I snapped this photo a few years ago. My girl was 3. She picked up an Underground ticket and a pair of scissors. She then proceeded to cut it.
I was curious and watched from a distance. Her focus was intense. Within a space of about 30 seconds she was done and handed me the little cut-out of the Underground logo and then ran off to do something completely different.
As a parent, of course, my heart melted a little bit, but not just because she gave me a gift. It was more that I could see the intention of what she was doing. Her skills and accuracy kind of blew my mind. The Underground logo probably had a width of 2cm.
However, in addition to that, I knew this was the outcome of practice. She had been going to a Montessori Nursery and cutting is one of the things they practice. I could see she was processing what she was learning outside in the real world, without instruction and all out of her own motivation.
No deep insights here, but it got me thinking about:
- How we can and should observe what our children do
- The outcomes of education can show up in random times and places in our lives
- Montessori has a specific approach to education which helped me connect my child's actions to what I know she learns at nursery
- Cutting is an important foundational skill, we should value it more in society
- Thank god she chose to cut something that wasn't of value!
