision process be like, how will they manage that? AND will they need help from us. Hopefully not... hopefully the philosophical dialogues we have had for the last year will have given them a good base to form their decisions upon...

arranging love photos

this is PLAY... this is LOVE

I have made "love"

the LOVE potion... mixing coloured water, oil, washing-up liquid, scented water and glitter...

 If you are wondering why we made magic potions... it is an activity to meet the needs the children have for mixing liquids... at lunch time they are wanting to experiment with mixing milk and water... to the extent they want to mix more than they want to drink.