Take a full day to simply observe your child or your student. Above all do not judge as you observe.

Notice the way she rises from a chair. Listen closely to her laughter. Does he step lightly or do his feet pound heavily?

Listen to her speech. Is she loud or soft spoken? What causes him to appear content, afraid or curious? How long does it take her to eat, bathe, get dressed? In general, is she painstaking or quick?

We tend to fall into the habit of judging children We consider them too quick or too slow, too shy or too loud, too cautious or too daring. Let go of these judgments and simply notice and remember.

Something will happen as you do this. See if you can identify what this process of attention did to your understanding of this child.

Then come back to this post and tell us what you observed about the child and what you noticed and any also tell us about change in yourself. Reflect on this exercise.

My hope is that we can engage the Growing Children community in a conversation about the power of observation. I will update this post based on the shared reflections.

Written by Kim Allsup for and published by Growing Children ~ August 1, 2018.

~ The Author ~
Kim Allsup’s childhood wonder years inspired her first career as an environmentalist and her second career as a Waldorf teacher. She was the founding staff member of the Buzzard Bay Coalition and a founding parent of the Waldorf School of Cape Cod. A graduate of Brown University and Antioch University (M.Ed), she served as a Waldorf class teacher, on Cape Cod and at the Pine Hill Waldorf School, for 22 years. She is currently a writer, an advisor to teachers and a gardening teacher pioneering the use of school sunhouses. She lives on Cape Cod with her husband and blogs at Growing Children.

She is the author of A Gift of Wonder, A True Story Showing School as it Should Be.