I fear I've become a curmudgeon

I have been advertising quite a lot for the different programs I offer at Bittersweet Farm LLC. One of those is Pony Phonics, where a child would play games (with the ponies), practice reading (with the ponies), create stories (about the ponies if they like), and do a lot of other types of hands-on reading readiness and support. After teaching children for decades, I have quite a few effective activities that I used with my own children, and which helped them become excellent readers. 

I was thinking today while cleaning stalls (it's an excellent time to think, by the way) about why I think this type of learning is so helpful. I decided it was the sheer physicality of all of these hands-on experiences. Our brains are wired to move through space and to remember the things we do while moving through space. It's why the concept of memory palaces is so effective. It combines movement with ideas. 

Sometimes I listen to a recorded book while I'm cleaning stalls. Even months later, if I am cleaning a particular area, my brain will suddenly start thinking about the story I heard while in that section. It's fascinating how place triggers memories. It is extremely powerful. Remember when H. couldn't read the word 'marble' until she had spent time playing with the toy and getting to know it? Same thing, except this was a physical object. 

So, what are some of the things we did while they were learning to read? Of course, there was the paper and pencil work that comprised our phonics curriculum, but there were other things. We made letter books with pictures cut from magazines, we created our own books from stories the children dictated, we played with metal letters, we drew letters in sand, we wrote with chalk on the sidewalk, we listened to and memorized poems, we read books out loud (I to them and them to me), we made letters out of wikki-sticks, Play-Doh, and whatever else I could come up with, I had games with physical pieces that helped learn letters and sounds, and we labeled things. I'm sure there's more but this is what I can think of off the top of my head. 

What isn't on that list? A computer or screen. Do my high school children use computers and screens to do some of their learning? Yes, but there is a huge difference between a nearly sixteen-year-old and a six-year-old. My teens have years of interacting with the physical world creating a strong base for later, print or screen learning. Putting a six-year-old in front of a screen is like trying to build a tall building without scaffolding. The young child has nothing on which to hang the information. 

What does a young child need to learn? 

1. Physical interaction with their world in as many different ways as possible. 

2. A safe environment where they feel free to try new things without ridicule or impatience for not getting things right the first time. 

3. Connection to their parent or caregiver, whom they know is on their team. 

4. Hearing a lot of complex language in the form of stories read out loud and from conversation. 

They most certainly do not need screens. Online curriculum for a child younger than the teen years is a travesty. It is not surprising to me that so many children have difficulty physically regulating, have rotten fine motor skills (I've now lost track of how many older children I have had to teach to use a buckle), and have depression and anxiety. They are cut off from a physical world, especially the world out of doors, that their brains crave. 

To go back to my advertisement pitch... So yes, interacting with ponies while learning something that can be tricky for some children is exactly something that fills the needs of a growing brain.