Nov 30 2008
Sharing
The concept of sharing can tend to be very black and white for 3 year olds…
Children are taught to share. If they want to use a toy that another child is using they ask to share. If a child comes to ask and use a toy that they are using, they should share. Now the grey area….child A has a toy that they just got off the shelf- child B now wants to use it-so child B goes and asks child A to share-child A says NO because they just got the toy off the shelf-child B goes to a teacher and says that child A is not sharing-teacher then steps in and makes child A share the toy—
Child A had the toy taken away unfairly under the pretence of sharing and then just takes the toy back from child B while using the phrase “you need to share” as a reason to take the toy back. As a teacher, who has witnessed the entire act-from child A getting the toy first, to them getting it back, I’m asking you who would you allow to play with the toy?
*Just for the record, I sided with child A–I explained to child B that they had to wait 5 minutes to play with the toy and told child A to explain to the teacher next time that they had just gotten the toy themselves.*
that seems fair to me…
also would seem reasonable to me that some toys are better suited to sharing than others, and that the teachers need to be reasonable about it