This is a guest post from Educator and Parent, Jane Kenny.
I had been cleaning up this morning and I picked up this case, which my son owns. Before placing it in his room I realised it had some weight in it so I opened up the case to have a look. All the cars I had bought him when he was little were inside it and I went back in time to an important memory.
At the time we were relocating to a new area. This meant my young children needed to adapt to a new school. My youngest had just turned five and started kindy NSW. When he got out of our car I noticed his school bag was heavy. I gave it a shake and looked inside. There were all his matchbox cars. I said, "Why are you taking so many of your cars to school?". He began crying and said, "I just want to make a friend". I hugged him tightly and reassured him that it takes a little time to make a friend.
When I went to pick him up after school he was excited to have made one friend! It still brings tears to my eyes, today. He was very clever to have thought all by himself how he could socialise and make friends. So, educators, when you see a child bring their special toys, bear in mind, they too are trying to work out how they can get along with others in our world. Rather than worry about those toys getting broken, be mindful that perhaps they are learning a very important lesson in how to get along with others.
