Conflict in the crèche

I gazed in despair at the spacious but austere classroom, its furniture arranged neatly around the walls. Where were the enticing “corners” for independent creative activities, for browsing through books, for imaginative play, for exploring mathematical concepts? My bemused Turkish assistant, Deniz, looked on aghast as I pushed and shoved the cumbersome shelves and cupboards around until something resembling my idea of a crèche was created. It remained to be seen whether my helper, who eventually sprang to my assistance, would be convinced that my creation of chaos out of order would actually benefit the kids in our joint care.

A new activity

With some trepidation I decided to introduce an activity we nursery school teachers dub the “tough spot.” This was always a favorite with children in my previous jobs. Lacking the necessary container, a large plastic bowl, bought from the market provided the answer. Each day, as I had done before, I filled it with a whole variety of “interesting” substances, from sand to water, from cooked spaghetti to lentils, from dripping corn flour mixtures to sawdust -- and many more. The messier the better, in my opinion. The children could use their tactile sense to experiment, to learn new concepts and words and increase their concentration. It was always fun, and best of all, no one could fail at this game.

As I’d feared, Deniz looked on in horrified amazement at the ensuing mess. Lentils scattered all over the floor, flour on the kids’ tops and in their hair, strands of pasta stuck to the chairs. This was testing Turkish house-proudness to its limits. To begin with, Deniz would hover at a distance, jumping in at any sign of a break in the children’s interest with an attempt to tidy the whole thing away. “No” I would exclaim in my best pidgin Turkish, “the children might want to return to this later on.” Indeed they often would -- building on their first exploration and enjoying sharing the experience with different friends.

It took some time, much patience and many a judicious compromise until, eventually, I would catch Deniz smiling as she watched the children’s delighted faces. Before too long she was plunging her hands into the delicious mess and laughing along with the children.

Next battle -- artwork! This, I strongly believe should always be the children’s own work. My helper had been trained rather differently. The topic for the month, being “ourselves,” I wanted the kids to paint a self-portrait. The 3-year-olds in my group set to with enthusiasm, with the occasional head or limb appearing on the paper, but mostly they just painted the whole sheet of paper with their favorite color. “Fantastic” I said to all and sundry. “Brilliant” and “well done.” (There would always be time later in their artistic creations for some constructive criticism.)

Glancing over at the group working with the helper, I saw that Deniz had drawn the outlines of the heads and bodies for them and was busily guiding their hands to make sure the paint went inside the lines. It took me an age to persuade her that it was OK to put all the children’s’ work on the wall, no matter what it looked like. Blobs and scrawls are fine by me, as the tricky process of forming them encourages the kids’ self-confidence and independence. I have won a few battles here, but the war continues -- for Deniz the priority remains neat outlines. At the first opportunity, I explained my policy of insisting the kids produce their own artwork. Most parents accepted my reasoning quite happily, but for some neatness remains next to godliness.

Working with 3-year-olds

Deniz was used to teaching new concepts such as counting, number recognition and writing patterns through the ubiquitous “worksheet.” To my mind, worksheets and 3-year-olds are a contradiction in terms. Their use may, eventually, encourage “listening to instruction-type skills” or “pencil control,” but generally, they fail to teach a new concept effectively to 3-year olds. Kids need to be actively involved, moving around, asking questions, playing and having fun. So again I had to encourage Deniz to modify her more formal teaching methods and adopt a more hands-on, practical approach. Once she realized how much the children were enjoying these play-based learning techniques, she was more than happy to adopt these strategies herself.

Overall, I was very pleased with the progress the children were making. Deniz was beginning to enjoy the messier side of teaching, and the kids were delighted to be having fun at the crèche. But what about the parents? After all they were the ones who paid, albeit indirectly, my wages. Were they happy with how things were? Well -- it seemed they were. Many reported that at home they had noticed a difference in their child. For example, they were keen to do everything independently, from getting themselves dressed in the morning through to reading rather than being read to. Others were pleased to find their child asking to do activities they’d previously shunned, such as drawing and puzzles.