Planting the Seeds of Leadership

As a teacher of young children I plant seeds: seeds of literacy, problem solving, social competency and emotional stability.  But, I didn’t know I was planting the seeds of future leadership abilities, until we started playing Follow The Leader.  In the last couple of weeks I’ve seen remarkable changes in the students in my Our Time classes through playing this simple age-old game.  

At first, some children were unable to lead their parent through the classroom at all.  But in just one week, they are now dragging them by their scarf, merrily capering through the room, dashing under the scarves of the other teams and cutting corners at breakneck speed, with the parents dashing along behind in a desperate attempt to keep up. I was really only trying to find something fun to do with that really cool piece of jazzy music on the CD, All Around The Kitchen. But, what developed was a lesson in leadership.  The children had an opportunity to make decisions, and we helped them develop independence and competence.

Games such as Follow the Leader allow your child to decide how to navigate the play space for both of you, not just for themselves.  Whether that space is my classroom or the playground or the grocery store, letting them lead empowers your child to make a decision and act on it.

One of the most critical abilities a leader in any situation must exhibit is the ability to decide.  This skill can be nurtured in our children through the simple process of offering choices.  (The trick here is to make sure that all the options you offer are A-Okay with you!) So asking if your child wants to wear the blue shirt or the orange shirt is a great way to get them to practice making decisions.  Of course, they might want the red shirt- but that’s great, too.  Now, they are learning to negotiate.

Offering choices and playing games like Follow the Leader give our children a sense of ownership in their own lives. By offering them control of small things in appropriate situations, you will encounter less turmoil when the non-negotiable circumstances arise.  Because, let’s face it, Batman jammies with the under-the-sleeve scalloped cape are not appropriate garb for the ring bearer at Auntie Beth’s wedding.  And you just gotta hold hands in the parking lot. And you can’t eat chew that gum under the table at Starbucks…

There are so many areas of a child’s life that they cannot control. Giving them small amounts of power in relatively innocuous situations can truly help them grow up to be responsible, competent adults.

-posted by Miss Allison, whose boys never wore super-hero jammies in their Auntie Beth’s Wedding.  But they did wear them to the mall on more than one occasion, usually with rain boots, even though it was 85 degrees and sunny.   But they made people smile…. so how can that be bad?