Jasmin (4;7) writes a story

Jasmin is now 4;7 years old, she enjoys attending the facility and has made very great progress in her development.

She notices a lot of what is going on in the group and also notices things that even we educators do not notice.

Jasmin amazes me again and again with her good memory, she remembers things that we adults quickly forget. She quickly recognizes and remembers structures and rituals that are repeated; she helps the children who have forgotten them.

Jasmin can perceive and respond to the needs and sensitivities of others very well. She is considerate, offers help, and explains to the other children what is going on.

Jasmin wants to continue learning to write, which she started in the previous project.
The author links this interest with the idea of writing a story with Jasmin, in which Jasmin can express her own wishes; because she cares a lot about others, but rarely expresses what she herself wants.

Since Jasmin loves princesses and would love to be one herself, the project begins with various picture books about princesses.
Finally, Jasmin develops and writes her own story.
The author opts for one-to-one support here, so that she can cater to Jasmin exactly.

More about jasmine:

Justification of the theme

As well as Jasmin can put herself in the place of others, she seems to perceive and express her own needs very little. I have rarely seen Jasmine expressing what she wants. For example, she takes games, but she rarely says what she wants.

Jasmin likes to participate in everything, but is always busy looking after the welfare of the other children.

She insists only that she "works" regularly with me alone or in small group. This is important to her and she expresses this also very energetically.

When Jasmin is not well, something does not suit her or she has other difficulties, she shows physical symptoms such as headaches or stomach aches. It can also happen that she gets tired. Although these symptoms have decreased recently, they have not yet completely disappeared.

It is noticeable that this does not occur when she is challenged or when she seems very content.

Because of her good observational skills, Jasmin is much more sensitive to people or situations than the other children in the group.

In conversations with the mother, it has become clear to me that Jasmin does not find the peace and balance she needs at home. Due to a lot of visiting relatives, who often stay for days in the small apartment, and due to problems the mother has, there is an unsettled climate.
Jasmine’s good behavior towards relatives is very important to the mother; Jasmine’s needs and desires seem to find little resonance here. In spite of the often difficult circumstances, the mother cares about Jasmin’s well-being and tries to fulfill her many material wishes.
However, the mother mentioned that Jasmine is often very naughty at home, a behavior that we don’t know at all from kindergarten.

I think it is important for Jasmin to be able to express her wishes at the daycare center and to assert them more strongly.

Jasmin herself expresses again and again that she would like to "work" with me. By this she means that she writes. The normal everyday life in the group with all its offers is not enough for her.

I made various offers, she was enthusiastic, but always came the very energetic desire to continue writing.

I wanted to fulfill her wish. At the same time, it was important to me that Jasmin learns to express and assert her wishes, so that she no longer needs the physical discomforts.

In order to challenge Jasmin, I thought about making up a story with her, in which her wishes also appear, and writing them down.
Since Jasmin could only write her name independently until the beginning of the project, but she had already had the preliminary experience of sounds and letters (see: A three-year-old wants to write, abridged version), I wanted to find out what Jasmin could accomplish.

Goals that should be achieved

Jasmin is able to express her wishes and needs.
Jasmin is able to follow through with this.
Jasmin continues to develop her writing skills.
Jasmin continues to gain confidence.

While in the last projects the focus was always on small group work, I decided to do individual support with Jasmin in this project.

On the one hand, I would like to give Jasmin the peace and quiet she has neither at home, nor in the group, nor in the small group.

In the small group, it is Raman and Berin who talk a lot and are able to speak faster than Jasmine.

Since this time I want Jasmin to recognize her needs, individual support is important.
Jasmine is much more confident when she doesn’t have to be considerate, and in addition, Berin is quick to run her mouth. In such moments Jasmin withdraws and then sometimes cries.

I also noticed that Jasmin adapts very well to the small group. In my estimation, she doesn’t really show what she’s capable of doing.
On Amanda she takes a lot of consideration, and next to the others she does not dare to do enough.
Jasmin has shown in the last projects that she can be much more persistent than the other children in the small group.
This led again and again to the fact that she got quarrel with Berin.

It is important to me that Jasmin does not have to deal with the other children in this project work.

Comment from the course instructor:
A sensible approach.

I myself can relate better to Jasmin and challenge her when I am alone with her. Since I’ve built up a very good and intense relationship with it, I hope it can now show what else is in it.

Preliminary thoughts

For Jasmin the "Gelsenkirchener Entwicklungsbegleiter" was filled out over a year ago. Now I want to use this sheet to check how far Jasmin has developed in the areas of: language, cognitive development, social competence, fine motor skills and gross motor skills since then.

In the evaluation it is clear that Jasmin is now developed in the area of (German) language in line with her age. In everyday life, however, it is clear that Jasmin still lacks many concepts and that sentences are often not yet formed correctly.

In the area of cognitive development, it is striking that for her, at 4;7 years of age, more than half of the requirements apply that apply to children from 5 1/2 years of age until school enrollment.

What is striking about social competence is that almost all the requirements of the 5 1/2 year old are met by her until she starts school.

Also with the fine motor skills some requirements can already be fulfilled by it up to the enrollment in school.
In gross motor skills, she is developed in an age-appropriate manner.

Interest questionnaire

In order to have a good starting point for the new project, I wanted to go through the interest questionnaire again with Jasmin.

Since Jasmine tends to get distracted very quickly in conversations, I decided to grab her by her strength so she would focus on our conversation.

The assignment on my part was, "Jasmine, listen carefully and think about the questions."
Since Jasmin likes to think, she was eager to do so. After each question she answered, she crossed out the number of the question with a pencil.

In contrast to the first time she worked on the questionnaire – about a year ago – it became clear that she now very much enjoys playing rule games and likes to write.
The number of her playmates has doubled and writing continues to be her favorite activity.
While she used to call "painting" a skill, today she can call "writing and learning".
Her wish is to be able to "think" even better.

Comment from the course instructor:
This is, however, a typical desire for a highly gifted child. At this age, thinking itself is, after all, the subject of very few children’s own thinking.

She likes to play alone in the kindergarten, and she doesn’t like it when big girls tease her when she plays in the exercise hall or in the big hallway.
She used to find puzzles difficult, now she finds it difficult when she misspells letters.

When asked what annoys her, it was the Amanda a year ago. Today she is annoyed that Raman only wants to play with Yusuf. When I asked her what bothers her, it became clear that she herself would like to play with Raman.

Her favorite toys consist of everything related to princesses (she named many things she would like to have in this context).
She also likes to watch princesses and princes on TV, preferably when they are dancing.

When asked what else she would like to learn or what she is proud of, I got no answer. Jasmine smiled – probably because she has already given the answer, she wants to write and think and nothing more!

Later she wants to be a dancer – and if she meets an old woman, she would ask her for letters.

When I look at these answers, Jasmine has made her wishes very clear.
She wants to: write more, wants to play with Raman, and she wants to think more.

After this conversation, Jasmin left the room very satisfied, not without still checking all the boxes on the sheet "What things do you like to do?" circle with the symbol for yes. She considered each question very carefully and then circled around.

Distant observation

Jasmin, Berin and Juline (all of similar age) are sitting at the table in the next room waiting for lunch to be served.

Juline and Berin are talking and getting louder and louder. Juline has a very high pitched voice that rises in pitch and Berin also ends up shouting to say something. Jasmine is getting quieter and quieter and doesn’t say anything anymore. After a while she starts to cry, it takes time for the others to realize it.

Here it is clear that Jasmine does not tolerate too much loudness well, but is not able to say that the yelling bothers her. Instead she cries.

Participant observation

Berin, Jasmin and I sit at the table in the group room and play the "beaver game". In the game, the object is to pull blocks from a pile without the beaver on top of them falling off.
Jasmin pulls a block, the pile collapses and the beaver falls down.
Berin starts, "Well, Jasmin, you should have thought better, you pulled out the wrong log. So, you see, that’s what happens, now everything is broken. Only because of you. You need to think better."
Jasmine listens to the talk puzzled, becomes sad and says: "Yes, that’s right." She seems very unhappy.

Here it is clear that Jasmin is being scolded, and in an inappropriate way, but she is unable to defend herself. Instead she gets sad and also agrees.

Provocative observation

Jasmin sits at the painting table and writes her name, in addition she paints squiggles. After a few minutes she stops and looks at her paper.
I sit across from her, watching her, and when she realizes I’m watching her, she smiles at me.
"Jasmine, what are you doing?" I asked.
"Martina, I would like to think."
"What do you want to think about?"
"A princess I would like to think," answers Jasmin .
I ask: "What do you want to think about a princess?"
Jasmin: "Princess is beautiful and can do anything and may wish for anything."

"Would you like to hear something about princesses and talk about it?" I ask.
She is happy and calls out: "Yes, Princess."
I promise her.

In this observation, it is clear that for Jasmin, a princess has and dares to do everything she would like to have or be.

Therefore I decided that the content of the project should be about princesses.

Project history

In order to give Jasmin the reliability to work with her and also to get her agreement for individual support, I said to her:
"Jasmin, I know you want to work and learn a lot. Unfortunately, in the group, we don’t make it so that you can work as much as you like. What do you think if you and I would pull ourselves out of the group room more often and think and work together?"
Jasmin beams and exclaims: "Yes, both of us, we’re working, great, Martina, great!"
She bounces around the group room shouting and singing, "I’m going to work with Martina, elelele."

Picture Book Viewing:
"I want friends!" from the Little Princesses series by Tony Ross

The story is about the little princess who comes to school expecting to make lots of friends. All children she approaches reject her and she makes the experience that nobody wants to play with her. Other children feel the same way and so all "children without friends" sit, eat and play together.
The little princess invites all the "children without friends" to her home. Now the other children want to come too, the princess puts on her infamous scowl and generously allows it.

I chose this book because it is about friendships, but also about rejection. I know that Jasmin would like to be friends with Raman, and I wanted to talk to her about it.

In the course of looking at the picture book, Jasmine told me that Raman and Yusuf also often don’t let her play along, and that she finds it stupid.
She is very interested in the story and when the "children without friends" are eating and playing together, she looks at me and says: "But Martina, these are friends now."
She shakes her head at the fact that the "kids without friends" don’t understand that they are all friends together after all.

Jasmin describes very precisely what happens in the book, but she also wants me to read every page to her.
When all the children show up at the castle and the little princess introduces her friends to her stunned mother, Jasmine laughs and says: "Home is nice to have friends."
When I ask her if she also takes friends home, she laughs: "Martina, I can’t do that, I don’t have any room."

The next morning, Jasmin asks me if she can play in the outdoor area. To my question: "With whom??" she smiles at me and whispers: "With Raman".
It was clear to me that he did not know anything about it yet, because he was playing with Yusuf in the construction corner.
The interesting thing for me was that Jasmin never goes outside to play, unless the whole group goes outside. But she knew that Raman likes to play outside.
I was curious to see what she would do now.

Jasmine went to the building corner and said, "I’m going out. Raman, would you like to go with?"
Yusuf said to her, "Raman is playing with me."
Jasmine replied, "We can all go outside."
Yusuf: "I can go out with Raman."
Jasmine clarified "But I already asked, I may and you can go with me."

Raman looks at his built, to Jasmine he says: "O.K., we all go out, but we still have to clean up."
They started to clean up, Jasmin was visibly happy. Unfortunately, while they were cleaning up, new play situations developed, so that the kids finally didn’t manage to go outside.

At least Jasmin has started the attempt. She figured out how to get Raman to go outside with her.
Jasmine has clarified that she can go outside, she has invited Raman and also Yusuf to do so (she realized that she could not persuade Raman to do so alone).
Jasmin took the initiative, it was very thoughtful and it was good for her that Raman wanted to go out with her.

Stories from: "Many Little Princesses Stories
by Sabine Cuno and Stefanie Dahle

Three times I retired with Jasmin to read her short stories about different princesses.
She listened very carefully, thought along, and it developed into interesting conversations with her.
We thought about what it would be like if Jasmine were a princess, and she narrated:

– Then she would be called Arielle.
– Then everyone should come to her home to celebrate her birthday.
– Then she would have a big princess room, a ring, lots of toys, lots of Barbies.
– She would live in a castle that would be right next to the kindergarten.
– She could play the piano.
– She would sleep all alone.

In the further course she told me that she would like to have more friends.

She asked me: "Martina, Uschi is your girlfriend, or?"
I answered a little bit puzzled and explained to her that Uschi is my work colleague and my friend.
I was puzzled because even my colleagues had not noticed this yet.
This showed me once again how accurately Jasmine perceives and can accurately classify her observations.
She wanted to know why we were friends, and I told her that Uschi and I do a lot together and that we often like the same things.

Jasmin asked exactly what we do together and also how we make contact after kindergarten. Her questions were very concrete and I tried to give her concrete answers to them.
Jasmin wanted to understand exactly how the friendship with Uschi works, she wanted to have everything explained very precisely.

I have never had such a conversation with a child of this age. Her exact questioning about a friendship relationship showed me how far and much Jasmin already thinks.

Course Leader Comment:
… and ponders, questions, analyzes and specifically obtains information from a more experienced fellow human being (you). Reflections that come to most with puberty at the earliest.

Overall, I can say that we had a lot of fun and laughed a lot.

After these conversations, she was always in a very good mood and skipped into the group room. She answered the other kids’ questions about what we were doing with, "Martina and I, we think."
From the other children came an "Aha", but none asked more precisely.

During the last conversation, Jasmin decided that she would like to have friends, too, and she clarified:

– We don’t always do what Berin, Amanda and Juline want us to do.
– All are allowed to decide.
– I can also do something alone.

She now had very specific ideas of what she wanted, and I was excited to see how she would make it happen.

Creating her own "princess story"

I suggested Jasmin to write her own story.
My thought was that she could incorporate her wishes there and also make progress with learning to write.

She was very happy about the idea. She was thinking out loud what should go into the story while I was jotting down bullet points.
We met twice in total to write the story.

It went like this: we thought of short sentences and I dictated the words to her. Jasmin then wrote them down, always including the sounds.

Example: The word "ARIELLE.
An A for monkey, then an R for Raman, an I for hedgehog, an E for donkey, an L for lamp, again an L and another E for donkey.

Just this writing with naming the letters made Jasmin a lot of joy. She expressed the wish to include "princess stickers" in the story.

On the first page of the story she asked me to write three words, she said she couldn’t do it.
She then wrote the following words all by herself.

I read her what she had been thinking about. Some things she didn’t want in the story anymore, others we had to add, for example "Arielle likes shoes".

On both days she wrote two sheets of paper in half an hour and wanted to stop afterwards. She walked into the group room with the sheets and proudly showed them around.

I suggested that she laminate the sheets and bind them as a book so that she could read the story aloud in the closing circle. Jasmin happily accepted the idea.

Review of the goals

She achieved the goals I set for Jasmin. Jasmin had clear wishes and needs from the beginning, which she was also aware of; only she could not express them and assert them.

Regarding objective 1:
Jasmin is able to express her wishes and needs

Jasmine was good at sensing and responding to the sensitivities of others. They showed consideration, offers of help and a lot of understanding.
Her interpersonal intelligence is apparently very strong.

Her own sensitivities manifested themselves in crying or in headaches and stomachaches, sometimes she also moaned about fatigue.

In the conversations with her, which were very intensive and long, she showed great perseverance, although it was always difficult for her to enter into the discussion because of her language difficulties.

At the beginning of the project she did not want to and could not talk about her wishes. The "medium" princess was good to get into conversation with her.
She was very interested in the topic. Over time, she became more open and dared to ask questions.

Throughout the kindergarten group, it was noticeable that Jasmin now dared to express wants and needs.
Examples:
1.
When lunch was distributed, Jasmine said to our professional intern, "I don’t like fries, would like more sausage, also salad." Before, she always let me give her everything.

2.
Jasmin plays a memory game with Nele. Berin comes into the facility and constantly interrupts the two. Again and again she speaks to Jasmin.
After a short time Jasmin says that she now wants to play with Nele and no longer pays attention to Berin.

To Objective 2:
Jasmine is able to assert her needs and wishes

Since Jasmin could not express her wishes, it was also difficult for her to enforce them.
The other children or even adults could not fulfill her wishes, which probably led to frustration situations for Jasmin again and again.

It is still the case today that Jasmine does not express many of her wants and needs, but she has begun to do so.

Examples:
1.
Jasmin told her mother that she needed books. The mother explained that Jasmine has enough books (she has books about ships, cars and fish). Jasmin made it very clear to her mother that she needed other books and suggested to the mother that they buy the books together.

Course leader comment:
We don’t know what the financial situation of the family is like. Such a direct demand is certainly a great progress for Jasmin and desirable.
However, if this embarrasses her mother, then it would be important to mediate. You should explain that, regardless of the solution that is found, it is an important developmental step for Jasmine to be able to be so demanding.

It would be important not to leave the mother alone with it. She might otherwise end up thinking you are "rebelling" against her daughter.

Can the children read picture books with you (z.B. over the weekend)?
To supervise such a lending library could perhaps also be a task for Jasmin. And she would get a lot of "reading material".

2.
Jasmin wanted to listen to a CD with Amanda in the next room and dance to it.
Kevin, one of the tall and very, very energetic boys decided he wanted to go into the next room with his friends now.
I heard a loud discussion and stood by the door.
Jasmine had built up in front of Kevin and said: "Kevin, I want to dance with Amanda, I am only here."
Amanda confirmed this. Kevin scolded loudly: "I want to play here!"

Jasmine saw me and asked, "Martina, I’m here first?"
I made it clear that she was in the next room first and escorted Kevin and his friends out.
This was the first time that Jasmin asserted herself over Kevin.

3.
Jasmin, Berin and Juline were playing upstairs in the big hallway. After some time back downstairs, two girls from another group complained that the three had not cleaned up.
My colleague, who was standing at the door, looked questioningly at our girls.
Jasmin replied: "No, we have cleaned up our things, the rest you have to clean up."
The girls left again.

Overall, it’s safe to say that Jasmin is well on her way to asserting her wants and needs.

On Goal 3: Jasmine continues to develop her writing skills

Jasmin was able to write down her name and a few words before this project.
Although it was not easy for her, she wrote the story in two days.
She kept repeating the letters and after a while she could write an I, an E, an L and an A without looking at the letters.
The first day she wanted to stop after one page. I said to her that she could do a little bit after all.

After two pages, her attention was no longer on the story, she got up, changed the subject, walked across the room and made it clear to me that she wanted to stop now.
The same thing happened on the second day.

When the story was finished, she wanted to write some more words the next day.
She wrote the words: chain, mom, clock, dad, princess, melody, ariel and castle.
These are the words I wrote to her after she told them to me.

To Goal 4:
Jasmin is gaining more confidence through the project

Jasmin has gained a lot of self-confidence. She is able to assert her wishes to some extent, she appears confident to Berin and also to Juline, and she has the confidence to contradict the big boys.
I could see that she was just looking at an argument situation between Amanda and Berin without intervening. She herself was painting at the table while they were fighting over crayons. Normally she would have intervened and tried to clarify the situation, but this time she just listened and watched for a short while and continued to devote herself to her work.

Another time two children were fighting over a chair. Jasmine was sitting at this table and earlier she would have tried to settle the dispute.
This time she smiled and started counting out the children, "Ene, mene ,miste…"
The two children were so baffled that they gave up fighting over the chair.

At the moment, she also seems to do something on her own every now and then – without that restlessness she usually showed. Jasmin used to start many things without finishing anything, now she seems much calmer.
She plays alone, but just as often she also plays with other children. Both are apparently fine with her.
This was one of the wishes she had for herself and which she has now clarified for herself.

On the whole, I can say that Jasmin has made great progress through the individual work, she was able to open up and develop further. No other child interfered with her and she was able to build on her skills.

Course Instructor Comment:
We think it is very good that at this point of Jasmin’s development you decided to support her individually. It was obviously what she needed now to move forward.

Planning for the future

The topic of "writing" is definitely still important for Jasmin.

I will create a box of words that Jasmin and also the other children in the writing group can take and work with again and again.
At the Didacta education fair, I bought strips of letters. Here are the letters in sequence on a strip. For each letter is drawn a picture, for example A – apple or B – pear.

I will provide these strips and also their writing notebooks to the children. So now, having received much guidance, the children are no longer dependent on my taking time for them.

Comment by the course director:
The best teacher makes himself superfluous with the time.

Jasmine thus has the opportunity to expand her knowledge of letter writing, and does not have to wait for us to retire to.
Letter games will be used, so that what has been learned is consolidated and further developed.
Jasmin will present her story to all the children in the closing circle, she is already looking forward to it.
Jasmin will be on the field trips with the preschoolers (as well as Raman and Yusuf).

Overall, I can see that Jasmin is developing rapidly and is now also showing her talents.

At the moment she is not so restless anymore and does not show any physical weaknesses, the tiredness is gone.

Course Director’s Comment:
Somatizing has apparently become superfluous.

It is very important for Jasmin to continue to challenge and encourage them, this can be done in one on one support and also in small group work.

Since Jasmin just liked the thinking talks and they have brought her further, I will take time every now and then to withdraw with her.