“Great ideas are often birthed by doing it in a fun, enthusiastic and motivated environment. Ultimately, the best thing in creativity is just to be yourself enjoying curiosity”, this is the underlying philosophy carried in my home education and in the education courses and programs offered at my center – ‘The Little Makers’.
The programs and syllabus in ‘The Little Makers’ aims at igniting a child’s interest in his / her learning. To us, play is perhaps the greatest setting for learning life skills, social interaction, STEAM knowledge and science integrations. Learning happens best when you’re excited about it. A natural play and stress-free environment is perfect for developing the interest and skills because it pushes the children to always give their best.
We do not model our programs into a structured game or any kind of match where individual or team pitches their skills against one another, over a business course or self-interest. ‘The Little Makers’ has never taken part in competition, that’s just how we choose to run, competition is simply not our end goal.
If I may ask, what does the word ‘competition’ bring to your mind? To put it simply, below are the definitions provided by dictionary.com:
1. The act of competing; rivalry for supremacy, a prize, etc.
2. A contest for some prize, honour, or advantage.
3. (Sociology) Rivalry between two or more persons or groups for an object desired in common, usually resulting in a victor and a loser but not necessarily involving the destruction of the latter.
4. (Ecology) The struggle among organisms, both of the same and of different species, for food, space, and other vital requirements.
Competition can generate unfavourable impacts if it is not handled in a proper context, which may impair a child’s development in the long-term. The way a 7 y/o experiences competition is entirely different, compares to a 15 y/o who has proper reasoning & cognitive to understand what competition means, and how competition can do well for his / her development. ‘The Little Makers’ believes that competitions shall be enjoyed and welcomed in a right context, we urge children interact with and interpret competition only when they are ready. In our centre, we fortify competition with:
1. Use PLAY as a way to reinforce a match
2. Make learning and fun the goal of a match over winning
3. Emphasizing on knowledge sharing + peer learning over winning reward
4. Embrace in cooperative model over a competition model
5. Exhibit change and improvement is a constant that no 1 design win all
6. Let children learn, turn around and teach the knowledge gained to others
We welcome competition that can help in revealing a child’s strengths and allowing them to grow out from their weaknesses. When a child truly understand what a competition is and how they can decide to use it in inspiration way, to others and to themselves, they are prepared to take on any challenges and be ready to serve.
It’s important to have our children associate the word competition with the right emotion and the right attitude, the right shape of belief system, will carry into their adulthood. Ultimately, our education is to inspire the child to have abundance in his / her thinking.
Do connect with us at “The Little Makers” FB https://www.facebook.com/steam.com.my/