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"If you think education is expensive, try ignorance. " ~ Derek Bok
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If play is the "work" of the child, then the quality of the games that we choose to play with our children is very important.
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Parents should be aware of the following:
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Different regions of a child's brain deal with different abilities.
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All of these 'areas of development' develop simultaneously.
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It's the underdeveloped areas that cause children to under-achieve in school.
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The most effective activities cannot be done in groups:
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One-on-one activities are most effective, but the problem with trying to do one-on-one activities in a school setting, is that the smartest child naturally gives the answers before anyone else even realizes what the questions were. Have a look at the pictures of the little girl playing a math game with her Dad at the top of this page. Imagine how different her experience would have been if her Dad was a teacher trying to play the game with a group of children!
The fact of the matter is that there are certain kinds of experiences that only a parent can give a child. Children whose parents realize this have an unfair advantage.
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With this in mind, parents are no longer content to be unproductive while spending time with their children during the valuable early years. Their goal is to cover every developmental area at every age with activities that are age-appropriate and effective.
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Now imagine yourself in one of the following situations:
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Parents Say:
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Maderi was born on the 22nd of November 2003. We bought the Practica Program when she was about 5 months old.
Our entire family lives together on a farm so we did not put her in a pre-school or playgroup until this year when she went to Grade 0. At that stage I was working from 9 to 3 every day and felt that the time I spent with Maderi needed to be used in the best way possible. I needed to do the right things and Practica really helped me with that!
We didn't purchase any other educational toys, except the odd computer program later on. To tell the truth, except for a doll or something similar, we didn't purchase any other toys; Grandma and Grandad bought most of them. She also knew that the chest of toys was her 'special toys' and she took very good care of them.
I used to make copies of the activities which were appropriate to my child's age at the time, and placed them in another file in the house. I then highlighted the activities which I had already done with her so that when my husband did activities he could easily
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 Deidrè and Maderi de Meyer |
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see which activities our daughter had already done. He used to do the more practical games.
I definitely think this program helped her in an incredible way in all her developmental areas because she is doing wonderfully in Grade 0 and the report that we received after her school readiness test said that she is above average in almost everything.
Growing up on a farm, the biggest adjustment that she is making this year is to get used to the large number of children in her class.
In the end, it wasn't as important to us to have a 'clever' child. We just wanted a balanced child who doesn't struggle at school.
Practica also creates play time opportunities between parent and child. You don't just shove a toy in your child's hand and say "play". As a parent, you definitely learn to understand your child better and you build a special relationship with your child!
Practica was definitely a good investment. The "profit" outweighs the "costs" by far! My husband and I will definitely recommend the Practica Program to every parent out there!
Deidrè de Meyer
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