The secret of childhood: what is the law of children's growth

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UNESCO evaluates Montessori as a great symbol of education and world peace. She was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize three times in 1949, 1950 and 1951.

On January 6, 1907, Montessori established the first children's home in Rome, recruiting children from orphans and poor families. She teaches the children with the nuns. Later, it was found that the children raised by children's home, from poor children to intelligent, confident and educated young talents, began to think and study Montessori's educational methods.

Now, the kindergartens of Montessori education are developing vigorously, but I think we know too little about what the real Montessori education is.

We should respect children's instinct: all newborns have a predetermined psychological function, just like bees know how to grow up as soon as they are born. Although babies are not as strong as bees, they also have their own survival instinct to grow up. They continue to learn and practice through their own methods to explore the world.

What many parents do is to prevent their children from exploring. For example, many children are wrapped in a tight candle bag as soon as they are born. Think about how comfortable a child is in her mother's womb. It's movable, warm and comfortable. Many people say that children have no feelings and will not resist, but when children are rigidly wrapped up, their learning has been blocked. There are also people who will pick up the child, hold it horizontally for a while, and hold it vertically for a while. Montessori believes that adults must no longer regard children as an object. When they are young, they should lift them up and carry them around.

There is a saying that the amount of information a child learns before the age of 3 is the sum of his future life. This is an incredible number, but children before the age of 3 do learn to speak, learn to observe words and colors, learn to see interpersonal relationships, learn to distinguish order, learn to recognize colors The amount of information is huge. In fact, it's a very heavy workload for a child to coordinate his fingers, grasp things accurately and put them in his mouth accurately.

The learning ability of adults is far from that of children. Adults can't imagine the growth speed of children with their own growth speed. Sometimes, adults "deliberately teach" is much faster than children "spontaneously learn".

Every child has his own growth instinct. If we can cultivate him on the basis of respecting his growth instinct, the child can become a normal person. According to Montessori, normal children are: precocious intelligence, self-control, peaceful life, and prefer to work orderly rather than doing nothing.

Look at the people around us. We're not even Montessori's normal kids. We can't put it down when we pick up the mobile phone. We are worried about gains and losses every day. We want to have a rest when we make money. We often wander between guilt and conceit when we want to make money. Many people's psychology is not so normal, nor to our nature in the direction of development. According to the Montessori education system, children before the age of 6 mainly have four particularly important characteristics.

The first is the sensitive period.

For example, the larvae of butterflies are sensitive to light to determine where there are leaves to eat. Don't teach them, they will climb towards the light and eat the leaves. When the insect is big, its sensitivity to light disappears when it can find the leaves.

Montessori gave an example: when a child is crying for food, when he reaches out and grabs, when he gropes, he has his sensitivity. He learned to explore the world in this way. Adults will think that it's boring. They think that the child is always doing such strange things. In fact, he is learning. Even he has to taste everything with his mouth in order to feel what he has not seen.

This sensitivity will be gone after a while, and he will not explore the world in this way again. However, if you stop him, his learning ability will decline after the sensitive period.

The second is that children pay special attention to external order.

When Dudu was a child, he attached great importance to the external order. Everything he put would be arranged according to what he saw. Even when many people's slippers come to the house, he has to put them in order according to his way.

The book tells about a little girl crying for no reason. The family finds that the little girl is always staring at the umbrella on the table. It turned out that a guest came and put an umbrella on the table. The little girl thought it was wrong and kept crying. Later, they took the umbrella away and put it in another place. The table was restored to its original order, and the child stopped crying. Children are naturally sensitive to order.

The third is "internal orientation.".

The child will also have a sense of order to his body, he will ask his body to conform to certain rules. In this process, he is groping and coordinating. There is a child, the nanny gives him a bath, he is very happy every day, every day there is no problem taking a bath. As a result, one day a new nanny took a bath for him, and he became restless and desperate. Later I learned that the first nanny's action was to hold the child's head with her right hand and bathe the child with her left hand, while the other nanny's action was just the opposite.

Finally, children's intellectual development is accomplished by themselves.

A baby who was only four weeks old was stunned to see his father and uncle appear in front of him at the same time. Uncle and dad look similar, the child does not know what to do. Later, as long as the child's line of sight, they have been separated, one to the left, one to the right. Finally, when the child slowly found out the reason and began to realize that it was two people, he was relieved.

Adults should be patient when children explore. We don't have to tell them that this is uncle and this is Dad. He will find out gradually. When he showed a knowing smile, he really mastered and learned this thing.

Understanding these psychological characteristics of children, we can see how adults prevent the development of children.

There are many ways for adults to stop children's development, such as don't move, don't touch, be honest and don't shout. If you want to comb your hair, you will think that the child combs his hair in a mess and says "I'll comb it for you.". In fact, children experience a sense of order in the process of imitating combing their hair, experience the coordination of their own body, and also perceive the society.

Another example is that children dress too slowly because their rhythm is different from ours. Montessori said: "although the child has his pace, but this pace is almost mechanical to lead him forward. Children's walking is to improve their own special functions, his purpose is to develop themselves. His pace is slow, which seems to have neither rhythm nor purpose. His walking is caused by the objects around him. If an adult wants to help the child, he has to give up his pace and his purpose. "

The child is learning and exploring the relationship between button and buttonhole. He is slow and may make mistakes, but this is the most important time for him to learn. If in order to save time, the parents' way is to put on the clothes for him. In this way, children slowly give up, do not learn this skill, lost the confidence in learning.

When a child has an ink bottle in his hand, adults will be particularly nervous and may have conflicts, but these things are naturally attractive to children. Children like to take the lid up and down, not really want the bottle or ink. In fact, the child is in the process of constantly opening and screwing, to perceive what is a circle, what is a thread, and how these work together. He will feel that the world is really fun.

Many ways for adults to hinder children's development are familiar today. We are still using similar methods to hinder children's growth.