Learning Together

The beginning of the year is exciting and surprising, and also not-so surprising.  It is very typical this time of year to see the children play along strict gender boundaries.  Notice in the photos below that girls are playing in the housekeeping area without any boys nearby, and boys are playing with cars on the rug without any girls in sight.

I can't say with certainty why this happens, but it happens every year.  I can only theorize that it relates to the children's level of comfort with each other.  Here at the beginning while everyone is getting to know each other, they make connections by searching for commonalities and build from there.  Right now their main commonality is their gender.  As their repertoire of commonalities increases (such as by discovering similar interests), their play branches out, too.  I love that at SLC we provide an enormous variety of play materials to appeal to children for a variety of reasons.  It won't be long before the children are interacting together in more balanced play.