Are 3 year olds too young to vote?

As an example of the theory I was expousing here yesterday, I would like to provide an example by sharing a very small portion of a learning journey story involving a group of 3 year olds and a strawberry!

The children in the 3 year old group had been growing fruit and vegetables, including strawberries. Alongside the actual growing, the educator had been sharing with the group a number of related stories including ‘The Little Mouse, the Red Ripe Strawberry and the Big Hungry Bear‘ by Don Wood. In this book, a little mouse takes all sorts of measures to try to hide and disguise his red, ripe strawberry from the big hungry bear he hears coming.

The children were very familiar with the story after repeated readings and the opportunity to role play the story with a variety of props (during free play time, not as a structured experience).

So one morning, the children come into the room and see on the table a plate with a half eaten strawberry on it. The first few children took little notice but then M. arrived and on seeing the strawberry exclaimed, “The big hungry bear was here.” A small group of children gathered round and an enthusiastic discussion ensued (which included their educator) about the evidence that the bear had in fact been there, with the half eaten strawberry as the proof.

The educator suggested the group go outside to ensure that the rest of the strawberries growing in their garden were still safe. Luckily they were but the children decided that they needed to take measures to protect the strawberries from future bear visits. They discussed potential ways to protect their fruit and decided one way would be to make a sign to warn the bear to stay away.

They headed back inside and three children volunteered to each draw a mock up of what the sign should look like. They drew their designs with textas on A4 paper, in consultation with the educator about what their design needed to be an effective deterrant to the bear. The three children then each presented their design back to the larger group and with the help of the educator described their signs to the group. The group were told that they needed to vote for which design they thought would work the best to keep away the bear. Each child placed a vote with a token and told the group why they chose that design.

The winning design was then redrawn onto a large sheet of paper with text scribed by the educator as told to her by the child.

Notice the very effective cross across the bear part of the poster!

So why have I shared this story? Yesterday my post talked about the importance of an image of the child as a capable, competent, curious and creative learner. I believe this example perfectly illustrates each of these four competencies.

Thank you to the educators and children I was so fortunate to work with, without them I would not have such a wealth of fabulous experiences to share with you.