"The goal of early childhood education should be to activate the child's own natural desire to learn."- Maria Montessori, a legendary Italian educator who is best known for the philosophy of Early childhood education and her writing on scientific pedagogy.
This article talks about the first tiny steps taken by a toddler on his or her educational journey. Its aims are clearly shown by late Maria Montessori in the above quote. However, before delving into this important subject of Pre-schooling, let’s know more about ‘Education’ itself.
Jiddu Krishnamurty, the famous Philosopher, thinker, and educationist had said, “Education, in the true sense, is of helping the individual to be mature and free, to flower greatly in love and goodness.”
Education should be purposeful with inputs of positivity.(A reference can be made to my blog on the subject “What is education?”)
For a better understanding of the subject, let’s take the case of little Mudit who is son of Rajesh and Rita. Rajesh is a middle-level Executive in a company while Rita works in a bank. The child is two-and-a-half years old.
Both of them have set ambitious goals for their son and are keen on his proper education. They want that Mudit should turn out to be not only a successful person but a decent human being, too. However, they realize their inability to spend much time with the child and, therefore, agree on the important role that school education has to play in his life.
Rajesh realized that good Pre-schooling acts like the foundation of a building in a person’s life. He was curious to know more about Preschool education. So one fine morning, he got down to study its details. He had imagined that it would be a light study but it turned out to be quite a serious topic.
He noted its salient points, as follows:
Definition- Preschool Education can be defined as “Early childhood Education before the primary school.”
It imparts-
§ Knowledge
§ Skills
§ Experience
§ Behavioral rules
It helps the children to cope successfully in everyday life. They play, learn, and grow together while beginning their Pre-school Education.
Objective
Mental Growth- The pace of learning and growth is rapid between the ages of 3 to 4 years. The mental growth and expansion of knowledge help them prepare for Primary Education and senior classes subsequently.
Development of skills- Pre-Schooling develops various skills of the children. These are as follows-
Fine Motor Skills- These skills involve the movement of the hands, fingers, wrists, feet, etc. During Pre-school years, the children also develop eye-hand co-ordination and that of the other muscles.
Gross Motor Skills- These skills involve the movement of the large muscles. Running, dancing, jumping, etc. help the children develop these skills.
Cognitive Skills- These skills are used by the brain to think, learn, read, memorize, pay attention, and solve problems.
These include:
Both Short term & Long term memory and Logic & Reasoning develops between 2 to 5 years of age. Visual perception develops in the child since birth but Pre-schooling years help them coordinate it with their knowledge. Auditory Processing develops properly after 5 years of age.
These skills help in memorizing. Memory can be defined as the ability to acquire, store, and recall information after passage of time. These
skills can be developed by problem-solving and social interactions.
§ Conceptual understanding-
· Colour Recognition-The child recognizes basic colors like Red, Yellow, Green, Blue, Black, Brown, etc.
· Numbers and counting- The child acquires the knowledge of the numbers and learns basic counting with the help of these.
· Following commands- The child is able to follow short commands such as “Bring your pencil”, “Finish your milk” etc.
Ø Ethical Growth- It connotes moral development. The child is able to differentiate between right and wrong or good and bad with the help of moral content of the education.
Ø Verbal communication- The knowledge of words helps to develop the child’s vocabulary and helps them in proper communication.
Subjects taught
Generally, the following subjects are taught to the children at this level by the Play-way method. The objective is to develop the basic concept of the subjects in an interesting manner.
Linguistics- The children learn the languages with the help of the phonic sounds. They begin with two or three-letter words and then go up to five or six-letter words. Gradually, they begin to learn and speak sentences. One can refer to the following website for the details of this method. www.fitzprog.com.au This method is so effective that even the toddlers have begun to read the books.
Mathematics- It begins with the knowledge of numbers from 1 to 100. The concepts of Greater & smaller and then shapes, place value of numbers, and very small sums are taught to them using models and games.
Environmental Studies- It encompasses the knowledge of plants, animals, fruits, flowers, Sun, Moon, Rain, Water, Rivers, etc.
General Knowledge- It gives the knowledge about parts of the body, personal hygiene, National Symbol, Freedom Fighters, and Prayers, etc.
Art & Craft- The children learn to draw and color simple objects. They also make some paper craftwork.
Rhymes & Action Songs- The children enjoy singing the Rhymes and Songs, and also acting on these.
Story Telling- The teacher and parents read and tell the children some interesting stories like “Fox and the sour grapes”, “Monkey and the cap seller” etc. They are encouraged to learn these by acting on these stories.
Co-curricular activities- The children are taught to carry out activities of daily life such as pouring water from a jug, button-holing, folding & unfolding of small mats etc. They also play games like hide & seek, Tug-of-war, Musical chairs etc. The children are also taken on excursions to Zoo, parks, etc.
Importance of Pre-primary Education
§ It brings out the creativity of the child.
§ It develops the child’s inquisitiveness, and coordination with peers, teachers, and parents.
§ It helps in the overall physical, mental, and emotional growth of the child.
§ Their attention span and Problem-solving capabilities improve by leaps and bounds.
§ The children develop their reasoning skills, and the capacity of matching, comparing, sorting and organizing.
Suggested Activities
v Memory Matching- The children are required to first identify items, remember them. They look for a similar item and identify when a matching item is shown to them.
v Puzzles- The problem-solving skills of the children are improved with the help of the puzzles. These also help the children in developing their logical abilities. These toddlers also develop patience.
v Sorting and Classifying- There are various Montessori games that teach these little angels about Categorizing. They also learn to sort by color, type, or size. It teaches them the similarities and differences between various items. It prepares them for mathematical concepts, develops their eye-hand coordination and daily tasks.
v Sequencing- The little ones learn to arrange items such as words in proper order. Thus they understand the concepts of first, next, then, last, before, after, etc.
Rajesh got a fairly good idea about the pre-school education and felt confident in monitoring the Pre-schooling years of Mudit.
The author has referred to the following websites for the content.
https://www.learningrx.com/4-cognitive-stages-for-child-development/
https://www.scholastic.com/parents/family-life/creativity-and-critical-thinking/development-milestones/cognitive-development-3-5-year-olds.html
https://blog.himama.com/preschool-activities-for-cognitive-development/
https://raisingchildren.net.au/preschoolers/play-learning/play-preschooler-development/thinking-play-preschoolers
#PreSchooling #PreSchoolEducation #EarlyChildhoodEducation #ObjectiveOfPreSchooolEducation #DevelopmentOfSkills
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The author is trying to share his experience in the field of education through these articles. Please enter your valuable comments in the box given below or send it on the email id: vermarajesh55@gmail.com
