Compared to when we grew up as children in the 70s, today there are a lot more choices to early childhood learning materials and pre-schools /institutions for early childhood education. How are we, parents, to respond to these choices? How much do children benefit from these learning?
In Japan there are various learning institutions for children as young as one year old, to join a pre-school program. Top famous learning institutions such as Shichida (from 1 year old), Kogumakai (from 2 year old), Montessori (from 2 year old), Suzuki Method (from 3 years old), Kumon (from 4 years old) provides different curriculum and use specific methods to teach. Shichida and Kumon have recently introduced their methods in the US, also in some countries in Asia. Kogumakai has opened a facility in China and Taiwan.
Schichida
Kumon
As a mother, i do believe early childhood learning is important for children. In the past 6 years, like any other mothers, i have gone through books, materials and attended trial lessons andfor a period of time my daughter actually took lessons at some of these pre-schools. Frankly, they do have proven methods and wonderful techniques to stimulate young children. However, i would also like to share the following learnings as a parent:
1. It is good to expose your child to various stimulation, learning and experience since we know that children has unlimited capacity to learn and absorb new things. At the end of the day we parents, are the one, with limitation. We have limited time, money and energy to deliver them.
2. Learning comes with experience. As for parents, learning comes with some expectations. The best expectation to have is to see your children enjoy every single things that they do. If they do not enjoy it, then parents probably need to consider an alternative learning. Learning experience only improves when it comes with pleasure.
3. Like providing nutrition for children, i believe in the "hand made" and "do-it-yourself" principles. When it is hand made, you know exactly what to prepare and put into it. Why take your child to various type of pre-schools when the best education is in fact right there in your own home. If you have the time and you know what to do and how to do it, you can do it yourself. By reading to your kids, playing all sort of games (origami, puzzles, clays, blocks), making children toys/cooking/doing something together, or even just by talking to them, they can learn a lot already.
4. To some extent early childhood education has become a competitive business and we, parents need to be careful in understanding the importance of education as much as the need of freedom, having fun and play, especially for children at a very young age.
5. Japanese nowadays are more and more aware of the need to learn foreign language. As a result English learning for young children has also become a trend. Some methods Japanese use to teach their children English are:
Flash cards
Digital reader
Going to regular English classes with dancing, singing and English speaking program
Watching Sesame Street, Disney English programs, listening to Nursery Rhymes on CDs
In Australia, learning a second language is also common for young children. Chinese and Japanese are the top two foreign languages learned by many Australian kids.
So does early childhood learning produce a future generation of people who are bilingual / trilingual, intellectual and wiser? Lets hope so. But we all know that it takes more than a language of wisdom and intelligent to survive at work, or even at home.
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It's so true, we the parents are the ones limited with time, money, and energy. Some parents have the money, but no time for their children. Other parents have the time, but no money.
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