Education systems may be mass produced but every child is different and unique in their own ways. There will be children with different levels of abilities and interests. Some like to sit quietly, contented listening to stories being told while there are others who love to tell their own stories. When they are doing their preschool activities be it in Math or English lessons, they need to work off their irrepressible energy.
Children are eager to show their teachers or their parents what they already know and can contribute. I have a girl aged 5 years old in my daycare center who likes to do her own thing. We were doing a project on creating a recipe book but this girl was different from the rest of the class in that she did not follow what was written on the board but she asked for some old magazines from the teacher, and copied the pictures of food and drinks as pictures meant more to her than the few rows of words.
Children usually like to take initiative in their work when they are given the opportunity and guidance to do so but sadly this does not happen very often in many classrooms. We should not stifle their creativity but provide them the right environment to work in, encouraging them to believe in their own gifts and the confidence to pursue them in the way they thought best.
In my classes, I would always have preschool activities which encourage them to express their ideas in pictures or in words through art projects like paper mache, dancing or singing. We cannot expect them to sit quietly and write lines of words which will not make them any more creative.
Children can learn to be responsible when they are given the opportunity to discover their own gifts and talents and take charge of their own learning for their future. Their development as individuals is more complete when they take charge of themselves and what they learn so that they can create and develop their own system of learning that is unique to them, a style which works for them. One of my favorite preschool activities which I love to do with the children is to keep asking them questions while I am narrating a story to them, especially when they are open-ended questions where there is no one correct answer, for example "Where does the sun hide at night?" This is one of the strategies which we use to train children to be brilliant and to develop their creative thinking.
When children can identify with what they are doing and learning, they are more than willing to participate and give you their full attention and they can stay focused in preschool activities that they are interested in and when they are deeply involved, they will learn best.
We cannot develop creativity in children by demanding them to complete pages of homework that they may find boring but instead give them plenty of opportunities to use and explore their creativity by encouraging them to create their own homework which they feel is important which can make their learning more effective. Children handle boredom differently, one might keep quiet while another might be more vocal by letting everyone know how bored he is, and so we must learn to accept their differences with positive expectations so that they are made aware of their own strengths to develop their own individual gifts and talents.
The individual ability of every child is limitless and with the appropriate support, encouragement and guidance they will learn how to develop an effective and flexible learning strategy that works for them, develop independent thinking skills and their own creativity.
No comments:
Post a Comment