Use Of Scissors

[Guest]

We had a similar problem with a child of similar age. She was keen to use the scissors but not for cutting paper! The scissors had been stashed (or so we think!) in the home corner from the day before and this particular child managed to cut a large section of hair (another child's). When we spoke to the mum of the other child, she was understanding about the whole thing and said that she knew that these things happened.

 

We recorded it in the incident book along with the conversation we had with mum and got her to sign it, to ensure there were no comebacks!

 

We then spoke to the mum of the child who had cut the hair and she laughed about it, in front of the child . The child then thought it was really funny. Once the laughter had subsided, mum eventually got round to telling us that the child's aunt was a hairdresser and they had called in to her workplace over the previous weekend. This made it easier to understand why she had cut the other child's hair! She then wanted to know why we kept scissors (or in her words 'dangerous toys') in an accessible place for the children. So we explained about independence in selecting tools, handling tools safely etc and her final word on the matter was that her child was not allowed to take part in scissor activities.

 

 

Again, this was all written down for the mum and we asked her to sign.

Since then, the child has been allowed to use scissors, but the simple, plastic ones that struggle to even cut paper! She is now allowed to use normal scissors, but only during a one to one. Whilst we respect her wishes, it is very difficult in a room of 24 pre-schoolers and limited staff to sit and do one to ones on a regular basis, so we have tried to encourage scissor control activities in small group situations. Luckily there have been no more problems, but we tend to be extra vigilant around this particular child.

 

I agree with beau that you should carry on with what you are doing because I agree that it's not fair to deprive the other children of the use of scissors. I would say just keep writing down incidents and conversations with parents and maybe just have an adult (where possible!) floating around the area that the scissors are being used in.