So yesterday I watched this bumblebee buzz around and do its thing in the garden, and it was fascinating. It collected pollen from every little flower. I don’t think it missed even one. I read these bees can flap their wings up to 200 times per second!! Nature is amazing!
I thought about how some people are so scared of bees. People with severe allergies certainly know to not interfere with a bee at work, but for others, if there’s a bee around, they will shoo it away, swat at it and even try to kill it, rather than move out of the way and let it do its wonderful work to make the world a better place. How sad, I thought, especially because some of the species are on the endangered list.
Little children are like busy bees. They flit around from one activity to the next, testing, experimenting, questioning, collecting knowledge from each and every activity. I read that a young child can ask up to 300 questions per day!
They, like the bees, are doing wonderful work. When a child is climbing all over your furniture, he is strengthening his muscles and learning how to motor plan, which will impact his ability to cope. When a child is asking an annoying amount of questions, she is activating her curiosity, making connections in her brain and strengthening her cognitive development. When a child is expressing extreme emotions, he is learning self-control and how to claim his feelings, which is necessary in order to tame his feelings.
So, before you stop your child or shoo her away, think for a minute. Think about what she may be learning at that moment and make sure you are not interfering with her process of doing wonderful work which will eventually make the world a better place.