What’s Happening at the Farm Lately?
May 18, 2024
The Importance of Nature
May 24, 2024
In no way do we want this to seem like a negative judgement of traditional preschools. That is not our purpose in writing this article.
We do, however, believe there are alternative ways to teach children, and we firmly believe that the more children are allowed to roam “free” and learn by interacting with nature, the better they will be and the more learning will occur.
One of the major drawbacks we hear about traditional preschools is that they are not very flexible in their programs. This in many ways mirrors traditional education at all ages. Lessons are planned to teach a group of children; however, each child is different, each child learns at a specific pace and in a specific way, and one size does not meet all in education.
Traditional preschools are held primarily indoors, leading to the spreading of germs and increased sickness, again a problem with traditional education at all levels. Children learn in the classroom for five, six hours, and are allowed outside, in a healthy environment, for an hour. We happen to believe that ratio is a poor one.
And, finally, a lack of creativity and flexibility will lead to boredom, and rarely does learning happen when the child is bored.
These are not our theories. Educators the world-wide will tell you the same thing. Countless studies will verify what is said in this article: Children need to be stimulated, children need to experience hands-on outside, and children need to have the physical integrated with the mental for meaningful learning to occur.
So says the experts and so says Sequoia’s Treehouse.
