“There’s a glass and a half of learning in every glassful of Multiage classroom learning.”
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Children join each phase as Followers, develop into Learners and become Leaders. All children learning in thousand day Multiaged learning blocks Flourish.
Early Childhood, the Foundation Years.
The first thousand days of every child’s life determines almost entirely the child’s future. This is why the implementation of ‘School Based Mentors’ is so crucial in assisting families in providing the maximum support and rich environment for their child. The following Early Childhood phase to age five likewise is crucial in the development of every child as he/she grows in confidence and knowledge in preparation for the more formal, yet hopefully joyful and exciting, introduction to school as we currently know it.
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Early Childhood experiences, whether they be in such named centres, or kindergartens of pre-schools, must ensure that young learners enjoy every day of exciting and challenging experiences, letting imaginations and creativity flow to the fullest, singing, dancing, playing, building and pouring and measuring and laughing and dressing up, and gardening and growing things, looking after living creatures and cooking and eating and making up plays. Pretending to be giants and dragons, hearing every fairy tale ever told and then telling their own stories, even pretending to write their own stories. How will they not be absorbing lots and lots of the basic concepts of literacy and numeracy, but so much more so than in rigidly prescribed "Curriculum for Kindy Kids" episodes for the said centres to be able to boast of how smart they have made the kids in their care? Destroy the children's learning through play and you begin the destruction of their will to learn. It is an awful sight to see the flame of creativity flicker and be snuffed out. For what we might ask.
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Such interventions as Queensland’s Prep, purported to be a Play Based readiness program at its inception, has ended as a high pressure introduction to learning which for many youngsters has had quite negative outcomes. The grandson of a friend was suspended twenty seven times. He now does Home Schooling, and he's a very bright little chap, though naughty when bored and told to sit quietly, and listen.
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