Children and Repetition of Activities

Have you ever seen little children sweeping the ground with tremendous interest and concentration?

Going up and down the stairs for no reason countless times?

Arranging blocks in a particular pattern over and over again?

Washing their hands twenty times or more, long after they are sparkling clean?

Repeating activities so many times that you end up wondering from where they draw their energy and what pleasure repetition of the same activity could give them?

This is a phenomenon that is observed universally among very young children and if you are associated with young children you will have witnessed this at some point.

What do we do when this happens? There are just two options.

Let the child do the activity for as long as he wants to and for as many times as he wants to.

Or

Stop him from doing it repeatedly.

What would prompt an adult to stop a child from repeating an activity? Probably he feels the child is wasting his time doing something that neither makes sense nor achieves a meaningful end result.  

But think about it. Does everything we do in life need an end result? Sometimes don’t we all do things just because we like doing them? In very young children, there seems to be an even greater force driving them to do things repeatedly, for no apparent reason.

As per Dr Maria Montessori (an Italian educator and doctor who is the genius behind the popular Montessori system of education that is followed world over today), it is nature that drives children to perform tasks over and over again. No one knows why this is so but this repetition of the activity seems to fulfil an innate developmental need in the children.  This is evident by the satisfaction one sees on a child’s face at the end of an activity that he has performed to his heart’s content.  

So, the next time a child is found repeating an activity that does not make sense to you and you feel like stopping him, pause for a moment to observe the child. Is he interested in the activity? Is he concentrating on the activity with all his might? Is it giving him a sense of satisfaction? If yes, let him have the freedom to repeat the activity to his heart’s content. Interest, concentration and a sense of satisfaction felt over and over again would also result in the development of confidence in the child. And if it is nature that is driving children to do certain activities over and over again, why should anyone stop them from doing it? Let nature run its course and the little child have his share of joyous moments, while we sit back to observe him in peace and learn to find joy in his joy!

Just as we do not like to be disturbed while doing something we thoroughly enjoy, let us not disturb children when they do the things they enjoy.  

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Bonding with Children

Bonding with children goes a long way in building a healthy and happy relationship with them. Here are some thoughts on the same- four simple ways to bond with children. 

• Smile- A smile can do wonders to establish a rapport with children. A smile tells a child that you are happy to see her.  A smile also makes an adult friendly and approachable. And being friendly and approachable by nature is precisely what would help adults bond with children. 
• Make time to listen - Many children love to talk and to share several stories from their lives with adults. While listening to them at all times may not be practically possible, it is nevertheless important to make some time to listen to them.  Setting time aside to listen to children can work wonders to establish a bond with them. 
• Laugh together- There’s nothing to beat a good laugh shared with a child. If you like to have a good time with your own friends, you will agree that some of your best moments with friends are moments of shared laughter! Laughing together signals friendship and is a great way to lighten things up in the adult-child relationship. So, whenever opportunity strikes, feel free to loosen up and laugh with children!
• Respect their feelings, thoughts and views- Often, adults are subconsciously conditioned to not take children very seriously. As a result, we can end up disrespecting their feelings, thoughts or views unintentionally. While we may not be able to relate to their feelings and experiences, it is important that we at least empathise with them and acknowledge their feelings. This helps build trust and subsequently friendship.

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Stories for Children:Number Story-Activity

This is a short story-activity to give the child gentle exposure to addition and subtraction. It begins as a story which can later be executed as an activity. Before you read the story, here are a few instructions for the adult in charge.

• Start by narrating the story to the child.
• Draw pictures of the leaves or use actual leaves as you narrate the story, so the child understands the story better.
• After narrating the story, do the same activity with your child.
• In the story, the leaves are restricted to three. You can use as many leaves as you want depending on the age and interest level of the child.
• If the child is not interested in doing this activity immediately after listening to the story, do not force the child to participate. Keep it for another day when the child is more receptive.
• Do not use the terms addition or subtraction. The aim is just to give a gentle exposure to those concepts and not to teach them in detail as done in higher classes.

Story

Once upon a time, there lived a girl named Kim.

One morning, Kim was wandering in her backyard when she saw some leaves on the ground.

“Oh these leaves are so pretty!” said Kim, as she picked up one and looked at it.

She placed the leaf aside and said, “This is one leaf.”

Next she picked up another leaf and placed it next to the first one.

She looked at the leaves and counted them.

 “ONE.TWO. Now I have two leaves,” she said.

Feeling excited, she picked up another leaf and placed it next to the two leaves.

After looking at the leaves in a row, she counted them again and said, “ONE. TWO. THREE. Now I have three leaves.”

Suddenly, the neighbour’s puppy appeared and ran away with one leaf in his mouth.

“No! Hey pup, come back. I want that leaf,” shouted Kim.

But the puppy vanished next door.

“Never mind, said Kim, looking at the two leaves on the ground, “I can get another one.”

She stared at the two leaves on the ground and discovered something exciting.

“Hey, wait a minute. One leaf is gone and I have two leaves again!” exclaimed Kim, thrilled at her discovery.

She looked at the two leaves on the ground.

“Let me do what the pup did. Let me pick up another leaf and put it away,” said Kim as she bent down to pick up one leaf.

She kept it aside and came back to look at what was remaining.

“Now I have just one leaf left! And that is what I started with,” said Kim, “I loved playing this game!”

And she did this activity over and over and over again!

Kim enjoyed learning with leaves!






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Let Children Learn!

A child immersed in an activity,

Is like a person in meditation,

The child focuses on his activity,

With immense concentration,

All he needs is a calm space,

To discover new pathways,

And have happy learning days!

Children learn best when they have the freedom to discover and explore new pathways, rather than when forced to move on a path that adults think is the only right one for them. 




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Summer Holiday Ideas: Water Activities

Water can be explored in many different ways. Here are a few ideas. As always, let the child go beyond these ideas and do encourage the child's own ideas of exploring water (if any), for that is when the child learns to think, analyse and learn independently. 

• Pouring- This is most suitable for very young children (2 to 4 years). Fill a tub or a bucket with water. Place an empty bucket with a mug next to it. Show your child how to fill the mug with water from the bucket that is full and pour it into the bucket that is empty. After a quick demonstration, allow her to do it her way and assist only if absolutely necessary.
• Boat Fun- Make paper boats together and let your child have fun sailing them in the water. 
• Float and Sink-  Older children can be encouraged to look for objects that can float as well as sink in the water. Let the child look for the objects independently and discover what floats and what sinks. Do keep a gentle watch to ensure inappropriate objects are not used for this activity. You would not want your cell phone or wallet to land in the water! This activity is probably best done outdoors. 
• Watering Plants- Do you have a garden at home? Or even just a few pots? Why not encourage your child to water the plants everyday? Many children would love doing this! And this is something even very young children can accomplish. This activity would require some adult guidance for young children to know when to stop watering. Explain to your child beforehand that plants need only a certain amount of water because of which she will have to stop watering after a while, unlike the first three activities that have no time limit. 

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Summer Holiday Ideas: Wheat Flour Fun

The simple wheat flour that is so popular among Indian households can be used to keep children busy and happy. Dough prepared with wheat flour acts as clay- it can be moulded and stretched and is perfectly safe as well! For younger children, all you need to do is knead the dough and leave the child alone to experiment with it. To get your child started on her experiments, you can show her how to make something (ball, shapes etc) with the dough. After this initial step. leave the child alone to explore the dough.

Older children may even be able to knead the dough on their own and would also enjoy rolling out rotis (thin wheat flour bread).

Let the child decide how he wants to experiment with the dough. All he needs is uninterrupted time and the freedom to be creative!



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Learning About Shapes : Shapes Activity

Now that your child is familiar with circles, triangles, squares and rectangles, you can encourage her to create something using all these shapes. A simple one would be a house. You can modify the activity as per different age groups.

3 to 4 Years- Keep a picture of a house ready and highlight the different shapes in the picture. To make it appropriate for young children of this age, make sure it is a big picture with fewer shapes. Point out the squares, rectangles, triangles and circles to your child. Then ask your child to spot and name the shapes independently. Subsequently leave her alone to explore the picture. You can also give her paper, pencil and colours and encourage her to draw a similar house. 

4 to 5 Years- Many children this age can draw a house independently. Tell the child to draw a house that has squares, rectangles, triangles and circles. Ask her to highlight each shape with similar colours. For example, all squares can be coloured red, all rectangles blue etc. 

5 Years & Above- Older children can be given a lot more independence to do this activity. Tell the child that the drawing must include all four shapes but do not tell her what must be drawn. Let her draw whatever she likes, as long as the basic criterion of including all shapes in the drawing is met. You can also give clay to the child and ask her to create something based on shapes with it.

Encourage the child to seek and go beyond this activity. Children have their own ways of exploring different concepts and that is best encouraged.

In case you missed the last three posts on shapes, here are the links.

http://haripriya-wondersofearlychildhood.blogspot.in/2012/03/learning-about-shapes-circles.html

http://haripriya-wondersofearlychildhood.blogspot.in/2012/03/learning-about-shapes-squares-and.html

http://haripriya-wondersofearlychildhood.blogspot.in/2012/04/learning-about-shapes-rectangles.html


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