LEARN BY DOING

Learn by doing, activity method, project method, inquiry method, play way education….call it by any name but hands on learning is required if we want education to be lifelong; otherwise it fades away or becomes rote learning.

In the preschool years, the brain is developing. In fact 98% of your brain growth happens in the first 6 years and so it is crucial that children at this age are exposed to hands on –activity based learning environments. That’s exactly what we do at Podar Jumbo Kids.

Every educationist and educational philosopher has advocated the need for hands on activity based learning, be it our own Mahatma Gandhi who devised the 3 H method- Hand, Heart and Head  education or good old Montessori who believed that learning involves 3 things, the Muscles, the Senses and the Brain.

Recent brain research has shown that-

·         The hand and the brain need each other- Neurologically, "a hand is always in search of a brain and a brain is in search of a hand," as Wilson likes to say.

·         Use of the hands to manipulate three-dimensional objects is an essential part of brain development.

·         All over the world, kids play with blocks, push around toys, throw balls; this is constantly fertilizing neural growth.

·         Einstein knew the value of play all along when he said,"... Play seems to be the essential feature in productive scientific thought—before there is any connection with logical construction in words or other kinds of signs 'that can be communicated to others." Play is the key to nurturing happy, intelligent children.

So what is activity based learning or hands on learning? Simply put, it should involve as many senses as possible; it should involve 3 learning styles - Looker, Listener and Mover. So let’s take a simple example: It is the rainy season, so we want to teach kids about snails. A simple way to do it would be to show them pictures of snails and tell them about the features of a snail. Or you can choose to do it in the hands on activity format, in which you hide a puppet of a snail in the classroom and plan that children find it, then start a discussion about who can identify its name, then show them a small video about a snail and then take them to a garden to actually look for snails.

Similar with reading activities, either a school can make it a drill activity and make children repeat and read words after the teacher or one can make it more interesting by playing a passing the parcel game, with words in the parcel and each child to pick up a word and read it.

Our Senior Kindergarten children are able to learn about odd and even numbers with a simple activity- Teacher gives them buttons for each number and children place the buttons in pairs; so if a button does not have a pair then that number is an odd number. So simple, but so hands on that the learning goes straight to the brain.

That’s exactly what educationists are emphasizing; that any learning that happens through the use of our senses and muscles will have better retention.

Many others argue that this is a waste of time and just play, to which Dr. Stuart Brown writes in his path breaking book- ‘Play’-

“All work and no play make Jack a dull boy! An oft heard comment but recently research shows that there is much truth in this simple saying. Dr. Stuart Brown says in his book ‘Play’ that people in jobs are not able to find solutions to problems or make new discoveries or survive a crisis efficiently all because they have lost touch with play in their lives or were brought up in a ‘play less’ environment. He says that “Those who had worked and played with their hands as they were growing up were able to “see solutions" that those who hadn't worked with their hands could not. They couldn’t' spot the key flaw in complex systems they were working on, toss the problem around, break it down, pick it apart, tease out its critical elements, and rearrange them in innovative ways that led to a solution.”

Many different styles of activity based learning can be practiced in the early childhood years. One can link a favorite story like Goldilocks and the 3 bears to many learning concepts like through the story teacher can teach about-

The number 3 

About bears

About sizes- big, medium and small

About hot and cold (the soup)

About neat and tidy (the beds of the bears)

About parts of a house

And teacher can add a value to her teaching by ending the story with a discussion on good manners- ‘What 3 words should Goldilocks have used?’ (thank-you, please and sorry)

So the idea of activity based learning is to use educational maxims like-

Known to unknown (so using a story or nursery rhyme to teach new concepts)

Concrete to abstract (using hands on objects to teach about abstract concepts)

Simple to complex (using simple every day fun, games and toys to teach complex stuff like numbers, reading etc)  

So choice is ours – have activity based play and grow or practice rote learning and rot the brain cells away! Then why not play? After all play is the work of childhood!

Make Nap Time Effective

Nap time at day cares is an important time that can help kids calm down, relax and recharge their tired body cells. It needs routine and rituals to make it enjoyable for everyone involved.

Lana Button in the Exchange kit (www.worldforumfoundation.com) , offers these tips sure to make everyone rest a little easier during nap time at your day care centre:

·         Always give the children a ‘heads up’ when naptime is approaching.  Keep your pre-nap routine consistent and your class will start mentally preparing for a rest before they even hit their cots.

·         Keep children’s cots in the same basic location each day.  Once you find a spot where a child is most likely to get a good rest, use that spot consistently.  Having to adjust to a new spot or a new ‘nap neighbor’ can make it difficult for a child to settle down.

·         Allow children a few minutes on their cots before the lights are turned out.  This allows children to transition from being very active to being very still.  Your center might provide nap books or simple manipulative toys for children to explore independently for 5 minutes. 

·         Teachers are instrumental in establishing a calm mood in the classroom at naptime.  Once the teacher dims the lights she should lower her voice and keep it at just above a whisper for the duration of naptime. 

In continuing with this slow transition to rest time, it’s a good idea to tuck each child in to give them a nurturing send-off to rest time.  Make sure each child has something from home to cuddle. 

Podar happy kids is a home away from home and so let’s ensure that every experience here is based on care, nurturing and childhood science. 

Day Care Safety

Read this Hindustan Times article and learn about day care safety.
(8th July 2012, Page 2)
http://paper.hindustantimes.com/epaper/viewer.aspx

Two reports in today’s Mumbai Mirror should be taken seriously so that such harm does not come to other children.

Two reports in today’s Mumbai Mirror should be taken seriously so that such harm does not come to other children. Make the parents at your centres also aware and alert about this. Spread the message via email, facebook for the safety of all children, everywhere.

One report is about a 3 year old girl in a Hyderabad daycare centre who choked on a piece of chapatti as the ayah was feeding her hurriedly. The child lost her life due to the foolish hurry of an adult. Please ensure that the following is implemented and supervised at your centres, both day care and preschool.

1. Never ask a child to hurry up while eating. Children need at least 20 to 25 minutes to complete a full meal (lunch, dinner).
2. For snack time they need 10 to 15 minutes.
3. It would be ok if the child is unable to complete a meal instead of forcing the child to eat fast. Explain this to parents. This problem is especially prevalent in preschool centres where teachers are forced to make kids finish their snack box and not miss on activities. Take the parents into confidence and work out a solution that does not harm the health of the child.
4. Train your staff to be patient and feed smaller bites to very young children.
5.  Also ensure that the child is not talking or distracted with a television while eating, this too can cause choking.

The other report is about a young girl who was running towards her mother with a pencil in her hand, she tripped on a pillow and the pencil rammed into her eye socket right up to her brain. Due to the quick thinking of the parents, who did not remove the pencil and rushed the child to the hospital, the child was saved. Please ensure that the following is implemented and supervised at your centres- daycares and preschools.

1. Ensure that children do not run with any sharp implement in their hands. A ball is fine but teach children to keep their pencils on the table before coming to you.
2. Sometimes in their excitement children may rush to you with a pencil and book to show you their work, be alert and keep giving regular instructions to kids.
3. Ensure that you take care of anything that can trip children in their natural movements around the centre. School bags lying haphazardly on the floor can cause tripping.
4. Running is to be done in the outdoors not in the classroom, so just like we teach children about leaving their ‘loud voices’ outside the classroom, lets teach them to leave ‘running feet’ outside too. So ‘soft voices’ and ‘walking feet’ in the class.
5. When going to the bus or toilet children tend to run, so teach them to make a butterfly with their fingers behind their back and also teach them the ‘walking feet’ song.

The above are small steps that we can all take to ensure the safety of the children in our care. All the best.

IT’S MY LIFE…..dealing with peer pressure!

Nivedita’s little boy is approaching his teens and this has her all worried and stressed out as she is anxiously anticipating adolescent behaviour and issues from her son who ‘till yesterday was just a cute baby boy’. When asked why she was so worried, she says, ‘ I know teens will get stubborn, fall prey to wrong company, start bad habits and be difficult to communicate with, and I don’t know how I will handle all this’.

Well, Nivedita need not be so anxious. Instead of being worried or tightly strung up, it is better to be aware of this stage and prepare the adolescent for it too. That’s all it requires, a ‘Teen mentor’!

According to Sigmund Freud, adolescence is marked with ‘egos’ that leads to some level of superiority complex and inferiority complex as well. Author of the book, Stress In Young People, Sarah McNamara says, “Because adolescents have greater levels of logical and critical thinking and problem solving they are involved in establishing social identity. It is not only a time of opportunity but also of vulnerability to risk behaviours which can have lifelong consequences, especially for health.”

So the trick is to start preparing for the adolescent period early on, as those who have a healthy relationship with parents and teachers are able to stay away from harm, whereas others succumb to it and engage in behaviours that jeopardise their healthy development.

Human life is a continuous thread which each of us spins to his own pattern; rich and complex in meaning. There are no natural knots in it. Yet knots form, nearly always in adolescence: Edgar Z. Frydenberg.

Teenage and adolescence has its own reputation and that is exactly what today’s adolescent needs to break out of. Prove the world wrong about their impression about adolescents! Adolescence is a period of stress and those who are unable to deal with the stress fall prey to peer pressure and its associated ‘bad habits or bad behaviours’.

Today a child is manifold more intelligent and smarter than the previous generation; he/she can prepare for the adolescent stage which actually is just a transition stage from childhood to adulthood, in which the kid already feels like an adult and the adult still treats him like a child!

Teenagers need to focus on developing life skills and emotional intelligence, the ability to judge what’s good and not so good for them, instead of falling prey to other people’s opinions and suggestions. 90% of all teenagers fall prey to peer pressure and related bad habits like smoking, drinking, sex experimentation, lack of interest in studying, bullying others by challenging them to do unlawful acts and even to the extent of suicide.

So how can teenagers stay away from peer pressure? First comes an understanding that peer pressure is just another form of bullying in which the bully is your friend! Take hold of your life and where it is headed. It’s your life and no one should be ruling it but you.

Secondly, when in doubt- don’t do!

Thirdly, adolescents must get ‘social competence training’. Today there are so many self help books, websites; blogs etc that can help you focus on how to deal with stress management, self-esteem, problem-solving, substances and health, assertiveness and social networks. Check out the work of an international teen mentor, Josh Shipp.

Fourthly start having ‘private conversations’ with yourself every day. Sounds silly, but is extremely helpful in defining self esteem. After all, people who lack in self esteem are more liable to fall prey to peer pressure. When you have private conversations with yourself, try and identify what your inner self is saying about you.  Are you always thinking negative or positive? Then talk to yourself and change from negative to positive. ‘I can!’ ‘I will!’ ‘I am sure!’ and ‘It’s my life, I will make it good!’ are all statements that will help.

The next dilemma that most teenagers face when it comes to peer pressure is how to say no to friends! In such a case you need to cultivate assertiveness. Assertiveness is really about being fair- to yourself and all others.  Assertiveness means realizing that your feelings are neither more nor less important than those or other people, but rather they are equally important. Assertiveness helps you to talk about yourself without self-consciousness, to accept compliments, to disagree politely, to say no and to be relaxed around other people even when you differ or disagree with what they believe. And this is so important when dealing with peer pressure. 

Lastly, build a lasting bond with your parents, at least one teacher in school and one friend that you can share everything with. Adolescence is a natural period of stress and these people will then become your ‘stress busters’ and safeguards, constantly guiding you when you go off course in your decisions or behaviour. Peer pressure is nothing but yet another form of stress and you need these ‘stress busters’ when under pressure. Adults too play a crucial role in helping teens cope with peer pressure and other adolescence related stress. What adults can do is, accept that the child is now an adult and talk to him and relate to him accordingly. Instead of always shouting or lecturing him try ‘teen whispering’, which means having a quiet, discussion in which both the parent and the teen puts forward their point of view and way ahead.

When faced with peer pressure teens can use the fingers-thumb test to decide whether to succumb to the pressure or not. This test uses each digit of your hand and helps you self question and decide, so take the test when your peers put you to test!

Pointer finger- We always use this to point at others, so ask yourself, ‘If I fall prey to peer pressure will I be headed in the right direction or will I always have fingers pointing at me and labelling me for my incorrect decision?’

Tall man- ‘I want to stand tall and be the best in my life, so then what my peers are telling me to do, will it make me best in my eyes or only in theirs?’

Ring man- stands for love and family, so before taking the decision under peer pressure, ask yourself, ‘What would my family want me to do?’

Little finger- ‘Have I thought about the minute repercussions to my health and reputation if I fall prey to this peer pressure?’

Thumb- A thumbs up says that you took a decision after weighing all the pros and cons and after considering the advice of all important people- peers, stress busters (family, teacher, friend) and yourself.

When flying between the Earth and the Moon, the Apollo spacecraft was off course more than 90 percent of the time. On their lunar voyages, the crew would constantly bring the craft back to its intended trajectory. They were not on a perfect path but a critical path. Because they knew their intended target they could correct their spacecraft whenever it wandered off- Anon

Teenagers are on a voyage to adulthood; they will veer off course like the Apollo but we need to know that as long as they come back to the intended trajectory which in their case is a healthy, happy life, we must be there to correct their spacecraft as and when required. No teenager will be perfect. What is critical is that they are given a perfect chance. 

UNDERSTANDING SEX, SEXUALITY AND SEXUAL ABUSE AS PARENTS

Parents love to teach their children about life, living and everything possible, but one aspect about life something all parents dread teaching about is sex. Many are complacent that o.k. we will face it once the child is nearing puberty, which means we have a good 12 years before we have to worry about  talking about – sex.

But a child’s first escapade with sex does not happen with puberty, it starts as early as the preschool years. First a child becomes aware of his/her sex organs, then realizes that there is a difference between girls and boys and then many of them also become aware of the fact that babies are born from mummy’s stomach. The ugly term sexual abuse also makes it presence felt more often at this stage, because the perpetrators feel the child will not come to know that anything wrong is being done to him/her.

So parents need to address – sex and sex education – quite early with their children. So what should be the method of interacting with your child about sex and sex related questions? Should we wait for children to ask us or should we make them aware of it? These are common confusions raging in most parents minds. Here I have always relied on German educationist and philosopher Rudolf Steiner’s definition of what children need at each stage of life. According to him from0 to 7 children learn best and thrive on imitation, from 7 to 14 they learn from authority, which means they need supervision, constant monitoring and a firm hand in rules and regulations and from 14 onwards they need and thrive on independence.

So keeping the above in mind for parents to develop their rapport with kids about sex education, parents of children in the age group of 0 to 7 need to understand that since children learn by imitation they need to see you having a positive concept about hugging and kissing, they will imitate whatever they see, so please let your child sleep separately especially when you and your partner are indulging in sexual activity. And lastly they need to develop a positive concept about their genitals, it should not make them feel that genitals are dirty, something to be ashamed about etc. They should be taught about ‘manners’ to do with genitals. Girls are taught how to sit without showing their panties and boys about not touching their genitals. To ensure that your child is safe from sexual abuse, it is important to teach them about good touch and bad touch as early as 4 to 5 years. This can be done with a story, a teddy bear etc and they should know basics like

1. It is o.k. to hug someone or if someone hugs you.
2. It is not o.k. to touch someone’s genitals (between their legs) and not o.k. if someone touches yours
3. Only daddy and mummy can touch your genitals. If anyone else does then let mummy know
4. Do not allow anyone to kiss you on the lips.
5. Close the toilet door while doing your ‘wee wee’ and ‘potty’
6. We should not put any objects in our genitals

The n.a.e.y.c (national association of education of young children- u.s.a) has good material on how children develop their self concept – research in their journal ‘understanding preschooler development’ by Margaret Puckett and Janet Black - says that

Some behaviors embarrass or worry adults — such as when children ask direct questions about body parts and functions, giggle about and tease member of the opposite sex, engage in "bathroom talk" or "playing doctor."  However, these are normal behaviors that simply show that children have a growing awareness of the differences between genders.  As a parent, it's important that your response to such behavior is positive, informative, and age-appropriate.  Acting shocked or embarrassed or ignoring questions is unhelpful.

Another aspect of modern life that is slowly having its negative impact on early puberty and sexual awareness in children is television viewing. Children’s brain expert Dr. David Perlmutter says in his book- ‘Raise a smarter child by kindergarten.’         

That children who spend an inordinate amount of time in front of an electronic screen may also be at risk of premature sexual development.

Many girls these days are showing signs of precocious sexual development, including well-developed breasts and pubic hair growth, well before these ages.  

Although no one knows for sure why watching TV would cause premature sexual development, there are several explanations. First, excess TV viewing is associated with childhood obesity, which can boost levels of the female hormone estrogen, which, in turn, can' hasten sexual development. Second, TV viewing as well as pro­longed exposure to artificial light suppresses the production of a hor­mone called melatonin that helps regulate sexual development in both boys and girls. As children enter early adolescence, melatonin levels fall naturally signaling the start of bodily changes that culminate in puberty. Artificially suppressing melatonin, however, could cause a child to go into puberty prematurely!

The intense sexual content of many television programs could rev up hormone production in children who are not meant to be exposed to this type of stimulation at so young an age. Adults often forget that even though very young children can't talk, they can listen and observe. Their brains soak up everything in their environment.  You may think that 1-or 2-year-old is not observing sexy soap opera scenes or the casual sex on a sitcom, but she is. And by the time a child is 4 or 5 and beginning to develop a sense of her sexual self; she is definitely picking up the suggestive themes on TV.

So as your child enters the age of 7 to 14, he/she is definitely now more prone to experiencing bodily changes as he/she nears the age of puberty. Here as Steiner said authority is what will work, so monitor what your child is watching, reading and talking to friends. Close supervision is a must. Give him the freedom to ask you questions as otherwise he may get wrong answers from somewhere else.

A child brought up with this kind of focused attention on sexual understanding and sex education, by the time he reaches the age of puberty of 14 years would have a healthy concept of and about sex. He would be able to understand that sex is another need of the body, but a need that cannot be treated as lightly as hunger etc. It is a need that should be understood, something that one has to take responsibility for. This is the right age to talk about sexual diseases, masturbation, aids  and HIV and pregnancy and condoms. Independence is the ‘mantra’ for this age remember? So put the onus of responsibility on the growing child, be vigilant but not overtly so. Call his/her friends over, let him/her have a party at home and you would be able to gauge the sexual talk etc among his/her friends.

Sex is something that can be positive, healthy and a conscious part of life or sex can be intimidating, disappointing, give you feeling of being ashamed, but it is up to us as parents that we make sex and its education a continuous part of the growing up years of our child. Let ‘s not wait for sex to rear its ugly head one day, lets remove the ugliness in sex and make it a controlled and healthy aspect of our kids lives.

AND YES BE ALERT ABOUT CHILD SEXUAL ABUSE-

From an early age make children aware of GOOD TOUCH-BAD TOUCH, download a copy of a PowerPoint that you can show your child from www.jumbokids.com

President of Podar Education Network - Ms Swati Popat Vats, is covered for her story telling, puppet making and 'Book- a 4 letter word that leads to smarter kids' workshop in the latest issue of Mother & Baby!! Check it out!!!