For some parents, their baby is a lifelong work. They are ready to teach him to read and write from birth. Some of them even leaf through albums with works of great artists for babies. to “develop a taste.” Is it necessary?
“Our first in life” development “- a photo with such a signature, my friend Julia posted on the social network. The picture shows her nine-month-old Svetochka and six more toddlers under the age of one year. And around the cubes with letters, rugs with numbers and other “educational” toys. Pretty damn touching. And to some it is also surprising.
– What for? – our mutual friend is sincerely perplexed in conversation with me. She adheres to the rule: the child will always have time to learn. And fundamentally against early development. Like, it’s too early to load the kid with knowledge to anything. Maybe she’s right?
– There is nothing like inviting a small child to get acquainted with letters, numbers. At this age, he does not care what to perceive. For him, they are just images. And the image of, say, a car and the image of a letter are the same. But there is a difference: to introduce in the form of a game, carefully monitoring his interests and needs, or to demand: “Here is the letter“ A ”, this is the letter“ A ”! Why don’t you remember the letter “A”? ” The first is useful, the second is harmful. Modern early development systems are based precisely on the principles of play. At the same time, of course, everything should be uniform: there should be no bias in the direction of studying the same letters to the detriment of physical development.
The day of five-year-old Masha is scheduled by the hour. Swimming pool twice a week, singing and dancing twice. Gymnastics on Saturday. On Sunday, mom plans to take her daughter to “some other sport, maybe. jiu-jitsu ”, and next year courses on preparation for school will be added to this. Masha likes all her activities, honestly. Maybe because she was not used to a different rhythm of life. Between classes, he still manages to go with his parents to the theater, to the cinema, to visit. True, there are problems with health – sometimes the girl’s body gives out a completely unmotivated temperature. Then the child finally goes just to rest …
– This is a purely Russian tendency: it is accepted that a child needs to be developed. If the child is happy with all this, good health! But if it is clear that the baby is not doing well, if this occupation or occupations, in principle, for some reason cause rejection in him, there is no need to put pressure on him. Stop, think: why do you want a child at such a young age to attend a circle, a section. Take time? Or is it parental ambitions – you should be able to do everything from childhood? Start sharing your desires and his. Try to see the world through his eyes, maybe. his gaze is radically different from yours.
“I’m not going anywhere else with him,” complains the mother of two-year-old Arkasha. – All the children are sitting, drawing something, trying to sculpt. And he walks on the ceiling. I tried to force it to sit down, it’s useless. And the teacher does not pay attention at all, says: “If he does not want to – let him not sit, this is normal.” Why am I only paying money?
– Until the age of three, you cannot demand anything from a child. As well as forcing him to sit on the spot for the whole lesson. Everyone is engaged, and your child is running around the room? Let be! The brain has to switch. Do you feel sorry for the money spent for the lesson? And what is more important to you – money or the peace of mind of a child?
Our expert emphasizes: up to three years of age, a child does not need to be taught in the school sense of the word. You just have to love him. At this age, it doesn’t matter to him whether he can draw or not. It is important for him to be with his mother, to be loved. And to know that all knowledge is part of a magical discovery that he makes with his mother. Therefore, children’s work should not be passed through harsh criticism. It is offensive for an adult too, let alone a toddler, for whom criticism is like the collapse of the world. “Oh, what kind of Christmas tree did you draw, who draws like that?” – tell this to a three-year-old kid, and he, most likely, will never take up paints again.
At the age of 4-5, it is already possible to gradually acquaint the child with the format of education, to teach him to sit still, to incubate classes. But again, everything is in the form of a game. In preschoolers – from five to seven years old – memory is formed, understanding too. Here we can already talk about perseverance, but all the same, taking into account the fact that this is a small child. But if he is not able to sit out the lesson at school, this suggests that something in the development of the child is still missing. But this should already be dealt with by specialists: psychologists and neurologists.
Personal experience
I am sure that much of what is given in developing classes, mothers, if they have time, can give at home. My son is 5 years old, and he learned the letters before he learned to speak. I’m not joking or exaggerating – he spoke late, at 2 years 3 months. And at exactly two o’clock, he already correctly poked his finger at this or that letter.
At the same time, I did not use any special methods. We read. A lot of. Lots of. One of our favorite books was the alphabet in verse. We could read it 20 times in a row.
Later, when the child began to speak, I realized that he was reading. At the same time, we practically skipped the stage of syllables. Timofey remembered, so to speak, the “images” of words. He saw the word “mom” in the book, then he will read it anywhere. So we “read” for about a year, and then he learned to perceive and unfamiliar words. I read it fluently at once. And I don’t think that the “development” would have changed anything here.
At the same time, I absolutely do not know how to draw, sculpt, cut and do other creative things. And here I would not mind if teachers taught him from childhood. And so, in this regard, he followed in my footsteps – creativity is not our strong point.