Children Inspiring Children

We are very blessed to have the Wonder of Learning Exhibit in Vancouver right now. I have been twice now, and plan to go back at least once more before the exhibit moves on in December. It's an inspiring space, and there is so much to take from it. I love how the exhibit shows how valued the children are. It is something I try to work towards.
So I decided it was an opportunity, this last time, to invest in the Wonder of Learning book. I felt the exhibit has so much to offer and it is overwhelming. The book is on display at our centre. It's not obvious, but it's there. It has been my intention to share the book with the children. I would prefer to take them to see the real thing, but it's not possible at the moment.
So this afternoon, the children were waiting their turn for the bathroom, and one child spotted the book. So we sat and flipped through the book.
The children in our program are creative, critical thinkers. They learn through play, and their play is valued. So I was interested to see how the children would react to seeing other children play in an environment similar to their own. The children of Reggio are in a group centre much like our own, they play just like we do, they have struggles just like we do. There is nothing 'special' about them, they are as unique as we are. So I was curious to see how the children would react to the pictures. We have only looked at a small portion of the book, as it's something I hope to return to as we go along.
The first picture was of children in an empty room. I asked the children what they would do if they were in an empty room. The response was unanimous: RUN!!! We then looked at the next picture, and the children in the photo were clearly running. Aha!
The following page showed children running through a room full of columns.  The children sat wide-eyed looking at that photo for a long time.... silent, just looking. This group is not silent EVER, so something has touched them. I asked them how they felt about that picture. It was apparent that each of the children seemed to have transported themselves into the picture, imagining. I asked them if they like to run like these children, and the response was Yes!
So I wonder where this will take us? We have some thinking to do!