As a little girl, I remember my sisters and I tagging along occasionally in the summers as my Dad visited his classroom for various reasons we often paid no attention to. While he might be doing an inventory of equipment and compiling orders of beakers, burners, and other scientific tools, we would explore the old and often empty building, climb up and down what we thought were dramatic staircases, play school, draw on the chalkboards, etc. My memories are foggy but happy ones.
What has forever been vivid in my mind though is the message he always displayed in his classroom, a poster of Dr. King’s Streetsweeper Speech. It is honestly one of the reasons I so adore and respect Dr. King.
Obviously, the legacy of Dr. King is immense. It’s impossible to put into words. He left this Earth too young, and yet left us SO much. So many timeless lessons. Love not hate. The dangers of staying silent in the face of injustice. The merits of hard work. As a man, of course he was flawed, and we should remember that as a lesson too.
During the past two weeks of Story Spark classes (my blossoming little local business), we have had lots of fun being silly with the classic story of The 3 Little Pigs. This all started with the simple fact that we had lots of moving/packing boxes around the house.
During our first activity with the 3 Pigs, we painted the boxes then once they’d dried and we’d read and sang to our delight, I simply led our little ones through a silly re-enactment. No book. Just lots of huffing, puffing, squealing, running, and squeezing in together.
This past week, all of our books, songs, and activities were Three-Pigs-themed. Children built with Lincoln Logs and Legos then laughed and went blue in the face as they tried blowing them down. We clapped and praised everyone’s hard work as their buildings stayed strong and upright. I hope that Story Spark families revisit this story and especially with older toddlers and preschoolers, take time to discuss the value of hard work.
With that on my mind, I searched for a short quote about hard work to upload some pics to Story Spark social media. Couldn’t find anything I loved because I kept secretly measuring it up to The Streetsweeper. And then I sat and pondered the WORK that is play.
That’s what brought me here. To my first post in months! It took the 3 Little Pigs, the inspiring words of Dr. King, and my passion for purposeful play to get me back on here. Starting a new business, being a momma to 3 little loves under 4, making sure to dedicate time to myself and to my marriage, plus some big things that have happened lately are hard work. And it is all SO worth it!
So this post is about 3 Little Things:
1) The important lessons in books, even simple ones, and yay books! Read lots of books and talk about books with your little ones, and big ones!
2) Honoring Dr. King’s legacy. Fitting, since it is the last day of Black History Month.
3) The importance of hard work. And really the fact that play IS work! For children of all ages. But of course, some play is better. For more on that, see the Rigor in Play Series and keep tuned for some new posts about facilitation and intention.
