Key Features Of Kindergarten Program At Primrose Schools
“Children love to learn. They can learn absolutely anything that can be taught to them in an honest, factual, and joyous way. In order for teaching to be effective, it must always be a joyous process.”
– Glenn Doman
In Kindergarten, the school follows the unique methodology adopted from Glenn Doman and Maria Montessori.
- A large part of the teaching material for Std. 1 and lower are produced in school by the teachers, who customize their teaching aids to suit the interest and knowledge level of the student.
- The student – teacher ratio is kept very low to enable the teacher to work with small groups at a time while the others are absorbed in learning rhymes or recreational play. Children learn spontaneously when their interest and curiosity are awakened.
- Teaching consists primarily of presenting sensory images, object and information to the child in a pleasant and interesting manner using flash cards. Basic reading and verbal skills in multiple languages occurs naturally by exposing the child to whole-word flashing the objects on flash cards respectively.
- Since Per-KG, a child is taught to read even before the alphabet is introduced. Reading is done with the help of home-made books prepared by the teachers under the guidelines given by Dr. Doman.
- Teachers and students sit around a U-table, which allows the teacher to maintain the eye contact with the students at the same level. It also helps in getting undivided attention from the students.
- The classrooms are equipped with colourful chalkboards with various shapes, which attract the attention of the child when the teacher uses the board.
- There is a separate play coop for the kindergarten, which develops the gross motor and social skills of the child.
- The kindergarten classes follow a theme for each month. The rhymes, stories, art and other activities taught during the month revolves around this theme.
Glenn Doman’s Method
- Most of us believe that geniuses are a very rare breed and only a few children are born with that potential. Many children have the potential of developing genius. Every child has far more potential than comes to the surface under normal circumstances. The secret is to create conditions that enable the child to discover and express their full potential.
- Mr. Doman has shown decisively that young children have an incredible capacity for learning. They can learn to read multiple languages with ease at a very young age, even before entering school. They can imbibe a wide range of general knowledge just as a form of recreation. Children can learn at least twice as fast as they normally do in traditional schools without homework, cramming or strain of any type.
- Mr. Doman concluded that the first six years of life are a time when children learn naturally, spontaneously, effortlessly and joyously – as a form of play – and that the more opportunities the child has for learning during this period, the more rapidly he learns and the greater his capacities for learning. The younger the child, the greater is the capacity to learn. Every child’s natural ability to learn far exceeds what we are tapping, because of the deficiency in our teaching methods.
- It is easier to teach a five-year-old to read than it is to teach a six-year-old. It is easier at four than at five, easier at three than four, easier at two than at three, easier at one than at two and easiest of all (for the baby) below one.
- The superb truth is that babies take in raw facts such as written and spoken words at a rate that no adult could come close to matching.
- Our present educational methods tap and develop only a very small portion (at best 5%) of human capacity. Each child is a potential genius, with unique capacities. The system should be capable of recognizing this and drawing it out. The programmes are propagated to begin with three-week babies and go on till the child is five years. By then, the child can be well into reading books beyond his level!
Montessori Method
- The Montessori Method allows the child to experience and comprehend what is all around him or her and thus learn better. This leads to an atmosphere of mutual trust and regard and the bond between the mentor and the child deepens, and the child feels self-confident too. The Montessori education method also involves the following objects and principles through which a child starts learning.
- Materials : There are many objects that often generate a lot of curiosity and attention among children, and the teacher presents them to a child and takes this opportunity to impart teaching as the child becomes engrossed.
- No gap in learning : Tasks are planned in such a way that each new learning step will follow whatever has been taught earlier and hence, there is no learning gap between the tasks or the steps. This is the best teaching method to remove any sense of uncertainty among the child.
- Positive attitude towards learning : As most learning activities relating to Montessori school education are individualized, the child automatically feels a strong attachment towards the process of learning. And it is this attachment that finally leads to regard, which is important for successful education.
Montessori Lab : Montessori classrooms are often referred to as “prepared environments” because of the special care and attention that is given to fostering independence and intellectual development. The room is set up to facilitate hands-on learning, extended periods of concentration, and collaborative experiences. While students become deeply involved with their work, the teacher may be working with one or two children at a time, presenting a new lesson, or quietly observing the class at work. Dr. Montessori wrote, “The greatest sign of success for a teacher…is to be able to say, ‘The children are now working as if I did not exist.’” Montessori children tackle difficult challenges and mentor one another. The Montessori materials themselves are designed to incorporate this concept of independence. Many of them include a built-in “control of error,” so that children are not dependent upon adults for answers. Instead, the children’s engagement with the materials enables self-learning.
