Introduction
In education, it is vital to create an appropriate curriculum development procedure whose objective is to attain a good intellectual property development in children. Concerning the above, I, therefore, seek to review the educational development for toddlers/preschoolers whose age bracket is two years to 5 years. The age is the second stage of childhood and preschools and prekindergarten, therefore, tends to be a crucial area for children's life and, later on, impact on the general life of the individual.
Given these, I henceforth seek to develop a one-week educational curriculum that spans from Monday to Friday; the expected results are a multi-dimensional improvement of childhood life spectrum.
Description of Pre-schooling childhood stage
After a child learns to walk on his or her own, a new phase in physical development begins. They can, therefore, move about and adapt to the environment. Language development takes shape which results to mastering the names of interest; they develop some form of partial dependence.
Children also acquire the skill to regulate their emotions, but parents can use the parent-child bond to correct and regulate the instincts. Children also learn to relate appropriately with other people who they can learn to trust or mistrust with their human instincts. Physical and intellectual development start to manifest, and the cooperation with peers can hence be achieved while at the same time personal desire for standing out among others fosters competition. Mastery of basic learning skills and encourage active discussion and experimentation of new concepts and skills. Parents are the most influential to children’s lives at this stage.
Philosophy of classroom management
According to Jaruszewicz’s publication of 2013, the main concern is an analysis of early childhood curricular instruction models, related research, and societal needs. Importance is given to the physical, social, emotional, and cognitive aspects of children at different growth levels. There should be appropriate teaching materials and relevant modes of classroom management.
Some of the values and skills that should be instilled in children are; knowledge and understanding what influences learning, putting up a model that leads to high literal and numerical competency. Most importantly, are to be taught on how to solve basic human problems and gain basic values, like saying ‘thank you.'
Theoretical alignment component
Caution should be taken while managing toddlers/preschoolers to ensure that there is a holistic development that can be realized through a curriculum plan. The practice of professionalism in handling children should have an objective of bringing about the following qualities in children; possession of a strong sense of family union, comprehensive learning domain and its contents and freedom, and child willingness to play about. Adults do also have a crucial role to play in ensuring the children have a good command of verbal and non-verbal cues that helps in academic and social learning.
According to Piaget and Vygotsky, a lot of effort needs to be made so as to ensure proper preschoolers' development. Piaget says that a dramatic play is essential to a child's development of the cognitive sense (Charlesworth, 2008), which forms a center plan of the curriculum. For children to develop symbolic experiences, they use objects for unintended purposes so that they can use their cognitive sense to recognize the proper use later in life. Development of these experiences is fostered into more abstract learning symbols like words, letters and simple charts (Charlesworth, 2008).
On the other hand, Vygotsky writes that children use their freedom to play about as means to learn regulating their behavior. Therefore, it is evident that children have to be playful for proper development to take place because of the social interaction that follows. Moreover, children are supposed to be assisted by adults especially on learning verbal expressions, which form a strong basis for learning (Charlesworth, 2008).
Curriculum approach
The Montessori Method of teaching is my favorite teaching curriculum although the creative curriculum has the same results equally despite leading to fatigue in children. The approach built on the idea that children learn better when the immediate environment supports their intrinsic desire to acquire knowledge and life skills. Montessori herself being a psychiatrist had the necessary knowledge to understand children better through empirical approach, hence, my alignment to her approach.
Children usually enjoyed puzzles and learned more quickly when they were taught disciplines, like math and English, by manipulating toy-like materials which constitute their immediate environment together with teachers and peers. Consequently, there emerges an innate desire to learn in students leading to a happy experience that they carry along during their lifetime (Montessori, M., & George, A. E. 1964).
Concrete examples of the approach
The preschoolers (ages 2-5) are required to focus their attention' on materials that develop cognition through seeing, tasting, smelling and touching through direct personal experience. For a general arts' class, a child can be given some clay to try and model artifact or crayons to try and come up with a nice picture of anything that makes sense to them. The most crucial component is that there should be no pressure exerted on the child, and no comparison should be allowed.
Development appropriate practices (DADs)
This concept refers to making certain that we only focus children’s’ attention on what they are ready to do. It is designed to cushion children and development in the natural sense. Each child has his/her unique abilities depending on age.
A list of practices like supportive and regular interactions with peers and teachers through active outdoor activities like class zoo visits, environmental exploration through being allowed to decide for themselves what is of interest to them like choosing to paint other than count, balancing individual and group activities, self-directing themselves and creating a connection between being active and passive moments in acts like taking a midday nap then waking up to learn a few songs (Ozretich, 2010).
Connection to family plan
Letter to parents
Dear Parents,
Regarding your children, we have come up with a proper approach to education that is meant to foster a thriving passion for learning. It entails a better curriculum approach, adoption of appropriate development practices and aligning education theories to a best-proved theory of learning.
The purpose of this unit is to instill in children the best education and life skills in line with the ever-changing world requirements. As a result of growing complexity of life, children have to be put in a situation that opens their learning abilities further without necessary overworking them beyond their abilities.
The objective of the unit is to have knowledgeable children who can easily fit in the world later in life and children who can be in a position to solve basic life issues like operating new machines. Furthermore, there is a strong desire to create a stronger social responsibility to children and counter the growing social apathy.
In light of these purposes and objectives, parents and guardians are advised to ensure children continue to learn verbal and non-verbal cues that include giving values to their children so as to complement the educational curriculum efforts and help in goal attainment.
Principal
Conclusion
Evidently, teachers, parents, guardians and the environment play a big role in preschoolers' multi-dimensional development. Adoption of the best curriculum is of importance because this will lead to enlightened and well-educated children who can be able to do basic work in line with their abilities.
References
Montessori, M., & George, A. E. (1964). The Montessori Method. New York: Schocken Books.
Ozretich, R. A. (2010). Case studies in early childhood education: Implementing developmentally appropriate practices. Boston: Merrill.
