How do you feed your dog?
While Sweet Pea and I were at my parents house a few weeks ago, my dad came up to Sweet Pea and asked if he wanted to help him feed the dog. He looked a little confused and he kept looking from the dog, to my dad, to the dog food bowl. After a few seconds he walked over to the dog food bowl, picked up a stray piece of dog food from an earlier feeding, and threw it at the dog. Of course we all laughed and my dad took his hand and properly showed him how to feed the dog and we moved on to the next thing.
After thinking about it here is what strikes me about the situation. Because we don’t have pets, Sweet Pea had no idea what was involved in feeding a dog. But he took what he did know and “fed” the dog by throwing the stray piece of food to him. At what point in childhood do we lose the ability to think like that? I did multiple internships where students as young as second grade had already lost the ability to take prior knowledge to try to figure something out. The just wanted me to tell them the answer without having to do any work. Hopefully over the next few years I can nurture this ability in Sweet Pea rather than hinder it.
Alex, he was doing it just like he’s seen it done! The only “pet” Sweet Pea feeds on a regular basis is the ducks at the pond. He knows when you feed the ducks you have to throw them their food because, Lord knows, their not about to come to you and eat out of your hand. To feed the ducks means to throw them their food, so of course to feed the dog means to throw him his food! That’s perfectly logical! I think he was confused because he didn’t see any need to “feed the dog” when he could see that the dog was perfectly capable of accessing food without his help. Sweet Pea had no concept, until Papa showed him, of an animal eating from his hand. I’d like to know now if he starts trying to feed the ducks the same way.
I hadn’t even thought about the ducks!!! But that makes a whole lot more sense!
I will let you know next time we go down there.
You bring up such a great point for us all-how can we nurture that type of logical thinking in our children? I really don’t know, because we had a lot of trouble getting our preschoolers to “think out of the box” and try to come to solutions based on previous situations. A few did well at it, but a lot of the kids didn’t want to be “wrong”-perhaps that is the key, trying to put the emphasis on trying, instead of “right” and “wrong”. I don’t know, but it sure is something huge to think about as our kids get bigger.
Also, how are you doing? When is your new blessing due-I’m thinking it is very soon but I can’t remember. Hope all is well and you are getting a little rest! I know Sweet Pea will be a great big brother and helper for you.