Skip to main content

Learning From Mistakes - Our Observations In Our Online Preschool Sessions

Image
By

 


Thought process and learning typically has two aspects -

1. The concrete - for an early learner, these would include concepts like alphabet, number, colour and shape

2. The abstract - this involves developing a thought process. Linking the concrete with our environment, creative thought process, and the like

The concrete, like the name suggests, is pretty much set in stone. A will always be A, 1 will always be one (as will the quantity associated with it), red will be red, and square will be square. 

As is the case with learning at any age, the children could well falter in the initial stages. They may make a mistake in identification, call out the wrong animal in the pictures, count 7 while calling 5, and so on. We have been conducting online preschool sessions pan India since May 2020, and have observed two things 

1. It is natural for kids to make mistakes in the beginning

2. As adults and parents particularly, we have a tendency to immediately check those mistakes and prompt the right response in our kids.

As teachers, we have learnt a very important lesson over years of experience, and especially now, when parents are also an equal party in online preschool sessions, which we are conducting across India, and we are able to observe those interactions. 

IT IS IMPORTANT FOR CHILDREN TO MAKE AND LEARN FROM MISTAKES

Please don't give your children all the answers, at least as a first up response. The reason for this is three-fold

A. It makes the children independent

B. They learn to think for themselves

C. Correcting their own mistakes gives them a great sense of accomplishment and gives them confidence in their own abilities

This is true of children as young as two years. Of course, if you feel like they are genuinely stuck, you must help them out, but first give them the chance to do it themselves.

Which brings me to the second aspect - abstract learning. As I mentioned earlier, this involves developing a way of think - the thought process could be creative, or logical, but typically, a child will think as per what they observe. So it is unlikely that there can be a right or wrong in this matter.

Let me give you a quick example to demonstrate. In our pan-India online preschool sessions, we do a lot of cross linking of vocabulary. For instance - what is the colour of cloud? White. What else is white? Milk. Now if you ask where does milk come from, as adults, our instinctive response is - from cows. But is it wrong if a child says that milk comes from the market/shop? (FYI, this is something which has actually happened in our online preschool sessions). 

The child is thinking very logically here. They have seen milk coming in packets. Some of them will be going to the shop to buy milk, and yet another child could just as well feel that bhaiya delivers milk at the doorstep. So long as we did not ask the child what the original source of milk is, none of these answers is wrong. So when we are intervening and providing them with an answer which we feel is right, we are actually disrupting a child's thought process, which could do more harm to their learning process.

To sum up, independent thinking is a very important aspect of early learning - this also helps children develop problem solving skills. Let us raise our children to know that it is not only ok, but important to make mistakes. The crucial element here is how we react to those mistakes, and how we teach our children to deal with them. That is the most important life lesson we can give them.

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Decade Long Journey - From Preschool and Daycare to Online Homeschooling

By
Almost 11 years ago, a mother and daughter set out with a dream - to set out on a journey and build something together. But, the million dollar question was, what temple would they build? What could they do together which would take both their skill sets to complement each other? And then it hit them - the mother-daughter duo would embark on a journey to support other mothers and fathers and their loved ones, their little ones. And so, after a period of much prep and love and labour, on 1 August 2011, Morning Glorie opened up her doors to welcome all little children and their parents, who were looking for a safe and loving space as they took the first steps towards their own new journey - a child learning to leave home for the first time to embark upon a learning journey, a parent looking to balance work with home, a parent looking to take the first step towards nudging their child into an unknown world.     At Morning Glorie, we grew along with each of our children. As they r...
4 comments
Read more

Decoding "Tantrums" - Why Do We Feel Embarrassed By Them?

By
Some years back (many more than I would care to admit to),  I remember me and my cousins had gone out with our Aunt and Uncle and parents to the market. CP in Delhi as I recall, as posh as it could possibly get. My cousin at that point was a mere toddler, I may have been in my teens. As is quite common, not just with kids, but adults as well, he saw something in the market which he liked, and wanted. For xyz reason, he was refused. The result - he lay down in the middle of the shop, started crying, and refused to get up.  By any stretch of imagination, this scenario is not an uncommon one. Parents across the globe experience it, not just with toddlers, but even older children. Barring the last year and a half, when kids have primarily been at home, we have in our last decade of experience at Morning Glorie's preschool and daycare in South City1 Gurgaon, had many parents come to us and talk about how their baby was likely to "throw a tantrum" if they did not get what they ...
1 comment
Read more

Why Must Parents Focus On Developing Public Speaking Skills In Their Children

By
Public speaking is a crucial talent to have as an adult, and developing these skills at a young age is the best way to conquer the fear that surrounds it. Engaging with public speaking as a young person is one of the most effective strategies to let your child face their fears and prepare them for the future. Your child’s growth will benefit from public speaking in the following areas: Better communication Enhanced problem-solving skills Skilled thought process development Boost in self-confidence Morning Glorie’s enrichment program focuses on a holistic development process that focuses on your child’s language development skills and public speaking skills. Through the program, we take a unique approach of using experiential learning with which the child learns by constantly being active. For example, their speaking skills are developed when children talk and explain their learning from an activity. This helps them work on their communication skills which in turn is connected with deve...
1 comment
Read more