Educaring^® Principle: Freedom to Interact with Other Children

“The freedom to explore and interact with other infants is something that we cherish at RIE. It’s surprising how much they really enjoy being together. It starts off – they just gaze at one another and then you might see a smile, and then they reach out and they touch and it’s just magical. And sometimes they make mistakes. Little babies might be interested in the other child’s eyes and maybe start to poke a finger, and so it’s important to be there to intervene if necessary, but you don’t want to give them the idea that there’s anything wrong with wanting to touch and interact with the other child because that is so central to their humanity. Getting in touch with the other person in that way, that brings on curiosity and interest and wonder. We want to support that, and that’s what we do at RIE. There was a brand new class of infants at the stage of crawling, and they had not been with other infants ever before, and you could tell that they were so amazed that there were other people their size! And I’ll never forget Theodore crawling up to Georgia and kissing her, and she went back for a second kiss. Being together is important for adults, but it’s also really important for even babies.”

– Ruth Anne Hammond, RIE Associate