Tracy Gawron Gawron 1
Kathy Wilson
English 101
February 5, 2015
Essay 1, Draft 3
Little People, Big Imaginations For my ethnography essay I have chosen to study my life at work being a preschooler’s nanny. Is the tooth fairy real? How about Santa? Those questions may seem trivial, but how young children answer is an important indicator of development. We know that kids have big imaginations but sometimes we forget just how large they can be. We forget just how much joy and creative juice they can generate because we lack it ourselves. I have been a nanny for four years and realized that there really is not a dull moment with three little girls running around. Wheather it is falling down stairs, peeing on the floor, or bloody noses I have been through it all. I know that there is always something bound to arise. Kids are always great to be around because they can give an instant gust of laughter, at any Gawron 2 time. A child’s brain develops rapidly during the first five years of life and that is why I chose this topic. I believe children have such gigantic imaginations because they are young and have open minds. It was difficult to pull one conversation out of the many I have at work with the girls. I decided to choose a conversation I had in a car ride. Choosing the car was the best idea because we could be in one place all together and talk while going to activities.
The conversation I chose was between little Holly and I. Holly is a four year old with curly strawberry blonde hair, and an abundance of freckles on her fair skin. She is the youngest child of three girls. Since she is the youngest child she came out a bit luckier than her sisters. Holly is defiantly able to get by with a little bit more than the others. Mom and Dad were a little more lenient with the youngest child. Holly can be very hot headed at times and believes she is the youngest and gets what she wants. Believe me, she says it at least once a day. Her sisters and I get sick of it pretty quickly. Being a four year old, she is independent but excited and challenged by the world she is discovering. Preschoolers have a lot to say; she talks a bunch and curiosity leads to her asking multiple questions at a rapid pace. Since Holly is so independent and curious I have to always be cautious of her every move. One day when I was giving Holly a bath I let her sit in there and play with her Barbie mermaids while I was sorting the laundry in the next room. All of a sudden I heard the water turn back on. I rush back into the bathroom to find out why. She decided herself she needed more water in the tub. Good thing I was attentive because it happened with her Mom once and she overflowed the tub! Holly and I were driving to preschool, about ten minutes away, when we stared to drive parallel to a police officer. I knew when we pulled next to the police car Holly’s toddler brain was instantly thinking about thousands of things, but what would it be this time? Gawron 3
As Holly and I just began our trip to preschool we started our conversation. “I have imaginations what jail looks like, like I have fwee (three).” Holly shouts out. I smile and say, “Ok, tell me them.” As I am eager to hear what she thinks. “The first one is… it might look like dat it’s like, have a teeny tiny room and has a door on it. And I think the second one maybe is a big one with
