Independent exploration: Ordering blocks September 2018 Written by: T.

Madiha

After coming back from putting a few children to sleep, I saw that Lara had self selected an activity
and was fully engaged in it. I got my camera and sat further up from her to observe what she was
doing. I sat there quietly without interrupting her play.

"When a child is working and chooses some task that holds her attention, we are careful not to interrupt
either to correct or to praise. This might disrupt the powers of concentration which are so important
for the child's development." (Kathleen Futrell, The Normalized Child, p 14).

Lara had independently chosen the materials she wanted to use which are a type of blocks that are
part of a game. Lara had them all lined up. She would place one block at the end and from the other
end a block would drop off the table. She would then go around pick it up and put it back which
again result in one dropping from the other end. Lara kept doing it until she had had enough and then
gathered the blocks to back in the box and decided to stack them like we always do.

The expression on her face was amazing to see when the blocks fall down. Lara knows that at An-
Nur she can self-select activities. In this learning experience she is further developing her hand eye
co-ordination and fine motor skills. Lara seemed very interested ordering which is a mathematical
concept which we could further explore Insha Allah.