A nature walk!

What a child needs at pre-school entry between three and four years is the skill of observation. 

One practical way this skill can be introduced to children from the time they are able to move about in the garden, is to point out different events and movements in nature. 

If we were to look around in the garden during the winter months, one might be able to watch caterpillars and cocoons in plants. In fact the life cycle of a butterfly would be visible to them, much before they would have seen it in pictures in their story books. 

A nature walk for a pre-school child is to be guided by what the child is ready to observe.  Instead of loading information about many things that adults are fond of, it is better to follow the interest of a child. 

I remember a father stopping the walk when a child sat down to watch a caterpillar, which then became the starting point to turn attention to butterflies. I was told that it took a week or so before the child was ready to move away from butterfly to anything else. He spotted seven different types of butterfly in the garden during that week. He even made drawings of them in his scribbling pad. 

To start where the child is interested in,  is a good way to promote a child centred learning activity. 

The pre-school child does not follow a linear path in learning most of the time. His interests and fancies would change. It is not completeness of information that parents ought to focus on, but to sustain the child's interest and pursuit of interest. 

Often parents get occupied with a class room based approach to learning. The class room is syllabus based. Where as a pre-school child is observant. What he observes becomes the focus of advanced learning. The parents can be active to expose him to what he might be interested in. However, a child at pre-school years can be casual, or from only supernal impressions, he or she is often inquisitive and exploratory. The parents are to be his companions in promoting this observation instinct. 

A pre-school child was fascinated by the shapes of wooden blocks he was playing with. His mother helped him to trace the outline of the blocks in his scribbling pad and colour them corresponding to the colours in the block. What a way of associating information! The three dimensional blocks became a unidimensional drawings on a paper. 

A pre-school child is a beginner in his learning experience. It is good for parents to start from where a child is ready to move on! Let a child lead his or her learning journey with parents adding enthusiasm and discovering experiences!

M.C.Mathew(text and photo)