Bismillahirrahmanirrahim
Assalamualaikum wbt
EXPERIENCE
On 26th
April 2013, a group of students was invited to The Tree House Islamic
Playschool at Signature Park, Kota Damansara. The trip was actually organized
by the lecturers of ELM2263 subject which is our Introduction to the English
Language subject. Our trip was chaperoned by our awesome lecturers, Brother
Nazriq, Madam Adibah and Miss Adilah. The purpose of the trip was to make an
observation on First Language Acquisition (FLA) Process enrolled by the kids in
the playschool. It is the second class trip to the playschool since the other
sections already visited the playschool a week before the second trip. So, the
remaining sections went to the playschool last Friday morning and Alhamdulillah
our second trip to The TreeHouse Islamic Playschool went smoothly.
First and
foremost, the students were selected by their own group mates because there was
only one member out of a group consisted of three members that can join the
class trip. Basically, there were 5 groups in 704 section which is my section and
I was grouped with my lovely classmates, Fany (Siti Farhani) and Fera (Sheera
Shaheera). It was an unplanned decision to put me in the class trip since our
first choice was Fany but she had to step off due to her commitment to other
works. Hence, they chose me to go to the playschool and I guess I should thank
them for giving me this golden opportunity.
On the day
of our class trip, I woke up very early in the morning just to find the most
suitable outfit for the trip and I found one which was my neighbour’s outfit
,so, special thanks to her for lending me her newly bought ‘jubah’ . She bought
the ‘jubah’ in Kelantan and I think it suited me well for the trip but Fany
ended up commenting that I looked dull for the kids. She said that I should
dress up in colorful outfit to attract the kids. I guess my instinct on
dressing did not turn very well on that day. Okay, drop the ‘jubah’ subject.
Next, at 10 o’clock in the morning, my friends and I gathered in front of the
Khadijah Mahallah to listen to our briefing about activities for that day by
Brother Nazriq and we departed about fifteen minutes after the briefing.
Brother Nazriq told us to find our own cab since he only can take three persons
with him in his car.
My friends
and I departed from CFS by a cab but before finding the right cab we faced a
few difficulties when some of the cabs that day resisted from taking us to the
playschool but we managed to get the good one. The journey took about 15minutes
and we reached playschool at 11 o’clock. Our arrival was greeted by Madam
Muntaza who is the principal of the TreeHouse Playschool. She is the nicest
principal I have ever met. She insisted to call her Aunty Mun instead of Madam
Muntaza. Furthermore, she brief on the activities in her playschool and explained
that the playschool combines Montessori, Waldorf and Reggio teaching methods.
She also introduced the group of kids whom learn in the playschool.
There are
three groups of kids which are Baby(BB) Khalifah, Little(Lil) Khalifah and
Junior(Jr) Khalifah. The BB Khalifah are children from 18 months to 36 months
old and are confined in special area. They are not encourage to mix with other
older khalifah since they are still young and need more supervision compared to
others. Whereas the Lil Khalifah are children from 3 to 4 years old which were
born on 2009 and 2010. The next group is the Jr Khalifah which are children
whom born on 2007 and 2008. Hence, they are 5 and 6 years old kids. There are
small in number of children since the playschool just operates for several
months. So, most of the children will get full attention by the teachers.
We were very
eager to start our task and got along with the kids. Therefore, from the point
we entered the playschool, we started to take pictures and amazed by everything
in the playschool. I think it was the prettiest playschool I have ever visited.
I was mesmerized by the warm environment promoted in the playschool. The
teachers promoted conducive and comfy place for the kids to grow up.
Before we
were given a chance to meet and mix with the kids, Aunty Mun firstly advised us
to use our inside voice while communicating with the kids so that they will
feel ease to interact with us and told us to not rush in making communication
with them because some of the kids hardly got along well with strangers. To be
frank, I felt very nervous on that day since I am not the so-called-kids-lover
but I attempted to draw out my nervous after getting to know the kids. They
were not bad yet AWESOME!!
My friends
and I got a chance to accompany the kids during breakfast, playing, reciting
Quran and nap session. During breakfast, the kids were making so much noise and
talking with each other non-stop so I decided to have a talk with them and
thankfully they responded to me. They will say their names and their ages and
ended up explaining everything about their day in the playschool. They were
friendly much I guess.
After taking
their breakfast, we were responsible to be their Iqra’ teachers for the Jr
Khalifah. I got a chance to be Shahim’s teacher. Shahim is a 5-year-old boy. I
taught him to recite the Iqra’ though he was already good at it. He talked so
well and told me about his family, friends, his likes and dislikes. He is such
an adorable, charming and handsome Jr. Khalifah. I miss that boy. LOL
Next, after
having a session with Lil and Jr. Khalifah I decided to step into the BB Khalifah
area. Most of the caliph are still in
diapers (IDK why I am explaining this). Most of them were hardly to get along
very well but if you spend a time playing and treating them nicely then they
will fall for you. BB Khalifah still need an extra care. Hence, the teachers will
feed and bathe them since they still cannot do it on their own. Therefore, I
spent my time just playing with the BB Khalifah and helping the teachers
managed the babies. I used to take care of my little sister back then so I was
quite good at putting on their clothes and feeding them. LOL
It was
already late after hours spending time with them. Some of the children were
already finished their school hours which ended at 12pm. So, the remaining
children whom finished their school at 3pm will take their lunch and bath.
After that, they will be asked to take a short nap around 1pm. Consider that
the kids wanted to rest, my friends and I decided to go back to our mahallah. I
bid the kids farewell and there was one cute boy, Muhammad , secretly told me
that he wanted to follow me back to mahallah and begged me not to leave yet. I
guess I was not so bad with the kids. =)
Before we
left, we were given some refreshments from the teachers and thanked them for
willing to have us in their tree house. Then, we went back to CFS by a cab and
arrived at mahallah around 3pm. My friends and I spent RM30.50 for the cab fare
which irritated me most. Aside from turning broke that day, I felt like losing
my legs since we took a really long walk just to find a cab to go back. I bet
all of us slept like a log right after we reached mahallah. However, it was an
unforgettable memory to just spend a day in the playschool. I don’t think that
I would ever spend another day of my life in a kindergarten again if it was not
for this class trip.
OBSERVATION
The main
purpose of the trip was to observe the Language Acquisition Process enrolled by
the kids. Basically the kids are still at an early age so they are still under
the First Language Acquisition Process which a process where one acquires
language by some form of interaction during the critical period with an input
of an adults or in other words, they are able to learn language with an
exposure from the adults.
From what we
have learned during the previous ELM2263 classes, based on Eric Lenneberg, he
mentioned that during the critical period a child manages to absorb anything
from the environment at an age from 0 to 7 or 8 years old yet they tend to
absorb lesser as they grow up. So the roles of parents and teachers during that
age are vital in order to shape them into a great caliph in this world on this
earth.
At The
TreeHouse Islamic Playschool, I observed that all the kids can communicate in
English language as for the Lil and Jr Khalifah. The English language seems to
be the main medium for them to communicate with each other. Lil and Jr Khalifah
are children from 3 to 4 years old and 5 to 6 years old respectively. I asked a
few kids if they use English at home but denied it and insisted that their
parents only use Malay whenever at home but still they are good in English
because they are already exposed to the foreign language as they go to school every
day and spend most of their day in the school playing and interact with other
friends and teachers mostly in English language.
As for the
BB Khalifah, most of the babies can utter a simple word since majority of them
are only 18 to 36 months old. Besides, some of them only pointed or draw out
body gestures in order to voice out something. Similarly, from what we have
learned in previous ELM2263 chapters, the kids at that age only established the
last three stages which are the Two-Word Stage, the Early-Multiword Stage and
the Later-Multiword stage.
The other
beautiful thing that mesmerized me during the class trip to the playschool is
their warm environment. The playschool promoted beautiful premise and awesome
play-learn facilities for the kids as the environment is also another vital
thing in the development of children. Based on Dr. Maria Montessori, a prepared
environment is important in education of children.
For your
information, the playschool also applied the Montessori environment as a part
of the syllabus in daily learning. The philosophy at The TreeHouse share
inspirations from the Waldorf, Montessori and Reggio Emilia (project-based)
approach and any other early childhood discipline which promotes the importance
of a holistic, child directed, experienced based learning that enhances the
development of the whole child. Furthermore, the playschool still remained the
Islamic aspects as they created a Khalifah-inspired environment from a
combination of Islamic Waldorf and Islamic Montessori.
Montessori
Theory
In the
Montessori Theory, there are principles that can be applied across all ages. Those
principles are:
Independence, Observation, Following the Child, Correcting the Child, Prepared
Environment and Absorbent Mind. It is within these concepts we find
the reasoning behind why things such as the Montessori environment is quite
useful in The TreeHouse Islamic Playschool.
Independence
"Never
help a child with a task at which he feels he can succeed." – Maria
Montessori.
Well, at the
playschool, most of the children do things on their own as the kids will take
their dirty plates after having their meals and wash their own dishes as the
teachers believe that if the kids are able to do things for themselves, there
will be an increase in their self-confidence and probably the kids will become
more independent in the future.
Correcting the child
“Children
will make mistakes and we need to teach them in a nice manner. Giving the
children freedom and choice, supporting them in their choice by making sure
they are safe, feeding their inquiring minds in a way that they can understand
and observing their needs and fulfilling these can be the key to helping your
children develop their full potential.”- Montessori
I do think
that this principle is the most important principle out of all principles
because it is the best way to teach children to learn from their previous
mistakes. Correcting children may result in them being scared of repeating the
same mistakes. At the playschool, whenever the kids commit mistakes the
teachers will scold them softly without any need to raise their voices. For
example, if a child spoke harshly with one another then the teachers will ask
them to speak nicely and mannerly. Instead of ‘Hey, pass me the cereals!’, the
teachers will ask the kids to say ‘Fadhlan, can you pass me the cereals’. And
they are trained to say thank you in every action they have done.
Prepared Environment
The
environment must be comfy for the kids to work. Dr. Montessori insisted the
word ‘work’ instead of play because every activity the child does is creating
themselves and exploring the world freely.
I bet the TreeHouse Playschool is the first playschool ever that truly
applied the Montessori environment since I can see that the kids in the
playschool really feel comfortable playing and learning in that kind of
environment.
Absorbent Mind
‘Montessori
observed how children learned the language without anyone teaching them. This
sparked her idea for the "absorbent mind". Children under the age of
three, do not need to have lessons in order to learn, they simply absorb
everything in the environment by experiencing it, being part of it. It is therefore
important that the environment set up is good, nice and positive since this is
what the child will absorb whether he chooses to or not. The language of the
adult is one that a child will easily pick up.’- Montessori
So, the
adults have to be careful with their speech so that the kids may not pick up
something negative. That is why, at the playschool, the teachers are really
keen in promoting the English language among all the children as they know that
this is the language that the children will pick up and ended up mastering them
since they will absorb or imitate anything from the adults.
In a
nutshell, kids at that age have a sponge-like brain as for Eric Lenneberg, he
uses the elasticity concept such that a rubber will stay elastic at the very
first beginning but it will become loose as we continuously pull it. Similarly,
the kids tend to absorb everything from the environment at an early age but as
they grow up they will become less elastic and their learning ability started
to become poor compared from earlier years.
I guess the
Montessori theory is an acceptable method in the development of children.
Besides, the First Language Acquisition Process during the critical period is
quite important to enhance the communication skills among the children.
REFLECTION
This class
trip actually was the hardest assignment ever for me because apart from
spending a wonderful day with the kids I ought to do it in a blog post and
conclude my observation on that day into an essay. This assignment actually
carried 10 marks for my upcoming final exams so it was a huge burden for me to
succeed in this assignment and not to let my groupmates disappointed.
I found this
kind of assignment gave me a lot of new experiences that I would never
encounter in any other subjects. Apart from wasting our precious RM30.50 to the
cabs, it was a fun and enjoyable trip because I got a chance to know the kids
and spent more precious time with them. It was a priceless memory.
Even though
it was hard for me at first because some of the kids were hardly can
communicate well and they refused to interact with some new strangers in their
life. Hence, we must be very patient and keep treating them nicely so that they
will feel free to communicate and mix with us.
I realized
that kids are easy to shape. They will follow whatever the adults do. So, it is
important to give and show good examples for the kids. We can shape them to
become good and educated caliphs that will make better change for everyone by
exposing a nice and conducive environment. Hence, the inputs and roles of an
adult are vital during the development of the kids.
Al-Bukhari
as follows: Every child is born on
Fitrah, then his parents make him a Jew, a Christian, or a Magian just as the
animal produces its baby with perfect limbs. Do you see any deficiency in its
shape?
This means
that every person is naturally disposed to believe in Islam but it has to be
taught by the actions of every parent.
As can be
seen, all the kids in the playschool use English language as a medium to
communicate with each
other and it really surprises me since I only can speak
in English as I entered the primary school. The teachers in the playschool use
English to communicate with the kids so they tend to use English because they
already exposed to that foreign language. Thus, an exposure to the English
language at an early age is crucial to enhance the kids to speak in English.
This
trip makes me realize that in order to have a good command in English language,
it has to start from an early stage. Children at that age will absorb every
input from the adults so it makes me realize that in order to shape a child
into a good caliph it has to do with correcting our
attitudes first before we start asking them to do so.
written by,
Nur Fareena Eleesha Azmi (fera)
123621
edited by,
Siti Farhani Muhammad Fisal (fany)
125670
credit by,
Sheera Shaheera Abg Mansor (fera)
124828
long live...
The Tri0Fss
^_^
