Learning beyond the classroom
MANILA, Philippines – Children cannot develop in an optimum manner unless their physical needs are met like providing them with proper nutrition, clean air, and a secure environment. Apart from these needs, the child must be surrounded by adults who are caring and available to help them meet these basic needs. Children also need a learning environment that will encourage them to explore and experience the world. The world is the child’s source of knowledge and the classroom is not the only place where the child will discover new learnings.
Every child is naturally inquisitive. When the child is curious, he investigates his own little world. You give him a ball and he squeezes, bounces, and smells it. In the process of carefully studying the ball (investigation), he discovers answers to questions about the ball (final product — knowledge). For children, the learning process is more important than the final product.
Cultivating A Curious Attitude
• Consider the child’s developmental level. Give them activities and materials that they can handle, thus avoiding frustration and strengthening their self-esteem.
• Avoid telling the children the best way to do things. Let them discover for themselves.
Helping, Caring, And Sharing
While curiosity enhances the cognitive development of children, we should also consider their socio-emotional development manifested through helping, caring, and sharing behaviors. All children have the ability to be affected deeply by other people’s emotional state. Adults can teach children the value of helping, caring, and sharing.
• Make your environment as nurturing as possible like taking care of pets and plants.
• Foster self-esteem. Children with high self-esteem can be caring for others because they are not pre-occupied with their own perceived inadequacies.
• Assist children in defining their own feelings, positive or negative, towards others. Children can’t empathize with the emotions of others until they understand their own.
• Welcome children’s help and show how much you appreciate even the smallest effort. They should help because they want to, not because they expect rewards.
• Let children know how much you value helping, caring, and sharing, and be a good role model to them.
The most important role of parents is that of a behavior model. Children tend to mimic what adults do more often than what they say. The ways that you communicate, solve problems, relate to others, coupled with an enriched learning environment, form a powerful tool for how your children will learn and behave beyond the four walls of the classroom.
* * *
Dr. Lillian Leynes-Juadiong is a child psychology and parenting expert.
