There is a gap in our timetable with nothing in it. It is the most productive part of the morning.
Every morning at ten past ten, nothing is planned. No activity, no adult-led game, no music. For about ten minutes the children have the room, the yard and each other, and the grown-ups step back to the edges and watch.
The first two weeks of term, that gap is uncomfortable. Children come to us and ask what they should do. We say we don't know, and we mean it kindly. By the third week the gap fills itself: a shop appears in the block corner, someone starts a queue, two children negotiate a rule about who holds the till.
That negotiation is the whole point. Children who are never bored never get to invent, and invention is where language, planning and fairness are actually practised. We keep the gap because it is the only part of the day we cannot take credit for.
Lina Haddad
Written by — Growora
