It Takes a Village
In our modern world, many of us require the access of an Early Childhood facility to support us in the raising of our young children for one reason or another.
Because of this, it is fair enough to state that Early Childhood facilities play a huge role in the lives of many families and in the experiences lived by many young children.
There is so much research that supports the importance of finding an environment of care where all children are able to be respectfully cared for. This is achieved when there are smaller groups of children. Children attending a service where there are two adults to care for thirty plus children, will simply not receive the care or language support they need or deserve. In a setting like this, children are 'managed' as opposed to experiencing a true, high quality relationship with an adult they developmentally need a healthy attachment with.
There is also so much research that supports the importance of children playing for healthy development. In an Early Childhood facility this could look like many things however, it shouldn't look like adults entertaining children with games or activities with fixed outcomes set by the adults.
If an Early Childhood facility is providing for play well, you will see that the caring adults will influence the provided materials to reflect and extend the interests of the children, there will be a lot of conscious conversations and their would be a lot of child led play with adult support in regards to social and emotional development.
Play is so important to the natural and healthy development of humans just as it is for all other mammals. We must play in order to develop deep understanding and to perfect skill sets that must develop as a priority. We also need present adults to support us in our journey towards understanding our social and emotional worlds lived through our play with other humans.
Social and emotional development must be a priority for our young children and therefor, must be a priority of our Early Childhood facilities. There should be painting (100 a day if the child feels the urge), there should be hours spent in the sandpit baking or digging if the child feels the urge, there should be running and jumping and catching rain in buckets and splashing and pouring and creating and building and all the while learning that there are responsibilities when we are human and part of a community. This is the learning that should be at the heart of our early years.
As parents, we have the best intentions for our young children. We wish for success and more often than not, many of us are eager to see our young children meet milestones as if it is a race. Many of us have pedestaled the achievement of the academic skill sets over the value of creativity and duty of social conscience. This societal drive has separated the academic brain from the concept of holistic development and thus we see Early Childhood facilities monopolise this to create spaces that boast their "STEAM approach to learning" or how they are "Just Like School".
Our Early Childhood facilities should not be Primary School simulations. School will come. It has its time, and it's time is not when our children are in Pre-School Early Childhood facilities.
When we do look ahead to beginning Primary School our children are most successful when they have great fine motor control, can identify their name, have rich oral language, are aware that all people are special and that their needs do not come at the expense of others and can to some extent manage their own needs in regards to toileting and belongings.
Fine motor development comes from strength in our larger muscles which is developed through large body movements like digging, crawling, lifting, climbing, running and hopping. Children do not need to attend a mini gym to experience these movements, they simply need the opportunity to access the outdoors and play.
Fine motor also comes from exposure creative materials, construction, puzzle play and anything that we manipulate with our hands. Devices do not support fine motor development.
Rich oral language is developed through conscious conversation. Conscious conversations happen between children however, most importantly through engaged and present adults who our young children are attached to. It comes from singing nursery rhymes and being told stories and being read to.
Our children learn to manage their own belongings, through the practice of developmentally appropriate independence and our children learn about their place in the world through living and playing alongside other humans.
When we consider the very accurate idea of 'it takes a village', we as parents cannot forget that we are the core members of that village. Therefore, it is important to understand that our children do not start learning when they arrive at our chosen Early Childhood facility and stop learning when we pick them up.
When we do understand that our children are learning in every second of life, we can understand that as parents we are responsible for guiding our children through development and towards being a contributing member of a wider community who will need to be literate in order to do so however, will also need skills in social understandings and navigation, and in emotional intelligence.
The pressure does not need to be placed on our Early Childhood facility of choice to teach our children everything. As parents, we play a role in exposing our children to the written world simply by being conscious of it. We don't need mini-schools. We need a connected and loving village and we need to appreciate that we are hugely responsible for the developmental outcomes of our children.
Choose the space we send our children to wisely, there is no need for School before the time we send our children to actual school. More importantly, choose to also be a part of the role of teaching our children. Read, bake, get outside, communicate, set some boundaries, respect the competencies of our children and have fun living.
Developmentally appropriate academia will fall into place within the rich and connected villages we create and are a part of.
Because of this, it is fair enough to state that Early Childhood facilities play a huge role in the lives of many families and in the experiences lived by many young children.
There is so much research that supports the importance of finding an environment of care where all children are able to be respectfully cared for. This is achieved when there are smaller groups of children. Children attending a service where there are two adults to care for thirty plus children, will simply not receive the care or language support they need or deserve. In a setting like this, children are 'managed' as opposed to experiencing a true, high quality relationship with an adult they developmentally need a healthy attachment with.
There is also so much research that supports the importance of children playing for healthy development. In an Early Childhood facility this could look like many things however, it shouldn't look like adults entertaining children with games or activities with fixed outcomes set by the adults.
If an Early Childhood facility is providing for play well, you will see that the caring adults will influence the provided materials to reflect and extend the interests of the children, there will be a lot of conscious conversations and their would be a lot of child led play with adult support in regards to social and emotional development.
Play is so important to the natural and healthy development of humans just as it is for all other mammals. We must play in order to develop deep understanding and to perfect skill sets that must develop as a priority. We also need present adults to support us in our journey towards understanding our social and emotional worlds lived through our play with other humans.
Social and emotional development must be a priority for our young children and therefor, must be a priority of our Early Childhood facilities. There should be painting (100 a day if the child feels the urge), there should be hours spent in the sandpit baking or digging if the child feels the urge, there should be running and jumping and catching rain in buckets and splashing and pouring and creating and building and all the while learning that there are responsibilities when we are human and part of a community. This is the learning that should be at the heart of our early years.
As parents, we have the best intentions for our young children. We wish for success and more often than not, many of us are eager to see our young children meet milestones as if it is a race. Many of us have pedestaled the achievement of the academic skill sets over the value of creativity and duty of social conscience. This societal drive has separated the academic brain from the concept of holistic development and thus we see Early Childhood facilities monopolise this to create spaces that boast their "STEAM approach to learning" or how they are "Just Like School".
Our Early Childhood facilities should not be Primary School simulations. School will come. It has its time, and it's time is not when our children are in Pre-School Early Childhood facilities.
When we do look ahead to beginning Primary School our children are most successful when they have great fine motor control, can identify their name, have rich oral language, are aware that all people are special and that their needs do not come at the expense of others and can to some extent manage their own needs in regards to toileting and belongings.
Fine motor development comes from strength in our larger muscles which is developed through large body movements like digging, crawling, lifting, climbing, running and hopping. Children do not need to attend a mini gym to experience these movements, they simply need the opportunity to access the outdoors and play.
Fine motor also comes from exposure creative materials, construction, puzzle play and anything that we manipulate with our hands. Devices do not support fine motor development.
Rich oral language is developed through conscious conversation. Conscious conversations happen between children however, most importantly through engaged and present adults who our young children are attached to. It comes from singing nursery rhymes and being told stories and being read to.
Our children learn to manage their own belongings, through the practice of developmentally appropriate independence and our children learn about their place in the world through living and playing alongside other humans.
When we consider the very accurate idea of 'it takes a village', we as parents cannot forget that we are the core members of that village. Therefore, it is important to understand that our children do not start learning when they arrive at our chosen Early Childhood facility and stop learning when we pick them up.
When we do understand that our children are learning in every second of life, we can understand that as parents we are responsible for guiding our children through development and towards being a contributing member of a wider community who will need to be literate in order to do so however, will also need skills in social understandings and navigation, and in emotional intelligence.
The pressure does not need to be placed on our Early Childhood facility of choice to teach our children everything. As parents, we play a role in exposing our children to the written world simply by being conscious of it. We don't need mini-schools. We need a connected and loving village and we need to appreciate that we are hugely responsible for the developmental outcomes of our children.
Choose the space we send our children to wisely, there is no need for School before the time we send our children to actual school. More importantly, choose to also be a part of the role of teaching our children. Read, bake, get outside, communicate, set some boundaries, respect the competencies of our children and have fun living.
Developmentally appropriate academia will fall into place within the rich and connected villages we create and are a part of.
Developmentally appropriate 'academic' skill sets being played out in our home.
Licking five little fingers after some weekend baking.
Having fun in the sprinklers and all the while flexing our gross motor muscles.
Playing a game with Mum (me) while we have some down time and accidentally learning to take turns as well as developing our fine motor muscles.
Getting outside to collect plums on a family farm and learning to be gentle to this lovely little cat.
Comments
Post a Comment