December 12, 2011
Lay hold of the words your father gives you.
-Maori Proverb
Exchange's popular Out of the Box Training Kit,
"Sparking Imagination," is built on two articles, one of which,
"Recycled Materials," includes this observation by Lella Gandini from
Reggio Children:-Maori Proverb
"For a child the world is full of things to touch, to reach, to hold, to explore, and thus discover. If we observe as very young children engage in their explorations, we will see that they let us know precisely what is attracting their interest. Early in their development, infants react in a very personal way to light and sound, to people, and to objects. They learn to concentrate on what they see and then gradually make movements that eventually bring them into contact with the objects in the sphere of their interest and within their reach. We can notice how a child reacts both to a familiar object and to a new one and over time how personal these reactions are. Observing infants in a good infant/toddler center, where everything has been thoughtfully chosen and arranged with the very children who are there in mind, we see evidence as soon as they begin to move within that space, of children’s inexhaustible passion to explore and experiment with what attracts them."
