Shape a genius with the Father of Kindergarten

Shape a genius with the Father of Kindergarten!

Did you know that the foundation of geometry and physics is laid in the kindergarten years? Yes, it is. Children interact with the basic principles of geometry and physics when they play with blocks! And that is why the kindergarten years are important and so is play in these years. Because after all play is the work of childhood. So if you want your child to be a genius buy some wooden blocks of various sizes and shapes today. Not the plastic variety that interlocks and have ‘set’ designs for the child to copy. But simple shape and colour blocks and set your child on the journey to learn and love physics and geometry for life!

Every child goes through kindergarten but how many parents or teachers actually know the meaning of the word or the founder of kindergarten. Today in India kindergarten has become K.G and it stands for reading, writing and number work only. But is that the real kindergarten?

Friedrich Froebel, a German educationist was the founder of the kindergarten system. “Kindergarten” is a German word which means ‘children’s garden’, i.e., a place in which young human plants are cultivated.  Froebel regarded the school as a garden and the teacher as gardener who carefully tends the little human plants under his care, and helps them to grow to beauty and perfection.

According to him the development of the child is to be through play.  He said, “play is the most beautiful and most spiritual activity of man at this stage.  It exhibits freedom and creative activity.  It satisfies the child, for it gives expression to so many of his instincts.  In play, the child makes the internal external and so the work of teaching in the kindergarten system is to be done in the play spirit.  The child will be and should be taught everything through play.”

For the complete education and training of the child Froebel devised a series of ‘gifts’.  Yes, he did not call them ‘toys’ or ‘material’ but ‘gifts’, because that is how he wanted them to be presented to the child. The gifts comprise of carefully graduated series of materials that possess all the novelty of playthings, yet they form the basis of his educational method.   

They are to train the senses of sight and touch, to give the child an idea of size and surface, and to present the child a correct idea of number.  The gifts are to be given to the child in a certain order.  The gradation and order of gifts is determined by the principle of development.  The gifts are altogether twenty in number but here I will describe the first four.

Gift I- consists of six coloured woolen balls three in primary colours, red, yellow and blue, and three secondary colours, orange, green and purple.  The activity consists in rolling them about in play.  Thus they develop in the children the idea of colour and material, form, motion, direction, and muscular sensibility.

Gift II- is composed of a sphere, cube and cylinder made of hardwood.  In playing with these the child notices the difference between the stability of the cube, and the mobility of the sphere.  He/she observes that the cylinder is both stable and movable, and that is harmonizes both the qualities in one.

Gift III- is a large cube divided into eight smaller equal cubes: from these the child can build up a number of useful artistic forms such as benches, steps, doors, bridges, etc. And for this reason the third gift is often called the first building box.  The child can also gain elementary ideas of addition and subtraction through these.

Gift IV- consists of the large cubes divided into eight oblong prisms in each which the length is twice the breadth and the breadth is twice the thickness.  This helps the child to construct different kinds of buildings and patterns when combined with the third gift.

Froebel’s gifts were not ‘marketed’ well and so got lost over the years. Montessori did refine them in her didactic equipment. But both of them promoted the use of blocks and that is the best way to shape children’s learning about shapes and colours and children can play their way into the world of genius! SO GIFT YOUR CHILD BLOCKS TODAY. Froebel’s gifts are available on many websites; do gift them to your school.

Speak to me…

Parents and teachers are responsible for nurturing language skills in children. Language is best taught through imitation and by doing the following with children…

Provide a language rich environment-

•      Talk to the child
•      Expose the child to songs and stories
•      Label everything in the environment
•      Choose age appropriate books- first picture books, then books with one word, then books with short sentences and then short stories.
•      Use picture talk often in daily activities
•      Let the child  name objects
•      Do not make the child  repeat after you
•      Use songs that have chorus lines that children can participate in
•      Avoid using audio songs in which singers  have a very heavy accent.
•      Talk, talk, talk and talk to children
•      Listen, listen, listen and listen when they talk- do not prompt, interrupt or correct them when they are trying to talk.
•      You want to correct them then after they complete their sentence, you can repeat the sentence in the correct way. They will learn by imitation.

Remember-

1. ‘I will want to talk only if I have something to talk about’

•      So give rich experiences and activities to the child everyday, something novel, done in a unique and creative manner, this will get them excited and want to talk about their  activity or experience.

2. ‘If you correct me while I am talking, I will forget what I was going to say.’

•      Please understand what the children are going through, when they are  learning English, the second language(their  first language is the mother tongue and hence English is second language)  which in most of our schools is the ‘first language’!. Children  think  in think in thier mother tongue. When they experience something that they want to talk about, they are trying to translate thier thoughts in English, and that takes time, so they pause, after a word or repeat some words again and again (I………………..I………………….I…………………..went ……………….went…………..water) now if you interrupt them by saying, (o.k you went where? To the supermarket?) You have completely misunderstood  and now the child  is on another track, that of answering your question. So they lose thier train of thought and suddenly communication in English becomes a very difficult task for them. Instead, you could have waited patiently for child to finish speaking and then could have said- “o.k , so you want to drink water.”

3. “The more I listen, the better I will talk.”

Listening is a very important skill to language development. Some do’s and don’t’s for early care givers-

•      Do not keep repeating instructions
•      First get the child’s attention and then give the instruction
•      Talk in a soft, clear voice
•      Don’t nag, yell or be shrill
•      Be clear about your pronunciations
•      Never make children repeat the sentence after you. For ex. If the child said- ‘I went water’, Do not say, ‘no dear, it is I want water’, now say it. Instead just say, ‘oh, you want water’. Listening to you will automatic ally teach him the right words and  pronuncation

Teach children instructions.

For this I have successfully used the step method, many teachers and parents that I have taught it too, find it extremely successful-

•      At age one your child should be able to follow one step directions- like ‘come here’, ‘sit here’ etc
•      At age two, your child should be able to follow two step directions, like- ‘bring the ball and come here’ etc
•      At age three its time for three step directions, ‘go to the table, pick up the spoon and bring it here’.
•      At age four, your child should be able to follow 4 step directions and by age 5 and forever at least 5 step directions. Because when your child joins primary school/high school the teacher uses a lot of directions in her conversation, children who are unable to listen tend to ask their neighbour and get labeled as talkative and the child who tends to ask the teacher what to do gets labeled as a baby, always requiring help! So to make their life easier, start playing direction games at home. (also important, how many step directions are you able to follow?)

Singing songs, reading stories to children all help in developing listening skills. Also important is to let children listen with their ‘ears’ and not their ‘eyes’! Do not translate all your instructions into actions, then they will look at your actions and understand what you are saying, then they will not listen. Always wait for the children to stop talking before you give instructions, do not shout instructions, sing the instructions if you have to-

Twinkle twinkle little star

Time to wind up, where you are.

Time to put your toys away

Time to tidy up the class

Twinkle twinkle little star.

Here is an excellent game to improve attention span, listening skills and the ability to follow instructions:

v  Begin this activity by placing large squares with animal patterns (stripes of a zebra and tiger, spots of a leopard and deer etc.) on the floor, in a circle.

v  There can be a name card on/next to the pattern, so that the children can identify the pattern card.

v  The teacher/parent will then explain, “Children today we are going to play a game of skip, hop, stop!” Before we start, I want everyone to practice skipping, hopping, and stopping. Let’s get into a big circle. When I say, skip, we will all skip on both feet around the circle. When I say hop, we will hop on one foot like this and when I say stop! We will stay absolutely still like a statue. Ready to try it?”

v  Next, choose a leader to stand in the middle of the circle, while the children stand in a group, waiting for directions. The leader, then chooses a movement word, for e.g. “hop” and the children hop from picture to picture around the circumference of the circle. When the leader says, “stop!” The children stand very still on the place they are.

v  The leader will then pick the name of an animal from a box next to him (the pictures of the animals can be put in the box before the game begins) and says it aloud.

v  The child or children who are on that animal pattern will then have to describe that animal (what sound it makes, how it eats, how it moves etc. can also be part of the description) without talking.

v  The leader can be changed with every round or up to the teacher‘s/parent’s discretion.

v  The game can continue for as long as the children‘s interest lasts.

 Children will learn language easily when you make it fun and interesting.