Articles that the lady of the house has had published in ‘SunnyDays’ magazine, a local parenting mag. The versions here at slighty different to published versions.

As the New Year unfolds many children are starting school. They are either entering kindergarten or starting a new grade. The beginning of the school year is a good time to consider our conception of education and our role as parents, and what this role involves in terms of our children’s education. We should remember that their education involves much more than the formal learning that takes place within the bounds of the classroom and we must not under-estimate our roles as their educators.

Prior to starting school children have already developed amazing language and communication skills and a rudimentary worldview. Social skills, and the foundations of literacy and numeracy are already in place by the time that they are ready for kindergarten. As parents we have shaped our children’s understanding of the world and taught them love and trust and helped them form their expectations about life. These things are incredible achievements and without which our children would not have the capacity to undertake the formal education that takes place at school. We, their parents, have given them the basics that we hope will be refined and developed at the educational institutional of our choosing.

While our choice of school is important, what is perhaps more important is the value that we place on education and how we convey this to our children. Within the education system a creeping consumerism has brought market values to the concept of learning and in some cases parents are thought to be the clients or customers of a school that strives to deliver ‘value added’ education to the children. But what should be kept in mind is that good educational outcomes are not always those that are bought.

The best way to invest in our children’s education is to be involved in it. Our actions and our involvement conveys to our children the value that we place on their education. To help our kids with their homework and to know what is going on at their school and in their lives, shows our kids that we care what they are learning. This teaches them that school is something that they should care about. Education is not something that we sub-contract out when our kids turn five, it is something that we have been a part of since the day they were born.

Enjoy the journey

(Published November 2007)

Education, like life, is a journey. We travel from unknowing to knowing in the process of education. As parents, teachers and child-care workers we have a responsibility to facilitate children’s educational journey. On this journey children need a balance between structure and novelty. Children need structure and routine to provide the security and safety required for them to learn. Children also enjoy novelty and excitement which provides stimulation and engages and holds their interest.

As learning is more than what takes place inside a classroom, travel is one way that excitement and novelty can be incorporated into children’s lives. Travel can introduce children to new sights and sounds, provide lasting memories, trigger imagination and discussion, and provide a platform for further learning.

Travel for children need not be as involved as an annual trek up the north coast every summer. (Although some of the trips my family took when I was a kid form some of my most treasured memories). A simple walk to the shops can suffice as a rich journey full of wonderment for a young child. As our bi-weekly trip to day care reminds me, children do not understand deadlines and outcomes- it is the journey itself which engages them. As I hurry my kids to be at the day care centre by the appointed time my daughter dawdles. She picks flowers along the way, talks to her shadow and looks out for trucks and trains. For her, as for children in general, life’s all about the journey, not the destination.

Which is true also for education. As children acquire new skills, the process is as important as the outcome. This can be seen in children’s artwork. For every picture that resembles what it is purported to be, there have been hours of work done for the sake of it. Paint or textas are swirled, and colours are mixed as children experiment with movement and texture, manipulating the media and enjoying the process of art making and producing yet another colourful blob. Likewise pre-literate children often scrawl across paper, believing themselves to be writing. While the outcome of scribble on a bit of paper is inauspicious, this process facilitates their future writing ability.

The journey is as important as the destination and this is something that children instinctively understand. They can educate us that the getting there is meant to be as fun as the being there.

(Published October 2007)

If your children are anything like mine then they have possibly spent the morning engaged in some of the following pursuits: emptying out the tupperware cupboard all over the kitchen floor; watching their favourite show and reenacting scenes with their toys; wrestling over said toys; throwing the drinking cup and other projectiles around and generally causing mayhem.

Being fed up with them at your feet and sending them outside to play is possibly one of the best things that you could do for them. What is not often appreciated is the educational aspects of childrens’ play. No matter how they play they are engaged in some form of learning.

When they play together children are building their linguistic skills, social interaction and developing the vital skills of negotiation and compromise. Psychologists now believe that when playing, children are not merely demonstrating their cognitive abilities, they are in the process of actively developing them.

When engaged in rough and tumble physical play; climbing, running around, throwing and kicking balls, children are not only developing their gross motor skills, they are improving their coordination and spatial awareness. In physical play children are little scientists learning how the world and its physical objects work when thrown around. Cars, water, sand, toys, balls and whatever is within reach is subject to explorative experimentation.

When playing together kids are little social scientists discovering the unwritten rules of junior social interaction. Unfortunately on the road to understanding negotiation and compromise, and games when the rules are made up together there are a few harsh lessons along the way. These lessons may involve little fists, teeth, feet, toys and tantrums as children learn the essential skill of sharing. They may be on the receiving end or on the giving end, or a mixture of both, but unfortunately these are the bumps on the road to cooperative play.

Even in solitary play kids are still learning. Through imaginative play children make sense of our complex world. They take slices of the adult reality and repeat them in ways that give these meaning for the child. Children learn through imitation and mimicing and this forms the basis for imaginative play. As anyone who has witnessed a child role-play a parent/police officer telling the rules to another can attest.

As parents we want to provide the best educational opportunities for our children. Well let me say, let them play!