The Montessori planes of development emphasize that children at different ages (0-6 years, 6-12 years, 12-18 years and 18-24 years) are different at all levels. Their learning needs, for one, are different as their minds, hearts, souls and bodies are also different. It follows therefore that the effective learning environment must take into account the critical differences of children in their different planes of development.
The 6 year old child who has formed himself or herself well in the early years will be one who has grown in all areas. Physically, this child has control over his or body and uses it with confidence. Cognitively, this child thinks for himself or herself. He or she is an eager and enthusiatic creative learner, unafraid to ask questions, to explore the unknown. Emotionally, this child has a strong sense of self, very sure of what he or she wants and is comfortable with what he or she can do. It helps of course when tasks assigned to the child are developmentally appropriate as the child will often achieve success in his or her efforts, thus confirming his or her self esteem. Socially, the child has a deep concern for others and is able to interact well.
This is the goal of early childhood and when we look at the overall needs of the early years, we need to ask ourselves if our early childhood centres have done enough to ensure that there is this holistic development that the 6 year old brings with him or her to the primary years. When the needs of the early years are met, the primary child will not just survive but flourish.
How often when we meet practitioners, there is this complaint that parents are always emphasizing the academics. We appreciate that parents are concerned over their children’s readiness for school. But the question remains as to whether the academics are pitched at levels that best suit the needs of the young learners. This is where we see pages and pages of worksheets and workbooks piled upon the young child, some of whom can barely grasp a pencil as finger muscles have not been strengthened. Very often our students are told time and time again that working on worksheets is not the best way of preparing the child for study in the later years.
To prepare the child for the primary years, the early childhood professional could look at the primary school syllabus. The responsible early childhood professional will then package the information, knowledge and skills that the young child needs in ways that make sense to them. For instance, if the child is expected to handle math operations, then in the early years, the child must develop a good number sense to be able to carry out these operations. Number sense is best promoted through concrete materials and reinforced through games.
Let’s look at geometry in the primary years. Children are given abstract drawings from which they must be able to state the number of faces and vertices of the geometric form, a challenge for many children. If in the early years, the child handled the geometric solids, experimented with what they could do, sorted them according to their properties, then this abstract exercise of identifying the number of planes and points will truly make sense and the child will ace these lessons effortlessly.
The science primary curriculum, for example, covers the lifecycle of animals. Children in the early years who raised tadpoles to frogs, or who role played the life cycle of the butterfly or who sang songs about the plant cycle, are again better prepared to handle the primary science worksheets with confidence, as they have had a good and concrete experience of the topics in the early years.
The use of the worksheets is convenient for the teachers. There is tangible evidence of what the children are doing in the school. But parents must ask themselves – are the children actually learning – ie getting a good grasp of the concepts presented? And better yet, are they enoying the process of learning? If in the early years, learning makes sense to the child, if learning is fun; then we have a child who loves learning for the rest of his or her life, no matter what form that learning takes in the later years – such as abstract workbooks in the primary years.
I am proud of one of our students, who when asked by her principal to give worksheets to her four year old class, flatly refused to do so. She has a lot more work ahead of her as she has chosen the less travelled path, she has opted for the one that requires more work – but she has not sacrificed the needs of the children entrusted in her care.
The early childhood professional must have the courage to share with parents what is in the best interest of the children. They must advocate for the child’s right to learn. They need to be mindful of the fact that the children in the early years are not complete beings, but work in progress. The early childhood professional will not see the fruits of our labour until years later. We need therefore to keep track of our children’s life and progress long after they leave us. Only then can we have tangible evidence of our work with the young children. Only then will parents trust in what we do and why we do the things we do.
