(See related pages)
|
|
|
|
Unlike higher education, early childhood education cannot be divided into distinct subject areas. Every learning aspect of the early childhood program is interconnected. Art, music, and social studies—as well as language, emergent literacy, math, and science—all relate to one another. In the early childhood program, art is an open-ended creative process that helps children sharpen their perceptions, organize their thoughts and actions, express feelings, and get to know their world better. The early childhood educator facilitates the art process by having age-appropriate expectations, valuing children's art, talking constructively to children about their artwork, providing a variety of materials as well as the freedom and time to explore different mediums on a deep level, and providing opportunities for both individual and collaborative art projects. Like art, music should be taught in an open-ended fashion, not as formal lessons. All children—whether musically talented or not—should be encouraged to make music with their voices, bodies, and instruments in creative ways. To enhance children's music experiences, adults should appreciate children's spontaneous efforts to create music, encourage them to respond to music with movement, show interest in what they are doing without judging, and set up a music center with a variety of instruments, apparatus, and props to encourage the creative, visual, and auditory aspects of music and movement. Group time is another opportunity for incorporating music experiences, such as group singing, creative movement, and instrument playing. Social studies learning is woven throughout the entire early childhood curriculum, which emphasizes helping children gain social competence. Social studies learning—which entails knowledge, values and attitudes, and skills—begins with the study of the self (self-concept, body awareness, self-image, self-worth, and self-esteem) and progresses on to the study of others and, ultimately, to the study of the community. To develop constructive social skills, adults need to be careful about the messages (both verbal and nonverbal) they send young children about gender, race, ethnicity, class, appearance, and ability. They also need to help children develop empathy and prosocial attitudes and skills. To teach children about community, adults need to give children a sense of the past and help them understand notions of place and the concepts of producers and consumers. As mentioned earlier, it is impossible to divide the early childhood curriculum into separate pieces and label them according to traditional areas of study. It is the early childhood educator's job to weave the different parts of the curriculum into the whole fabric of the program—including the family. One planning technique, called "webbing," helps early childhood educators create flexible, responsive curriculum that are driven by the interests of the children (and even the adults). Such a sensitive, responsive approach to education takes the child's intellect seriously. Early childhood education isn't about teaching subjects; it's about facilitating development and learning in each child—the whole child. |