What Do Children Love?

In the Out of the Box Training Kit, “Fortune Cookie Philosophy: Using Motivation Effectively with Young Children,” Tricia S. Kruse describes how she came to realize that noticing and supporting what each child loves can be a powerful motivator for learning. She explains:

“I had just finished eating an enormous amount of moo-go-guy-pan and too many pieces of sushi to count when the waitress delivered my check and a fortune cookie. I was used to reading fortunes like, ‘You cannot prevent the bird of sorrow from flying over your head, but you can prevent it from building nests in your hair.’ Surprisingly, the fortune I was holding in my hand actually told the truth. It read:

What we love to do we find time to do. Lucky #2, 9, 32, 33, 34, 46

And as I sat digesting my food and the meaning of the fortune, I realized, children live by this fortune every day.

Within the field of early childhood it is often said, ‘Children’s play is their work’...Every day millions of children enter early childhood programs diligently engaging in their work, which is exactly what they love to do. A question then arises: How well do we support children in completing their ‘jobs’? One way to answer this question is by examining what motivates children and how we can use this information in our classrooms.”

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