Some people were questioned
my decision when I decided to be a kindergarten teacher last year. They thought
it was too “easy” to be a kindergarten teacher. Conversely, I do think being a
kindy teacher is really challenging. All
of children development aspects are critical especially in their first five
years because it’s the time to shape the adults they will become (Tomlinson, 2015) . In these critical
years, they will learn and develop social emotional, language, fine and gross
motor skills, and cognitive ability that will remain with them for the rest of
their life. What a big responsibility!
Days by days I found out many
interesting things about children. The first weeks of my journey as a
kindergarten teacher were full of buzz of children’ babble. I remember there was a child crying when he
couldn’t close the zipper of his bag, he asked for my help, it happened every
day for about 3 weeks. The other day I found out there was a child who had
difficulty in putting on the socks and buttoning the clothes. The other problems were in cutting things following
the certain pattern or walking
through a balance beam. The next ones were children who prefer to cry instead
of conveying what they want and children who always told me all of the things which
they see, hear and experience. Some children even fight for toys and being mad
at each other. So, do you still think teaching kids is easy? My friend
from Early Childhood Graduate once said, teaching kindergarten is not just about
“clapping and singing”. It’s more than that, dear. It needs a never ending
patience to teach “basic stuffs---things that adult think those are easy. What’s
so difficult to zip the backpack up? But hey, that’s easy for you, not for
the kids. Perhaps, it’s their first time to zip the backpack up, so they don’t
familiar with the situation, or their muscle isn’t strong yet, or they just
panick to see their friend can do that easily. There are a lot of possibilities.
Those experiences with kids
intrigued my curiousity so that I decided to read some books. I was amazed by
first chapter of Robert Fulghum’s book entitled All I Really Need to Know I
Learned in Kindergarten (1986), he
said “The Kindergarten Credo is not kid stuff. It is not simple. It is
elemental.” Further, he emphasized that “wisdom was not at the top of
the graduate-school mountain, but there in the sandpile on Sunday School.” Here
are some things that I agree with Fulghum about what we learned in kindergarten
which are beneficial for the rest of our lives;
“Share everything.
Play fair.
Don’t hit people.
Put things back where you
found them.
Clean up your own mess.
Don’t take things that aren’t
yours.
Say you’re sorry when you
hurt somebody.
Wash your hands before you
eat.
Flush.
Warm cookies and milk are
good for you.
Take a nap every afternoon.
When you out into the
world, watch out for the traffic, hold hands and stick together.
Goldfish and hamsters and
white mice and even the little seed in the styrofoam cup—they all die. So do
we.”
Can you imagine those golden rules are applied to adults
life?----family, work and government life?
Sometimes, adults think that
there is nothing that they couldn’t do. They act like they know everything and
stop learning. But, dear, I think they forget that learning is a long life
skill. Please, do remember what we’ve learned in kindergarten.
Some people want an instant
result like they send their kids to kindergarten to be able to read. However,
we should pay attention to the long process before finally those kids will be
able to read. According to Paramita (2017), a Montessorian, there are 7 steps
that the children should learn before they finally can read. First, train to
extend the attention span and train to observe. Children can train their
attention span by spooning, pouring the water from a jug to a glass, etc.
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| Picture 1 Spoonning Activity
The picture is taken from http://www.montessorialbum.com/montessori/index.php?title=Dry_Spooning
|
Meanwhile, children can
learn to observe things, animals and plants in their environment,
just talk about the neighborhood. Second, differentiate shapes, colours, sizes
and sounds. Third, recognize sandpapper letter.
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| Picture 2 Sandpaper Letter |
The picture is taken from http://www.infomontessori.com/language/written-language-sandpaper-letters.htm
Fourth, recognize the sound
of a letter in a word with “Objects Box”. Fifth, train the ability to read by
reading “Reading box, words bucklet, Verbs Card, Noun Cards, and the example of
Sentences.” Next, reading sentences and correlate them with pictures. After that,
reading picture story and story bucklet." Finally, children will be able to
read.
So, dear, teaching kids is
not that easy.
After all, I never regret
my decision last year to be a kindergarten teacher. I learn a lot from my very
first professional experiences after I graduated from university. It reminds me to my kindergarten
teacher, a big salute to Ibu Ati, Ibu Lilis and all of dedicated kindergarten
teachers all over the world.
Fulghum, R. (1986).
All I Really Need to Know I learned In Kindergarten. New York: The
Random House Publishing Group.
Montessori Album. (2017). Dry Spooning.
Retrieved from
Montessori Primary Guide. (n.d) Sandpaper Letters. Retrieved from http://www.infomontessori.com/language/written-language-sandpaper-letters.htm
Paramita, V. D.
(2017). Jatuh Hati Pada Montessori. Jakarta: PT Bentang Pustaka.
Tomlinson, A.
(2015, September 17). Why the first five years of a child's development are
the most important. Retrieved from The National: amp.thenational.ae/arts
