Starting with Structure - A Bench

At times, life with a toddler and a baby seems completely chaotic. Play evolves from racing trucks to building towns of blocks, the inevitable destruction of the blocks, and finally a call to Mistress Mouse (thanks, Richard Scarry) and her tow truck to aid the fallen victims to the shop where a doctor can attend to their injuries. The only structure seems defined by meals.

There is more structure to be seen. It is my job to be sure that the activities provide opportunities for the children to use all seven of their senses, to let their imaginations to soar, and to learn in the wonderful way of the preschool years.

There is more structure to be had. It is my new job to see their world through the eyes of a practiced Playground Physicist. That way I can be sure that they are the smartest little Playground Physicists that they can be. Now, don't worry. I do not intend to sit them down (ever) and explain at length about surface tension or force and motion. I just want to capitalize on their experiments. Here is an example:

Anna was not quite six months old and yet she was a thorough Playground Physicist researching gravity. Everything she could get her hands on was visually inspected, tasted, hit against something, and eventually let go. Inevitably, things came crashing to the ground until one day I gave her a string that was attached to a helium balloon. Suddenly, her world rocked. When she let go of this thing, it didn't fall.

So, there I was chuckling at her experience of the world, at her investigation being inconclusive, and I thought that it was just wonderful. She is developing her curiosity, her persistence, her scientific mind...surely, she's Harvard-bound. Or maybe she's just being a baby.

Either way, for my own sake, I want some structure for understanding her development and I am going to consider it from a Playground Physics standpoint. This is where I'll start - at the Benchmarks for Science Literacy.

Project 2061
"The terms and circumstances of human existence can be expected to change radically during the next human life span. Science, mathematics, and technology will be at the center of that change—causing it, shaping it, responding to it. Therefore, they will be essential to the education of today's children for tomorrow's world. What should the substance and character of such education be? The purpose of this report is to propose an answer to that question."

http://www.project2061.org/publications/bsl/online/index.php