Henry’s Bored Book: A Lesson in Early Childhood Story Making

It happened frequently in that kindergarten classroom. Papers that bore evidence of the children’s daily activities awaited filing into communication home bags. The papers had grown to mountainous proportions.

In this class, materials for drawing and mark-making were always accessible to the children, and many children were prolific artists.  As educators we both celebrated the children’s expression through the language of drawing and bemoaned the amount of paper children used with abandon.

It was from this mountain of papers that I came across a collection of drawings stapled together on the left side. The booklet was wordless but the drawing style very familiar.

“Henry,” I asked bringing the booklet to him. “Is this yours?”

Henry nodded. “It’s for you.”

“Oh Henry, don’t you want to take this home to show your family?”

“No. It’s for you!” he repeated to reassure me, “It’s a board book.”

“That’s so kind. Thank you! I’d love to know more about your book. Why are you calling it a board book?”

Henry took the booklet from my hands and began to ‘read’.

 

(Click page or use arrows to flip pages)

I quickly recognized how I erroneously had assumed a different meaning of bored than Henry. As he read his pictures, I was blown away by how clearly he had shared his thoughts through the language of drawing. Surely, this was a booklet his family would want to see and hold onto until Henry had kids of his own!

But no, Henry was delighted to give his book away. It was only me who was caught up in the product he had created. Henry valued his process.

Sophie Anne Edwards, lead-editor of The Art of Land-Based Early Learning Vol. 1 writes this about children’s artistic expressions:

They (children) are always proud to share their work; often they are also very ready to leave it behind, transform it, or give it away. They are very attuned to the process of creation: they instinctively seem to know that a work is never final. They are happy to transform it (even if we think it’s perfect and we want to keep it as it is); and they are not attached to it in the same way adults are; they happily give it away. They understand the work as part of a continually transforming process, and a means to connect to their community of friends and family (p. 27)

Sophie’s words rang true to me when I reflected on Henry’s Bored Book and the process of early childhood story making. It had felt like a gift to me and it was…. but Henry had moved on. He had more ideas in his mind with alternative possibilities to explore through the language of drawing.

I had missed observing Henry’s process of creating The Bored Book, and I will always wonder how my observation of Henry’s process would have informed a deeper understanding and appreciation of Henry’s story and my ability to support Henry’s next iteration of bookmaking or storytelling through art.

Reflection Questions:

What do you notice in Henry’s book?

If Henry’s engagement in art is ongoing and never final, what tools, strategies, or opportunities would you offer Henry to widen or fine-tune his expressiveness through art?

Paper is an integral resource and material in early learning programs. Yet, we know that living trees are essential to the health and well-being of our planet. How can we help children develop a caring relationship with trees and paper that leads to environmentally sustainable practices in our work with young children?