My sister Lori is studying for her early childhood credential. For one of her classes, she needed to observe a child in Joshua's age range. So, here is her observation.
My husband has volunteered to supervise the kids so I can strictly observe, so I find my seat in the background and let the show begin.
We have a flower border with little rocks in it, which always attract Josh first thing. He begins throwing them all over until Uncle Paul places a bucket within range so the rocks won’t land in the grass. With his little sandals on, Josh carefully walks onto the rocks and picks up more so he can throw them. He suddenly spots his sisters kicking a soccer ball, so he quickly runs up to the ball and kicks it, which makes them yell “Joshie!” So he takes off to the big gas barbecue grill and plays with the knobs. Somehow he gets a knob off and tosses it down as soon as Uncle Paul says “Joshua!” Seeing a basketball on the sidewalk, he points to it and says “ba.” He grabs the ball with both hands and attempts to dribble with it, or at least he throws it down, it bounces up, he slaps it with his hands, the ball bounces down then up, and he repeats. Suddenly he spies his reflection in the sliding glass door and starts to laugh. He grabs the ball again, throws it up, it lands on his head, and he laughs again.
The ball rolls to the flower garden, where he chases it only to find marigolds as tall as he is. He manages to pluck a flower, then throws it, then laughs. He runs to get the ball again, sees my daughter Kristina standing inside the sliding door and offers the ball to her. She shakes her head no, so he drops the ball where he stands.
Joshua soon sees Uncle Paul picking weeds along the border, so he joins in, bending down, trying to pull the grass out and throw into the bucket he had previously. This lasts for a few times, and moves on to the nearby tomato plants. He finds a green tomato, picks it off and bites into it. He actually breaks the skin, but immediately spits it out. Yet he continues to hold onto the green tomato and goes back to pulling weeds with Uncle Paul again. Then he decides to throw the tomato near the basketball, which does not land very near. So he goes to the basketball and throws that near the tomato, but the basketball just rolls on past.
Uncle Paul turns on the water so the kids can cool off. This instantly attracts Josh’s attention, so he grabs the end of the hose, takes a drink and attempts to water the flowers and grass. Then he sticks his finger in the hose, and discovers that water will squirt all over him, to which he cracks himself up and giggles with deep belly laughs. This goes on for about a minute and gets completely drenched. His sister, Tori, takes the hose and squirts him, which elicits more belly laughs. Joshua wants the hose back now, all the while waving his hands and making squealing noises at Tori. She gives it back to him, but then decides that since she is older and bigger, she should have the hose anyway, which makes Josh furious, and screams louder and holds tighter. Finally Uncle Paul steps in and says “no!” The hose is then thrown down so that the water end is hidden in the grass. This makes Josh extremely curious because he sees the hose, but where’s the water? He points to the hose end, grunts and looks to each face present while trying to make someone understand that there is no water coming out. For clarification purposes, the hose is spiral and therefore landed in such a way that the water end was perpendicular to the ground, and as a result looked as if no water were coming out. Josh would not stop until someone showed him the water end, although it surprised me that he didn’t pick it up himself.
After a while, Josh’s clothes are off and Uncle Paul sits him in a chair to dry him off with a towel. This lasts for about ten seconds, until Josh spies Kristina’s Jamba Juice cup. Shrieking, pointing, grunting and voraciously hand-signing “please” and “more,” he climbs down and proceeds to sip through the straw about 5 or 6 times. Out of the blue, he realizes the noisy wind chimes that have been blowing all afternoon. He points and squeals, then sees a broom, which he runs to, picks up, and begins to sweep the air.
Josh spots more rocks in the border, picks up a handful and throws it. Then he finds those that landed on the sidewalk and kicks them back into the border. Now he bends over, picks up another handful, only this time he places them onto the sidewalk instead of throwing them so he can kick them again into the rock border.
“Joshua, do you want to eat?” Kristina asks. He shakes his head no and grunts. He is busy watching Uncle Paul on the ladder, no doubt figuring out how he can get up there, too.
Once inside the house for dinner, he climbs onto his booster seat. He is given a babyish spoon and tries to feed himself beefy mac and applesauce, which he is pretty good at, despite the small spoon he was given. Josh drinks milk boisterously from his sippy cup. He takes a few more bites, then tries to get down. Kristina puts the spoon back into his hand, and he goes after more. Soon he tires of the baby spoon and reverts to his other hand to pick up more pieces, while still holding the spoon in the other. He goes back and forth between spoon and hand until Uncle Paul ends up helping him finish his meal. After a few more messy minutes, he refuses more bites and utilizes his “all done” hand sign, and makes noises until Uncle Paul helps him down.
