Month: November 2021

My sister, Jeanne, enjoys my blog and recently shared with me her own experience with how a four year old takes language literally. This is her story in her own words:

Years ago, I worked at the Vallejo Home in Sonoma State Historic Park in California. One of my favorite groups to visit was a preschool group. I looked forward to their annual visit. The children would walk the 1/4 mile from the town square. I could see them coming, two-by-two, on the paved path across the field in front of Vallejo Home. I would be wearing the big hoop-skirted blue dress waiting to greet them to give them a tour of General Mariano Guadalupe Vallejo’s home.

In the courtyard before going inside, I loved to say we would be going through a time tunnel when we stepped through the front door. We would finish the tour going out and up to the reservoir built just above the home to capture the spring water as the water source. The General named his home in Latin “Lachyrma Montis,” meaning “tears of the mountain.”

As we ended the tour coming down the stone stairs, I saw a teacher trying to comfort a child who had started crying. The teacher came over to me with the child. I got down to the child’s height and asked, “What’s happened?”

The child’s teacher said the child missed going through “the tunnel!” That day I learned that every word said to the preschool children was taken literally!

How did we stop the child’s crying? Thinking quickly, I gathered up the children and said we were going back up the stairs to the reservoir to see the tunnel in case they missed it. Fortunately, the old vining roses growing along the walkway made an arch over it. The teachers and I made sure all the children looked up as they walked through this “tunnel!” No more tears. And a very humble tour guide who learned a valuable lesson about communicating with four year olds!

Theresa’s note: I love how Jeanne thought on her feet and made her mind think literally like a four year old does! Her quick thinking changed the abstract “time tunnel” into a literal physical “tunnel” for the children to observe and remember.
So often in my preschool class, I find myself changing my language to speak literally with images that children can clearly understand.

Theresa Young, Lenape KIddie Kollege, Medford, NJ

We recently had “Photo Day” at my nursery school, and this reminded me of my all- time favorite preschool story. This happened many years ago during one of my first years teaching four year olds. It’s about a boy’s casual observations of his dad.

It was photo day at my school. The kids had arrived in their cutest splendor. Their clothes were pressed, their hair was gelled; in general, they looked quite spiffy.

As each child was next up to be photographed by Miss Maggie, I’d kneel on the floor running a comb through their hair fixing stray strands, adjusting collars, etc.

So here I was face to face with Mitchell.* As I combed his hair out of his eyes, Mitchell was chattering on and on as he often did.

At one point he said, “My Dad takes his hair off and goes over to Knuckleheads and gets his real hair cut. Then he comes home and puts his hair back on.”

I fell back laughing. Mitchell stared at me. I realized that with his stare, he was communicating to me “why are you laughing and exactly what was so funny about that?”

I pulled myself together. I was thinking that in Mitchell’s world, this behavior of his dad was completely normal. Surely everyone’s dad does this! He probably thinks that all dads take off their hair, go and get a haircut and come home to “put their hair back on.”

So, I composed myself and nonchalantly asked Mitchell, “Does it ever make you laugh when Daddy takes his hair off?”

Mitchell thought for a moment. “No,” he said. He paused; then he continued, “But you want to know what he does that makes me laugh?”

“What makes you laugh, MItchell?”

“When Daddy takes his teeth out.”

True story!
I never shared Mitchell’s remarks with his mom; she would have been mortified. Nor could I look his dad in the eye when he’d come to pick up his son. I just knew too much- thanks to Mitchell and his hilarious comments!

This true story is shared by Theresa Young, director of Lenape Kiddie Kollege in Medford, NJ. *Only the name of “Mitchell” has been changed to protect his (and his dad’s!) identity.