November 2007

LET THEM BE LITTLE

by Nikki Schaefer

Why are we so quick to want to take the "child" out of our child? We are too eager to sign our young children up for classes to learn the perfect dance step, play the perfect chord, and throw the perfect pass. What happened to dancing "just to dance", hitting the chords "just to see how they sound", or throwing a ball, just to watch it go "high"? By over scheduling our children, we are robbing them of one of the most precious gifts that God has given them, and one of the greatest tools for their adulthood….their own childhood. We are busying our young children to the point where they don't have the free time needed to be children.

And what does being a child really mean? To me, it means having the freedom to dance silly without knowing any practiced step, or to sing joyfully without knowing all the words. It means throwing the ball around because it's "just fun", and playing chase around a tree just to run. It means dressing up and pretending to be dogs or cats, or zookeepers or even hyenas (I have had "hyenas" crawling around my house these last few days and it's been delightful).

I am convinced that kids must be allowed to have this freedom …and a good amount of it. If we understand that the most important task for young children is to discover their world and themselves, then we understand how important allowing this "discovery" really is. And mostly, to me, children are incredibly bright, capable, creative beings who have what they need inside of them to direct that discovery. It is up to us to provide an environment that is enticing and interesting with manipulatives and natural materials. It is up to us to allow them to play in nature regularly and often. It is up to us to allow the space needed to explore, to create, to "make hyena dens" and "pine cone castles." This is what being a child is about.

If a child is allowed to do this, then I believe that he or she will discover themselves and discover their world adequately. It is from this solid knowledge then that they will discover who they are and what they love and later determine what it is that they want to explore further. Maybe it will be dance, or football, or piano playing. But whatever it may be, we must allow them the freedom to figure that out through a lot of free exploration first…and we must have the courage to trust that when they are ready, they will want to develop their God given gifts further.

Those are my thoughts for the day as I see too many empty swing sets and too many full minivans with fussy kids and fussy parents. Let's refill our playgrounds, hold back from the "sign ups", and just let them be little! We will all be better because of it.