When are children ready for school? Many parents are concerned about ‘hot housing’ their children and about ‘too much formal school too soon’. This book (by M Rawson and M Rose) is about the way young children learn and how best they can develop and realise their potential.
“Readable, informative and thought provoking – pushes at the edge of contemporary ideas on readiness in a stimulating way – Ready to Learn is rich with challenging ideas derived from good practice and current research. It is written in a style easily accessible to parents, and has much to offer serious students of education. I welcome this book as an important addition to a vital but somewhat neglected field of study.”
— John Burnett, University of Plymouth
Ready to Learn will help you to decide when your child is ready to take the step from kindergarten to school proper. The key is an imaginative grasp of how children aged 0-6 years learn to play, speak, think and relate between birth and six years of age. Ready to Learn offers parents and professionals useful “maps” for understanding:
The physical, soul and spiritual aspects of child development
How children “grow down” into their bodies
How language and the senses develop
Reading readiness, and the place of computers
Whether boys learn differently from girls; simple tests for school readiness
Checklist for School Readiness
Michael Rose teaches at York Steiner School. Martyn Rawson worked for the UK Steiner Waldorf Schools Fellowship. They both work as advisors in teacher training and have written articles and books on Steiner Waldorf Education.
“Sound points about the risks of making developmentally inappropriate demands, including the headlong rush to get children to read and write ever earlier.” — Jenny Lindon, Nursery World