Young children's needs

Young children's needs

Renee EllisonAug 23, '23

Young children desperately need STRUCTURE, ROUTINE and PREDICTABILITY, all of which are thrown out by homeschool co-ops, weekly or daily shared schooling with other families, and regular groupie things.  Those experiences are the last thing needed by young children.  (These groups sprang up and largely exist for the parents...who desperately want variety and relief from the daily grind.)  Why?  Because sameness in environment, etc., for a child translates to emotional security for that child.

It is in the midst of structure, routine and predictability with only a few key godly adults, generally with parents and/or grandparents, the same ones every day, that a child can relax enough to focus on growing himself.  If the external situations, environments and people he relates to are constantly changing, he exerts so much energy finding equilibrium within that ever-shifting big picture that he cannot grow personally as confidently and as quickly.

This is what is especially wrong with daycare centers.  The staff is transient.  The parent might as well lean down to Johnnie on the first day and say: "Johnnie which part-time, transient staffer do you most want to grow up to be most like?"  And when you watch Johnnie actually playing--he plays with himself.  It is a lie that he needs socialization at that age.  He needs himself, tied to his mother's apron strings, in those early years, a sort of fourth trimester, a continued pregnancy outside the womb for a long while, yet.

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