Let them play
Am I worried that my 6 year old child has not yet learned to read and write? Living in Scotland with most 6 year olds either in their first or second year of formal schooling, we stand alone in this regard.
Illiterate at 6?
What am I doing? Am I really just going to let them play? Am I deliberately allowing my child to grow up illiterate? Or can I just not be bothered?
None of the above. But inspired by Carla Hannaford who wrote “Smart Moves”, I feel assured in my decision to take the time my child needs to become ready for learning.
The worry
I was recently talking to a homeschooling friend whose oldest is 6 years old. She was worried that not enough was happening with her child’s education. With a toddler and a baby in tow, is it really ok that she often ‘just’ let them play?
All the others
All the other children of Scotland are focusing on their ABCs, and counting to 20. They are learning the individual components that make up small words, and the many rules of spelling – after all there are so many, the sooner we get started the better surely?
This wonderful child was well attached, well mannered and socially adapted. He was lively, curious, and not constricted to the very many limitations of starting at the very beginning.
Age and stage related brain development patterns
Related to this, Hannaford talks about the discrepancy between school teaching agendas and the typical age specific pattern and process of brain development. Including details of the two brain hemispheres, and their separate stages of development, it is interesting to see how innate learning in the context of family and community, and with pictures, movement and music can broaden learning horizons far more than the early fine tuning of letters and numbers. (Ie let them play!)
Should he be reading?
So, should he be reading? It’s not that he ‘should’ be. Perhaps he could be if he was that way inclined as an individual. But in a way that recognises and supports the age specific brain developmental patterns in children — at his age, ‘there is no should be’.
Two brain hemispheres
Carla Hannaford talks about the two brain hemispheres, described as the logic hemisphere and the gestalt hemisphere.
The logic hemisphere is associated with language and linear patterns, and tools. Individual components of an image are processed in their own right, unrelated to the larger picture/context.
And the gestalt hemisphere, usually right, functions on behalf of language understanding, intuition, image, empathy, feeling and altruism, spontaneity, rhythm, movement, and passion.
This is really important, as one hemisphere will develop before the age of 8, and the other after…
For interest…
(This is something I have also found fascinating to read about in Iain Mcgilchrist’s, “The Matter with Things”. In the mammalian brain, he describes the left hemisphere (logic) as responsible for reaching and grabbing, perhaps a fruit, or a tool, and the right hemisphere would scan and process the whole picture of their surroundings, perceiving danger and identifying predators. He also discusses the effects of damage to one or the other hemisphere – where we find both hemispheres are vital for well balanced thinking and living.)
And Carla Hannaford reiterates the point too, that when both hemispheres are working, ‘the more intelligently we are able to function.’
Which develops first?
Carla Hannaford states that the moving, feeling, spontaneous, whole-picture gestalt hemisphere begins to develop and enlarge between the younger ages of 4 – 7.
Whereas the analysing logic hemisphere that deals with pieces first, individual components (out of context of the image it forms), sequences, syntax and semantics ‘doesn’t enlarge until the ages 7-9’. These are the functions required for learning to read, write and count. At this older age (well past the first few years of school) children are beginning to develop the part of their brain that can process individual components of a broken down larger picture. Also this gradually enlarging hemisphere processes linear patterns.
Now is the time (starting from the age of 8, and 10 for some boys) that individual components such as letters, linear patterns of numbers, reading and an array of social and technical skills can begin to refine.
The effect of holding children still
What is interesting is how focused the current schooling educational approach is to the function of the left hemisphere. Young children are required to sit still, sit quietly, learn letters, learn numbers and read books with very simplistic vocabulary. Less emotional support, less imagination, and far less movement.
At worst this can impair brain development, with lack of movement intrinsic to brain growth, lack of opportunities for elaborating imagination, and often stressful, unsupported social experiences actually noticeably shrinking the corpus callosum, the link between the two hemispheres, found in people with ADHD.
Is our goal for our children left brain analytics?
If this left brain analytical learning which schools focus on with such fervour is our end desired outcome (which it is not), investing in these age appropriate, gestalt focused educational experiences would actually be a superior approach to building towards this goal.
But of course we know we have no final goal in mind for our children – we hope they will grow to have capacity for good relationships and problem solving skills for wherever they may be.
ADHD
In fact, stressful situations for the child and the laser focus on learning, over experiences such as freedom of movement, rhythm and play could be connected to the reduced size of the corpus callous which is found in people with ADHD. This vital part of the brain connects the two hemispheres for intelligent, integrative thinking. – Through experiences of emotional reconciliation and integrative movement, this disorder, or presentation could improve for the better.
What are we doing then?
https://thereisnoshouldbe.com/what-should-i-teach-my-homeschool-children/
Clearly children are in a different learning space before the age of 8. Before this age children are engrossed in ‘whole picture processing… image, movement, rhythm, emotion, intuition, speech and integrative thought’. Pushing learning of the bits and pieces of spelling, reading and learning tools that are so highly prioritised in school is not feeding the brain in the way we might hope. Instead, building on the areas that are in keeping with the brain’s natural development seems to support wholistic appreciation of learning, as well as supporting emotional development.
At this stage in a nutshell, we let them play. With older homeschooling children, my 6 year old is surrounded by others working to invest in their learning. But we are focused on stories and music, outdoor play, animal care, discovery and supporting self regulation. Many imaginative stories are made up by my children, with the help of beloved teddies and toys. They process their own experiences and emotions with these stories, and can work through them. The sky is not even the limit with their ideas. They are not constricted with only coming up with stories that they can spell. There has to be a commitment to reading children stories that they can’t read themselves, and to give them story books that they can appreciate on their own.
Experimenting with music and instruments, creating rhythms and sounds, working together to cooperate with one another and practising leading all help develop the growing neural pathways for a positive learning experience.
Facilitating hours of time outside for them as they ride their bikes and scooters, build and craft with wood, swing on trees and fling themselves down the hill. They are developing empathy as they play with one another, an appreciation of the environment, and spacial awareness and their own abilities and limitations.
But if you do want your children to be learning these literacy tools (as I like them to dabble in), bringing in the rhymes, teddies, and games has been a route in for us. Pushing an agenda seems to be very discouraging for my little one. Games have worked better for us: Spotting pictures that begin with a certain letter, and then moving on to reading a word and spotting the object in a picture. And so on.
Children newly starting homeschool
For children who have just left the school system, the likelihood is that they are sick of the sight of worksheets. These ‘let them play’ based activities are vital to their rekindling their own curious selves. Candle making (currently a favourite amongst us), making play dough, baking, painting, drawing and playing games all bring up letters and numbers. Questions that seem relevant to the task often come up, and children very gradually learn to seek literacy in their lives again. Stories and plays also add to this. At the young age of children before their tweens, children can do far worse than pursue these interests, and find they can enjoy the company of their siblings and their parents.
https://thereisnoshouldbe.com/fostering-creativity-in-everyday-life/
The beauty of not reading
Food for thought – children who don’t yet read notice completely different things around them. When they don’t know the bottle says ‘milk’ on it, they see the tractor, or the cow. They know every colour on their toothbrush. They hear and feel things differently until they can read. Now the older ones can read, and they’re certainly still far more observant than me. But how they see the world around them is a little different from before. Nothing wrong with learning to read, no matter how early. But there is something special about that time before they have learned to read. There is no hurry.
The heart and the brain
I did not know about the link between the heart and the brain. It is hormonal. Hannaford describes it in her book. When the heart is relaxed, hormones are sent to the brain to tell it it’s ok to be relaxed. Learning can happen, and enthusiasm and appreciation for surroundings beat in time with a contented heartbeat.
Jordan Peterson (Canadian psychologist) says, “play is a very fragile motivational state as it can be disrupted by nearly every other motivational state”.
But through play, children can develop deeply the type of learning intrinsic to children of their own age – elaborate, imaginative stories; creative pictures with a whole world inside them; complex, rhythmic movements in music or physical activity; expressions of connections and relationships; and feeling safe to learn to navigate complex emotions.
Of course it goes the other way. When the heart is stressed, the hormones are sent to the brain instructing preparation for fight or flight. Try as we might, it doesn’t work to just let them play. Children in this state are ready to react to danger. Perhaps they get into trouble for lashing out. Or perhaps they are simply not paying attention. Maybe they have behaved impulsively in a way that isn’t in keeping with our immediate instructions. Our duty is to support our children to feel safe again, so they can relax into a ‘ready to learn’ state.
When we want them to take on the baton of their own learning, and they aren’t focusing, we need to make sure their environment is safe and supportive. No shouting. No rising above their fight or flight response. But safe, and supportive.
The importance of a contented, vibrant learning environment seems to me paramount, as is the importance of close, lovingly devoted relationships throughout childhood.
https://thereisnoshouldbe.com/our-professional-children/
Affirming cultures
Sometimes it takes a different culture to remind us that our system isn’t universal. Other cultures affirm us as we question our own culture’s ‘should be’s. In fact, so many of our ‘should be’s are not even normal if we look at our own ancestors only a few hundred years ago, who had followed the traditions of tens of thousands of years where family and community were the basis of our very survival.
Not far from us here the Danes don’t teach their children to read until they are 8 years old. They rely on play, rhythm and music to great effect for their children to be ready to learn. Their education system is one of the best in the world.
Slightly further afield, in villages of Lesotho in South Africa, Hannaford says, “social values and communal practices support early childhood development much more effectively than ours do”. Investing in closeness of family and community to raise children, extensive studies show they are more ready to learn than the neighbouring white urban children.
No, I’m not worried
So no, I am not worried if my 6 year old is reading yet. He is interested and appreciative. It is delightful to watch him choose to label his shop, and initial his books. He enjoys challenges such as following written instructions, and as I read to him he asks to find a certain word or even punctuation. He is hearing stories that capture his imagination, and lifts him when he sees and imagines pictures that interest him. Mice, radishes, a tam o’ shanter. This is the time to develop altruistic behaviour, empathy and love, security and closeness with his family and community, especially when that is so suited to his stage of brain development.
https://homeschoolconnections.com/homeschooling-waiting-for-readiness/
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