We often think of young children as lacking patience or perspective, but that's usually because WE have a plan or expectation for the child. When young children are given time to fully follow their interests though, these assumptions are quickly proven false. Case in point : This 3 year old Treeschooler became really interested when his teacher found some exo-skeletons during a bio break & shared her discovery during snack. He then spent over an hour, hyper-focused & alert, crouching & moving carefully beneath all the scrubby, prickly Junipers & Piñons, collecting as many as he could find. By closing circle he had collected 114, almost single-handedly!
And....he had opportunities to count, sort & estimate (Math skills); wonder & talk about bugs, especially dead bugs with a new name "exo-skeleton" (Science & Language/Communication); show care for the exo-skeltons by picking them up carefully (Social-emotional skills: Developing Compassion; Fine Motor skills); move his body in new & interesting ways across uneven terrain with lots of navigating potential risks (i.e. pokey dead Juniper branches at eye-level) & experience the feeling of pride at his mighty accomplishment (Gross Motor; Social-Emotional: Sense of Self). All of this learning took place while this child was in a state of joy & flow, because he was choosing to do it.
There is no ready-made, teacher-led, academic curriculum that could even compete with this level of learning & mastery!
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