Article Link: http://exchangepress.com/article/a--manner--of--speaking/5022288/
“What will Jason notice first?”“What will Maggie touch?”
“Will Ario laugh when he sees this?”
Ginny and I spent much of our planning time setting the stage for our work with a group of kindergarten children. We thought about how they would enter the room, what they would see, how they would react. It was very important to us that the room invite children in and that they would feel welcome and eager to engage with the materials we had chosen. But, most of all, we wanted them to be surprised. When they walked through the door, we wanted them to experience a moment of wow and wonder. It would be on this moment that we would build our conversations and interactions and create the learning and work of the day. That moment was our joy.
The delight of a surprise must not be underestimated. Surprises make us smile. We feel happy. There is a moment of joy for the recipient, but there is also the anticipation of that moment in the creator. Everybody wins.
My daughter Alison builds surprises into her home. If you are paying attention, you will spy the unexpected. I was surprised one morning as I was brushing my teeth to ...