Welcome to the May Teach/Learn Blogging Carnival, ‘Kids and Learning.’
The Teach/Learn Blogging Carnival hosted by Science@home is for anyone, because we are all teachers and learners. This month our bloggers have come up with some wonderful suggestions for fun things to do with your kids, ways to help them learn and thoughts on what learning is. Please read to the end to find links to other blogs, you might find a wonderful new blog to follow.
Children and learning is a term that goes hand-in-hand, something that happens every minute of their exploration of the world around them. Mylie {in the image} is exploring just what a reflection is. She has her attention solely focused on the ‘other child’ in the mirror. She is exploring the reflection. She is making theories about just what she is seeing. She is just over eight months old.
Previously, the idea of children and learning was one that did not exist. Children were blank slates that needed information put into them. This is not the case. Children come with ideas, knowledge and skills. They are continually building upon these.
Bronfenbrenner’s Ecological Model details how there are many factors into a developing and learning child’s environment. It has the child at the centre and then each system affects how a child develops and learns. This shows that each child is an individual and their learning is unique and shows that no two children will learn the same {just as siblings may learn concepts in different ways.}
Children learn more when they are actively engaged. Like in the picture, Mylie is engaging with the mirror, she is active. She is using her body to explore the mirror and her eyes to examine and theorise about just what is happening. Just because she does not have the language to explain her theories to you, does not mean that she isn’t building upon the knowledge that she previously had about herself.
The mirror is enabling her to see her whole body. Not just a single body part. It is allowing her to watch how her body moves, her facial expressions and show her that she controls her movement.
So what does this mean for us?
Watch children under two. Carefully. Not only are they making sense of the world around them, they are building theories. Just because you cannot hear them, doesn’t mean they aren’t showing you them.
Visit Science@home if you are interested in participating in next month’s Teach/Learn carnival. Please take the time to visit the other participants and see what they have to say:
- 5 Places to Teach the 5 Senses – Monique at Your Cheeky Monkey has some great suggestions for places to go and use all five senses when playing with your kids. (@Y_C_Monkey)
- Don’t look now, but… you’re being watched – Sarah from Untenured Teacher is asking about what we really want kids to learn in the classroom, and how are we unconsciously teaching them?
- Make Your Own Abacus – Staci at Teaching Money to Kids has an amazing activity to make your own abacus, which you can eat when you’ve finished.
- Teach/Learn Blogging Carnival – Kids and Learning – Marita from Stuff With Thing and her daughter have been travelling around the city in different ways and working out how to walk to Queensland. (@leechbabe)
- How to Study Like a Black Belt – The Original SuperParent can tell you how to study like a black belt, with great tips for focusing and getting the most out of your learning. (@superparents_au)
- Learning is a Journey – Deb at Science@home invites you think of learning in a different way and join your children on their journey. (@ScienceMum)
- Art for little kids – Katepickle at Picklebums encourages us to let go of our adult expectations and just enjoy the creative process with our small children. (@katepickle)
- Learning As We Walk – The Planning Queen walks to school with you and learns all sorts of things on the way. (@PlanningQueen)
- B-I-N-G-O is the name of the game – AmandaB from HomeAge shows her own learning in action – the maths game didn’t quite work, but she’s worked out how to modify it for next time.
- What’s In a Reflection – Miss Carly at Early Childhood Resources has a beautiful story about babies learning all the time, even when they are only a few months old. (@ECresources)
- Developing Brains: Laying the Pathways to Learning – Christie from Childhood 101 talks about the importance of sensory learning for early brain development and has lots of ideas for play that engages the five senses. (@Childhood101)
- The Magical Threshold Of School-Age – Mamapoekie at Authentic Parenting wonders why we have a point that we call school age and how children are not ready one day but ready the next. (@mamapoekie)
- Why you should help your child follow their passions – CatWay at Adventures with Kids helps her son learn about dinosaurs. (@adventureskids)
Thanks for joining us! We hope to see you next month.
Image: Photography by Alyce
{ 9 comments… read them below or add one }
This is so true. When you look at babies you can sometimes almost see them learning things and asking what happens if I do this?
I could watch my toddler at play for great lengths of time. I particularly like it, if he can’t see me as this can often disrupt his activity. When he is trying to work something out, like put a lid on a container, you can see the concentration on his face – it is so gorgeous and precious to watch.
What a lovely post on kids and learning… excellent example of theory put into practice.
She’s very cute too! I love the idea of allowing children space and time to work things out for themselves, rather than feeling we are responsible for stimulating them all the time. And that leads into the idea of really thinking about what we are giving them to do so they have rich things to explore, rather than just lots of things to do.
Kids and mirrors are always great fun. At what age do they realize that what they are seeing is themselves, not another child? It’s kind of cruel, but I love watching them at a stand alone mirror trying to find the other baby behind the mirror! And then there surprise when they go back to the front of the mirror and there is the baby again!LOL
Nowdays Princess just wants to look in the mirror to check her make-up and hair. Er, yes, she is in fact only 3.5 …
I am not too sure of what age they realise that it is themselves that they are looking at. Great question. Does anyone know?
Great post and excellent thoughts!
Miss Carly: I’m married to a psychologist and as part of his developmental classes, he learned that babies can typically learn to recognize themselves in the mirror at around 18 months (but anywhere between one and two and a half years of age is in the normal range!)
When I was in the Montessori playgroup with my two children, I really enjoyed our time working on jobs. Working on jobs requires the parent to demonstrate and then to sit back and observe the child. Allowing the child to focus on the work without distraction is so rewarding. You can actually see their neural pathways connect and things start to click over the weeks as they attempt similar yet more sophisticated processes. Cheers for the post. Colin
I’ve just posted a follow up to my original post called a Child’s Perspective on Support Needed for Sport which is a guest post written by 5th Degree Karate instructor Matt Klein about the support needed by children from their parents. Check it out. Cheers, Colin
{ 2 trackbacks }