“Let’s see what happens if I do this,” my son said as he played with his twin brother in the sand. We were at the ocean, and the boys were constructing a track for a tennis ball they’d found the night before. We first spied the tennis ball bobbing in the waves as high tide crashed upon the shore. We ran along the boardwalk watching as the ball got tossed and turned in the waves. The boys were cheering for the tennis ball – in a way only six-year-old boys might – hoping that the ball would find a safe place to land on the shore. Their prayers answered, the tennis ball finally came to rest in a nest of rocks. Hooray! The boys “rescued” the ball from one adventure – only to create a new adventure for it on land.
Carved in sand on a slight incline, they made an initial track and then tested and re-tested their creation, perfecting it as they went. When the ball only made it halfway down the track, one of the boys suggested, “Push it harder this time.” When the ball jumped the track, one declared, “Don’t worry! I know how to fix it!” I listened and watched the boys as they played. They didn’t need me; they had plenty of their own ideas. Eventually, though, they came running over to ask me to join in their hypothesizing. “Mom, the ball smashed through the sand wall. So what do you think will happen if we make a cement wall with sand, rocks and water?”
Hypothesizing, testing out ideas, making observations and re-testing – all in the name of good fun – keeps children engaged. I always know their minds are engaged when I hear children say, “Let’s see what happens if I do this…” It’s right up there with hearing them say, “I have an idea!”
When they weren’t busy making the track in the sand, or riding their boogie boards in the waves, they were busy collecting rocks. “These are not usual rocks,” they explained. The boys had names for the categories of rocks they found: “Clear rocks; flat-bottom rocks; multi-rocks” and even some uniquely shaped rocks, such as “The Heart Rock” and “The Maine Rock.” I heard one boy sigh to himself, “This is a lot of work,” as he added his latest findings to their lines of rocks in the sand. Then he turned to me and professed, “Aren’t these some supremely cool rocks?”
Eventually, we had to go, and they decided to count the rocks. The total: 112 in all, plus two shells and one piece of beach glass. “Mom, can we bring our collection home?” they asked. “Yes,” I replied. “I suppose so.” “And can we have some egg cartons so we can organize them?” “Of course!”
Collecting, sorting, categorizing, and admiring objects – especially those from nature – is another way to capture the minds of young children. The best thing about these beach endeavors is that the boys themselves decided what they were going to do, and then did it. For hours they were engaged and entertained in a beautiful blur of work and play. Were they learning? Absolutely. Were they laughing and living? You bet. Sometimes I wish life was always just a day at the beach.
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