Importance of Early Childhood Education
The children of today are the adult citizens of tomorrow. Building a brighter future is only possible with a more personalised education system. Yet there is so much to do to improve the awareness on the importance of early childhood education.
According to Pearson, 57 million children do not have any idea about what it's like to be in a classroom. Millions more are getting an education, but not learning effectively.
Early Childhood Research & Practice (ECRP) covers topics related to the development, care, and education of children from birth to approximately the age of 8 years old.
Early Childhood and Parenting (ECAP) Collaborative emphasizes articles reporting on practice-related research and development, and on issues related to practice, parent participation, and policy.
The Importance of Technology in Education
Although many educators still resist using new technologies instead of the traditional methods of teaching, it should be accepted that technology has the potential to carry numerous benefits into the classroom.
University of the People summarises the importance of technology in education into 7 headlines, claiming that it:
- Simplifies access to educational resources
- Improves the learning experience
- Allows students to learn at their own pace
- Improves research skills
- Supports reasoning skills
- Improves self-confidence by helping students acquire new tools
- Breaks down the barriers to education
Besides the benefits that technology provides for students, it is also a precious source for educators. Webanywhere gives great examples of virtual lesson plans, learning environments, grading software, online assessment, educational apps, and more.
Research also proves that children learn better through play!
Technological developments in the name of EdTech, like MentalUP, are great resources that support kids’ learning and cognitive skills.
MentalUP is a scientific educational brain games app, designed by academicians and pedagogues, especially for children. The app first determines the weak and strong brain activities with gamified tests to help the kids improve their skills with daily fun exercises.
MentalUP has all kinds of games that support different parts of the brain like visual games, memory games, attention games, math games, and many more! It’s a greatly beneficial technological resource for both kids and their parents to turn their leisure time into fun learning activities that also support school performance.
MentalUP Educational Games: Try Now
The Importance of Physical Education
According to educationandbehavior.com and many other scientific studies, physical education is as important as schoolwork because it is an essential part of healthy living.
The American Academy of Pediatrics (APA) analysed 26 individual students in December 2017, examining the impact of physical activity on academic performance and/or classroom behaviour. The results implied that if schools increase students’ physical activity, they can significantly improve academic achievement and classroom behaviour.
Here are some other positive effects that prove the importance of physical education, especially for children:
- Supports healthy growth and development
- Decreases depression and boredom
- Enhances focusing and concentration
- Regulates sleeping hours and quality
- Improves flexibility and happiness
The Importance of Music Education
Whether you or your child has a talent in music or not, learning music facilitates learning other subjects. Having an education in music is as important as any other discipline. Music is known as one of the most universal languages in the world.
Mary Luehrisen, executive director of the National Association of Music Merchants (NAMM) Foundation, explains the importance of music education as follows:
“A music-rich experience for children of singing, listening, and moving is really brought very serious benefits to children as they progress into more formal learning.”
Every young person likes music. But listening to music and having musical education are two different concepts. Various research, like the study at Northwestern University, proves how important music education is. The study shows that students who play a musical instrument have better neural processing compared with the students who simply listen to any kind of music.
Here are some benefits that confirm the importance of music education:
- Music is a great way to connect with other people.
- Music improves brain development and increases IQ.
- Music teaches children discipline.
- Music reduces stress.
- Music improves spatial-temporal skills.
The Role of the Family in Education
Studies show very clearly that 65% of the children's personality development is in the 0-6 age range. This research re-emphasizes the importance of the family in the child's personality development!
What Kind of Effects Does the Family Have on Children?
In the preschool period, the education and interest of the child from the family is of high importance. The positive attitudes of the family in the 0-6-year-old preschool (kindergarten) period and the conscious raising of their children turn into sustainable success in the school period.
On the contrary, it is known that children with problems have failed in school life. Children with personality and behaviour disorders can have adaptation problems when they start school.
We have created two different titles to understand the better subject and to help each parent do its part. These topics are:
- Common Mistakes in Family Education
- Family Education and Attitudes Needed for Raising a Good Child
When we examine these topics, we will contribute to both our own education and the education of our children.
Even if you have mastered a great deal of what is described in this article, you can take advantage of a single sentence and update yourself. As we said at the beginning: Education is a life-long process. Now let's take the two important titles above:
1. Common Mistakes in Family Education
We recently shared the following in our social media account:
Even though Halil CIBRAN's statement summarizes the whole issue, let us make a little reminder.
One of the most common mistakes made by parents is that they do not treat their children as individuals. Not accepting children as individuals can also cause parents to find their children’s behaviours strange and wrong even if they are not.
In this case, the child is not his/her character; we try to win the character of ourselves. In this case, what we do is to personalize our children with our characters, not their personal characters.
Moreover, we interpret this as a kind of education. Such an educational method will have a negative impact on academic life as it may lead to personality problems in the child. Beware, not to interfere with misconduct; emphasizes the need to avoid unnecessary interventions.
- Being overly anxious and seeing the outside world as a complete threat for the child adversely affect the social development of the child. In particular, preventing the socialization of the child by thinking that the circle of friends will be harmed (obstacles restricting the size of the child) may cause the child to become a nerdy person.
- Parents, who have not been able to fulfil their dreams, wish their children to achieve those dreams and this is a huge mistake in itself. Each individual has its own characteristics and interests. Children are individuals and their interests should be explored and healthy directions should be made.
- It is also not right to leave indifferent, to show lack of affection and to leave everything under control of the child. Parents should check whether their children are fulfilling their responsibilities.
- It is not correct to compare children with friends/peers. If a comparison is to be made, the development of the child should be done to assess whether everything is in order. The benchmarking should not be based on a person but on the general peers.
- Finally, it is one of the biggest mistakes that the family members do not question themselves in failures.
2. Family Education and Attitudes
While describing the mistakes above, we also mentioned about what is the correct thing to do against these mistakes. Apart from these, we have also shared below the new subjects that indicate the prevalence of the family in the education of the child and what needs to be done.
- Children's psychosocial development should be followed and informed. According to Erickson's psychosocial development theory, each age has developmental goals and developmental conflicts. Erickson, who divides human life into 8 phases in terms of psychosocial development, argues that the conflicts must be successfully resolved in each phase.
- The child should be able to live his childhood. The approaches like “You are a grown-up now, you are a man and you are not a child!” are not educational, but they are frustrating. Children should play, move, make small clumsiness, touch the stone to the soil, dirty the head and live their childhood.
Children's desire to spend time with smart technologies is not a concern that requires an interest in games on computers, tablets or smartphones. Families should be conscious and careful about this. It is the right approach to allow them to use it for a certain period of time (instead of banning).
In addition, special software is being developed to help the families in this regard. The most important of these is the Award-Winning MentalUP Educational Games.
MentalUP Educational Intelligence Games provide children with daily brain exercises that they can use for a certain period of time. Since these exercises are designed entirely in the form of games, they attract children and are not considered as an additional responsibility by the child.
In this way, the child develops his mental skills while thinking that he is playing games. Along with your child's attention and memory level, it gives important clues about the potential of visual-verbal-digital intelligence.
- The importance or role of the family in the development of the child is not limited to the practices on the child. Providing a peaceful family environment to the child significantly affects both educational life and personality development. It is necessary not to argue with the child or to exert physical or emotional violence.
- We need to share an article on the importance of communication in the development of the child. The more developed the ability of family members to understand each other, to interpret their behaviours, to perceive their wishes and expectations, the more the communication ability of the child will develop. Communication skills are not only in academic education; is an important skill that gives an individual an advantage in every aspect of life.
Importance of Education Quotes
Now that we have gone through many topics related to the importance of education, let’s take a look at the words of successful people who have provided many benefits to the world.
Importance of After School Learning and Self-Improvement in Kids
Understanding the importance of education is the ultimate key for parents to guide their kids to success. Children, who will become the adults of tomorrow, can only have a healthy and balanced future life if they are supported with knowledge.
However, education is not a single concept. It can be successful only if it is supported by other educational components and tools. In the digital era, technology is a great resource to provide these tools for both students and educators. Thus, parents should be aware of the assets of technology and they should teach their children how to use it in a beneficial way.