Age 5-8/Childhood
The child of 5 to 6 years has lot of matured self-interest and choice about his learning already.
From his past exposures given by his parents he already has his learning interests and hobbies developed, though lot of scope is still there to widen the child’s mental horizon by giving him new experiences.
By age of 5 years, children definitely start to show their innate aptitudes or talent areas for say music / dance / painting / natural world/ love for animals/fascination for arms and ammunitions / friendliness with gadgets / liking for automobiles / food and cooking / skills in games and sports / socializing / reading / elocution or such complex qualities.
Their general state of mental disposition like happiness, positivity, adaptability, inquisitiveness, talkativeness, alertness, care and concern, food habits, fearlessness and default language of choice has also taken shape based which particular attitude of his got more appreciation / encouragement. Kids of this age also love to role play as their parents, the way they often see them deal with people and situations in formal and informal conditions.
Physical and mental stimulation are equally important for this age group. A child allowed to run and play , roam and explore , stretch and climb and engaged in coordinated physical games gets his energy released and happiness hormones stimulated and therefore definitely is able to focus better when he sits down to read or write or think about a concept.
Similarly a child allowed to practice music or other art forms develops to nurture happiness or mental solace in situations of hardships in study or project pursuits.
Everyday conversation / discussions with the child about his/her daily experience will help the parent stay grounded to the child’s reality and learning gathered.
Parents job is to help them engage, explore with them, explain what needs to , elaborate with examples and evaluate his knowledge soundness/gaps on a subject. A homeschooling parent must consciously engage , explore , explain , elaborate and evaluate the kid asking them to free think , free talk , draw conclusions in a healthy home / family discussion, that can happen in presence of multiple generations of relatives , through experience sharing , storytelling , home visits, festive gatherings in a very fulfilled way. A child understands his self-worth more through such participatory engagements as they learn and contribute to everyone with responsible work and logical decisions.
People :
Children of this age group are capable of understanding how relationships , families , communities , societies and nations function and cooperate . They can learn about people through history geography, civics, folklores. Yet lot of harsh facts need to be softened for their understanding and hypersensitive minds.
Children at this age learn the bonding of various relations too, which also stimulates them emotionally.
It is also in this age parents must make them clear about ethics of marital relationships , friendships , sibling relationships , teacher student relationships , provider and consumer relationships etc.
This is also the age the children should be told about personal body safety , bad touch and good touch as they interact with more number of adults throughout their daily interactions. Certain facts about sexuality must be carefully told to these children as they come in contact with peers and elders of the teenage section.
Prosperity :
Children of this age grow and nurture many hobbies like of stamp collecting , pebble collecting , making cards and gifts , gaming , building legos, reading books , skills of say for e.g. magic ,art, crafts , recycling . They start to understand worth of efforts and creativity, knowledge and guidance and the more they understand the worth of their acquired skills , more the inclination and impetus the feel for learning more deeply any subject of worth.
They also happen to feel proud of their little learnings which need to tactfully denatured by their mentors so that they learn about humility and feel the infiniteness of knowledge.
Peace :
In this age bracket children happen to easily lose their peace of mind because as new learners they start comparing their small success and failure with their friends’. Mentors must teach them how to be at peace with their own growth pace and discover their own ways and interests in the learning path. Developing a healthy ego and self-love for each child is necessary for building his self-confidence.
Partnership:
Children of this age group are capable of forming team and function as groups on combined agendas. They have enough logical maturity and emotional upbringing by now to be able to register about discipline of any complex game or sports or music or laws of the land. They can form good partners of adults in serious matters of discussion or work be it society or environment or home.
They can help mothers , fathers , brothers , uncles in carrying out their role responsibilities and thereby learn from them about soft skills , people management, money management, with confidence , honesty and effective technical communications in any particular stream or trade.
The knowledge they are imparted should be softened for their acceptability with parental guidance. This is the age when children must come to know the real problems of the planet so that they also take active part in building solutions
Planet :
Children of this age need to sensitized about the gross world issues, environment issues , the needs for action and probable eventualities of inaction so that they can learn to form the ethics of sustainable living at their communities. They need to know about human rights, animal rights, safe and unsafe food and lifestyles so that they are able to take better decisions in their lives.
1. Assessments :
The children of this age group learn to be good enquirers ,carers ,open minded thinkers , risk takers , communicators , basic arithmetic skills , proficiency in one language
2. Learning Periphery :
With in 10x10X10X10 meters of the home , ie their city / town.
3. Best Learning Activities :
: Organised thinking , disciplined games / music , designing projects and executing them , planning and monitoring , researching on a topic.
