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Emotional development is key   Informal teacher research at the Children’s Farm School includes 25 years of observing children and promoting their feelings of competence. On a daily basis children demonstrate the positive effects of growing competence in all areas of their development. Effective early childhood teachers foster the development of the whole child—in the physical, social, and emotional domains as well as the intellectual. At our school we plan the curriculum to foster growth in each of these four intertwined areas. At the Children’s Farm School, children’s emotional development is key in the development of skills in the other domains. Not only does it make the cognitive and physical learning more meaningful in a given activity, but it creates a climate of individual and group confidence and competence that empowers children’s learning in other activities (Hyson 2004). To foster emotional development, teachers must include meaningful ways to help young children feel important, confident, useful, and successful. At the Children’s Farm School this is built into the curriculum because daily life in the twenty-first century may not provide enough opportunities for this to happen naturally. In the home lives of many of the children, there are fewer and fewer opportunities to be useful. For example, one child was talking about his mother. “What does she do?” asked the teacher. “She cleans.” Asked if he helps her, the child replied, “No, I just watch TV.” Many well-meaning parents today provide a child-centered world with love, television, and toys galore but few opportunities for young children to be helpful, useful, and competent. Thus it is all the more important for schools to provide for this need. Planning for Big Jobs A school on a farm has many built-in opportunities for Big Jobs; teachers just need to remember this rule of thumb: Never do any job that could be done by children. Sometimes this means giving up that perfect classroom arrangement as a teacher recognizes the potential for children’s emotional gains in helping to set up the play area. It means allowing enough time and having enough sponges available for children to clean the tabletops after an art project instead of quickly doing it oneself. And instead of shoveling that inch of snow off the path before class, it means meeting the children at the door with shovels. It’s important to realize that children at the Farm School rarely have to do these jobs. Instead of being coerced, they usually welcome the chance to be useful (we call it the Tom Sawyer principle). If the job itself doesn’t look inviting, a teacher or child stating the need or requesting help is rarely turned down by any child. Built into the day as choices or proposed as a shared activity at the beginning of the day, such activities become springboards for play and discovery in the remaining time that the children are together. Tools are essential A commitment to Big Jobs involves obtaining child-size tools and equipment. At a minimum, hang several brooms on low pegs in the classroom, with one or two dustpans that children can reach. Provide assorted sponges for cleaning and several plastic ice cream containers for moving sand or water. Outdoor tools should be real ones, albeit child size. They can be found in the garden sections of building or discount centers. These stores often sell children’s plastic leaf rakes and sturdy plastic snow shovels in season, as well as metal garden rakes and shovels. Children should always be supervised when using tools, knives, or hammers. Safety concerns can be addressed by starting a task with small groups and instructing children on the care and safe handling of the tools. When presented with a real job for a tool, such as digging a hole, children have little interest in random or dangerous play. Children need a clearly stated place to put tools when finished. A crate on a wagon works for us in the garden. Together the children work to pull the crate back to the tool shed, where each tool has an assigned box for easy sorting. When teachers start looking around their classrooms, they will come up with more ideas for Big Jobs. Plan Big Jobs daily, but also be on the alert for some that just happen, like that puddle in the parking lot that needed to be tended to. The Children’s Farm School experience has shown the benefits of Big Jobs to young children as we work to meet their needs in an age-appropriate learning environment.       Children working together on Big Jobs know they are making a difference.   1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6

 

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