How old is early childhood education

However, a multiage classroom in a regular school setting may be viewed as a dumping ground for struggling students, causing a downfall in self-esteem. In this setting, traditional teachers are thrown into the new environment without knowing how to create a thriving environment. As with so many things, educational tools and different early childhood education teaching philosophies can be very beneficial if executed correctly. Those who are interested in teaching students in the early childhood stages need to learn developmentally appropriate practices to make their teaching more effective.

These practices entail a vast range of strategies and skills, all grounded in the compassionate and loving relationships that educators have with the kids they teach.

Teachers recognize that their own sense of curiosity, attitudes, and actions are an essential aspect of teaching, and they model these skills to the learning community as a whole. They know that children will develop the confidence, skills, and even disposition to become lifelong learners by their example.

Learning needs to be responsive and accessible to kids and their families in a relatable way. They should develop relationships with professionals and specialists to ensure that each child gets any specialized services, accommodations, or adaptations to support their learning. Each child should have multiple easy of learning and understanding. When it appears that a child is not meeting these goals, the educator needs to work with the child, the family, and the rest of the learning community to come up with a solution.

They ensure that the program invites active exploration and learning and is creative and stimulating so that each child will remain engaged. The daily schedule should reflect the skills and competencies that each child brings to the classroom.

Kids should be encouraged to help plan specific activities and identity projects to help them in their own learning. They should be given regular chances to choose between activities, and teachers should guide children who are not yet able to make decisions to build their self-confidence. The opportunities to help children with their growth and development based on their particular age group are virtually endless.

In this next section, we provide some resources to help educators fill their daily schedules with the most appropriate activities for each group. Zero To Three. Zero To Three is an organization dedicated to ensuring all babies and toddlers get a strong start in life. One of the primary goals of this group is to see that this age group benefits from family and community connections that are crucial to their development and well-being.

The website has a number of different resources for this age group, including activities that can help with brain development, infant and early childhood mental health, play, language and communication, social skills, and more. Learning 4 Kids. The site is full of project ideas for fun and engaging activities for children aged three to four years old.

Topics covered include literacy, motor skills, exploration, creativity, and more. Each activity includes a list of materials, step-by-step instructions, and a list of developmental skills addressed via the activity. Gryphon House. The website has a huge selection of paid educational products for all ages, but they also have an excellent library of free resources. One of the great things about this site is that you can sort activities by subject and age group. It is only by investing in quality as education systems grow — not after — that governments can expand access and maintain quality.

Access to early childhood education has been slow and inequitable, both across and within countries. Worldwide, vulnerable children are disproportionately excluded from quality pre-primary education — even though it can have the greatest impact on them.

To ensure no child is left behind, Governments should adopt policies that commit to universal pre-primary education and prioritize the poorest and hardest-to-reach children at the start of the road to universality, not the end. Children in urban areas are 1. We support pre-primary education in countries around the globe by:. Start with the power of early childhood education.

It is time for a world where all children enter school equipped with the skills they need to succeed. A new Massive Open Online Course sets out to give all children the best start in education.

A critical step in learning occurs before a child sets foot in school. Programme Menu Education. Nearly half of all pre-primary-age children around the world are not enrolled in preschool. Explore the data. In these classrooms, students are given the freedom to chose what to learn and to set their own pace. The classrooms have multiple interactive spaces, each dedicated to a different academic area, such as language arts, math and science.

Children are encouraged to explore these areas in the order that most interests them, and they often end up working closely with other students to explore these areas together. Despite the autonomy, teachers in Montessori schools are by no means passive or uninvolved. Rather, the teachers work alongside students, guiding them through their exploration of the classroom, answering questions and facilitating group work.

They are highly involved in this self-motivated learning process. The American Montessori Society provides a very detailed Introduction to Montessori schools that further illustrates the methods and pedagogy of this innovative approach.

Montessori institutions are private schools, and are therefore not funded by the government. Kindergarten is usually seen as the beginning of formal education, and it is fully integrated into the elementary school system. Kindergarten is public education and subject to state law therefore, kindergarten teachers must be properly licensed and certified , though it is not mandatory in every state. Children enter kindergarten during ages five to six, and many states do not begin mandating education until age seven.

However, whether it is mandatory or not, it is still highly encouraged. Though kindergarten is more formal, it still qualifies as early childhood education because students are under eight years old. They are still developing at a rapid pace, and kindergarten is important to easing their transition into elementary school.

Kindergarten focuses heavily on social development and peer-to-peer interactions, though there is greater emphasis on fundamental academics than there is in preschool. In preschool children learn how to count, but in kindergarten they begin learning about adding and subtracting. They learned colors, and now learn how to blend those colors to make new ones. And whereas in preschool they learned the alphabet, kindergarten teaches them how to spell and string basic words into simple sentences.

Basically, kindergarten lays the groundwork for their formal education by introducing new concepts that develop into the different academic subjects they will learn throughout the rest of their educational career.

During the first few years of life, a child learns a lot about themselves and the world around them, and parents are their first teachers.

Parents teach them how to speak, how to walk, how to feed themselves. They teach them the alphabet, shapes and colors, and even how to count and spell very simple words. But for healthy development, children need active stimulation and interaction with others.

This is where early childhood education is the most beneficial. It is in these classrooms where children apply what their parents have taught them to a practical setting and have their first interactions with people outside of their family.

Beginning with children as young as two, teachers guide them through an important transition and oversee their adjustment. As a teacher of young children, you become somewhat of a surrogate parent, their first source of guidance in playing with others and forming friendships.

You teach them how to share, how to take turns, how to have manners--lessons that stay with them and evolve with each crucial phase of their life.