I am a firm believer in a thematic learning approach for children, which is a way of integrating different areas of the curriculum within a common theme. Hence, I purposely selected a preschool for the Bees which utilises a thematic approach, and I also structure my homelearning activities within a theme.
A thematic learning approach allows learning to be more holistic and intuitive, versus a fragmented subject area approach. I also find that it allows different concepts and thinking skills to be linked and thereby developed progressively, as the activities are reinforced within a singular theme. This interdisciplinary approach is highly critical in enabling our children to develop creative problem solving skills utilising multifarious approaches.
And if we allow our children to decide on the theme, it allows participative learning, thereby leading to more fun and engagement when learning. More importantly, it imbues empowerment in our children, motivating them to be proactive individuals. It is also very entertaining to see what fantastic ideas they dream of, and oftentimes, you will notice that most of their suggested themes are always closely linked to the previous theme, which indicates a strong correlated learning outcome.
We are in between learning themes now, after indulging in our Forest Animals activities for 2 long months (and still pending a half-finished forest diorama!). This afternoon, the Bees and I just brainstormed for our next theme - they were suggesting all sorts of things that were related to our previous Forest Animals theme as well as older themes, and I am very pleased with that, as it indicates how indelible each theme was ingrained in their minds.
Little Bee suggested "trees", "flying animals like birds", "safari animals".
Big Bee suggested "farm animals" which Little Bee immediately liked as she had been bugging me to do a certain pig craft for a long time.
Hence, with unanimous agreement all round (including mine, the ultimate lesson planner!), we arrived at our next theme: Farm Animals!
4 comments:
ARGH! I agree with you. That's why I want to quickly finish the alphabets so we can move on to themes! I just couldn't stop halfway through.
Anyway, they still have lotsss of time for homelearning. So it's ok. But I better not drag each letter for too long. hehe
K: There are strengths in learning the alphabets as well! Lots of fun activities, and it could also be thematic! Eg Forest animals = D for Deer and Duck, which was what we did in this theme (ok, duck is pushing it a bit, haha, but I was trying to teach d to Little Bee as she always confused it with b!).
Your girls are lucky to have you as the devoted mum. :>
I think thematic learning is definitely the method that most schools are moving towards, if they are not already adopting it. But the truly beneficial approach, I think, should be interdisciplinary thematic approach (I shared more here http://fromtinyacorns.wordpress.com/2009/10/28/about-transdisciplinary-thematic-learning/).
The advantages as mentioned in the URL are clear. The implementation is the hard part, I think, which is also what is lacking in majority, if not all, of the free resources on the Internet.
Domesticgoddess: I truly agree with you. Having had some experience in interdisciplinary approaches in higher education, and feeling gratified that our local universities have options in interdisciplinary, versus multidisplinary approaches, I still feel that our primary and secondary schools are not doing enough in terms of interdisciplinary learning. Their fragmented approach and a drive towards academic excellence is sometimes very draining for the children indeed...
And by the way, I am so impressed by your teaching methods and outcomes, and am so glad you had passed on such a great pedagogy to other children and your own kids as well! I do agree with you that interdisciplinary thematic learning is very hard to implement.
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