Wellbeing and Education: A Landscape in Transformation
In recent years, there has been a new phenomenon in preschool (EY) that seems to go against what we know is developmentally appropriate for young children and the research on how children learn before 8 years old. We are seeing 3 and 4-year-olds learn sight words as young as three and start writing when the small tendons and muscles in their hands are not ready for such a task. This is alarming. Especially since there seems to be less time spent on attending to the rest of their development. Children need time to free play outside in all elements, rain, mud, sunshine, and snow. They need to feel the limits of their bodies, crawl, jump, run, climb. They need to have a chance to take risks, make decisions for themselves, have choices, and learn to express their feelings in appropriate ways. For some reason, we are now seeing an increase in children who need very little help from teachers to reach age-appropriate language and math ski...
