This post will finish the discussion of the area of learning - Science, and the discussion for 3 to 4 year olds. The next time I do a post on child development we will move up to 4 to 5 year olds. This post will cover the last two components with their learning expectations and performance indicators. Remember I am taking my information from the Tennessee Early Learning Developmental Standards (TN-ELDS).
The next component is: Earth and Space Science. The learning expectations is: Understands sequencing and time in relation to knowledge and methods about Earth and space. The first performance indicator is: Understands the sequence of daily events. Conquering this performance indicator requires a daily routine for the child. If children have a daily routine, they will pick up the sequence of daily events. If children do not have a daily routine, there is no sequence for them to pick up. For those children life is random acts of chaos that follow one after the other. I know some people consider the sameness of following a daily routine to be maddening. However, if you work with children that is part of the program. Young children need a daily routine to learn so many different mathematical and science concepts. It does not have to be rigid, but it does have to be basically the same order of events from day to day. Think about children of long ago. Their days were measured in meals, naps, and stretches of free play. The schedule did not contain much, but it remained basically the same day after day. Those children reaped the benefits of a consistent daily schedule even though it was so simple. Today's children may or may not have meals that are consistent. Many experts are trying to do away with nap, and free play like it existed back then is extinct. We have all but lost the three basic components of a child's life in the last 30 years. Therefore, we have truly hurt a child's capacity to develop a sense of the passing of time.
The next performance indicator is: Demonstrates some understanding of duration of time, "all day," "for two days." It has been my experience that the language development of a child will determine if they conquer this particular performance indicator by 4 years old or not. Those that lag behind in language development will not conquer this one by 4 years old. Those that are behind in language development when they turn 3 years old but have good instruction during their third year usually do conquer this one by 4 years old. Those that have normal language development conquer this one easily. Language development affects all other domains of development. This is why I work so hard on language development in the preschool years. It seems all the other domains take care of themselves naturally when a child's language develops normally. However, in today's society language delay becomes more prevalent with every passing year, and this affects everything.
Now we will move on to the component - Physical Science. The learning expectation is: Solves problems in relation to knowledge and methods about energy. The first performance indicator is: Begins to participate in simple investigations to test observations, discuss and draw conclusions, and form generalizations. Wow! I do not even know where to begin with this one. I am having a hard enough time just getting 3 year olds to use enough language. Only my advanced children come even close to this one, and even with them they do not investigate without prompting. I have to plan activities to promote this type of behavior. The curiosity of childhood has been all but destroyed in today's children. By the time they are 3 years old, the majority of them expect to be entertained instead of entertaining themselves. Only the very few that have an extremely strong bent toward exploration will show this behavior on their own. Therefore, make sure you include simple science experiments in your weekly schedule. They will not get this instruction anywhere else.
The last performance indicator is: Thinks about a problem and figures what to do. I actually laughed out loud at this one. The typical response to a problem usually involves sitting in the floor and crying/wailing/hissy fit until the adult in the situation solves said problem for the child. I guess you could call that problem solving in a twisted way, but I call that being mentally lazy. I have really seen this first hand with preschools and even first and second graders when I go into schools to read my Lily books. Those books promote problem solving, and I stop in one place in the middle of Lily's Flower Igloo to ask the children how to solve Lily's problem. The responses I get can be rather amusing but some classes have so little problem solving skills that all I get are blank stares. It is like no one has ever asked them to problem solve before. I get that more than you would think. Helicopter parenting has killed this skill. If we adults would just step back and let children struggle just a little bit, we might be able to bring back the problem solving skills. Children as young as 2 years old can develop some pretty decent problem solving skills if the adults do not swoop in too fast. Children are capable of so much more than adults these days think. Give the children a little leeway, and let them start using the brain God gave them.
I hope you have enjoyed this post. Goodbye and God bless!! https://linktr.ee/natawade
No comments:
Post a Comment