theinfamousmissbeth

The following conversation recently took place between two four year old little boys:  Boy #1-  You are suppose to share. Boy #2-  I know. Boy #1-  Well, you're not! Ahh. Sharing. Now that's an interesting concept in the world of young children.  What exactly is sharing? According to one definition, sharing  is agreeably giving one's possessions to others.  Sharing is also defined and viewed as a pro-social behavior. It is intended to benefit other people and society as a whole. For grown-ups this is not such a hard thing to do. We share our time, energy, and finances, among other things, with our family members and friends. For young children, "sharing" is not viewed in the same enlightened manner. This is sometimes hard for teachers and parents of young children to understand and come to terms with.  I n an article written for Early Childhood News , Sue Grossman, an assistant professor of early childhood education at Eastern Michigan University, talks

I'm sure everybody can remember a grown-up or grown-ups that played a role in helping them, teaching them, or guiding them through childhood. Teachers, doctors, Sunday school teachers, ministers, librarians, nurses, babysitters, aunts, uncles, grandparents, and of course, parents just to name a few.  It seems to me that little kids had a lot of grown-ups involved in their lives back in the day. I know that I did and I feel very fortunate to have had them. So what exactly do little kids need from the grown-ups in their lives? In a nutshell, warm, nurturing, supportive relationships with significant adults is essential for optimal brain growth and development. Learning, both cognitive and emotional, can not take place until children feel physically and psychologically safe. By their very nature, little kids are not too knowledgeable about the world around them and they appear to have no visible means of support.  For those reasons, they need adults to provide nutritious food,