Essay on Developing Children: Maximizing Their Potential Through Learning

Introduction

The development of children is one of the most important activities that should be given maximum attention. When children are taken through the right practices, they will be able to develop effectively. Learning is an important part of the development process as the children can learn new skills that will help them in their future life. Therefore, when children are young, they need to be taken through various activities to improve their skills as well as knowledge (Trevarthen, Delafield-Butt & Dunlop, 2018). In this case, the main play activity plan that the children will be taken through is based on food, and that is the preparation of the multicoloured cheese toasties. The main aim of this activity is to ensure that the children can understand different colours that they will use to prepare the meal. The main focus group of this activity are mainly the children who are aged between 5-6 years old.

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Reasons for Choosing the Activity

Selecting different activities for children is influenced by various reasons. In most cases, these reasons are aimed at helping them to gain the needed skills so that in the future, they may be able to complete these activities on their own (Moore, 2017). Selecting of the preparation of the multicoloured cheeses toasties activity was influenced by various factors. One of the reasons for selecting this activity is that it helps the child to develop self-esteem. Self-esteem refers to the ability of a person to understand his or her personal value as well as self-worth. Therefore, taking part in this activity will help the children to develop self-worth in the sense that one will be able to know that h or she can cook. Moreover, this activity will instill high self-esteem among the children in the sense that they develop the confidence to cook other meals since they have managed this one. When the child cooks the meal, and it comes out as it was expected, they will develop self-confidence. In this case, the children will believe that they can do anything which will turn out to be successful.

The second reason as to why this activity was select for the children was that it promotes a healthy meal. Such meals are detrimental to the development of these children as it may affect their brain development (Bruce, McNair, & Whinnett, 2020). Therefore, as the children learn to prepare multicoloured cheese toasties, various ingredients will be used to prepare the food. In this case, the children will be taught the benefit that each of these ingredients will have on their bodies. As the children understand the benefit of the products that they are consuming, they will develop the desire to develop more of these products. In the long run, the health of these children will be improved, and they will have proper development.

The third reason for choosing this activity is that it will help the children learn how to name the colours in various languages. This activity involves the preparation of a meal, and that is the multicoloured cheese toasties. In this case, various colours will have to be used so that the final product will have various colours. In the process of developing the food, the children will learn the colours that they have used to prepare. Each of the students is expected to name these colours as they are preparing the meal while using different languages. This approach ensures that children can be able to comprehend the type of colours in different languages.

Conclusion

In this case, there are certain theories that have come up and develop certain theories that relate to child development. In relation to the play activity plan that is to be carried out in this scenario, the main theorist associated with it is Tina Bruce (Keenan, Evans & Crowley, 2016). Tine Bruce is well known for the theory in the area of play-based learning as well as the early development of children. In this theory, Tina Bruce explains that through various play activities, the ability of the children is transformed so that they can function beyond their current capabilities (Bruce, 2019). Moreover, the play activities that the children are taken through will help them to understand various situations (Pound, 2017). Therefore, as the children grow up, they will encounter various situations that will help them to be able to develop solutions to various issues. The preparation of the multi-colored cheese toasties will be an important activity for children in the sense that they will learn to control themselves. The preparation of this meal teaches the children to be able to control the ingredients that they are using so that the final product will be balanced (Delafield-Butt & Dunlop, 2018). This activity then helps the children to develop a sense of control even of their actions. Therefore, most of them will be able to control themselves so that they can do the right thing. Another perspective that this theorist has developed based on this play activity plan is that children are able to learn first hand (Chaplin et al., 2016). When children learn something through the first-hand experience, it will not be hard for them to forget.

References

Bruce, T. (2019). Educating Young Children: A Lifetime Journey into a Froebelian Approach:The Selected Works of Tina Bruce. Routledge.

Bruce, T., McNair, L., & Whinnett, J. (Eds.). (2020). Putting Storytelling at the Heart of EarlyChildhood Practice: A Reflective Guide for Early Years Practitioners. Routledge.

Chaplin, L., Lowrey, T., Ruvio, A., Shrum, L. J., & Vohs, K. (2016). How Do Children DeriveHappiness From Past Experiences? Developmental, Experimental, and LongitudinalEvidence. ACR North American Advances.http://www.acrwebsite.org/volumes/v44/acr_vol44_1022361.pdf

Delafield-Butt, J., & Dunlop, A. W. (Eds.). (2018). The Child's Curriculum: Cherishing theNatural Talents of Young Children and Allowing Learning to Flourish. OxfordUniversity Press, USA.

Keenan, T., Evans, S., & Crowley, K. (2016). An introduction to child development. Sage.

Moore, R. C. (2017). Childhood's domain: Play and place in child development (Vol. 6).Routledge.

Pound, L. (2017). How Children Learn-Book 3: Contemporary Thinking and Theorists (Vol. 3).Andrews UK Limited.

Trevarthen, C., Delafield-Butt, J., & Dunlop, A. W. (Eds.). (2018). The Child's Curriculum:Working with the natural values of young children. Oxford University Press.