Addison woke up with a runny nose, a low temp and a lot of meltdown city. So my carefully planned and prepared for morning out wasn't happening. And I was instead on the starting line of a very long day in. With nothing planned. So I do what all teachers have to do on occasion. Occasions like when your special gets cancelled. Or someone pulls the fire alarm. Or there's a snow delay. Or a million other things that we can't control but have to roll with. We wing it. Side note: I'm convinced that teachers can do this better than any one else on earth. Actors, they've got another take if they need it. Comedians, if it doesn't go well they just try again on another audience. Politicians have whole teams of support people and teleprompters. But teachers? We've got to wing it while flying solo. On the first take. And do it so well that our audience IS actually wiser for it. And wing it I did.
I decided to whip up some muffins with the kids... and the teachable moments just unfolded one after the other. I set up all our ingredients, dirtying up far too many dishes in the process, and put it all out on their toddler table. Then we aproned up, and while one kid helped me add an ingredient and stirred the other was exploring the paper muffin cups. Then we'd switch. The whole time I was talking about what we were doing and using appropriate vocabulary like "ingredient" and "batter". I loaded up the muffin cups and put it in the oven while they watched from a safe distance. And then I realized they were still into the cooking thing. So instead of free play, I pulled out a couple of pans, the glass beads and more muffin cups. They stirred, poured and carried those pans of beads around for a long time. When I asked what they were doing Caden said, "Cooking!" : ) : )
That's when we checked on our still-baking muffins and realized that the kids needed an oven too. I was thinking about turning an empty diaper box into an oven but it seemed too light. And would need to be cut. And by then the moment would be over. So I decided to use their cube chairs. I picked them up and put them on the table facing the kids, so that their pans would slide underneath the seat. And they seemed to know what I was doing right away. That was my teachable moment. That in the middle of feeling lost and unplanned, having fun is exactly the right thing to do. That seeing beyond an object's function can lead to lots of creative play. And that going with the interests of the kids always leads to better behavior than forcing my schedule on them.
I handed them oven mitts and we put their pans in the "ovens". They had a grand time sliding them in and out, trying to hold them with the adult sized mitts, and smelling their food when it came out : ) : ) I had to take the chairs down and put them back up a couple of times, each time saying it was my job to move the chairs and asking them to say, "Mommy help" when they needed me. We'll see whether or not I've created a monster...
Anyway, the kids kept peeking through the oven window to watch the muffins rise and when they were finally done they loved smelling them. And feeling the warm muffin cups. They also thought that they made really tasty snacks. Little did I know that a simple decision to make muffins would result in a morning full of playful learning!
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