During these COVID-19 times I have become increasingly aware of the amount of 'experts' who talk about the importance of structure in a young child's day when they are learning at home with parents. Let's replace the word 'structure' with 'flexible learning', that accommodates a young child's physicality and passion. This is a time for our nation's children to thrive in the home context, learning in ways that they rarely can in the 'structured', class-based school environment.
Instead of copying spellings from a list and learning them by rote, how about they explore making letters with the body with you joining in, and thereby extend their vocabulary through kinaesthetic and social means?
Instead of working through maths multiplication sheets, how about they learn their times tables through movement by playing hopscotch with you but with multiples of 3 etc. in each chalk square?
Instead of merely reading a story with you, how about you talk through some of the key themes and then turn it into a dance-drama skit that is digitally recorded and you jointly create a mini-performance for the rest of the family to enjoy whilst in social isolation?
Young children learn through interaction with their environment and in an integrated fashion: physically, socially, emotionally, cognitively. As such, they need to be active participants; home learning with plenty of movement sprinkled into it can help them to be just that. Movement is a young child's natural driver, and yet in the schooling process we see this being gradually driven out of the average child. They learn to sit at tables. They learn to form orderly queues. They learn to conform to a timetable and take movement breaks only when they are scheduled. And they are expected to 'sit still' and pay attention in class throughout most of the day. Thus, they quickly learn to be sedentary in order to survive the school system and its regulatory demands to behave and learn.
All this involves suppression of a child's natural ways of being, and it contravenes neurological theory about the best way to learn. Indeed, the more that young children can explore the limitless potential of a movement-focused day, the more their brains will be engaging. They literally wire up as they move, creating new dendrons in the brain. This means that they will remember what they are doing with you, and that their retention levels may even be lifelong. Let's ponder on this for a moment. What do you remember from your primary school experiences? Was it the show you were in, or the climbing frame you enjoyed at break time, or perhaps the swimming lesson? I doubt you remember the worksheet you completed!
It's time to embrace movement throughout each day with our children in this new and exciting home-school context. If we do, we will all profit from the pleasurable and playful times that will surely ensue over the next few months of social distancing.
For further movement ideas in the home-school context, please contact me to purchase a copy of my book: Fundamental Fun: 132 activities to develop fundamental movement skills. 10% discount if you mention you saw this book offer via my blog. Copies are posted all over the world.
E-mail: Dr Rachael Jefferson-Buchanan: rjefferson-buchanan@csu.edu.au
