A young child took time to look at my bee ring while I was out at school recently. My ring has moving gears and tiny shiny wings you can see if you look closely.

 

This young one was using an augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) system to tell me about their feelings including curiosity, happiness, sadness and surprise. 

 

They did not get angry even when someone nearby asked about that.

How about that?  

We often go with three feelings when teaching how someone feels. 

 

Three!  Who only feels three things?  No one, I tell ya. 

This young one knew what they were all about and wanted to tell me. 

Look at it closely

And then they went back to my ring. They looked at it closely again and back to all the options about how they could be feeling.  

 

As we took time to go over how each feeling could be defined and included, we got back to curiosity.  

 

How do we even start to talk about this?  

What does it mean? 

 

Here is one way to start. It could be to think about something and then wonder more about it.  

 

Ok, that is a beginning.  

What else? 

 

I found myself putting on my thinking cap with this young child.  

 

They taught me as the ring was looked at from all angles, pushed, pulled, studied, and then it wiggled as if it was trying to be removed from my finger.

 

Not surprisingly, it was not the first time this ring has gained attention from children, so my finger stays bent, and the ring continues to be firmly on my hand. 

 

Again and again we talked about being curious about this ring.  Then about other items around the room with friends and things the child liked to do.

Starting point

Being curious is a great starting point for many of us. 

 

What are we curious about?  

 

Think about it from your perspective. Do you remember when you last got curious about something? 

 

I think about things and then wonder all the time. 

 

Being curious is what brings a desire to learn in life. 

 

There are times when I pull off the road in my travels to take a picture so I remember what makes me curious.  

 

Colors in the clouds, the stripes of rocks in the mountain or the crisp rolling river.

 

Other moments stay with me without a picture that I can hold in my hands.  These pictures are as vivid and pull curiosity, wonder and the desire to look for more angles. 

 

This level of curiosity leads me to new books to read and research to study.  

 

I now have this thought popping into my head.  In fact, it came to me as I watched the amount of studying the young student was willing to go to with my bee ring. 

 

What if I invited others to learn and be curious with me? 

 

Now that could be fun! 

 

Let’s gather our energy and pull strength together. 

 

Y’all. 

 

That is what kids do.  

 

They pull together all the time!  You bet they do. 

It works for them and it worked for us when we were kids so here we go. 

 

Think about what makes you curious, happy, full of wonder and love and what makes you surprised. 

 

Yes, even what has made you sad at times.  

 

Every emotion is important at the time you feel them. 

 

Then get intrigued.  Push, pull, twist and study what is there. Join together!  That’s where our strength can always be. 

 

Perhaps there will be bits of beauty with shiny wings and gears that turn.  

Follow that turn and stay curious, my friends.