"Will You Hold My Hand?" An Analysis of the Six-Year-Old Mind.

I'm almost through my first week at camp with actual campers, and to say it has been exciting would be the understatement of the century. This couldn't have been a better group to start my summer off with; while there will always be those occasional moments of misbehavior (which is inevitable among six-year-olds), they are an inquisitive, friendly, and passionate bunch. Beyond that, they provide a great analysis for social behaviors. (This is the psych major talking).

Six-year-olds both directly and indirectly provide startling insights into human nature. Take the love triangle that is blossoming between three of my campers as the week progresses. Two boys, both trying to get the attention of one little girl. They utilize various methods to garner said attention. My personal favorites include their Star Wars battles with frequent glances at her reactions, or one of the boys chasing her around at the marsh with a huge fiddler crab in his hand yelling, "He's gonna eaaaaaat youuuuu!" The more she laughed, the more he did it. As we were walking in line back to the camp classroom awhile later, the girl exclaimed to me with a look of amused exasperation on her face, "Maria, these boys are KILLING me!" It was absolutely precious. Kid, wish I could tell you that it gets better. (Although I think some of us would agree that their courting methods involving Star Wars and fiddler crabs are far more charming than some of the sketchiness we've endured. But I digress).

Since the little girl was amused and not annoyed or upset, I gave her a piece of wisdom. "Hun, sometimes when boys want to be friends with you, they do crazy things that they think will make you like them. Silly, huh?" She laughed. And who says girl bonding can't cross age barriers?

What else do I love about six-year-olds? They are so willing to give love. I can't count how many times I've heard, "You're the best teacher and I love you!" this week. From kids that were too shy to even look at me the first day. And then those "will you hold my hand?" moments. Little kids, boys and girls, always want to hold your hand. Yes, you can hold my hand while we walk.

It's too bad that in a few years, that won't be cool anymore.

But want to know what IS cool? The acts of kindness I watched unfold before my very eyes. We hear so much about bullying and torment, but kids can also be full of innocent compassion. Take one boy who was in tears today about his sore wiggly tooth. Almost immediately, several kids were sitting in a circle on the floor with him, relating their own dramatic wiggly tooth experiences. "My big brother said if you wiggle your tooth 100 times, it will fall out!" one girl offered. And soon the crying boy was laughing as they all counted to 100 with him. The tooth still didn't come out, but he had supporters.

Keep being the awesome kids you are, my little six-year-olds. I'm taking notes.