Growing into a young adult and then quickly feeling as if I had fallen straight into adulthood I noticed something very specific about the world I live in. However everyone doesn’t see the same thing I do when it comes to this subject. Many people don’t see the beauty or the innocence I do. There are other that do but sadly a lot of adults look past and don’t even take time to marvel at this awesome thing about life. What I noticed is that children are the light of the world, they see everything is this pure light and they enjoy life and use the world as their playground. Their eyes light up when they think about or see something that excites them and they enjoy the simply things in life that us adults overlook on a daily basis. The other day I was at a craft fair sitting at my table and directly over to my right there was a mother and her two children. I have seen them at previous craft fairs throughout the years and have enjoyed seeing these two children work hard with their mother to sell their duct tape creations. Sitting there I observed for quite a while the little girl who is around eight years old. She decided she would dress up for the occasion unlike her brother who was wearing sweat pants a t-shirt and crocs with fuzzy socks. The little girl wore a beautiful Christmas dress with black leggings and short boots with a homemade headband. She looked very nice and ready for the day. She was very helpful to setting up their tables. I first noticed that when they came in with their things they left her with their spot as the mother and son went to go get the rest of their things from the car. As she sat their she attempted to set up what looked like chairs or small tables but she had trouble figuring out how to properly set them up. She tried very hard but her brother, who is about 3 years older, came and helped her finish the job. Over the few years that this small family has been selling their duct tape creations both the young boy and girl have been taught how to create change and price the different products they sell. Both boy and girl are in the third stage of Piaget’s cognitive development theory which would be concrete operations. I observed the two siblings setting up their table. The young boy asked his sister to stand in front of the table and tell him if she could see the products in the back. She said she could only see the top of them but then her brother came over to look and because he is a good 1 foot taller than her he could see then picture frames just fine. They both decided that it would be fine because most of their customers would be adults and could see from the boys vantage point and not the young girls. This demonstrated inductive and deductive reasoning skills and also seriation that we read about in A Child’s World by Papalia and Feldman chapter 13. After setting up their table with their different products, the two children were very patient and well behaved while waiting for customers to come by. When a customer had a question they would happily answer then and had a lot of nice conversations with some of their parents’ friends that stopped by. Both children were able to handle money and make change for their customers. Once the fair was over they helped their mother put away their creations and pack up to go home. I watched the family work together as a team throughout the day as they took turns watching the table and walking around. Both children were well informed about their products on how they created them and taught well how to sell and create change for customers. Both children seemed to be developing quite well in their selective cognitive abilities as I observed them throughout the day. They are well taught in their numbers and mathematics(Papalia 2011) as I could easily see when they sold the products. The little boy showed his sister the issue she was having with the chairs when she tried to set them up, this demonstrated cause and effect (Papalia 2011). They set up their products on the table together and spaced them according to the customers vantage point which shows spatial thinking and inductive/deductive reasoning skills (Papalia 2011). They also could help customers by showing them which products cost the same amount of money and how they could combine different things to cost the same amount, which shows conservation (Papalia 2011). Overall these children seemed to be on track and the little girls seems to be a little advanced for her age. I really enjoyed watching both girl and boy as they had fun throughout the day selling their creations and talking with customers and friends. I was quite impressed with the little girls social skills and her ability to be confident watching the table and making change. According to the Piagetian Approach the little girl’s concrete operational stage is going quite well and she seems to be on track or even possible ahead of her age group. Both children seemed to have fun that day. The little girl was dressed for a good time with her pretty Christmas dress and hair all done nice, and her brother was dressed for a nice casual relaxing day and didn’t seem to care much for his appearance. Each child had a different perspective on how their day was going to be and so each dressed accordingly. Looking at each of them I realized how different boys verses girls perspectives are when it comes to everything. People are so complex and so is life, so whenever you need a simple straightforward answer or view, just ask a child because they will give it to you straight and their view on the matter is something you would have never thought about yourself.

References~
Feldman, R. D., & Papalia, D. E. (2011). A Child's World: Infancy through Adolescence. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill