Counting!

Counting!

Jake is very confident counting to ten and identifying the numbers to ten. Now it is time for him to put the two together and take it to the next level, learning how to enumerate. We do this in everyday life whenever I see the opportunity, as well as in books we are reading. At school we love using what we call ‘counting sheets’ to help the children develop their enumerating skills. These sheets have the numbers written on them, in little boxes that the children cut out and stick on the corresponding boxes. This gives the children some cutting and sticking practice as well and gives them an activity to practice their number recognition in the most basic form, having only to find the number, rather than have to identify it outright.

If your little one is like Jake, keen to cut, but not really at the point where they can cut on lines without just cutting it all to pieces, help guide them by standing behind them and holding the scissors over the top of their hands. Make sure they are holding the scissors in the correct way as this is laying the foundations for successful cutting by themselves. If you know the tune to the song ‘Open Shut them’ you can sing along as you cut (you have to sing it quite slowly so it is in time for their little snips!)

 ‘Open shut them, open shut them, give a little snip!,

  Open shut them, open shut them, snip snip snip snip snip.’

When all the little boxes are cut out you can play finding them, checking that if you ask your child to find each number they are able to do it. When you have played finding them, have your child count the objects in the first box and then find the number, before sticking it in the box. If they are racing through counting at top speed, rather than taking their time and counting each picture, tell them that they need to give each one a number and that the (insert name of picture, such as 'Daddy Pig') will be sad if it doesn't get it's own number!). Try to avoid pointing to the picture and having them count, but if necessary hold their hand and help them point carefully and slowly to each number as they count. Carry on this way until the sheet is done. Your little one can colour in the pictures if they would like. Jake is especially keen to do one if it is a present for someone, but he is also in love with Peppa Pig at the moment so anything with her on it has instant appeal to him!

We are listening to ‘Musical Times Tables – It’s Fun To Multiply’ by Don Spencer, part of a pack I got from the ABC shop. I had a past student who at four years old, had amazing counting abilities, he seemed to be able to see the pattern and know how much was in front of him. If they were laid out in rows, such as four lots of 8 counters he could tell you it was 32, almost instantly! He didn’t seem to be counting but could just see the pattern and knew. His mother said she played a CD like this of times tables in the background once every day. It could be purely coincidental as he was an extraordinary child in other ways, but I do believe in the power of singing when wanting to learn easily. It is also a major part of Accelerated Learning and we often see the benefit of using it in the classroom. Montessori saw that the children went through 'sensitive periods' where something could be learnt easily and quickly if it was done during this window of opportunity. If they are learnt in song form, perhaps it is during this age of rapid language development that it is the ideal time to just 'absorb' the times tables. 

I was always quite good at tables, thanks to the painful experience of having my dad grill a reluctant younger me, on our drive to school and back every day! I would love for Jake to be able to absorb them in an easy and painless way and I do see him starting to try and sing along from time to time, so I live in hope! An obvious footnote here is that it may drive you nuts and you might also find yourself absent-mindedly walking around later singing these repetitive little chants to yourself…

I have attached some basic 1-5 counting sheets below, which I recommend starting with, even if your child is able to do something more advanced. Small successes will help build their confidence and regardless of their skill they will get some good counting and cutting practice. If you would like more advanced ones with 1-10 or 10-20 feel free to email me at admin@smartstarteducation.com.au.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BwzunNaHHgjpT2hJSjlkTUs1NGc/view?usp=sharing

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BwzunNaHHgjpQ0hxdmZ6RUJMaUk/view?usp=sharing

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BwzunNaHHgjpaHkzb2k2Q1diNGM/view?usp=sharing

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BwzunNaHHgjpalZxTzZfYnk0Vms/view?usp=sharing

Pack away away away away away

One of the things that I always notice at the start of a school year is the amount of time we need to spend reinforcing to the children that they need to pack away, after they have completed an activity. In the first few weeks we wonder if certain children will ever get their heads around the idea and stop putting all their skills into play to avoid the dreaded task of putting a tray back on the shelf! But, a month passes quickly and suddenly we are really impressed that the children are taking responsibility for their environment and understand what we mean when we say it is tidy up time!

It’s funny though, as one parent mentioned to me a few days ago, often the children learn to pack away and tidy up after themselves at school, but the skill is not transferred to their home environment. The parent quickly added that he did understand that it was because he had never enforced it at home. This is a valid point, if you want your child to pack away after each activity, you do need to make it part of all your routines, from bath time to mealtime and of course after every activity. If you do it every day, constantly, it becomes a habit. It is hard to begin with, there is resistance, they would much rather run off to the next thing, but as it becomes a habit they start to stop questioning you and just get on with it. It takes about 21 days to form a new habit, so remember it takes time and persistence, but I think it is definitely worth it if you can help your child become responsible, tidy and organised. 
                    

    
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Songs are a great way to teach your child, at playgroup our leader sung a song that we also used to sing a Gymbaroo so you may have heard it before. I sing the song every time it is time to pack away and it gives Jake another cue that it is time to tidy up.

The words are:

 Pack away away away away away,

Pack away away away away away,

Pack away away away, we are finished for the day (or ‘thanks for helping me today’)

Pack away away away away away

And it is sung to the tune of ‘If you’re happy and you know it’

Modelling also seems to have a lot more success than just directing. If I jump in enthusiastically to start packing away, singing the song, Jake is much more likely to join in, than if I just tell him to start tidying up. The same is true in the classroom. At the end of the morning when all the children need to tidy up, there are always ones that will mill around and not help out. If I say let’s all pick up ten pieces of rubbish, counting loudly as I pick up the ten pieces, I generally get a large group of followers. Whereas, I can walk around the classroom endlessly trying to tell the ones who are milling about to come and join in and really not get anywhere! If Jake ever sees me sweeping he demands to have a broom as well and seems to really like sweeping up leaves with a dustpan and brush. It is quite tricky for them to begin to use a dustpan and brush so I guess a big pile of leaves helps children to easily fill the pan and get quick results. The leaves make a lovely rustly sound too, so it is probably just a nice sensorial experience! My inside microfibre mop had a problem with the handle a while ago so I unscrewed the top part and now it is just the right size for Jake to push around. Mostly it isn't really helping to clean much, but he enjoys mimicking what I am doing and gives him practice to develop the skill.

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The other thing is making the tidying up process doable for your child. This means keeping the toys to a limit, having low shelves for toys to be put away on and organising your shelves so that everything has a place to go back to. After we came back from our holiday there were lots of new things we had found on our travels as well as Christmas presents that didn't have space on the shelves. It was suddenly a big mess. We cleared out some things that weren't capturing Jake’s attention and it was so much easier to stay organised. Tidying up also needs to be a constant activity, leaving it until the end of a week or a day means that there will be a really large job to tackle so doing smaller, more frequent tidying up makes it a lot less daunting task for your child. 

If you haven't got your child's work/ play area organised, check out http://smartstarteducation.blogspot.com.au/2015/01/developing-organisation.html if you didn't already get an email from me about it. Tim Seldin's book 'How to raise an amazing child' is an excellent resource that has a chapter on how you can organise all the rooms in your house to help your child become independent and tidy. Dig around in the shed/garage/cupboard/ grandparents house/ op shop/ kmart and get some trays or baskets and make it really obvious to your child what goes with what and where it needs to end up after they have played with it! A small table and some little mats to use as work space is also a great addition. In these first weeks back to school there is always someone who wants to pull their activity off the shelf and do it right there on the floor in front of the shelf, rather than take it to a table or mat, so practice at that is also great. 

If you have about a thousand stuffed toys, despite a concerted effort not to end up in this place, I really recommend a toy net that you can hang up in your child's bedroom. We made one and it is great to keep the toys available to him limited, while still having all the beloved toys close. It is easy to vary what stuffed toys he can play with, if he asks for one we can get it down and as we tidy up, just chuck any that he doesn't seem to be interested in back up there so that he isn't wading through toys!

                                                      

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Freedom

I recently spent a week in China on my summer holiday, which was lovely, but also very frustrating. Frustrating because I seemed to have no freedom when it came to what I wanted to do on the internet. I couldn't check my work or Gmail emails, couldn't share photos or videos from my trip on Google Plus or Facebook etc. It reminds you of how important freedom and the ability to make your own choices are, when your freedoms are taken away.

Freedom is a big part of a Montessori classroom, having this freedom allows the child to develop self-control and self-regulation.  The children are encouraged to seek out activities of their own interest, to engage with these activities for as long as they need, and to manage their own daily routines and activities. Rather than being herded from one activity to the next in groups, children individually choose activities that spark their interests. This individualized approach enables children to control their own choices, movements, and activities.

Another great thing about your child having the freedom to choose what they would like to work on is that it means they will be doing something that they are interested in, something that captures their full attention, which in turn develops their concentration span. It might look like your child is just playing, but they are developing one of the most important skills that they can. In the classroom everything we do is geared towards developing their concentration span or dependent on the child being able to work away and concentrate for extended periods of time.

To ensure your child is extending their concentration span, make sure your child has plenty of activities available to them that spark their interests and capture their attention. Montessori said that at this age children have a tendency to be fascinated by small objects and that they seemed to capture their attention, so fiddly little activities seem to be a great option, the popularity of Lego is evidence of this.

I just had to take the photo below, despite his toilet training related nudity! Jake is in love with vehicles at the moment and he had spent such a long time, taking these cars off their shelf and arranging them in a line all next to each other. I have no idea why he chose to do it or what was so satisfying for him to keep taking cars out and lining them up so carefully, but the concentration and desire to work without any encouragement or direction was fantastic to see and he was clearly very happy with his handiwork! It might look like just mindless play, but I was thrilled to see him showing an interest in repetition and precision, two human tendencies that the child should naturally have. Without repetition and precision your child will not excel at things that need practice and take time to learn, so naturally it is something that we should be overjoyed to see them exhibit as well as foster whenever we can. When you see your child working away busily and so absorbed that they have no interest in what you are doing, you know you have hit the jackpot (and not just because you get a few minutes to do something uninterrupted!).

 This all said, the freedom and choice is not unlimited in the classroom. We only put activities into the classroom that we believe will help the child develop a desirable skill, the adults are still puppet masters, subtly manipulating what the children learn. People talk about 'learning through play', I believe all play leads to the children learning something, we choose what they learn through the toys and activities we make available to them. Question what is your child learning from each toy you buy. Most of the time if they love something you can put it to good use teaching them all kinds of things. Playing with a bunch of little cars seems fairly uneducating, but there is a lot you can do with them, learn colour names, sort them by colours, match colours, count them, enumerate with them, learn the names of different parts, different types of vehicles etc. Following your child's interest will always help them to be more interested in what you are teaching, so use it to your advantage. 

There are also certain skills that we would love for the children to acquire and want to integrate into their school day. We hope that the children are always keen to try everything, but often children are lacking in confidence or have insecurities about trying some things. We rule out the option for negativity by giving them a few options rather than a yes/no question. For example, if we think a child would benefit from developing their fine motor skills, rather than asking 'would you like to come and do some drawing with me?', we can tell them that we really would really like to do an activity with them and ask if they would like to do some writing with us, or some drawing? Usually with an option of one or the other, rather than the option of refusing to try, a child will happily make a choice and come away from the experience feeling like they had the freedom to choose what they wanted to work on. 

If your child seems to be worried or reluctant about trying something that you would like to do with them, try giving them some options to choose from. Even if it is a few jobs you need to do in the day like load the dishes or hang out the clothes, ask they what they would like to help you do. I think young children are very frustrated by not being in control, Jake is very much like this and desperately wants independence and freedom, resisting really strongly and showing great frustration when I try to control his movement or take away his freedom. Little reinforcements to make them feel in control should help to reduce their frustration at feeling like they are not in control. If your child is also strong willed enough that fighting it seems to be a waste of time, give it a try to make them feel like they have control over their life and have the ability to choose their own direction.