Thursday, 21 September 2017

The Learning Journey Designed As Play With Skola Toys

Excerpts from C.P.Cavafy's Poem Ithaka

" As you set out for Ithaka hope your road is a long one , full of adventure , full of discovery . Keep Ithaka always in your mind . Arriving there is what you are destined for. But don't hurry the journey at all .Better if it lasts for years , so you are old by the time you reach the island , wealthy with all you have gained on the way "

The poem written with Odysseus in mind is so true of  life where as we set out to reach a status in life , but what becomes more important are things we have gained in our quest to get there . Similarly when children set out to learn a certain "something " , the journey to learn that is critical .

 The Learning Journey begins with birth . When a child opens his/her eyes and sees the world the process of recognizing faces begins there .
Social Smile is considered as the first Mile Stone in a child's development when a child smiles at known faces .
With passage of time child learns many more things .
This learning process or capacity is maximum up to 5 years of age where in a child learns almost every things .
When they start going to school and start learning alphabets and numbers along with rhymes and other activities like drawing and coloring , a  new journey begins .

How a little child goes about learning to add two numbers  ? For instance 2+3 =5 .
But how did the child get there ?

1.Did we give them the answer helpfully and smilingly ?
2. Did they just hear the answer once , and immediately register it to memory ?
3. Did they see it in a book and write it down 5 times , so it became a fact ?
4. Did they learn to count first , practice it for a couple of months counting anything and every thing they came across .Did they then count 2 and 3 , put it together and arrive at the answer making many mistakes along the way and learning from them ?

Each route created a different type of learner , and certainly the last group of learners would emerge as wisest and most confident , just because their journey has been most meaning and enriching , gaining something at the each step of the way .

For young children , true happiness comes from doing an activity , not completing it and finding an answer . Their focus is clearly on the process and not on the outcome .

Learning always occurs when children engage voluntarily in purposeful activities.
So if we give them series of right tools, they are sure to journey through all areas of learning with great gusto and enjoyment arriving at answers at each stage on their own .

Just as we all have a different journeys running simultaneously all teaching us something different , so also at any point of  time  , the child not on one particular journey alone .
The child may be at a point where he/she is
* Learning to read 3 letter words
* Becoming familiar with sequence of numbers
* Starting to use 2 hands for some activities
* Becoming aware of cause and effects

Every child is unique in the way they start and move through these journeys . Learning is never a single occurrence , learning even one single concept involves a series of steps .
Every Skola Journey takes children systematically through a series of experiences that are incrementally challenging enabling them to discover and learn something new at each stage .
Every stage is facilitated  by a toy playing with which will allow children to challenge themselves in an interesting way .

Instead of pushing kids to learn basics in a way which is not so interesting and is bit boring , Let's explore some interesting ways , the ways which are filled with fun and joy , the ways which kids would love to go and Lets Make this Learning Process a Fun Filled Journey To a New World .

Do Visit  Skola Toys to understand children's learning journeys and views toys that facilitate incremental learning .
Enable our future generation to play , explore and discover through "Learning Journey Designed as Play " .

learning journey

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