The other day I was reading an article in the paper and was blown away by it's brillance. A woman in an Elementary school somewhere in Utah County decided that she was going to use stability balls instead of chairs for her students. At first I thought she was nuts. I had visions of window breaking, teeth being knocked out, tears and boogers everywhere!!! Another thought that went through my mind is, " why is this teacher so concerned with the children's core muscles?" That's me, constantly thinking about exercise. Then I saw a picture of the ball and it had little feet on it so it can't just roll anywhere it wants to. The children went through training to know how to use the ball. They have to keep their feet on the floor at all times. But this ball allows the children to wiggle all day long. To bounce up and down, to roll back and forth, to constantly be getting their wiggles out. Amazing. This teacher made a comment that has seriously stuck with me, " I am trying to change my classroom to fit the children, not change the children to fit the classroom." BRILLIANT. How often do we as parents try to change our childrren? I know I do. But kids are kids. So often when I find that I am having success with my children, it's because I am the one that has done the changing. Wether it be within myself, or something within my home. What a great reminder to me that most of the time I am the one that needs to change, not my children. That I need to work to change my children's surrounding to suite them, rather then change my children to suite the surroundings. Wow.
2 comments:
Yeah...I read that article too. I went over to a family's house here and noticed the mom had one at the computer desk. She told me she uses it while on the computer. Great balance!
And, yeah, I had heard once, "When the parents decide...the child will follow..."
Even if it is balancing on balls!
That teacher is Leslie Stilson a third grade teacher at Spring Creek the school that my kids go to and also that I work at. She is a great teacher and I often get to help in that class and see how the kids act with the stability balls. They love it and they arent out of control like you think they would be either. Hopefully Carly gets in her class next year!
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