Learning to Take Care of Yourself
Thoughts for the Week:
When it comes to our development as human beings, our
mouths are one of our most important body parts. When we're babies, our mouths
bring us nourishment, comfort, information, and the means to communicate and
express feelings. Our mouths also bring us one of our first experiences of
persistent pain - the pain of teething! And, of course, biting becomes an
early primitive way of expressing anger and frustration. Learning to control
the urge to bite is a very important task of early childhood.
Because
we have such strong feelings about our mouths, it can be particularly difficult
when someone like a dentist wants to use strange equipment to look around and
probe our teeth and gums. We hope one of this week's outcomes will be to help
children to know what to expect during a dental exam.
-- Fred Rogers
Summary of the Week:
Toothbrushes, toothpaste, a visit
to the dentist and a steam shovel's "big teeth" all contribute to this week's
theme about how central mouths are to human development.
In the Neighborhood of
Make-Believe, there's a visit from Princess Zelda and Lady Aberlin is appointed
"Director of Research". After doing some surveys with a laughing machine, she
turns into a make-believe tiger. The Neighbors figure out who the costumed
tiger is, and Lady Aberlin finds other things to research.
