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the importance of science in the early years By Natacha V. Beim, Founder of CEFA Early Learning Schools and Parenting with Natacha Children are natural born scientists. To nurture this type of learning in children, allow them to explore their environment safely, freely, and with plenty of time. Children have this fascinating sense of wonder and curiosity about the world. They build theories, test them, evaluate what worked and what didn’t, then figure out why. They try to figure out why water and dirt combine to make mud, why some things float in the tub while others sink to the bottom. They try to understand how shadows work or why caterpillars make cocoons. Encouraging children to explore their natural curiosity is one of the best ways for them to learn science. It helps them think in an increasingly complex way. Science also allows children to see themselves as contributing individuals, as they are trusted to solve problems. The many benefits of exposing your child to science include: • Advancement of critical and creative thinking as well as problem-solving • Increased vocabulary, math, and physics skills • Perseverance and an understanding that failure helps them learn • Patience as they observe nature around them, and discover some changes take time • Worldliness as they take an interest in the world around them to discover how things work • Critical thinking and the ability to form their own opinions and draw conclusions from observations
l Are children ready to learn science? Almost all young children are already learning science naturally, without any prompting. Most of the time they actively search for new knowledge and experiences in the world around them. They develop theories about what they see and how it works. As many parents of young children will attest, their child’s favorite question for years is, “Why?” Their favorite activity is taking things apart, and they can spend hours in the park or garden, observing how the ants transport the crumbs of their muffin into a tiny hole in the ground. Children are eager to figure out why turning the light on makes everything so bright or what happens if they plug something into the electrical socket. In an effort to keep them safe (and to keep the house a little cleaner), we often stop our kids from discovering the world around them. Slowly, over the years, many children sadly lose that inquisitive spark they were born with. As a result, creative thinking is compromised. However, it is those same creative-thinking skills that will help them succeed in the future by contributing new ideas or challenging the status quo. l Here’s how it works From the time they are born, children form concepts about what they see. As they grow, these concepts evolve and become more complex, as does their ability to make deductions and to problem-solve. As they do that, their
knowledge expands, and they become more adept at observing. Children formulate their own hypotheses and test those in an increasingly complex way. They then organize and classify the newly-acquired knowledge, generalize across disciplines, relate it to their own life experiences, compare it to their previous ideas and the ideas of others. The more opportunities they have to do this, the better. They become good at reasoning, problemsolving, and thinking. As they discover new ideas, their vocabulary also increases to allow them to describe what they are experiencing. The higher the vocabulary, the higher the IQ, and the better they do at school. Children are geared to think just like scientists: they observe, predict, hypothesize, experiment, reflect on and communicate their findings. l How can you teach your child science at home? Science in the early years is not a complicated process. For children, science just happens. What you have to ensure is that your child’s questions are valued and appreciated. Take the time to listen and don’t be too quick to give the answer away. Instead, ask your child questions like, “I wonder how we could find out the answer to your question?” By doing this, you are modeling for your child how to learn and where to look for knowledge. Some days, you will search in a book; other times, you will search on the computer, ask a friend, visit a museum, a science centre, or a library. It all
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