In a previous article, we talked about our observations of the behavior of children in various situations. These situations have occurred, are occurring, and will continue to occur during the camp shifts of the Excalibur Camp children’s camps.
As you remember, we discussed the issue of children’s obedience and their initiative and activity. At first glance, these two characteristics of children contradict each other, but this is not entirely true. More precisely, not at all. A child can be active, cheerful, enterprising, and — obedient, disciplined. A dream, not a child! How to do it?
Through experience, we, the teaching staff of the Excalibur Camps, came to a small and important discovery: before requiring discipline from children in any matter, they must first be truly involved in this matter.
If we want children to perform well, for example, burning on popular prints or battle shields (by the way, they are also made of wood), it is useless to seat a dozen guys and girls at tables and say — sit still, children, now we will burn beautiful drawings . What will happen? That’s right: there will be uncontrolled and uncontrolled activity. Instead of obedience, you will hear dozens of unexpected questions, just as many, if not more, ideas, thoughts and advice. “What are we going to eat? How to draw on a tree? What if it doesn’t work for me? But I can’t. Why is he coming towards me? Let’s burn our pants! Can you burn through a table? No, it’s better with a drill, my dad did it once.” Smart and quick-witted children will crush you with their activity.
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We did not fight this and went the other way: instead of fighting this activity, we began to lead it. The old principle: “If you can’t manage, lead!” — this turned out to be very helpful. How does this happen specifically? After we all enter the room together, we invite the children to sit at the tables, where they will learn drawing, burning and other new and interesting crafts for them. To do this, we need to tell them a lot, and they can sit quietly for a few minutes. But when we feel that the buzz is about to begin, we invite them to do what they want for themselves: to take into their hands everything that is before their eyes. The teacher simply says: “Guys, today we will burn. Now, to better understand how to do this, let’s see what we have on the tables. You can take it all, touch it, look at it, and then put it back in the same place. You have 5 minutes for this. Forward!»
And on the tables — and boards, and pencils, and erasers, and coasters , and many, many more interesting things. The guys grab it all with their own hands, communicate with each other, change opinions with each other. And – what is happening? Yes, after five minutes they calm down. How to explain this from the point of view of high science is not easy to say. We figured that with the sheer amount of information currently rushing through our children (and adults, too), they are experiencing… sensory hunger. Yes! As our familiar computer master once put it: “There is a lot of data, but there is nothing to touch.”
This is how classes are organized: the constant alternation of our order and their activity organized by us, in the first place — the activity of doing something and touching it. And each time, as you understand, we increase the duration of our order and arrange their activity more and more organized. The same story with classes, for example, Modern Sword Fighting (www.fsmb-rf.ru). Training in sword fighting requires order and discipline, but children who are not accustomed to discipline will not be able to stand in the ranks “just like that”. We follow the same principle: 3-5 minutes is our introductory, and then we ourselves offer them to hold in their hands, touch and try on everything that is in front of their eyes. Condition: no fights yet. This is real for them. They take shields, swords, armor and helmets in their hands, try them all on, and put them back without a fight. Everything, in 10 minutes they are back in the ranks and ready to listen to us. Listen and obey.
Step by step, through play and activity, through the alternation of order and organized activity, children learn discipline. “Give children something in their hands, and they will be in your hands” — a great formula for developing discipline! And — we are waiting for interested guys from March 27 to April 2, 2016 on our spring shift «Celtic. Disappeared Civilizations!