A Pretty Little Q

            As a seasoned Jumpstart Corps Member, I know a thing or two about Center Time. To start, there are five of them. Some are frequented more than others, like Dramatic Play and Art. Some, like Books and Puzzles and Manipulatives, you practically have to get on your hands and knees and beg for a little Jumpstart friend to join you.

Then there’s the Writing Center. On the surface, it seems like a pretty easy center to manage; you sit, pull out a box of colored pencils, and watch beautiful children practice writing their “ABCs.” Sounds simple enough, right? Wrong.

See, the thing is, about two minutes after a child sits down at the “Writing” Center, the center seems to suddenly turn into the “Drawing” Center. I see it happen all the time, where kids-either out of frustration or boredom-quit writing their name and instead try and draw a motorcycle, or boat. This, of course, is not necessarily a bad thing, as drawing does help in developing their motor and cognitive skills. But writing, more so than drawing, is what helps kids tax a different set of muscles, muscles that help improve their language and literacy skills, that help enhance their vocabulary word bank, and that help them grow.

Naturally then, whenever I see my Jumpstart friends steering off course-playing a little game of Pictionary instead of practicing how to write the letter “P”-I try to redirect their attention. Each time proves challenging, as kids often have a hard time finding the fun in letters as they do in pictures. I try to explain that the same message can be delivered using letters stringed together in a certain order, but gradually their interest starts to wan. I’m lucky enough if I get them to write their full name on a piece of clean white paper.

But last Jumpstart session, something magically happened; something I’ve never really seen before.

There were two girls; one who I knew could write on a first-grade level, and one that barely knew all the letters of the alphabet. Naturally, I had grabbed a seat closest to the one who was struggling, only to find that she was already being helped by the advanced one. Looking over their shoulders, I heard the precocious child say,

“That’s right, that’s right! Now, you need to write a “Q”, write a pretty little “Q” like this,” she says as she takes out a sharpened pencil and demonstrates. Her student follows her directions carefully. Cautiously, she draws a lopsided “Q.”

“Is this OK?” she asks.

“That is a perfect little ‘Q,’” her teacher replies. “Perfect.”

Beaming at them, I finally enter the conversation.

 “Yes, yes. How perfect. How pretty. How beautiful.”

           

Leila Nasser, Team Curiosity