How we teach is just as or more important than what we teach. Did you know that in order to make learning stick and create understanding and build those connections, in order to remember something thing, we need to either 1, have repetition. So, you know, we keep on practicing something, we keep revisiting it with our children in different ways.
2, association. We need that relatability, that hands on experience, sharing ideas, making connections and lighting up our brains and using those individual interests to help us make those connections and go, oh yeah, or I understand this now because you’re making it relatable to me.
3, novelty, have fun, make it funny, different, wacky, silly. That helps us to remember. And 4 is emotional resonance. Being happy or sad and connecting emotionally really helps us to remember and just connect that information. It solidifies it. It keeps us, you know, understanding what’s going on. We remember those really happy moments and those really sad at moments. And this flower from my garden got me thinking.
It is wild to me that we would show children pictures or a diagram of a flower or a plant and then tell them about it or ask them as they’re older to label the parts in order to teach them how boring.
Zero connection, no relatability, no novelty, just nothing. When children actually could experience growing and maintaining their own gardens, they cut the fresh flowers and use them for multiple things that support their whole development meant and their learning a holistic approach. So for example, children could dissect the flower, explore the different parts, learning different names, a different terminology about it. They could learn about growing and planting, tending and caring for their plants in their garden. You know, having something that they’ve got to nurture and feel proud about, explore different colors and different shades of colors, the textures of the stems, of the leaves, of the petals. They could use these as natural paintbrushes, which is great fun on. And then the shapes and patterns that they create, you could do flower pressing, painting pictures just of the flower, counting your flowers. You can start counting all the petals and the shapes of the petals. They all come in different shapes, different sizes. And so that’s really good for mathematics. You could use the petals for potions and water play confetti. You could dry them out.
But all of these things create incredible opportunities for rich communication and language, which underpins all learning and so much personal, social and emotional development and physical development as well, all whilst being fun, exciting, sparking joy, curiosity, having hands on real experiences.
Teaching doesn’t have to be boring. It should be fun. You should be having fun too. But you know, I could keep going on, but I’m trying to just give examples of how one thing, this one flower could be a catalyst and spark learning in so many ways for all ages. You know, connecting to something physical is so important. I can’t stress it enough. So we really need to rethink how we teach. We need to make those connections for our children so they remember and they relate in one of those four ways that I spoke about. So yeah, have a think about how you could spark learning. And if you’re enjoying yourself, your children feel safe and they feel relaxed, their learning can happen. Have fun.
And so would the children. Bring back the energy, bring back the excitement. Children love that. And we need that in our earlier settings and in our schools and at home because then we remember. And whatever you do, don’t stick to the status quo. Don’t follow everyone else.
The magic happens when we do something differently. Hope you all have a lovely day, and if you’ve got some great ideas for sparking that interest and that catalyst for learning, pop them in the comments below.