You know, I've been reading all these childhood education theories lately. Waldorf/Montessori/Classical/ect, trying to get my opinions in a row so I can...you know... be the perfect parent or SOMETHING. I'm not actually sure what my goal is here...I might just have an addiction to collecting knowledge and opinions.
But ANYWAYS, one thing that they all absolutely agree on is that very young children have no need and should have nothing to do with workbooks and drills with flashcards and hard-core straight-up academics because at this age they learn almost completely thru imitation and play. (Although Montessori finds fault with the word play...don't be so damned argumentative Maria!) No big surprise. Anyone with a baby/toddler/preschooler could figure that one out. And the only people I've ever found that disagree are the manufacturers of such early childhood education paraphernalia. (And dont get me wrong...there are those children that love workbooks and flashcards, especially children that see older siblings doing school work (imitation!) and I'm not at all insinuating that it's harmful to allow them to do them, just putting out the opinion that they are neither necessary nor all that efficient teaching tools for this age.)
But it really got me thinking today. Zeke, and even to an extent Malachi, are very very busy watching me. And imitating me. In. everything. I. do. And that is their NUMBER 1 form of learning. Think about that for a second.
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Am I living a life worthy of imitation?
2 comments:
i do believe you are! BTW does Zeke now his ABC or do you plan on teaching him such things? I wonder how I should go about it and not sure just yet...
We aren't really doing ABC's yet. We don't even sing the song! We point them out now and then when we see them in daily life but that is about it. I figure I will start singing the song regularly and when he is closer to 3 work on recognition and the letter sounds. I will probably just cut some letters for our felt board and maybe do a "letter of the week" focus.
Interestingly enough I was just reading that studies are showing that children that learn to read really early (3 or 4) don't do any better on middle school reading tests then the really late learners (8 or 9). I guess they all sort of even out by the end.
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