Cat and Mouse, should the cat eat the mouse, do we protect the cats right to chase and play and get the reward or do we protect the smaller creature.
We all have personal choices and if we ask the right questions we can figure it out.
Some children had been playing a game all morning, it was their game, it was their ideas, it had no resources, it was a game made with the power of imagination and the delights of friendships.
I had been observing from a far, trying to look like I was writing in my journal but I was overseeing their game and the right to play it.
I was also overseeing a new friendship and unsettled children.
Two other children came to see and find out about this game, they circled and charged and did the merry dance of involvement which usually means they want to play.
But it didn't seem like they did want to play.....
This seemed to be the theme because they used all sorts of different techniques to change the tone of the game and alter it and even stop it.
As an educator it seemed like if these newcomers entered the game, then it wasn't going to be the same game anymore.
The game stopped and changed and the newcomers seemed to appear quite powerful, the original game players seemed to appear quite defeated.
So I asked the game inventors "do you want the newcomers to play your game"?.
They said No.
So I protected their play, I bought them all back to area they were playing and I asked them to tell the newcomers that they didn't want to play with them right now.
They didn't want to say this to them because it was new territory and it was new learning, so I told the Newcomers and I redirected them back to their own game.
Why did I do this?
Shouldn't kids in the same learning environment just learn to get along and adapt to include everyone?
The integrity of a game.
The integrity of a game is important, it is like the flow of the game, and it matches the children that make the game.
This was a peaceful game at a time where children where forming a reasonably new friendship and they had been playing for quite sometime, there was a real joy and warmth in the game that seemed to focus around conversation and trust.
Did that make me the bad cop with the merry dancers of involvement?
Yes of course it did, but they accepted the results and if you look at the disposition's that were forming in the Game inventors and the dispositions that are already present in the Merry dancers of involvement you could say that it was a fair trade.
How children play is extremely complex, and how teachers view play and respond to play is very complex as well.
Happy Playing everyone.
