A great and helpful article from one of our favorite on-line early childhood newsletters: www.childcareexchange.com. Food for thought re: conflict/conflict resolution.

In the Beginnings Workshop Book — Behavior, Nancy Carlsson-Paige and Diane Levin outlined the developmental factors that influence how young children think about conflict and conflict resolution:

• Young children tend to focus on one thing at a time. The one thing they think about is often their own point of view.  This can lead to their being unable to think about what they want and what someone else wants at the same time.  And, when they are caught up in thinking about what they want, it is hard to think about a possible positive solution at the same time…
• Young children usually focus on the concrete and visible aspects of a conflict rather than on internal, less visible factors.  The conflicts they have and the ways they think of to resolve them are usually based on concrete actions, materials, and physical features.
• It is hard for young children to figure out the effects of their actions on others in a logical way, especially when it comes to thinking about the consequences of their behavior in advance.
• Young children have a hard time working out how to get from one state of affairs to another — making the transformation from a conflict to a positive solution.  To do this requires such skills as thinking about more than one thing at a time, planning actions in advance, and taking two points of view into account.

When Lisa walked out this morning, she noticed the mama Morning Dove and one of her babies on the fence post. After some exploration, friends found the baby and chased it to the corner of the yard that it could protect itself.

Everybody checked each other out.

Even the mama.

Nate spotted the baby bird’s sibling! Now friends studied two baby birds who lost their mama.

Mama bird let us know she was near and looking for her babes.

Our friends have been wonderful stewards of our garden.

Nate kept watch, alerting friends to be mindful of the trapped baby bird.

 

Mama and Daddy bird eventually rescued one of their babes. When we realized the other babe would not be found, the WF Matriarch came to the rescue.

With heavy winter gloves, Melinda carefully returned the baby bird to its family.

 

And omygosh, when those baby birds were reunited, they nuzzled together and pecked at each other. We also saw the Mama and Daddy bird nuzzling each other. Beautiful. Very happy Wee Friends.

When we came inside, everyone settled into their work.

We’ve discovered how much Elizabeth loves ballet. We experimented with several different genres of music to find the right ballet music for her and her friends to dance to.

She did like Tchaikovsky’s “Sleeping Beauty” and John Denver’s “Take Me Home, Country Roads”, but did not like the chant-like Faure Requiem: V. Finn did everything he could to get “Dynamite” spinning, but it just didn’t happen this morning. Melinda’s creative music time had them stretching their bodies and identifying body parts.

Wee Sprouts: Fresh garden tomatoes. Breakfast: Chex and pear slices. Lunch: Melted cheddar cheese on whole wheat tortillas, apple slices and pea pods. Snack: Hard boiled eggs and a frozen treat: a banana on a stick, dipped in a yogurt/pb spread.

Have a great day.