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Mommy Nature's Preschool
Blog |
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From birth, and even before, children learn easily (and best) by
natural means. (Don't get me wrong. I don't advocate henna
tattoos, burning incense, and a bath strike, in an effort to "be
natural".) By natural, I mean that the young mind, biologically
wired with curiosity, contains a desire to learn which automatically
encourages the child's mental and physical growth.
For
instance, any semi-aware parent knows that infants do not learn to
walk through rigid classes and rote practice of
"put-one-foot-in-front-of-the-other" skills. At a certain point in
their development, as their bodies grow stronger, they learn that
they can make certain things happen. "When I pull to a stand and
move my feet, I can move around." This leads to more, and similar,
discoveries and the "I wonder-if-I-can-do-this-too" attitude
develops. The achievement of each little skill, or baby step (pun
intended), begins a cycle that encourages even more practice and
excitement within the child, motivating him/her to achieve
innumerable skills.
This intrinsic motivation far outlasts
the extrinsic motivation that we might try to instill in a child by
offering treats, overzealous praise, or even spanking (which is a
form of motivation, although negative). No worries, being a member
of the human race, I am not void of emotion and I certainly do
believe in praising a child's positive qualities, providing
incentives for appropriate behavior, and letting a child know when
his/her behavior borders on unacceptable. However,
physical
discipline of your
child rests in your hands, not mine. I simply try to follow a
child's natural inclination to learn and grow, emotionally,
socially, mentally, and physically and encourage him/her along the
unstoppable path of learning.
This natural inclination to
learn can be illustrated in a unit I completed in a Kindergarten
class. To open a unit on outer space, I created a "view of space"
on the bulletin board complete with constellations, rockets, and
planets against a dark background. When the children entered the
room the following day, their questions shot at me faster than I
could answer as they expressed their new-found thirst for knowledge
about outer space. This method of turning the task of introducing
the unit to the children instilled a feeling of ownership in their
learning and freed me from working to gain their attention and
trying to
make
them learn. By
pacing the objectives at the children's level, this ownership not
only helped them learn more about the subject than I am sure they
would have otherwise, they felt a certain worthiness in that I cared
enough to involve them in things that interested them. Using this
subject as a jumping board, we integrated letter recognition,
various reading/writing readiness skills, math skills, and certainly
science and critical thinking skills. Even with just this one
example, you see how the concept of working with, and not against, a
child's undying curiosity is beneficial in helping them blossom.
Working with children in a home environment, versus the classroom
situation above, the atmosphere relaxes and feels more family-like.
This is more conducive to a young child than the more inflexible
group care offered in a larger setting or in a school. The young
child still looks to a loving adult for guidance and acceptance and
he/she generally feels more comfortable in a home-setting because,
to put it simply, that's what they are used to! Young children can
learn the same things in a relaxed environment as in a more rigid
school-type setting. For instance, children learn one-to-one
correspondence and counting (both important Kindergarten math
skills) when setting the table for others or handing out cookies.
"One plate and napkin for each person." Reading readiness takes on
a life of its own as children thrive in the presence of a loving
caregiver sharing an imaginative storybook as his/her finger follows
the words and a lively discussion (including story setting, theme,
characters, plot) follows, usually led by the excited child.
Critical thinking and science "bloom" when making play dough (and
playing with it), during water play, planting and charting the
growth of plants, watching animals and on and on and on. Obviously
a child's learning path continues as long as they show interest!
Like the wise mother in
My Big, Fat, Greek
Wedding
told her daughter,
"We must make him (the father) think this is his idea!" and he took
off with it. Along the same line, I like to think that I open the
children's worlds by giving them more ideas to consider that they
may not have thought to think of! (I think I said that right!) ;-) |
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