Margaret Watkinson

When we observe, we take note of what is. We use our senses to see, hear and touch that which just ‘is’. Observing children is importing to learning about what they know, how they approach new or familiar activities, people, materials, foods and events. Learning how to sit back and just watch and listen without interpreting can give you a lot of information. We think we are observing, watching what a child or group of children are doing when we really are actively interpreting, just waiting to interject our solutions, ideas and comments. Just waiting for someone to get hurt, get out of hand, need a lift or a prompt.

When you decide to observe, pick up a piece of paper and pencil, take a seat and just watch. Decide what, or who you will focus your attention on. Decide on an amount of time- maybe 10 minutes? Jot down the time, and what you hear and what you see. If your child is accustomed to your being very involved with their playing, eating or process, you might jot down each time they initiate drawing you in. Or you might jot down what they are able to do without your involvement. Of course if something dangerous is up, you’ll need to interject but you might be surprised at what you see your child, or children do.

When you are done, then interpret what you saw or heard. Without putting your child’s intentions or emotions into any behavior/what they did, can you see where adding a new material, or making something accessible or removing a distraction will assist in your child’s growing skill, ability or independence? If the toy box or blocks were dumped, did your child just walk away or start to look for inspiration to start a novel activity because they weren’t advised to pick up, or warned they might get hurt. How did they problem solve?

We learn a lot about our kids by observation. We can assess what they know, what they are working on and how we might approach teaching them a new concept because we noticed they are ready to start on it!

Enjoy playing and being with your child(ren), of course! Equally enlightening is learning to really observe what they are able to do when left a bit on their own so that we can facilitate new learning and play experiences.