Play way matters

Playway Matters for Your Child
No mother will deny; having a baby is one of the most beautiful experiences. Watching him grow and develop is another. For a child, first experience of the external world is mother herself. Next come the father, the family and home. School exposes him to the world outside home, whereby his first socialization ensues, first formal lessons happen and first interests take form. Moving straight from home to school can prove traumatizing for the child, if not prepared for. This is where playway schools come in - to bridge the gap.
Colourful, cozy and comfortable – that is how an ideal playway school should be spelled out, for it’s the first time that the child will stay away from parents. Unless he enjoys this experience, full-time school will become all the more difficult. Here are few of the things a child experiences in a playway for ‘the first time’:
1. Become a part of a formal set-up and exhibit some sort of regularity, but without strict discipline.
2. Interact with his own-age people and spend time with them, instead of just the parents.
3. Become better aware of his needs, instead of having mother take care of everything.
4. Learn to appreciate others, have his talents noticed, and develop self-confidence.
5. Learn to ‘learn’, by way of games, activities and fun books.
Preparing for Playway
Even for playway, the child needs to get prepared beforehand, more by technique than by words. Says Madhuri, mother of three, “I prepared my kids for playway by taking them for visits to the intended playschool twice, before they joined it formally. Also, I made them meet children elder to them by two or three years; they talked about playschool in very upbeat manner. This exercise helped present the idea of playway as ‘fun’ rather than ‘compulsion’.
The growth of a child up to the age of six years is phenomenal. In the earlier years, learning happens largely through sensory perception. Every event contributes towards his future behaviour patterns. Motor and coordination skills build up accordingly. A child has a very "absorbent mind", registering and learning constantly. Hence, the emphasis should be on teaching by example instead of words.
Selection Guidelines
Selecting an appropriate playway school is a demanding job. Don’t go just by the reputation; see if the place meets your child’s needs. Here are some of the desired features:
1. Bright, colourful and cheerful atmosphere.
2. Big, open and well-lit rooms.
3. Friendly, smiling and confident teachers.
4. Low teacher-student ratio.
5. Safety, in terms of no risky objects like glassware, sharp pointed things or unprotected balconies.
6. Lot of games and activities to keep children busy and provide with variety.
7. Suitable equipment
8. Sufficient first-aid provision and medical care.
9. Well-behaved and affectionate maids.
Priya, an architecture scholar, highlights the importance of architectural features like low furniture, more of curvaceous shapes as they promote a sense of belongingness, no sharp edges, and a small space allocated to each child as his own domain.
Ideal Teachers
Teachers greatly contribute to a child’s development. That is how everyone has vivid recollections of one’s primary school teachers. So, meet them personally and see if they reflect a genuine interest in children. At playway level, energetic and encouraging teachers are the ideal ones. They should be sensitive to the child, the way he learns, his natural talents and intelligence, the preferred learning style and the kind of pressures that seem to be subtly destructive of the child's essential well being. However, don’t be tempted to interfere in whatever the teachers do; dealing with a bigger number of children, these teachers know how to balance toughness with gentleness in a practical manner.
Role of Playway School
Ms. Sangeet Growar, principal of Eurokidz, an upcoming playway school, emphasizes that playway schools facilitate the child’s journey from home to school. At home, a child gets undivided attention. Hence, suddenly going to a regular school, where teachers manage big classes along with the coursework, and have no time for individual tantrums, can be shocking for the child. A playschool acts as a mediator by ensuring enough personalized care towards each kid, and, at the same time, making him understand the value of letting others have their share.
Says Ms. Sangeet, “The child begins by attending playway classes for only one hour per day so that s/he gets acquainted with the atmosphere. If a need is felt, we allow the parent to stay with the child in these classes. Slowly, as the kid feels more comfortable, the class hours are increased, and the parent asked to leave. Afterall, the first aim of playway is to make the child comfortable with the absence of parents. “
She further adds that playway experience teaches the kid how to learn by way of doing i.e. at this early age itself he begins to have a practical approach and develop a result-oriented personality. Under recognized boards, nursery standard coursework is too vast to allow any time for this.
The function of a playway school is to provide various experiences - sensorial, language, musical, pattern recognition, numbers etc. and let the child learn without compulsion and with minimum of force. Materials and opportunities are provided, through which children develop their perception and skills. It helps them acquire a basic sense of order, rhythm and boundaries through simple rules of work and play.
Following are some of the additional features that help translate these principles into practice:
• Methods which focus on interaction, expression and learning through play and fun.
• Singing and dancing activities
• Arts and crafts integrated with basic language and number-work learning.
• Workshops for parents on parenting, life skills building, foundation for responsibility, emotional intelligence, creativity, developmental stages of the child, learning styles etc.
Montessori Method
Playway schools are increasingly adopting ‘Montessori teaching method’. It emphasizes the uniqueness of each child in the way he develops and thinks, learns and acts. It recognizes that they aren't just "adults in small bodies" who can be mechanically fed with information; they are individuals with unique needs, strengths and weaknesses. Hence the general methods of reward & punishment, and quantitative analysis of performance is getting replaced by qualitative analysis and grade system. Montessori believes that children learn at different rates. Deficiencies in one area are treated as points to work on, not as failures.
We need to realize that academic rigour is not the same as intellectual rigour. Academic rigour requires ability to do tests and other school exercises well, following instructions correctly, conform to procedures and behaviour as per set standards etc; In contrast, intellectual rigour refers to qualities of the mind, its search not only for knowledge but of ways of living with wisdom, concern for seeking and solving problems and so on. The latter form of learning begins at home, gets nourished in the playway school, and is sustained through school years. The former type of learning gets taken care of by itself, as the child matures.
Aarti shares, “I was very scared of sending my shy little Poonam to playway. But as time passed, her inhibitions fell off and she intermingled with her classmates. I feel that this gave her self-confidence. Now I am not so scared of getting her admitted to a regular school. She’ll do well.”
An ideal playway school should be able to make all parents say the same.