“Children are born passionately eager to make as much sense as they can from the things around them. The process by which children turn experience into knowledge is exactly the same, point for point, as the process by which those whom we call scientists make scientific knowledge. Children observe, they wonder, they speculate, and they ask themselves questions. They think up possible answers, they make theories, they hypothesize, and then they test theories by asking questions or by further observations or experiments or reading. Then they modify the theories as needed, or reject them and the process continues. This is what in ‘grown-up’ life we call Scientific Method…. If we attempt to control, manipulate, or divert this process we disturb it. If we continue this long enough, the process stops. The independent scientist in the child disappears.” John Holt – Learning All The Time
This is what we want to ensure doesn't disappear, we want to nurture their enquiring minds by seeing each child as a a little scientist exploring their world. We recognise that when a child discovers something for herself she owns it. The knowledge becomes part of her like her arm or leg, and more than that, with each new discovery she gains confidence in her ability to figure things out. How do children learn to speak, to master a language? It is something they achieve and achieve well without ever being taught. They must be exposed to language, they must have attentive adults who give them focused time and plenty of love and security but we don't need to actively 'teach' them. This is also true of reading and writing and many mathematical skills - they need to be exposed to all of these things, we need to make these things accessible to them but we don't need to actively 'teach' these skills unless they are ready for us to:
“That is not to say that children must discover everything unaided. We can help them in several ways. We can so arrange materials put before them that discovery is made more likely. Real learning is a process of discovery, and if we want it to happen, we must create the kinds of conditions in which discoveries are made. We know what these are. They include time, leisure, freedom, and lack of pressure.” John Holt – Learning All The Time
This is what we offer at Hayati Homeschool. The freedom and time to discover. We will not direct or control your child’s learning, we will not engage in uninvited teaching. We will observe, we will listen, we will make things accessible to them, we will help when we see help is needed and wanted, we act as facilitators rather than as instructors of your child’s desire to discover and learn.
“Children have their own styles of learning, every one unique. They also have their own timetables, according to which they are ready to do things, speeds at which they want to do them, and time they want to wait before doing a new thing. When we try to direct, or interfere with, or change these learning styles and timetables, we almost always slow or stop them.” John Holt, Learning All The Time
We recognize that each child is unique and we embrace and encourage
their individuality in the way they wish to explore and learn. We spend a lot of time observing and in simply being available, and so we are responsive and in tune to your child's changing rhythms. When a child expresses a particular interest in something we will make it accessible to them, allowing them the time to explore it as they wish but ensuring they have all the materials, information and space we are able to give them to do so.
Recently we have been exploring Reggio Emilia approaches to learning. Originating in the city of Reggio Emilia in Northern Italy, the Reggio approach is not a method of teaching - there are no training schools since the Reggio approach understands pedagogy to be context specific. Instead educators are inspired by Reggio approaches to learning and adapt the key principles to their specific environment. Echoing John Holt above, Reggio approaches value the child as strong, capable and resilient;
rich with wonder and knowledge. It emphasises self-directed, experiential learning in relationship-driven environments. Teachers thoughtfully create 'provocations' - an array of objects organised so as to provoke exploration and discovery by the children - we have done this with our discovery table, pretend play boxes, sand and water experiment tables, garden discovery boxes and play blankets. Teachers then carefully observe the children's interactions documenting the children's learning encounters. We use photography, video, audio recordings and written text to record the children's progress and share it with them and their families. We also use this documentation to identify strengths,
ideas, and next steps to support learning.The 'atelier' is a focus point of Reggio approaches where the children are free to express their thinking and understanding of concepts. The idea is to enable the children to master different mediums - from drawing and sculpting, to dance and movement, to painting and pretend play - so they can better express their thoughts and ideas this is part of what the Reggio philosophy refers to as 'The One Hundred Languages of Children.' We have a large art storage room and each day we bring out different materials for the children to experiment with - we are only limited by our imaginations since our atelier is the great outdoors!
We created an environment that was aesthetically pleasing with lots of natural light and natural materials. All furniture is child-sized with learning materials displayed on accessible shelves with lots of boxes to open and explore. Everything has its place in the tent creating order and harmony. There are different areas to work in, including spaces outside, reading corners, bean bags, tables, floor space, spaces for group activity and for working independently so that the learning environment accommodates choice and independence. At the centre of the tent stands 'the tree of imagination' around which all activities take place - it serves to bring nature inside and place it at the heart of our learning, it is there to inspire young minds to be creative (children can make objects to hang on the tree), to encourage daydreaming and imaginative play. Most of all we want the children to be happy and from this state of confidence and positivity they will realise their potential both intellectually and socially.
If you want to know more about John Holt or Reggio Emilia ideas about how young children learn, we recommend these books:
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