7 COMPONENT CTL

CTL, in the "world-educational" knows as Contextual Teaching Learning , is one of teaching learning approach which can theoretically teaching guidance. This approach is a holistic education process to help student understanding the mean of learning matter by relate the daily contextual, and than, student having knowledge, skill and attitude who can be transferred into the other problems. There is seven component teaching process by CTL approach.

1. Constructivisme.
The term is 'find and build strategic' more than first 'how much student reach knowledge'.
In this component for path can do is develop that children can be learn more meaningful than alone doing, find and constructivisme him knowledge and new skill.

2. Questioning.
Questioning viewed as fasilitator activity to guidance, to intelegence, and to give a stimulus to education. Develop the student currioscety by ask.

3. Inquiry.
In the teaching process must doing observation, questioning, hypothesis, sampling or data collected, and conclude. Do more inquiry activity for all topic.

4. Learning Community.
The concept to lay stress on learning achievement which cooperate the others. In the teaching learning, can do through build groups, cooperate with parallel class with other community or be asks to professional source. Create study-community by learn in groups.

5. Modeling.
The professional source, student or fasilitator became 'model' in the teaching learning. For coming model as teaching-learning sample.

6. Reflection.
The reflection is respond for case activity or the new receive knowledge. The reality is a testimony about what can reachable this day, note, or view of the teaching learning the day. Do reflection in the end teaching-learning.

7. Authentic Assessment.
The assessment is data collection who give ilustration student progress. Stressing in teaching learning to hope to help student learning how to learn, just not to the lesson. Do authentic assessment by all ways.

7 FEATURE THE DALTON PLAN

THE DALTON PLAN, is based on three fundamental principles. The first is freedom, which should perhaps be designated as individualized responsibility. The second principle is co-operation, or interaction between members of a group. The third is economy of energy through budgeting the pupil's time. That considers the plan as more of a sociological than an academic venture, and the objectives of education under this system emphasize the social aspect of the schools fully as much as the intellectual.

One of important feature of the plan is the organization of the school into 'houses,' each house consisting of pupils of all grades included in the school. This plan contrasts sharply with the usual practice, by which pupils are grouped homogeneousely into classes graded according to the level of their advancement.

A second salient feature of the Dalton Plan is the transformation of traditional classroom into subject-matter laboratories. In fact, the plan was originally known as the Dalton Laboratory Plan because of the basic ides that all instruction should be on a laboratory basis. This principle requires appropriate furniture for classroom, tables and chairs being provided rather than ordered rows of desks.

A third feature of the plan is abandonment of the daily schedule of classes. Instead of following a fixed routine each pupil budgets his own time and plans his own activities to accomplish the work laid out in the curriculum.

A fourth feature is the manner in which the curriculum is presented to the pupil. Instead of being laid out as a series of courses of study the curriculum is presented in term of "job". Each job represents one month's work in all subjects. Integration is carefully provided for in the planning of the job, and correlated progress is required so that the pupil does not advance more rapidly in some phases of his work than in others. The jobs are broken up into "units," each of which is a day's work in a single subject.

A fifth feature is the bulletin board. In effect the bulletin board takes the place of the daily schedule of classes. The pupil's first task upon reaching school in the morning is to consult the bulletin board and to note the scheduling for that day of group activities in which he will participate. The first fifteen minutes of the day are set aside as a period which the pupil may spend in planning his day's program.

A sixth feature is the independent work by the pupil. Class exercises of the recitation type are not held but instead the pupils work independently on their units and jobs, and consult teachers only for advice and assistance. Some group activities are maintained, for example, where the presence of the group is essential, but most of the academic work is carried on individually and independently by the pupils.

A seventh feature of the plan is the careful check that is continually made on the progress of pupils. Test a are given frequently in order to measure pupil achievements. Each pupil keep a job-book, in which the work he has accomplished is field, and this job-books are inspected occasionally to see that the pupils are doing the required work. Elaborate graphs are drawn showing the progress being made by each pupil.

MORAL EDUCATION

Moral Education - A New Perspective

For teachers, parents and all concerned with public life, moral education is an indispensable part of children's education. The systematic development of a moral education programme must be regarded as central to the building of a progressive society and a sense of true identity among its future citizens.

There is compelling and conspicuous evidence of widespread social disintegration in the world today. It is characterised by the lack of moral discipline, the increasing breakdown of the family and community, the loss of cultural identity and purposeful traditional values, the rise of lawlessness, and the want of genuine and committed concern for the welfare of humanity. Such social disintegration points to the imperative need for children to receive moral education in school from their earliest years.

Any one believe that the development of moral character constitutes the essential foundation of a true education. The Baha'i writings state: "Good behaviour and high moral character must come first, for unless the character is trained, acquiring knowledge will only prove injurious. Knowledge is praiseworthy when it is coupled with ethical conduct and a virtuous character; otherwise it is a deadly poison, a frightful danger."

Thus, beyond the belief in the importance of providing children with a relevant and excellent academic education, it is the Baha'i view that education must also exercise a transforming influence upon the character of the individual so that intellectual learning may be of genuine benefit to the individual and society.

The approach that the Baha'i community has taken in its education efforts has been to focus on the training of individuals capable of making moral decisions and acting accordingly. Examples of the capabilities that must be developed throughout the stages of growth of an individual are those of: exercising initiative in a creative and disciplined way; sustaining effort, persevering and overcoming obstacles; thinking systemically in the search for solutions; opposing one's lower passions and self-centered tendencies by turning towards one's noble attributes and aspirations and by directing one's energies towards the welfare of society; managing one's affairs and responsibilities with rectitude of conduct; creating environments of unity built on diversity; contributing to the establishment of justice; and participating effectively in consultation and in collective enterprise.

The Baha'is believe that moral capabilities, such as the few mentioned above, cannot be developed in a secular framework of education. An indispensable requisite for developing these capabilities is to establish a connection between the human heart and God, thus enabling the individual to manifest the spiritual qualities with which the human soul has been endowed, such as justice, generosity, love, compassion and truthfulness. The teachings of the religions of the world are the depositories of those truths that assist every human being in establishing a relationship with God and developing these qualities.

Thus, educational programmes addressing the moral dimensions of life draw upon the religious heritage of humanity, particularly the scriptures of the world's religions. This does not mean that such an approach is sectarian in nature. Rather, educational efforts are carried out in the context of the unity of God, the fundamental unity of all religions and the oneness of mankind. An essential concept underlying these programmes is that only an unfettered investigation of truth can free an individual from the chains of blind imitation and prejudice. A primary objective, then, of moral educational curricula is to foster in students the desire, skills and discipline for the systematic investigation of reality.

Adapted from: www.experiencefestival.com/a/Bahai/id/50440

AGES & STAGES - INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES

Developmental milestones give a general idea about what to expect from children of different ages. However, there will always be differences between individual children. Some children begin to walk at 10 months, some at 15 months. Some toddle along quickly and smoothly, getting the "hang of it" right away. Others fall down a lot, hesitate, or even give up for a few days. Some children talk before they are 2, others talk very little before they are 3 or so. Some will always be quiet people.
Some abilities become clear in one child, but may never be very strong in another.

Recognize the individual in the child and look for differences based on the following:

SENSE OF SECURITY

Some children need more consistency, more reassurance, and more confidence and trust-building than others. Insecurity sometimes can cause a child to withdraw or behave aggressively.

ACTIVITY LEVEL

Some children need more active play than others. They need the opportunity to move around, jump, run, and bounce many times throughout the day. Other children need more quiet time or more rest.

RESPONSE TO STIMULATION

Children are inherently different in their tolerance to noise, activity, visual stimulation, or changes in the environment. An environment that is sensitive to this need in children will provide interesting activities as well as a quiet place to get away from the action.

THINKING STYLE

Some children think quietly through possible solutions to a problem; others push in and try the first idea that occurs to them. Some children are interested in experimenting to find out how objects work; others choose to ask friends or adults for help.

Developmental guidelines should be used as a general rule of thumb. In your work with children, do not confuse earlier or faster development with better development. Early talking by a 1-year-old does not mean that the child will be a chatterbox or a brilliant conversationalist at age 10. Later talking may mean that a toddler is putting more energy into physical growth and motor exploration right now.

Development or the lack of it that falls outside the normal range may indicate a problem that requires attention. You may need to help parents recognize possible problems and special needs, such as poor vision or hearing. Familiarity with developmental norms and with community resources can assist you in helping parents seek professional advice about developmental questions.

CHILDREN ANGRY

Here are some things to think about as you and you daughter strive to develop new skills for dealing with anger:

. Expect anger. Many of us have learned that anger is a bad emotion which good people don't have. When we operate on this premise, we tend to use denial and suppression when our inevitable angry feelings arise. Then when we can't contain it any longer, we blow up and feel out of control. If we can learn that anger exists as one in a range of healthy emotions, we can be more accepting of our own and our children's angry feelings. This allows us to be more conscious and in control of how we choose to express our anger.

. Think about where your daughter's anger is coming from. At one time or another most parents try to "take the blame" for their children's anger. When our kids start yelling at us and calling us names we go straight to the places we feel the most guilty. "Maybe, I haven't set enough limits with her." "Maybe I've set too many." "Maybe I don't even know how to set appropriate limits." Or, "I haven't been spending enough time with her." And then we tend to respond with anger at our child for "making us feel guilty." While it may be true that our kids would enjoy and benefit from more time with us, that is probably only a small part, if any, of what they are really upset about. They may be feeling frustrated with things in school: friendships, homework, whether they will get picked for a team. They may be feeling the push for independence and the best way they can think to establish it is to actively push away from us. If we can avoid "taking it personally," we may be better able to help our children sort out their complicated feelings and prevent our own anger from building up.

. Remember that anger is often a secondary emotion. Children and other people often choose anger as the vehicle to express a number of other emotions. Somehow, anger doesn't leave us feeling as vulnerable as sadness, fear, frustration, rejection, or confusion. If we treat our children's raging outbursts only as a sign of anger, we may miss many other important feelings they are trying to express. If you stay with a child who is "angry" and manage to keep your own anger from building up, you will most often discover more feelings underneath your child's anger, after the "steam has been burned off." You can even invite your child to think about other feelings she may be having as she starts to wind down. "I know you have been feeling very mad. I wonder if you have any other feelings." or "As well as looking mad, you also look sad."
This can be useful to remember for ourselves, as well as for our children. When we look under our own angry feelings, we are likely to find feelings of inadequacy, guilt, fear, sadness, frustration and confusion.

. Work to figure out what you can and can't control. When our children are in the middle of an angry outburst, often our first urge is to try to "stop" their feelings. As many of us have discovered, that is usually not possible. We still have an enormous amount of control, however, because we can control how we respond. If you can get enough perspective on your daughter's feelings that you don't end up mad yourself, you can help her through her struggle. If you do get mad yourself, you still get to control how you express your anger (and other feelings.) "I feel hurt when you call me names and say I don't care about you. I want to hear about how you are feeling. Can you tell me in another way?" "I can't let you throw breakable things when you are mad, but I do want to know how you are feeling. Let's figure out something else for you to do that is safe and still feels like a good way to express your feelings."

. Remember that you can prevent the build-up of anger, as well as learn positive ways to express it. Once we acknowledge that we do, indeed, experience feelings of anger, we can begin to recognize the build-up of our anger. If anger is a "10" we can learn to read if we are moving from a 2 to a 4 to a 6 and can do some things to express our feelings before we are at full-blown fury. "I'm feeling really frustrated by your yelling right now. I'm going to go into my room to take a break. I'll be back in 5 minutes if you want to talk to me then." "I don't want to be called those names. If you can tell me how your are feeling in a different way, I would like to stay and listen. If not, I'm going to go into the kitchen to start working on dinner. When you can talk to me without calling me names, come on in and we'll finish this conversation." You may need to remind your child of the limit (several times), but if you understand that she needs to figure out if you really mean it, you may be able to muster the patience to keep reminding her without getting furious yourself.
As well as averting your own anger in a moment of confrontation, you can also think about how to keep yourself in good emotional shape. What is it that helps you feel better about yourself and stronger as a parent? Taking time for yourself? Spending time with friends? Exercise? Movies? Gardening? Hiking? Seeing a therapist regularly? Getting a massage? The better shape you are in the easier it will be to learn positive ways to deal with your anger.

. Discuss the topic of anger with your daughter. It is very helpful to talk with your daughter about anger when you are not in the middle of a heated conflict. Tell her that you want both of you to learn better, safer, non-hurtful ways to express your anger. Brainstorm with her some different possibilities. You might come up with guidelines like, "You can raise your voice as long as you don't say hurtful things. If you accidentally say hurtful things, you can take them back and try again." You can bang on the couch cushions with the plastic bat, but no throwing things or hitting people." Only you and she will be able to come up with the best ways to safely and effectively express your feelings.

. Practice, make a plan. Once you and your daughter figure out the guidelines for anger in your family, you can practice. You could even use puppets or stuffed animals to pretend with.

. Don't be afraid to say you are sorry. Even with the best-laid plans, we may still fall into old habits. Remember that you can always apologize and think together about a better way you could have expressed what you were feeling.

. Talk to parents you admire. If you have a hard time thinking of ways to express anger positively, check in with parents or other friends you admire. Ask them if they have discovered healthy ways to deal with anger.

7 PATH YOUR CHILD'S SUCCESS: Teacher Tips

If you want your child to do well in school, there are several things that you as a parent can do to enhance his or her opportunities. Many of these are common sense items, but go often over-looked in this world of latch key children and hurry, hurry.

1. Ensure that your child is getting an adequate amount of sleep. I would venture to say that about half of my students do not get more than five or six hours of sleep each night. I currently have a student that averages only two hours per night, because he is working a full time job in addition to attending high school. At the beginning of each school term, I survey my students. Many of them work more than twenty hours each week. Of the students that do work, most of them are working only for spending money or to maintain a car, not to assist the family. If you allow your child to work, limit the number of hours each week that he or she can work to no more than 8 or 10. I recommend that a child not be allowed to work while attending high school. Save it for the summer.
2. Ensure that your child is following a proper diet. Too many times children are left to their own devices when it comes to deciding what to eat. Moms and dads often both work outside of the home, and are often too tired at the end of the day to prepare a nutritious meal. Children will go the quick and easy route. Sometimes parents go the quick and easy route. I know several students who subsist on a diet of fast food and junk food. All of us require proper nutrition for optimum health, but this is especially true of children who still have growing bodies. If you are too busy or too tired to ensure that your child is eating nutritious, balanced meals, then try round robin meals with a friend or neighbor, or ask the child to keep a food log. Also, ensure that the child is eating more than one meal a day -- lots of my students skip break- fast so they can sleep later, and skip lunch because they are only allowed a minimum amount of time to eat at school and they would rather socialize.
   
3. Know your child's teachers. As a teacher and a parent, I know that not every child will get along with every teacher, and vice versa. Be involved -- check with your child's school (the counselor or the principal is a good place to start) to see if your child can be moved to another teacher. If you know your child is a visual learner, and has an auditory teacher, then obviously your child isn't under optimum learning conditions.
4. Know your child's friends. Stay on top of who your child is friends with. Peer pressure has an amazing stronghold on most children. Invite the children to your house, allow them to stay for diner, have sleepovers, and take them with you on fun days. If your child is friends with kids who place family and academics in high priority, then chances are your child will too. If your child is hanging around with known drinkers and drug users, it is a safe bet that your child is at least experimenting with the same. Place restrictions on your child.
5. Know the parents of your child's friends. Even through high school, children look up to the adults they are around. Children often mimic the behaviors of their parents -- if Mom and/or Dad smoke, it is a good chance that the child will too.
6. Lead by example. Be the kind of adult that you want your child to be. If you want your child to be educated, ensure that you are educated -- let your child see you learning. Don't drink and smoke if you don't want your child to do so. Don't have sex outside of marriage if you expect your child to be chaste.
7. One of the best things you can do if you want your child to do well in school is read to him or her every day when they are small -- several times throughout the day if at all possible. Almost all students who enjoy reading the most are those that say they were read to lots when they were small.

You can teach your child to love reading. Make shared reading your nighttime routine -- and nap time, and any other time you desire quiet time from your children. When my own children were pre-school age, they lugged books around everywhere! They memorized several of them, and "read" to one another, to their toys, to anyone who will listen. In addition, they often "read" the pictures of the stories.

When my children, who see me reading for pleasure often, ask me why Mommy thinks reading is so important, I reply, "Smart people read."

Finally: One would think that this would be an already known fact, but it doesn't appear to be. So here goes -- if you want your child to be successful in school, and ultimately grow up and be a successful adult, one of the most basic things that a parent or guardian can do is ensure that your child is not only going to school, but is actually attending his or her classes!

In this day and age, especially when the majority of parents work (both of them), it is easy to either see your children off on the bus, or even drop them off at school, and assume that he or she is attending class. However, in some cases, once that bus or parent drives away, so does the authority that got the child to school in the first place. It is easy for the older child, once at school, to leave. It is also relatively easy for the child to have a note or backup plan when and if the school calls home or attempts to contact the parent or guardian.

Please check with your child's teacher (or teachers, as the case may be) to ensure that
your child is regularly attending class. You would be surprised at how eager most teachers are to help you child succeed -- just as you will be surprised when you get a poor progress report, only to discover that your child has not regularly been attending class!

EDUCATION TIPS : Management Conflicts

Right now the process of advocating for your child seems overwhelming. There are new relationships to build, meetings to go to, and inevitable conflicts to negotiate. And then there’s the challenge of your child’s file. Remember as you gain experience the whole process will seem less daunting. Here are a few pointers to help you develop your skills in the some crucial areas. Remember, there’s no substitute for practice, but hopefully these quick tips will help you get started on the right foot.

Building Relationships

Knowing how to deal with people can make all the difference in successfully negotiating for your child. Here are some tips on how to deal with some of the more challenging individuals you might run into as you advocate:

• The job of a gatekeeper is to keep people from bothering their superiors with unnecessary questions. Remember that they’re doing their job, even when they’re making your job much more difficult. Getting angry with them won’t help. Try to present your case to them logically and be persistent. Call as many times a you need to in order to make headway, but always be polite.
• Make sure you have yourself under control whenever you engage in a conversation with anyone at your child’s school.
• Making people feel at ease with you is an incredible skill.
• When suggesting new ideas, do not attack. Acknowledge the power and skills of the person on the other side. Suggest that your ideas might make things go smoother, but do not insist. Be firm and confident, but not overly aggressive.
• Listen to people who know what they’re talking about, but make sure you know enough yourself to be certain of the accuracy of their statements. If you don’t know if what they’ve said is true, ask for some time to research.
• Seek to maintain a business relationship with your child’s school. Don’t bring too much personal information into your relationships.
• Remember that you are an outsider to the school culture. Treat it with respect. Even if you think you know all there is to know, someone will undoubtedly surprise you.
• Many school systems feel threatened by someone who is assertive and knowledgeable. When you speak or bring up points in writing, try to keep from threatening the knowledge or credibility of any members on your child’s team.

Meetings

Meetings. They can be frustrating and terrifying. And yet, they can be the center of action for your child’s education. Learn to use them to the best of your advantage:

• Try to keep the conversation focused. Don’t allow the meeting to derail.
• Be positive. Suggest solutions. Don’t wait for someone else to come up with the next idea.
• Go to meetings with support. When both parents are present, they are more formidable and powerful opponents. If your spouse cannot be present, enlist another family member or friend to go with you.
• Suggest tape recording the meeting. Check your state’s regulations on this before suggesting it to the school.
• Treat everyone in the room, including yourself, with respect.
• Make eye contact.
• Don’t let yourself be rushed or bulldozed if you are running out of time. You can always schedule another meeting.
• Always debrief after the meeting. Write down what you remember, including key points and important resolutions. Add your own opinions. Do this immediately.
• Write a thank you. Use it not only to thank the school for their time and concern, but also as an opportunity to reiterate any open issues and key decisions.

Resolving Conflicts

Negotiating with your child’s school is not always easy. Here are a few pointers that might help you get what you want without making enemies.

• Don’t forget that in a lot of conflicts, both sides can be right.
• Keep in mind that many school systems fear the expense of special education programs.
• Try to see your requests from their side. Ask yourself how you and your child appear to the school. How can you bring both views into line?
• Always approach conflict with civility and respect for the person on the other side. Never seek to blame or find fault. Do not speak with scorn.
• Ask lots of questions so that you can understand the point of view from the other side. This will help you find solutions advantageous to both sides.
• Try to make your child seem as “real” as possible. Tell about your experiences with your child as a way to help people understand what your child really needs.
• Compromise may be the key to getting most of what you want, even if you can’t get all of what you want. (A good argument for making a plan that prioritizes what you want for your child.)
• Keep a paper trail. Even though litigation is never anyone’s first choice, being prepared for it can save you a lot of trouble later.

The FILE
The most important thing you can do in your efforts as an advocate is to keep records. And to keep them organized. Documentation is the only way you can truly know the progress your child is making and the way he is being treated by the school system. Documentation is also the only way you’ll be able to convince your child’s team of the validity of your child’s needs. When you develop your child’s file, keep the following pointers in mind:

• Keep a list of all the people who have ever seen your child for whatever reason. You can organize your list by services, for example, medical, psychological, etc. You can even be more detailed if your child has particular needs by organizing by specialty, for example, ophthalmology.
• Get a complete record of all your child’s medical files. You usually need to send a written request.
• Get a complete record of your child’s educational files. Again, you usually need to send a written request.
• Make copies. Never give your originals to anyone.
• Date all documents and file them in chronological order. This makes accessibility easy. You don’t have to remember the name of the doctor, clinic, or school.
• If you make notes (like dating) on your documents, use pencil.
• Use a three-ring notebook, so that you can easily add or access documents.
• Create a table of contents so that you know what you have.
• Add new information to your file immediately.

KINDERGARTEN

What is a kindergarten?

A kindergarten, or kindy as a lot of us know them, is an education and care centre governed by a Kindergarten Association. They are funded in exactly the same way by Government as Early Childhood Centres, with funding dependent upon how many qualified teachers are on the staff.

Traditionally, these centres were known as Free Kindergartens (i.e. available to all pre-school children), but are now more commonly known as Community Kindergartens, which reflects the enhanced partnership role of parents, whanau and the local community.

Kindys have traditionally provided part-time, sessional care for pre-schoolers (with a morning session for older children, and an afternoon session for the youngsters), but increasingly more and more kindergartens now provide an "all day" (i.e. up to 6 hours/day) service for each child. Check with your local kindy on their service offerings.

What ages does a kindergarten cater for?

Most kindys enrol children aged between two and five years, but placement is subject to availability. A quick phone call to your local kindy will enable you to find out at what age they are accepting children.

A word of warning: kindys are usually very popular, and often operate Waiting Lists. Their popularity is related to both their relatively low cost and their high quality education. We therefore strongly recommend that you get your child added to the waiting list well before you want them to start, or you may find that your child will not be able to gain entry until they are 3.5 or 4 years old.

At kindy the children are traditionally divided into two groups:

• older children attend morning sessions five-days-a-week। These sessions generally run between 8.30am and 12pm; and
  
• younger children attend afternoon sessions three-days-a-week which, for the most part run between 1pm and 3.15pm

But there is increasingly an "all day"service (i.e. 6 hour session x 4 days, and 4.25 hour session x 1 day each week).

Again, these are guidelines and can vary from kindy to kindy. The best place to find out about session times is from your local kindy.

The age at which children start and the age at which they move up a group will vary from kindy to kindy. There are no legal requirements or rules that apply across the country. The only legal requirement related to age at kindy, is that your child must be enrolled and attending a primary school by the age of six years.
How does kindergarten differ from other service providers?

Kindy is different from other ECE services in several ways.

• One of the biggest differences is the fact that all kindergarten teachers must be registered teachers. This means holding a Diploma in Teaching (ECE) or similar qualification, with a minimum of three years training.
• Cost-wise there is a noticeable difference. Kindy is, for the most part, government funded and costs parents roughly $2 - $5 per morning or aftersession. The fees are compulsory, enforced by a debt collection policy, the same as all other ECE centres.
• The ratio of teachers to children differs greatly. At kindys the ratio is around 1 teacher : 15 children, whereas it sits around 1 teacher : 5 children at other services.
• Kindy caters for children from 2 years through to 5 years of age, when they begin attending primary school. (In 2009, Government will raise the earliest starting date for kindy children to 2.5 years.) Other services cater for a broader age group including toddlers and babies.
• Kindy is part-time education. This can be difficult for working parents. The majority of other services provide full-time education and care.

What will my child learn?


In New Zealand we have an early childhood curriculum called Te Whaariki. This curriculum sets out the learning experiences and goals for children before they reach school age. The overriding aim of Te Whaariki is for children:

“to grow up as competent and confident learners and communicators, healthy in mind, body and spirit, secure in their sense of belonging and in the knowledge that they make a valued contribution to society”

To help achieve this, kindergarten aims to provide environments for our children that create trust and foster their confidence. Children are encouraged to give things a go and to become active in their own learning.

Teachers plan learning programmes around the children’s interests at the time. As we all know, if our children are interested in something, they will be encouraged to participate for longer and consequently derive greater value from the experience.

There’s a lot of dramatic play and activity at kindergarten that allows the children to learn important social lessons about equal roles and equal rights for everyone.

Children are also encouraged to use language to communicate. They are taught to let others know how they are feeling and what their needs are by talking to them. The expression “Use your words” will be commonly heard – especially when encouraging youngsters not to hit or get frustrated. Your child will also be taught to stand up for themselves verbally, by learning phrases such as "Stop it, I don't like it".

The older children in the morning sessions will also learn to be “school ready”. They will become used to “mat time”, sitting quietly and listening, following the teacher’s instructions, and “playing nicely” with other children. They will also learn the basics of numbers and letters, and probably be able to write their name. They will also become familiar with books and reading, which will lay the foundations for their primary schooling.

How are kindergartens run?

Kindys are run by a committee made up of parents and people from the community. You can get involved on a day-to-day level by taking the opportunity to join the committee, or become a volunteer helper or fundraiser.

At a higher level, each kindy committee is answerable to the local kindergarten association. For example, the largest association in the country is the Auckland Kindergarten Association, which is responsible for 107 kindys in the greater Auckland region. The Associations take a strong governance and management role, and are responsible for the quality of education and financial control in each kindy.

What will it cost me?

Kindys will charge a fee at the beginning of each term. This is because government funding does not fully cover the costs of running a centre and resourcing it properly. Most kindys charge between $2 and $5 per (morning or afternoon) session per child to cover their operational costs.

Refer to the "20 Hours Free ECE" article regarding Government subsidies for parents with children aged 3 years and 4 years, and enquire about its availability at your local kindy.

Despite these additional charges, they also have to rely heavily on fund-raising undertaken by the community, committee and parent helpers, so kindy may also cost you some volunteered time.

Can my child attend kindy and another ECE at the same time?

Yes. There’s absolutely no reason why your child can’t attend kindy and daycare for example. Logistically this may be challenging in terms of pick-up and drop-off, especially if you are a working parent. But ask around, there may be other parents in the same position who are willing to share the task. Some day-cares do provide a drop off and pick-up service, but may charge extra for this.

If your child does attend daycare, making the decision to have them also attend kindy can be a difficult one due to the logistics involved. Some of the reasons parents choose this option are related to -

• cost – it may save you money to have your child attend kindy
• school-readiness – at many other ECE services the teacher/child ratio is likely to be 4-5 children to one teacher.
  

This ratio dramatically changes at kindys where it is more likely to be 1 teacher to 15 or so children. This may better prepare your child for the primary school classroom where they must deal with less one-on-one teacher contact.

What will my child need to take?


This will depend a little on the kindy your child attends. Some kindys have shared morning and afternoon tea for which the parents contribute a healthy item of food daily or weekly. For example, you may be asked to bring a piece of fruit each day for the fruit basket.

For the most part you’ll need to prepare a backpack with the following:

• small lunch box and drink bottle
• sun hat
• sun cream
• a change of clothes, and plastic bag to hold the dirty clothes

What else do I need to know?

Some kindys require that your child be toilet trained before they attend kindy, and some kindys do not require your child to be toilet trained. Please check the requirements of your local kindy.

In addition, it’s helpful if you can send them in shoes which are easy for them to get on and off themselves (i.e. with Velcro or elastic tops). Shoes with laces become very time consuming for teachers when taking a group of children outside to play!

MULTIPLE INTELLIGENCES : Understanding Your Child's Learning Style

A Fairy Princess. A Race-car Driver. A Mommy. A Firefighter. A Ballerina. An Astronaut. These are just some of the answers you may get when you ask your child, “What do you want to be when you grow up?” You may think they are sweet to share with your family and friends, but your child’s response could be telling you something important about the way he or she learns and what type of ‘Multiple Intelligences’ he or she has.

So what are Multiple Intelligences anyway? Dr. Howard Gardner, professor of education at Harvard University, developed the theory of Multiple Intelligences in 1983 to help educators, psychologists and parenting experts better understand how children process and learn information.

Not only has the theory become a respected way of looking at learning, it has helped validate other experts’ work. Dr. Joseph Renzulli, professor and director of the National Research Center on the Gifted and Talented at the University of Connecticut, says he started his work with intelligence years before Gardner’s theory. But it was Gardner who brought widespread acceptance to the idea. That helped bring attention to The Renzulli Learning System, which utilizes the Intelligences. A great admirer of Gardner, Dr. Renzulli says, “The most important thing The Multiple Intelligences theory has done is called attention to the ways children express themselves.”

What Intelligences does your child possess? The following are descriptions of Gardner’s nine Multiple Intelligences, along with tips on how you can help your child stretch his or her areas of strength:

• Linguistic Intelligence (Word Smart). This child focuses in school, enjoys reading, has an extensive vocabulary, prefers English or Social Studies over math and science, learns a foreign language with ease, is a good speller and writer, likes rhymes and puns, and communicates his thoughts well.

Tip: Encourage him to discuss books he has read with you, play word or board games, prepare speeches or enroll in drama classes. Possible career paths: poet, journalist, teacher, or lawyer

• Logical-Mathematical Intelligence (Number/Reasoning Smart). This child is curious about how things work, loves numbers and math (especially if he can do it in his head), enjoys strategy games like chess, checkers, brain teasers or logic puzzles, likes experiments, is interested in natural history museums, and likes computers.

Tip: Encourage her to solve various kinds of puzzles, provide her with games like checkers, chess or backgammon, let her figure things out and encourage her to ask questions. Possible career paths: scientist, engineer, researcher, or accountant.

• Spatial Intelligence (Picture Smart). This child easily leans to read and understands charts and maps, daydreams often, is skilled at drawing, doodling and creating 3-D sculptures, enjoys movies, and likes taking things apart and putting them back together.

Tip: Provide opportunities to paint, color, design. Give him puzzles and 3-D activities like solving mazes, challenge his creativity, and encourage him to design buildings or clothing. Possible career paths: sculptor, mechanic, architect, or interior designer.

• Bodily-Kinesthetic Intelligence (Body Smart). This child excels in more than one sport, taps or moves when required to sit still, can mimic other’s body movements/gestures, likes to touch objects, enjoys physical activities and has excellent fine-motor coordination.

Tip: Encourage participation in school and extracurricular sports/teams. Provide blocks. Encourage fine-motor ability (teach her to build paper airplanes, create origami, or try knitting). Enroll her in dance class. Possible career paths: dancer, firefighter, surgeon, actor, or athlete.

• Musical Intelligence (Music Smart). This child can tell you when music is off-key and easily remember melodies. He has a pleasant singing voice, shows aptitude with musical instruments, speaks or moves in a rhythmical way, hums or whistles to himself, and may show sensitivity to surrounding noises.

Tip: Encourage him to play an instrument, write songs, join school bands or choirs, or study folk dancing from other countries. Possible career paths: musician, singer, or composer.

• Interpersonal Intelligence (People Smart). This child enjoys socializing with friends, is a natural leader, is caring, helps friends solve problems, is street-smart and understands feelings from facial expressions, gestures and voice.

Tip: Encourage collaborative activities with friends inside and outside of school, expose her to multi-cultural books and experiences, encourage dramatic activities and role playing, help her learn to negotiate and share. Possible career paths: counselor, therapist, politician, salesman, or teacher.

• Intrapersonal Intelligence (Self-Smart). This child shows a sense of independence, knows his abilities and weaknesses, and does well when left alone to play or study. He has a hobby or interest he doesn’t talk about much, is self-directed, has high self-esteem, and learns from failures and successes.

Tip: Help him set goals and realize the steps to get there, encourage independent projects and journal writing, help him find quiet places for reflection and appreciate his differences. Possible career paths: philosopher, professor, teacher, or researcher.

• Naturalist Intelligence (Nature Smart). This child talks about favorite pets or outdoor spots, enjoys nature preserves and the zoo, and has a strong connection to the outside world. She likes to play outdoors, collects bugs, flowers and leaves, and is interested in biology, astronomy, meteorology or zoology.

Tip: Take her to science museums, exhibits and zoos. Encourage her to create observation notebooks, ant farms, bug homes, and leaf collections. Involve her in the care of pets, wildlife, and gardens. Make binoculars and telescopes available to her. Possible career paths: animal activist, biologist, astronomer, or veterinarian.

• Existential Intelligence (Philosophically Smart). This child enjoys thinking and questions the way things are. He shows curiosity about life and death and shows a philosophical awareness and interest that seems beyond his years. He asks questions like, ‘Are we alone in the universe?’

Tip: Be patient with his questioning, as he may ask over and over again. Read books together that explore these topics and talk about them at an age-appropriate level. Possible career paths: philosopher, clergy, scientist, or writer.

Don’t worry if it looks like your child is only strong in 3-4 areas. That’s the way it should be. While children have the potential to be intelligent in all areas, they will most likely show dominance in some and weakness in others. Dr. Renzulli advises, “When we find our child’s preferred learning style, we should capitalize on it and give them many opportunities to express that in their work. But it is equally important to give them exposure to various kinds of styles.” In other words, your child may not realize what his preferred learning style is until he is exposed to it.

Perhaps your child will never attain Princess status, but she may write a novel about the royal life। And maybe your son won’t set foot on Mars, but rather, design the next generation of rockets. Whatever Intelligences your children have, be sure to watch for the cues along the way and encourage them to be whatever they want to be. In the meantime, let your kid have fun dreaming about the Indy 500, even if it gives you a few gray hairs in the process.

CHILDREN'S OUTDOOR PLAY & LEARNING ENVIRONMENTS: Returning to Natur

It is unfortunate that children can't design their outdoor play environments. Research on children's preferences shows that if children had the design skills to do so, their creations would be completely different from the areas called playgrounds that most adults design for them. Outdoor spaces designed by children would not only be fully naturalized with plants, trees, flowers, water, dirt, sand, mud, animals and insects, but also would be rich with a wide variety of play opportunities of every imaginable type. If children could design their outdoor play spaces, they would be rich developmentally appropriate learning environments where children would want to stay all day.

Playground Paradigm Paralysis

We are all creatures of our experience, and our common experiences usually shape the conventional wisdom, or paradigms, by which we operate. When most adults were children, playgrounds were asphalt areas with gross motor play equipment such as swings, jungle gyms and slides where they went for recess. Most adults see this as their model for a children's playground.

So when it comes time to plan and design a playground, the paradigm is to search through the catalogues of playground equipment, pick a piece or two that looks good to the adult and place it in an outdoor space which resembles their childhood memories of playgrounds. This is easy and doesn't take a whole lot of effort. Then once or twice a day, teachers let children go outside for a recess from their classroom activities to play on the equipment.

Today, fortunately, most playground equipment is becoming much safer than when adults grew up. National standards encourage the installation of safety fall surfaces and ADA is making the equipment more accessible. However, limiting outdoor playgrounds to gross motor activities and manufactured equipment falls way short of the potential of outdoor areas to be rich play and learning environments for children. This playground design paradigm paralysis also denies children their birthright to experience the entire natural outdoors which includes vegetation, animals, insects water and sand, not just the sun and air that manufactured playgrounds offer.

It is a well accepted principal in early childhood education that children learn best through free play and discovery. Children's free play is a complex concept that eludes precise definition, but children's play typically is pleasurable, self-motivated, imaginative, non-goal directed, spontaneous, active, and free of adult-imposed rules1. Quality play involves the whole child: gross motor, fine motor, senses, emotion, intellect, individual growth and social interaction.

Childhood of Imprisonment

The world once offered thousands of delights of free play to children. Children used to have access to the world at large, whether it was the sidewalks, streets, alleys, vacant lots and parks of the inner city or the fields, forests, streams and yards of suburbia and the rural countryside. Children could play, explore and interact with the natural world with little or no restriction or supervision.

The lives of children today are much more structured and supervised, with few opportunities for free play. Their physical boundaries have shrunk. A number of factors have led to this. Parents are afraid for their children's safety when they leave the house alone; many children are no longer free to roam their neighborhoods or even their own yards unless accompanied by adults. Some working families can't supervise their children after school, giving rise to latchkey children who stay indoors or attend supervised after-school activities. Furthermore, children's lives have become structured and scheduled by adults, who hold the mistaken belief that this sport or that lesson will make their children more successful as adults.

Children have little time for free play any more. And when children do have free time, it's often spent inside in front of the television or computers. For some children, that's because their neighborhood, apartment complex or house has no outdoor play spaces. With budgets for city and state governments slashed, public parks and outdoor playgrounds have deteriorated and been abandoned. Children's opportunities to interact in a naturalized outdoor setting is greatly diminished today.

Childhood and outdoor play are no longer synonymous. Today, many children live what one play authority has referred to as a childhood of imprisonment. Child care facility playgrounds are often the only outdoor activities that many young children experience anymore.

Our company first became interested in the opportunities that outdoor play offers children's development when, in 1993, we conducted extensive focus group research with children and parents for a children's center we were designing. We were fascinated when the research consistently showed that children had a strong preference to play outdoors in natural landscapes, and that parents generally supported this kind of play.

Biophilia: The Love of Outdoors

Two new disciplines, eco-psychology6 and evolutionary psychology, are now suggesting that humans are genetically programmed by evolution with an affinity for the natural outdoors. Evolutionary psychologists use the term biophilia to refer to this innate, hereditary emotional attraction of humans to nature and other living organisms. Biophilia is the biologically based human need to affiliate with nature and the genetic basis for human's positive responses to nature. Why? Researchers say that for more than 99 percent of human history, people lived in hunter-gatherer bands totally and intimately involved in nature. So in relative terms, urban societies have existed for scarcely more than a blink of time. Our original nature-based evolutionary genetic coding and instincts are still an essential part of us and continue to shape our behavior and responses to nature.

Well over 100 studies of outdoor experiences in the wilderness and natural areas show that natural outdoor environments produce positive physiological and psychological responses in humans, including reduced stress and a general feeling of well-being. It is also a clear-cut finding that people, and especially young children who have not yet adapted to the man-made world, consistently prefer the natural landscape to built environments. Children's instinctive feelings of continuity with nature are demonstrated by the attraction children have for fairy tales set in nature and populated with animal characters. Additional anecdotal evidence is that more children and adults visit zoos and aquariums than attend all major professional sports combined.

Biophobia: The Aversion to Nature

However, if this human natural attraction to nature is not given opportunities to be exercised and flourish during the early years of life, the opposite, biophobia, an aversion to nature, may develop. Biophobia ranges from discomfort in natural places to active scorn for whatever is not man-made, managed or air conditioned. Biophobia is also manifest in the tendency to regard nature as nothing more than a disposable resource.

Environmental Education

Environmental education needs to start at any early age with hands-on experience with nature. There is considerable evidence that concern for the environment is based on an affection for nature that only develops with autonomous, unmediated contact with it. In their early years, children's developmental tendency towards empathy with the natural world needs to be supported with free access to an area of limited size over an extended period of time. It is only by intimately knowing the wonder of nature's complexity in a particular place that leads to a full appreciation of the immense beauty of the planet as a whole. In todays society, environmental education requires that in schools, children have regular personal interaction with as diverse a natural setting as possible.

The Importance of Nature to Children

Studies have provided convincing evidence that the way people feel in pleasing natural environments improves recall of information, creative problem solving, and creativity. Early experiences with the natural world have been positively linked with the development of imagination and the sense of wonder. Wonder is important as it a motivator for life long learning. There is also strong evidence that young children respond more positively to experiences in the outdoors than adults as they have not yet adapted to unnatural, man-made, indoor environments.

The natural world is essential to the emotional health of children. Just as children need positive adult contact and a sense of connection to the wider human community, they also need positive contact with nature and the chance for solitude and the sense of wonder that nature offers. When children play in nature they are more likely to have positive feelings about each other and their surroundings.

Outdoor environments are also important to children's development of independence and autonomy. Outdoor space allows children to gradually experiment with increasing distance from their caretaker. While the development of greater independence from toddlerhood to middle childhood can happen within the confines of indoor spaces, safe space outdoors greatly adds to the ability of children to naturally experiment with independence and separation, and the adult's willingness to trust the child's competence which is essential for separation to happen. This is particularly important for children who live in small and crowded homes.

Children's Experience with the Natural World

Children's outdoor play is different from time spent indoors. The sensory experiences are different, and different standards of play apply. Activities which may be frowned on indoors can be safely tolerated outdoors. Children have greater freedom not only to run and shout, but also to interact with and manipulate the environment. Children are free to do 'messy' activities outdoors that won't be tolerated indoors.

Natural outdoor environments have three qualities that are unique and appealing to children as play environments - their unending diversity; the fact that they are not created by adults; and their feeling of timelessness - the landscapes, trees, rivers described in fairy tales and myths still exist today.

Children experience the natural environment differently than adults. Adults typically see nature as background for what they are doing. Children experience nature, not as background for events, but rather as a stimulator and experiential component of their activities. The world of nature is not a scene or even a landscape. Nature for the child is sheer sensory experience. Children judge the natural setting not by its aesthetics, but rather by how they can interact with the environment.

Children have a unique, direct and experiential way of knowing the natural world as a place of beauty, mystery and wonder. Children's special affinity for the natural environment is connected to the child's development and his or her way of knowing.

Plants, together with soil, sand, and water, provide settings that can be manipulated. You can build a trench in the sand and dirt or a rock dam over a stream, but there's not much you can do to a jungle gym except climb, hang, or fall off. Natural elements provide for open-ended play that emphasize unstructured creative exploration with diverse materials. The high levels of complexity and variety nature offers invites longer and more complex play. Because of their interactive properties, plants stimulate discovery, dramatic pretend play, and imagination. Plants speak to all of the senses, so it's not surprising that children are closely attuned to environments with vegetation. Plants, in a pleasant environment with a mix of sun, shade, color, texture, fragrance, and softness of enclosure also encourage a sense of peacefulness. Natural settings offer qualities of openness, diversity, manipulation, exploration, anonymity and wildness.

All the manufactured equipment and all the indoor instructional materials produced by the best educators in the world cannot substitute for the primary experience of hands-on engagement with nature. They cannot replace the sensory moment where a child's attention is captured by the phenomena and materials of nature: the dappled sparkle of sunlight through leaves, the sound and motion of plants in the wind, the sight of butterflies or a colony of ants, the imaginative worlds of a square yard of dirt or sand, the endless sensory experience of water, the infinite space in an iris flower.

Designing Outdoor Spaces for Children

The goal of designing children's outdoor environments is to use the landscape and vegetation as the play setting and nature as much as possible as the play materials. The natural environment needs to read as a children's place; as a world separate from adults that responds to a child's own sense of place and time.

Our company calls well designed outdoor children's play spaces discovery play gardens to differential them from the current design paradigm for children's playgrounds. Some authorities call them naturalized outdoor classrooms or naturalized playgrounds.

There is a sense of wildness about an discovery play garden. Conventional play design focuses on manufactured and tightly designed play equipment. Conversely in a discovery play garden, although there may be some conventional play equipment, many of the spaces are informal and naturalistic so they will stimulate high quality free play and discovery learning.

Children's idea of beauty is wild rather than ordered. A discovery play garden that plans for wildness, and provides openness, diversity, and opportunities for manipulation, exploration and experimentation, allows children to become totally immersed in play. Children's discovery play gardens are very different than landscaped areas designed for adults, who prefer manicured lawns and tidy, neat, orderly uncluttered landscapes. Discovery play gardens are much looser in design because children value unmanicured places and the adventure and mystery of hiding places and wild, spacious, uneven areas broken by clusters of plants.

Physical attractiveness and innovativeness are not what is important for quality outdoor play space design. Children need tools, open space, challenge and opportunities to control and manipulate the environment. Suransky calls this "history making power" - the power for the child to imprint themselves upon the landscape, endow the landscape with significance and experience their own actions as transforming the environment.

Outdoor play requires a lot of gear to make a go of it. Loose parts, sand, water, manipulatives, props and naturally found objects are essential tools for children's play. Loose parts have infinite play possibilities, and their total lack of structure and script allows children to make of them whatever their imaginations desire. Simon Nicholson first offered the theory of loose parts in children's play when he wrote in 1971, "In any environment, both the degree of inventiveness and creativity and the possibilities of discovery are directly proportional to the number and kind of variables in it."

Yhrough children's handling, manipulation and physical interaction with materials and the natural environment, they learn the rules and principles that make the world operate.

Outdoor play areas should flow from one area to the next, be as open-ended and simple as possible, encourage children to use their imaginations, have continuity and be perceived by the children as children's, not adult, spaces. They should be designed to stimulate children's senses and to nurture the child's curiosity, allow for interaction with other children, with adults and with the resources in the play space.

It is also desirable to integrate the outdoors with the indoor classroom with one sense of place and identity, so the transition between the two will be almost seamless. Design that allows children to go freely back and forth between inside and outside encourages children to experiment with autonomy from adults, both physically and symbolically. It also allows the outdoor space to become part of the classroom, rather than just a retreat from it.

Things children like in their outdoor environments include:

* water
* vegetation, including trees, bushes, flowers and long grasses,
* animals, creatures in ponds, and other living things
* sand, best if it can be mixed with water
* natural color, diversity and change
* places and features to sit in, on, under, lean against, and provide shelter
and shade
* different levels and nooks and crannies, places that offer privacy and views
* structures, equipment and materials that can be changed, actually or in their imaginations, including plentiful loose parts.

The structures and equipment do not all need to be manufactured. As much as possible, they should be made of natural materials such as logs, stumps and boulders and use the landscape in natural ways with berms and mounds.

Outdoor areas lend themselves to meeting children's individual needs. Natural environments allow for investigation and discovery by children with different learning styles.41 Using universal design principals, play areas and events can be designed as accessible to children with special needs without accessibility features being obvious.

Plants are vital. In fact, the identity of many of the play areas can be created through ecological theming with vegetation. For example, an interactive water play can be set in a bog or stream habitat. It is also important to incorporate ecological areas that utilize indigenous vegetation and settings so children can experience, learn about and develop an appreciation of their local environment.

Naturalized outdoor play spaces are rich learning environments for all age children. They contain a hidden curriculum that speaks to children through their special way of knowing nature. Every learning center and activity that can be created in the indoor classroom can be created in the outdoors. Specialized areas can even be designed to meet the developmental needs of infants and toddlers.

Cost

Discovery play gardens do not cost more to build than conventional playgrounds. Rather than spend most of the budget on conventional manufactured playground equipment, moneys are shifted to landscaping and creating play areas using natural materials. Discovery play gardens do, however, require specialized design skills to create a holistic and integrated child's world. To accomplish this, a much higher percentage of the budget must be allocated for professional design services than with a dominantly equipment-based playground.

Participatory Design

Participatory design - having children, teachers, parents and maintenance staff participate in the design process - is essential to the success of any discovery play garden. Children's input assures that they will feel it is a special place for them. Teachers input is needed so they will take ownership of the discovery play garden as an outdoor classroom and utilize it to support their curriculum goals. Parents need to be involved so they will be supportive of the concept and learn how the naturalized space and often messy play greatly supports their children's development. Maintenance staff need to participate to assure that they will support the space and provide the maintenance required. User participation in the design process also helps to assure that the design will be culturally respectful.

Discovery play gardens offer children chances to manipulate the environment and explore, to wonder and experiment, to pretend, to understand themselves, and to interact with nature, animals and interesting insects and with other children. They are environments that encourage children's rich and complex play and greatly expand the learning opportunities of just conventional playgrounds. Children's discovery play gardens are places where children can reclaim the magic that is their birthright - the ability to learn in a natural environment through exploration, discovery and the power of their own imaginations.

(An edited version of this article was published in the March/April 1998 issue of Early Childhood News magazine)

UNDERSTANDING PRESCHOOL CHILD DEVELOPMENT

What is a preschooler?

Depending on how you look at him or her a preschooler can be defined or understood in many different ways. Here are some ways to help you relate to and improve your relationship with your preschool age child.

Physical Development:

The preschool child is a whirlwind of activity. They are active explorers of the world around them. In addition, they are more confident about using their bodies. They run smoothly, at moderate speeds, jump, climb and perform other "gross motor" activities fairly well.

"Fine motor" skills, i.e., using scissors, drawing, painting, and pasting are coming along but have not yet reached the level of skill of an older 5 to 7 year old child.

Cognitive Development:

Preschoolers can be described, in terms of their cognition, as "little explorer's." They are seeking to understand how the world operates and functions. They role-play mom and dad to determine gender differences and they take things apart to see how things work.

Preschoolers can remember events from day to day; they can take what they have learned from yesterday and begin to see how it applies to today and even anticipate tomorrow. They still cannot separate fantasy from reality and still live in a fairy tale, pre-operational world. Attention span is approximately 8 to 15 minutes on a good day.

Social Development:

Preschool age children are beginning to learn how to interact with their peers. At 3 and 4 years of age they engage in parallel play. Parallel play consists of children, in a group, playing with the same toys, but not with each other. They play "side-by-side" versus cooperatively together.

At 5 and 6 years of age children begin to play cooperative, e.g., throwing a ball to each other and rolling cars back and forth. At this age gender identity is also forming and children become curious about sexual differences. As friendships develop they become concerned with having "best" friends. Expressive arts, that develop gross and fine motor skills, are beneficial.

Emotional/Self Development:

At this age, preschoolers will be "like" all kinds of people from mom and dad, to the garbage man, to the policeman. The purpose behind this type of play is to understand the role of adults in their life.

Preschoolers want to please adults. They need frequent approval and reassurance from primary caregivers. They like to be observed when playing and wants parent's full attention. They may become fearful when separated from parents or caregivers but are generally easily consoled and adjust to new environments within a few minutes.

Language Development:

Language development is tied into cognitive development but is such a major part of the preschool age child, that it is addressed as a separate category.

Developmentally, three-year-old children can use complete sentences and is constantly asking questions. They can speak about 900 words and can communicate their basic needs, such as "I'm hungry" or "My foot hurts."

Four-year-old children can use complete and compound sentences. They will speak approximately 1,500 words. They like to sing, tell tall tales, brag, and will often exaggerate and call other children names.

Five-year-old children speak over 2,000 words and love to tell and listen to stories. They can focus for longer periods of time and often asks thoughtful questions.

In addition, 3-5 year old children can only understand simple, clear commands and have difficulty following multi-step directives, such as: "Clean your room।"

PRESCHOOL: Academics or Play?

Discussions about academics in early childhood programs often oversimplify the debate as a choice between academics or play in preschool and kindergarten.

In truth, all high-quality early childhood programs are academic, but in a professional and appropriate way. Research shows that young children learn best through manipulation of materials and hands-on experiences, planned by knowledgeable teachers. To parents, this learning may look like play, but it is play with purpose.

A good teacher creates a learning environment. She organizes materials so that children use them to figure things out, practice skills, and learn new concepts. Children get time to explore those materials, so that through repetition and success they develop the confidence to try more complex activities. Most important, the teacher is always ready to teach.

Much of the misunderstanding in this debate between play and academics stems from the definition of 'teaching' for young children. Many people see a teacher only as an instructor, imparting concepts and skills to patiently listening young children.

Good preschools and kindergartens know that three-, four- and five-year-olds are wigglers and doers. To help children stay with tasks and learn important concepts and skills, teachers work with, instead of against, their individual developmental styles. A good teacher watches as a child explores materials. He asks open-ended questions that stimulate the child's thinking: "What do you think would happen if you tried...?" She helps develop vocabulary by describing what the child in doing: "I see you used lots of colors - red, green, blue and brown."

To nurture reading and writing skills, teachers read many stories each day with children. Through these stories, children learn many of the conventions of written language, use picture clues, and play with the sounds of language. Teachers help children learn to recognize their own names and encourage them to write their names and other words. Teachers embed literacy activities in meaningful experiences: writing letters to friends, reading the classroom helper chart, and labeling the classroom.

Good preschools and kindergartens also implant math and science in children's activities. Counting and one-to-one correspondence are learned in daily routines of attendance and setting the table for snacks. Geometry is explored in block building. Vocabulary and concepts of measurement are taught at the sand and water table. Scientific observation is developed through projects about weather, seasonal changes, and plant and animal life.

In high-quality preschools and kindergartens, academic learning is playful and exploratory. Children contribute their own ideas, use their own problem-solving strategies, and pursue their own interests. Teachers skillfully weave in academic goals and objectives as they build on what children can do, and challenge them to try new things. Children are not left to their own devices, nor is their development left to chance.

Quality teachers know that high standards are important, but they also know the nature of learning at this age, and how academics are most effectively and appropriately incorporated into preschool and kindergarten. Using play to build success does not mean the curriculum is not academic. It means it is what's best for three-, four- and five-year-old children.

(Excerpted from "Rigorous Academics in Preschool and Kindergarten?"

by Gaye Gronlund - an article in the NAEYC journal, Young Children)