Mengajar anak secara bermain

Sekarang ni sedang mengkaji kaedah Montessori. saya dapati kita boleh mengajar anak tapi secara bermain atau pada tahap perkembangan mindanya. Iaitu mestilah berwarna-warni, aktiviti yang sentiasa bergerak, penuh dengan gelak ketawa dan lain-lain. Montessori mengaplikasikan environment belajar mengurus diri tapi pastikan kanak-kanak mampu mengikutinya. Ini bermaksud gerakan perbuatan secara perlahan dan buat secara berulang-ulang. Contohnya apabila si ibu makan, berikan sudu  n mangkuk kepada anak dan biarkan si anak mengikut gerakan si ibu.

Sumber: http://kindergartenbasics.blogspot.com/2011/12/why-craft.html

Why Craft?

Young children are eager learners. But due to their limited language, they learn more from experience than from language. They learn by moving, touching, exploring, discovering—using their five senses.

Crafting is a form of play. Play is very important for children to learn and grow. They will learn from what is interesting to them and they are capable of understanding for their age. While they are learning, their brains are making synapses, or connections of neurons, which will enhance their learning in the future. However, it must be age appropriate to hold their attention and to be beneficial. You can't rush a child to learn something they are not ready to learn. Let children enjoy childhood.

Crafts can be of great interest to a young child. Children enjoy touching different textures, exploring materials, putting together and taking apart objects. When children make a craft, they are developing:

• Creativity: Assembling something unique
• Planning: Thinking, following through, finishing a project
• Following directions: Thinking in a sequence, reaching the desired result
• Knowledge: Investigating their world by exploring textures and materials
• Fine Motor Skills: Feeling, manipulating, sorting, arranging, pushing, placing objects
• Exploration and Discovery: How things work and change like pouring glue, Play Dough formations, paint mixing
• Language: Expression of how something feels, looks, its purpose, what was created
• Sorting: Ordering, categorizing, cleaning up
• Self-Esteem: Pride in finished project, sense of accomplishment
• Family Play or Traditions: Family connectivity, a sense of belonging, being valued, and wanted

A mother expressed her concern that her four-year-old was merely playing at his preschool while some of his peers had already memorized letters and numbers at their preschool. David Elkind, Child Psychologist and author of The Power of Play and The Hurried Child replied to her, “You know, they are having a good time, enjoying themselves here and now, and that is every bit as important and valuable as preparing for the future. Play is what young children do. While we adults may be concerned only with an activity’s long-term benefits, children are playing for the fun of it.”

The following are excerpts taken from the University of Maine Extension Program from an article titled “Children and Brain Development: What We Know about How Children Learn”

 At birth, a baby’s brain contains 100 billion neurons, roughly as many nerve cells as there are stars in the Milky Way, and almost all the neurons the brain will ever have. Most of its 100 billion neurons are not yet connected in networks. Forming and reinforcing these connections are the key tasks of early brain development. Connections among neurons are formed as the growing child experiences the surrounding world and forms attachments to parents, family members and other caregivers.

As the neurons mature, more and more synapses are made. At birth, the number of synapses per neuron is 2,500, but by age two or three, it’s about 15,000 per neuron. “Windows of opportunity” are sensitive periods in children’s lives when specific types of learning take place. Early stimulation sets the stage for how children will learn and interact with others throughout life. A child’s experiences, good or bad, influence the wiring of his brain and the connection in his nervous system. If a child receives little stimulation early on, the synapses will not develop,

In the first decade of life, a child’s brain forms trillions of connections or synapses.  As the neurons mature, more and more synapses are made. The neural network expands exponentially. If they are not used repeatedly, or often enough, they are eliminated. In this way, experience plays a crucial role in “wiring” a young child’s brain. Brain development does not stop after early childhood, but it is the foundation upon which the brain continues developing. Early childhood is the time to build either a strong and supportive, or fragile and unreliable foundation. These early years are very important in the development that continues in childhood, adolescence, and adulthood. Here is the link to read the entire article: http://umaine.edu/publications/4356e/

PLAY IS A CHILD'S WORK. 

Child asks, "Why doesn't glue stick to the bottle?"