Last week, we received a card from the kindergarten, inviting the parents of "future preschool children" to the kindergarten for an hour and a half on Wednesday morning.
Finnish children go to primary school at the age of seven. At the age of six, all children will go to "preschool" and spend a year "preparing" their ability to go to primary school.
I came to the kindergarten curiously. In an hour and a half, I learned a little more about the goal of Alei's autumn preschool class.
Hanging clothes back is as important as learning math.
What impressed me most was what the teacher said: "Teaching children to hang clothes back on the shelf is as important as learning math. 」
This is also the Finnish educational spirit that I have always felt. How to teach children to take care of themselves, store things, know themselves and get along with others is absolutely as important as intellectual education, and even in my opinion, it is the most important foundation for children before going to school.
Long-term handicrafts cultivate children's patience.
In addition, the teacher said that in the new curriculum in Finland, it is emphasized that it takes "a long time" for preschool children to do manual work, which means it takes "a few days" and "a long time" to complete. This can cultivate children's patience and is very helpful for future study.
At this point, Waldorf kindergarten, which attaches importance to handicrafts, was originally implemented. I used to see preschool children learn finger knitting or spend many days finishing a handicraft. Even children who don't go to preschool always spend many days painting and decorating flower pots before Easter in spring and a month making paper lanterns before Lantern Festival in autumn.
The teacher said happily, "Handicraft works that take a long time have always been our teaching content. Now we see that the new curriculum in Finland has begun to emphasize this point and affirmed our educational direction. We are very happy, which will benefit more children! 」
Emphasize sports, and every child has free swimming lessons.
In the past two years, Finland * * * thinks that children don't exercise enough. Although the kindergarten has an hour of outdoor sports every morning and afternoon, it is not "sports" just to sit and play with sand or the wine in the players' hands. Therefore, our small city has specially launched the "sports children" project to encourage kindergartens to let their children exercise more. After school, * * * also provides cheap sports clubs.
Every preschool child should try to seize the opportunity to practice skiing and skating. Every spring, our city will provide five days of free swimming lessons for preschool children, and send a special car to pick them up. Maybe five days is not enough time to learn to swim, but at least it can be seen that the city is willing to provide equal swimming opportunities for every child. ?
I remember when I was a child studying in Taiwan Province Province, art and physical education class had never been so "valued". But now the focus of preschool education for Finnish children is not intellectual subjects, but "crafts", "sports" and "living ability". Seeing them come true so naturally not only subverts my past growth experience, but also stimulates me to keep thinking.
What is the purpose of preschool? Cultivate children into a person who is physically and mentally balanced and willing to learn.
Although preschool will not start until autumn, from the information of teachers, I feel that this is also an important stage to emphasize the cooperation between parents and teachers. Teachers and parents will discuss and observe children's growth and learning regularly. I don't know if it is also because of this, the "discussion notes" of preschool classes also include inviting parents to "participate in activities".
In public kindergartens, parents are invited to eat porridge, while in Waldorf Kindergarten, after the discussion, parents and preschool children are invited to bake sausages, drink coffee and juice in the yard. Finally, parents and children sow together and sow the seeds of four crops in the kindergarten, in this way to meet the coming new learning stage.
After the discussion, I borrowed this year's lesson plan for preschool education from the city and turned to the page of "Educational Values of Preschool Education", which listed four main directions:
"the ability to cooperate with others", "the ability to make yourself physically and mentally healthy", "the ability to be responsible for yourself and participate in society" and "making learning a happy thing".
I think that when "learning becomes a happy thing", children will be motivated to actively seek knowledge in primary schools in the future, and perhaps the most important purpose of education is to cultivate a "person with living ability", a "person who is responsible for himself, takes care of himself physically and mentally, and is willing to participate in society and groups".
And the foundation of all this starts from preschool education.
Welcome to read my book: Parenting can be so natural —— Notes of mothers in Taiwan Province Province on Finnish Parenting.
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"This article is the author's view on cooperative innovation, not his position."