The Senses - Some Stuff to Consider by Judy Lyden

It's a go, go, go week once again. Today is cranberry and popcorn strings. The children should really like this activity. Parents are invited. What does this teach? It's an activity that explores the properties of touch. Too often we forget to reach out and touch. There are some personalities who rarely if ever use their hands to understand. The idea that through sight we understand all things, is a sad thing because sight is only one of the senses. Touching allows us to more fully understand the nuances of being alive and what that life is all about. It's through touch that we demonstrate kindness, affection, and get those feelings returned.

Too often we neglect the senses all together. We abuse taste by clinging to an archetype of what "food should taste like." Tasting new things is often as difficult as jumping from a 50 foot tower, so we stick with white bread and canned soup and the right brand of peanut butter never dreaming that peanut butter can be mixed with a hundred different things and served on a hundred different things. Ever thought of horseradish and peanut butter on lamb?

We use our vision to look, but do we really see, and is that sight making an impact, or is what we see pushed aside for just the important mundane? If we need to watch the sidewalk to see where we are going, do we notice the clouds today, or what's in the window or who is in the parking lot? I'm not a visual person. I often drive someplace and not remember how I got there. My visuals are often imagination. When I do stop to look around, I am always delighted by what I see. Children need to look to really see the world. That's what taking time out for field trips and watching for snow, and going out side for another "look on the world."

We hear but do we really listen? What are we listening for? We always joke that men listen for the dinner chime and the word "yes," but are we ladies listening for anything better? Are we listening to what is really being said? What about the music we listen to? Are we aware of new things in that music or do we just pass the time? Teaching children to sing means being very aware of "how the music goes." It's not an easy thing to do.

Do we really listen to what others are saying, or do we just expect others to say what we think they should say. Are we listening for the response we want, and do we get mad when the response is other. Getting a new or funny response should make us laugh. Too often it just makes us angry, and that's a shame. When a child responds to, "You have your shoes on the wrong feet," and they respond, "But, Miss Judy, they're the only feet I have," it should make me laugh. Life does not happen in a box. Life happens outside the box. Boxes are for storage not for living.

And smells. I joke with the children that I like the smell of skunk and they laugh because they are taught to hate that smell. Personally, I hate the smell of bleach - especially old bleach. We are taught to like and dislike certain smells. Smells teach us about the world and other people. They teach us about health and safety when it comes to food. Smell teaches us about beauty.

So today we will take on the job of making holiday strings of popcorn and cranberries. In stringing the popcorn, we will experience the course feel of the corn, the brittleness, the question, where to I put the needle? It's a discovery zone for kids as they work out the logistics of the soft pliable corn. The cranberries are the opposite. They are hard and slick. They are juicy rather than dry and they are bright rather than dull.

The last, and perhaps the most interesting part of today's activity is the one to one correspondence of stringing one kernel and one berry for a pattern. This is a hard math concept for many children. They don't see it until about age 4. Patterns are important in math skills because upper math has definite patterns which must be understood. If patterns - any patterns - are a new concept for children in grammar school, they will be behind and they may never understand. The project in preschool is to teach and learn about all kinds of patterns and activities that lend themselves to learning about patterns. Patterns don't just exist in the math arena, they exist all over the place, and children need to learn to pick them out.

So it's a project worth doing. Hopefully, at the end of the project, the children will have something nice to take home with them. And that's another thing... taking things home, but maybe we'll leave that for next time.