Shapes Reflection: Worksheet Dilemma - Benefits of Play-Based Curricula

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Three things I want to remember are:

1) In order for early learners to acquire knowledge about letters and numbers, they have to make sense of what they are learning through tangible activities that are relevant to their life.
2) Mere recognition of letters and numbers doesn’t necessarily mean that students have learned and understood the concepts.
3) Asking early learners to sit still for a long period of time to do paper & pencil work is an unreasonable task that’s incompatible to their developmental needs and abilities.

One thing that “squares” with my beliefs is:

I agree that engaging early learners in play-based activities such as stringing beads and setting up lunch tables would enhance their learning, because this approach shows students that learning is not a “task”, but a fun, on-going and spontaneous process that helps them make sense of the world. I agree that before understanding the meaning of “four” in real, tangible contexts, circling the number on a worksheet is merely a task to show parents that their kids are learning numbers.

Things that are rolling around in my head are:

At my preschool center, I send students home with homework on Fridays. I like to design homework that’s interactive. For example, I was teaching them about size. I printed out a page with circles in different sizes, and the instruction was to colour the circles, cut them out, and then arrange them from smallest to largest and glue them onto the given construction paper. Only one child returned on Monday with the work completed.

I believe that it’s important for the parents to reinforce concepts that are learned at school with their child, but parents usually find it easier if the homework is in the form of worksheets. I don’t want to embed in the children’s mind that “homework is boring” when they’re only 3 years old! Is it a good practice to send them home with homework? How can we get parents to be more involved in engaging their children to learn in ways that are compatible with what teachers do in the classroom?