Should you make another child share? As I write that sentence, I realize what a silly phase it is to say, "make a child share." You can seldom make a child share. You can take a toy from him or her which teaches that it is OK to take things from others or you can prod, coax, and distract them until they give in to the request. Neither of which promotes the concept we want to teach. So take a moment and define what sharing means to you. Should children be made to share? Would you like it, if you had just started to build an elaborate building and someone told you to share? Do you share your favorite pen?
As a child, I remember hiding some of my prized possessions when certain children would come to visit. Why? I knew they tended to break toys and if I wanted to have my things for another day, I couldn't let these individuals, see them. Was my mother wrong to allow this? I don't think so.
While I don't have the answer to the sharing question, Bernice and the Franklin County Library System has provided us with a great book to encourage sharing. Mine, All Mine! by Claire Hawcock and Chiara Pasqualotto is the story a little squirrel who doesn't want to share his snowflake. Children will love the raised snowflakes in the book. Anyone who has trouble sharing will relate to Little squirrel's dilemma of keeping the snowflake to himself or playing with others. Use this story to get children talking about sharing. Sometimes we spend so much time creating rules, settling problems, we forget to see what thoughts the children have on the topic.
2 comments:
I love your ideas about not making a child share! I tell a child, "Let's check back in a few minutes. Maybe s/he will be ready to share then. What would you like to play with now?" Many times this works. When a child does share something, I tell them what a considerate thing they've done. It's hard for adults to share, too. I don't think we should make a child share either.
Gretchen, thanks for sharing your thoughts. This can be a difficult topic. We all want children to play nice, but it is hard to agree on what that means.
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