Ethnography Final Draft

The Average Kindergarten Girl

Emma is rather small for five years old, barely out of 4T size clothes. She has straight strawberry blond hair and blue eyes. Her hair is styled with layers and bangs and is shoulder blade length. Emma is a skinny Minnie, with the most adorable little smile. She is the stereotypical girly-girl and loves to look pretty. She loves to shop and buy anything from clothes to little purses, to makeup, hair stuff and toys. She also loves animals, in particular dogs and wants desperately to have one of her own.

Emma lives in Fall River in a blue single family house. Her house is in a neighborhood with a mix of both single and some multi-family homes. It has a fenced in back yard and she loves to play back there. Also, she is lucky enough to have her own room, currently being an only child. This is a better situation than some other children her age who grow up with no access to outdoor spaces or their own private space to go and relax. She lives here with her mom, dad, grandma, grandpa, and cousin Justin. Soon she will be living with one more person, she will no longer be an only child as her mom is expecting a little girl in a few months.

Emma asks me "What is your last name," and so I told her. Then she asks what auntie Erica and uncle Austin's last names are (my brother and sister). "Hey, that's the same as my daddy," she says. What she came up with next I was not expecting. She says "Hey the baby's name is going to be Lajoie too, its daddy's but the baby is stealing it" Emma made another interesting comment about her unborn baby sister. She is happy and looks forward to having a new baby sister and not being an only child anymore. She looks forward to being a big sister so much that she tells her mom "Mommy, when is this baby coming out?" Not for a while is the answer and to this Emma says "Ughhh, mommy the baby is taking too long..., she needs to hurry up." I was a little taken back by these cute, quirky comments.

Emma is a typical stubborn five year old in the sense that she does not like rules very much. She does not like bedtimes in particular, because she likes to stay up and watch TV, play with toys and color. As a result she often puts up a stink when it comes close to eight o'clock. The only way to really combat her stubbornness is to cause her to tire out by playing, or reading a book. Also, if you can bring her on a car ride close to bedtime she is likely to fall asleep, she is a car baby.

The first day of kindergarten for Emma was definitely an interesting one. On this day her parents had to literally get her dressed and ready for school while she played dead. She just layed there limp, as they got her dressed and ready for school. She didn't want to start school yet, she didn't want summer to be over. They eventually got her to school but when they got there my brother had to carry her in the school. When he went to put her down, the little actress she is, she slumped on the floor refusing to give up her act. Eventually she was coaxed back to life but not before drama queen Emma had completed her valiant effort. Now, Emma had gone to preschool but had never had a full day of school before. This transition to a full day of kindergarten was a big one for Emma. There are no more naps in school and the day is twice as long so for the first month or so poor Emma was often exhausted by the end of her day. She is now much more adjusted to this change and enjoys going to school, so there is no more playing dead in the mornings.

Emma goes to an Greene Elementary school in Fall River. She is in kindergarten and loves it. She is a great student and always does her work and tries her best. However, she often gets into trouble in school by her teacher. This is because Miss. Emma is a social butterfly, and as soon as she finishes her work she is talking to everyone around her. Emma has no problem making friends as she is very friendly and kind to everyone. Her teacher has made it a point to let her parents know that she actually has stuck up for kids in her class who were being made fun of. She is an incredible little person with a big heart, she just has a big chatter box to go with it.

Emma is so social that according to her she already has boyfriends. "You have a boyfriend already?" I ask her. "Yeah," she says, " I have three boyfriends actually.." I laugh and ask her if Daddy knows that she has boyfriends. "Nooo," she replies, "Mommy knows though, but not Daddy, not yet." What do your boyfriends look like I ask her. "Well...the first one has blond hair and I think green eyes..yeah I think, and then the other one has brown hair and I think black eyes...and..then Kyle has brown hair too." "Ohh," I said, "they sound cute, but why do you have three boyfriends?" "Because they are cool and I like them."

Kids age 5-6 (kindergarten and first grade) are in a stage where they are trying to be independent wanting to do everything themselves. Also they like to have things their way most of the time. For example, one day when my niece Emma was over she wanted me to paint her nails. Emma wanted every single color nail polish I had and wanted her nails painted her way. She let me know if I was not following the pattern right saying "no not yellow I wanted pink next ughhhh see follow the colors like this...in a row." Also, she loves to do my nails and wants them to be the same exact as hers, "ohh look we match".

Also, on this day while I was painting her nails Emma overheard a conversation between my mom and her mom (my sister in law). Her mom was saying something about her girlfriend and so Emma suddenly looks up at me and rolls her eyes. To my surprise she then says in an annoyed tone "ughhh...she doesn't mean it like that..she means like her friend who's a girl ughhh..mommm," I smile and laugh a little to myself. I then tell her "I know, I understand don't worry. "Yeah," she says and laughs "she doesn't mean like her girlfriend hahaha." Her idea of relationships and the fact that she thought that this was something she had to correct and make clear I thought was very interesting.

Emma is also very interested in makeup and puts layers upon layers of all the lip gloss she can find and if she gets ahold of blush or anything else watch out. I left her in my room alone for a minute and she went through my makeup. She thought that a cover up stick was lipstick so she came out of my room and into the living room with white lips. "Look" she said proudly. I responded "ohh baby girl what did you put on your lips?" "Your lipstick"she replied, "I don't have white lipstick," I said confused. I then went into my room and realized that she had used the cover up, "No baby I said that's not lipstick that's cover up." Emma then got very embarrassed and put her head down, so I reassured her and said that it was OK, no big deal, and cleaned off her face. This shows the innocence in kids her age.

One night while I was babysitting Emma my dad asked me if I could take out the dog so I asked Emma if she wanted to come outside with me. My dad told Emma that because she was helping with the dog that if Bo peed she would get fifty cents and that if he pooped she would get a dollar. So when we went outside Emma took it all very seriously. She kept on trying to clear up what pops had said "if he poops I get more money then if he pees?" She kept checking on the dog to see if he went and insisted on staying out longer to see if he had to go anymore. We even played red light green light to help pass the time. It was pretty comical, and when we got back inside she carefully reported back what the dog had done.

My dad was goofing off with Emma one night while she was eating her ABC soup. She was saying that she didn't want to eat anymore, so after I tried coaxing her into finishing it by saying "just a few more bits" my dad told her that there are some hungry people in her mouth who she needs to feed too. We all laughed, including Emma, and she believed this idea. She ended up eating the rest of the soup, but for the rest of the night she kept saying "hey pops, look at my people," opening her mouth wide. She also kept on asking him how many people were in her mouth saying "AHHHH." She thought that this was the greatest thing and loved that everyone laughed when she did this, so she laughed too and kept opening her mouth. My dad would respond to her by pretending to be shocked and scared saying things like "ohh my god I cant believe how many people are in there, look at them all." Emma was loving it all.

Emma also has a lot of energy, as is true with most kids her age. She loves to play around with her pops and loves when he tickles her. They often run around the house, horsing around. My dad does something he calls the claw and she loves to play this game, just as me and my siblings had. He calls his hand the claw and pretends that it comes to life and tickles and chases you. Emma gets all excited running away screeching and laughing. But, then she always comes back for more, antagonizing it and trying to get it to come after her again. She played this for hours one night like a little energizer bunny. Eventually she began to rub her eyes however and reluctantly layed down to watch a movie. If her little body hadn't forced her to stop I don't think she would have, she was having too much fun. Emma slept extremely well that night.

Emma is the typical kindergarten girl. She loves to socialize, is extremely energetic, and is stubborn and independent minded. She is a big goof-ball who loves to horse around. She also likes girly things like makeup and dressing up. The average kindergarten girl is very into playing house, being independent and pretending to be older and more grown up. This definitely fits Emma to a tee. An example of this would be how she has "three boyfriends." Although she is in the stage where she wants to do more things on her own she still has an air of innocence when it comes to abstract, new, or complex ideas. For example, she does not understand that the baby can't "hurry up" and is not stealing her daddy's name. However, kids her age and younger are picking up on ideas that are beyond their years such as Emma's concept of gay relationships. This is clearly shown when Emma feels obligated to inform me that her mom "doesn't mean her girlfriend...she means like her friend who is a girl." More and more kids at younger and younger ages are being exposed to concepts that are more adult. This creates a vast contrast in the average kindergarten girl who is overcome with knowledge and still incredibly innocent in her young age. Hopefully, children still like Emma maintain a healthy balance between these two things. Otherwise we will be living in a world where children are no longer allowed to be what they are, children and instead will be overwhelmed/bombarded by things too complex for them to fully understand.

Ethnography Essay Draft

I am planning on developing these groups of observations into paragraphs and some sort of structure. Also, I am going to add to them. If you have any ideas on what you think is missing or how I could organize my essay that would be great. Thanks :)

I am outside with five kids, my brother Austin 11, Anndreana 10, Kevin 7, Victoria 6, and Kenzygntin 5. They are all playing a scavenger hunt game. The younger kids Kevin, Vicky and Kenzi are impatient when it comes to the actual set up of the game but are eager to help. They also can't wait to start the game and are extremely excited. After playing this game for a little bit a girl from across the street called over saying "hi kevin" and waving. Kevin acted like he didn't know who she was and was very taken aback. "I dont know who that is ...who is she? Im not saying hi back...she is weird," he said. Then I asked him if he knew her from school maybe and he then recognized that it was a girl Angelina from school. He asked me if I could walk him over acroos the street so I walked him, Kenzi, and Victoria over with Austin and Anndreana following suit soon after. "Hi angelina," he said as she introduced him to her grandmother, who is my neighbor, "do you want to come over and play?" She did, so she came over and played. I soon realized a change in Kevin's behavior. Ever since Angelina had come over he was being very rambunkscious, climbing trees, climbing on the porches, jumping off the stone walls and being very show offish. He began to boast about what he could do and how even if he fell "it didn't even hurt." I thought that this was very interesting because Kevin has said in the past that girls are gross and that he never wants to get married. He is very much still in the girls have cooties stage, and still enjoys running around rolling in the mud type of stuff. So for him to display this change shows that dispite this he is still interested on some level in impressing girls or atleast this one.

One day Kenzi got hurt because she fell down the porch steps and scrapping her back and she started to cry. I then picked her up and checked her back and comforted her asking her if she wanted to go inside and see grandma so we could put something on the scrape and clean it. She said yes so I brought her in. When I came back out I was approached by Andreanna (her sister) who told me that as soon as I had brought Kenzi in Victoria had said "Oh she is such a big baby" and that Angelina said in return "yeah i know what a big baby..like ugh." This reinforces an idea that kids this age are very possessive, and are group oriented despite their youth. Victoria was upset because of the attention I was giving Kenzi at the time and Angelina was just trying to fit in and went along with it. They were both being pretty creul considering how young they are.

Kids age 5-6 (kindergarten and first grade) are in a stage where they are trying to be independent wanting to do everything themselves. Also they like to have things their way most of the time. For example, one day when my neice Emma was over she wanted me to paint her nails. Emma wanted every single color nailpolish I had and wanted her nails painted her way. She let me know if I was not following the pattern right saying "no not yellow I wanted pink next ughhhh see follow the colors like this...in a row." Also, she loves to do my nails and wants them to be the same exact as hers, "ohh look we match".

Also, on this day while I was painting her nails Emma overheard a conversation between my mom and her mom (my sister in law). Her mom was saying something about her girlfriend and so Emma suddenly looks up at me and rolls her eyes. To my surprise she then says in an annoyed tone "ughhh...she doesnt mean it like that..she means like her friend whos a girl ughhh..mommm," I smile and laugh a little to myself. I then tell her "I know, I understand don't worry. "Yeah," she says and laughs "she doesnt mean like her girlfriend hahaha." Her idea of relationships and the fact that she thought that this was something she had to correct and make clear I thought was very interesting.

Emma is also very interested in makeup and puts layers upon layers of all the lipgloss she can find and if she gets ahold of blush or anything else watch out. I left her in my room alone for a minute and she went through my makeup. She thought that a cover up stick was lipstick so she came out of my room and into the living room with white lips. "Look" she said proudly. I responded "ohh baby girl what did you put on your lips?" "Your lipstick"she replied, "I don't have white lipstick," I said confused. I then went into my room and realized that she had used the cover up, "No baby I said thats not lipstick thats cover up." Emma then got very embarrassed and put her head down, so I reassured her and said that it was ok, no big deal, and cleaned off her face. This shows the innocence in kids her age.

One night while I was babysitting Emma my dad asked me if I could take out the dog so I asked Emma if she wanted to come outside with me. My dad told Emma that because she was helping with the dog that if Bo peed she would get fifty cents and that if he pooped she would get a dollar. So when we went outside Emma took it all very seriously. She kept on trying to clear up what pops had said "if he poops I get more money then if he pees?" She kept checking on the dog to see if he went and insisted on staying out longer to see if he had to go anymore. We even played red light green light to help pass the time. It was pretty comical, and when we got back inside she carefully reported back what the dog had done.

My dad was goofing off with Emma one night while she was eating her ABC soup. She was saying that she didn't want to eat anymore, so after I tried coaxing her into finishing it by saying "just a few more bits" my dad told her that there are some hungry people in her mouth who she needs to feed too. We all laughed, including Emma, and she believed this idea. She ended up eating the rest of the soup, but for the rest of the night she kept saying "hey pops, look at my people," opening her mouth wide. She also kept on asking him how many people were in her mouth saying "AHHHH." She thought that this was the greatest thing and loved that everyone laughed when she did this, so she laughed too and kept opening her mouth. My dad would respond to her by pretending to be shocked and scared saying things like "ohh my god I cant believe how many people are in there, look at them all." Emma was loving it all.

Emma asks me "What is your last name," and so I told her. Then she asks what aunty erica and uncle austin's last names are (my brother and sister). "Heyy, thats the same as my daddy," she says. What she came up with next I was not expecting. She says "Heyy the baby's name is going to be Lajoie too, its daddy's but the baby is stealing it" Emma made another interesting comment about her unborn baby sister. She is happy and looks forward to having a new baby sister and not being an only child anymore. She looks forward to being a big sister so much that she tells her mom "Mommy, when is this baby coming out?" Not for a while is the answer and to this Emma says "Ughhh, mommy the baby is taking too long..., she needs to hurry up." I was a little taken back by these cute, quirky comments and I think that they give great insight into how five and six year olds view the world and various concepts.

Emma also has a lot of energy, as is true with most kids her age. She loves to play around with her pops and loves when he tickles her. They often run around the house, horseing around. My dad does something he calls the claw and she loves to play this game, just as me and my siblings had. He calls his hand the claw and pretends that it comes to life and tickles and chases you. Emma gets all excited running away screeeching and laughing. But, then she always comes back for more, antagonizing it and trying to get it to come after her again. She played this for hours one night like a little energizer bunny. Eventually she began to rub her eyes however and reluctantly layed down to watch a movie. If her little body hadn't forced her to stop I don't think she would have, she was having too much fun. Emma slept extremely well that night.