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Hi Tracy! Nice to "see" you again too!

I have also heard the Ames (sp?) series on child development is good.
Obviously, each child is unique. But it can help to have an idea of
things that are typical (normal?) at different ages.

Mary Ellen
We live in a sedentary society
yet our bodies were made to do physical work each day.

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Ren

***If they 'know' when a child is 'supposed' to be able to do a certain
thing, they worry when it doesn't happen. I've seen a lot of posts from
different places that hint towards this. ***


But that's not really what you learn when you study child development theories. Read some of Piaget's work, it still holds up. It's more about how the mind develops and it's ability to understand certain concepts at varying ages. It's less about what a child should be able to do at an age, and more about concepts they absolutely won't grasp BEFORE certain ages. And the age range is pretty wide....
If you study child development and then look at the school model, it's rather shocking the way they "teach" children. You'd think that the folks working as teachers had never studied child development at all...because they certainly would never be trying to push a child to put numbers on paper and think it meant anything to your average six year old. Sheesh.



"I never teach my pupils; I only attempt to provide the conditions in which they can learn."
Albert Einstein

pam sorooshian

On Jan 14, 2004, at 9:33 AM, Ren wrote:

> If you study child development and then look at the school model, it's
> rather shocking the way they "teach" children. You'd think that the
> folks working as teachers had never studied child development at
> all...because they certainly would never be trying to push a child to
> put numbers on paper and think it meant anything to your average six
> year old. Sheesh.

Read preschool brochures -- they talk and talk about developmentally
appropriate curriculum -- delayed academics, etc.

Then they do worksheets so the kids can "learn their letters" and be
ready for kindergarten.

NEVER trust a preschool brochure - I've seen some of the very worst
preschools have the best-sounding play-oriented, child-friendly
sounding brochures.

-pam
National Home Education Network
<www.NHEN.org>
Serving the entire homeschooling community since 1999
through information, networking and public relations.

[email protected]

In a message dated 1/14/04 11:23:48 AM, starsuncloud@... writes:

<< It's less about what a child should be able to do at an age, and more
about concepts they absolutely won't grasp BEFORE certain ages. And the age range
is pretty wide.... >>

Right. And the ages are very "more or less," but the progression of how
understanding and thought grow are likely going to happen in each child.

Here's one site with a summary:

http://www.eagle2.american.edu/~gb3107a/piaget.htm

For a bad example, my mother used to claim that my infant brother, at six
months, could understand every word she said, and that when he ignored her he was
being manipulative. I hope I never hear a worse example than that.

Another thing parents can benefit from knowing (though in a peaceful, happy
unschooling home it's not much of an issue) is "Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs"
which says (among other things) that someone who is afraid or hungry can't care
about anything else but getting those needs met. So there's no educational
sense in telling a child who hasn't had breakfast that if he doesn't learn to
spell these words you're going to hit him with a stick and then withhold lunch.
Therefor schools have government funded lunch an breakfast programs. <g>

I just pulled the first Maslow reference that showed a chart:
http://web.utk.edu/~gwynne/maslow.HTM

If either of those seems interesting, just go to google, put in either
maslow hierarchy
or
piaget stages

and you'll get tons of stuff.

They're really easy concepts, and I think they're helpful for homeschooling
parents to know.

Sandra