Four-year-old Cleo* is awake and ready for another day at Urban Vision’s On Your Mark. She’s had breakfast, picked out an awesome outfit, and is having her mom help her put everything in her backpack. When suddenly she remembers about the homework that is due today!
Cleo isn’t worried though, she still has plenty of time and with all the skills she has been learning she knows it will be a cinch. She pulls out her assignment, colorful pieces of paper with the outlines of shapes on it and asks her mom for a pair of scissors and gets to work. For this assignment, Cleo has been tasked with cutting each shape out of the paper as evenly as possible.
Work like this is specifically picked by the On Your Mark team as they focus on preparing young leaders to conduct themselves in a variety of settings. From Bible time, structured play, and sensory motor activities (like her homework assignment), Cleo isn’t wrong to be confident of her ability to cut each shape out perfectly.
Her mom, however, is totally surprised by how well her daughter is using the scissors. When she tells Cleo she is impressed with how skilled she is with her scissors, Cleo flashes a smile and says,
I know! I am! That’s what preschool is for…learning to use scissors and about Jesus!
*For privacy the student’s name has been changed but the story and results are actual.
