Independent activities of children: age, child development, organization, goals and objectives

With the advent of a child’s family, the life of his parents changes dramatically. At each stage of his growing up, they help him develop, teach a new little man life from and to. Entering the first educational institution in its life - a preschool organization, a kindergarten - the child begins to learn the world outside his family, outside the house, separately from his parents. Here, teachers take responsibility for his upbringing. But how is everything going? In what way is the work of educators done? And what role is assigned to the organization of the developing environment for the independent activities of preschool children?

The essence of the educational process

In the educational work of teachers of preschool institutions, planning is considered one of the most important areas in managing the implementation of educational programs. And here the priority is not only the mutual activities of the child and the adult, but also the independent pastime of the baby. What does the concept in DOE include the independent activity of children in middle and older groups?

This phenomenon is absolutely free in relation to the child, but not in relation to the adult, creating the conditions for the so-called safe freedom of children. What does this mean? This means that the teacher determines such an educational subject-developmental environment for children that will ensure their harmless interaction with peers or reflect individual contacts directly in the “child-educator” key. In addition, this is also the activity of the pupils themselves, organized by the teacher and aimed at ensuring that children can solve problems related to the interests of other people. These include assistance to one's neighbor, complicity in solving some problems of their peers, contributing to the well-being of other people, and so on.

Workflow organization

What does the organization of independent activity for children include? Basically, it is determined by the play, motor, productive, cognitive and research work of the baby in the team. As practice shows, the basis for the independent development of a child is its own interest, the so-called internal motive. The motivation here may reflect interest, the need or desire to help someone, as well as the desire to be praised or the desire to meet their own needs. Be that as it may, the internal motive stimulates the child's emotional outburst, uplift, activation of physical strength and thinking. And therefore, we can conclude that in cases where children freely realize their own interests and needs, showing their will, their activity has powerful motivation. Such work is considered emotionally rich and psychologically comfortable: the more fully the children fulfill their needs in their own actions, the more a strong need arises for the desire to interact with others.

It is worth noting that at the time of their active pastime, preschool children are extremely negative about any possible intervention of adults in their personal space. This fact must be accepted and remembered. Based on the sanitary and epidemiological requirements for the organizational process and the content of the work itself in preschool institutions, about three to four hours a day are allocated for independent activity of children of senior groups, at least. During this time, the guys manage to play, get acquainted with the basics of personal hygiene, and prepare for future educational activities. However, this does not mean that children should be left to their own devices. The organization of the child’s independent activities requires the creation of a developing subject-spatial environment, as well as the supervision and care of each member of the group.

The purpose of independent work in a preschool educational institution

Active free activity of babies in existing development centers for children contributes to their independent search and inclusion in the process of specific research, rather than purely obtaining ready-made knowledge from a teacher. Simply put, the meaning of letting the child go on for a while is to encourage him to get into work, to provoke him to action. Given that the game is considered to be the leading activity of the child in preschool age, the educator needs to create a play environment that could provide him with vivid cognitive activity, and this activity should be based on his interests and development directions. The essence of such an experiment is that such a game should develop creative abilities, arouse imagination, activate actions, teach communication and the ability to express their feelings. The correct creation of an environment conducive to development helps to provide the child with the opportunity to act together with peers or individually, which will not impose the obligation of joint activities with the teacher. Here it is necessary to take into account that the teacher can connect to the activities of a group of children only in case of their internecine conflict. That is, if the situation requires intervention, if necessary, the teacher can help one or another baby to join the peer group.

Here it is necessary to take into account another very important point: at preschool age, independent activities of children should always be organized by the educator so that the teacher acts as a participant in this game, and does not show his primacy and priority of his participation. That is, the naturalness of the emotional behavior of the educator, who will accept any plans, suggestions and desires of children, guarantees ease, freedom and ease of work. The child’s enjoyment of this game directly depends on this. Moreover, this form of pastime will contribute to the desire of children to master new gaming methods. And here it is important not to miss the moment when, at a given age in their life, it will be very important for children to feel their independence, the ability to choose their partners, join in groups and, to some extent, not depend on the adult.

Productivity of independent work of children

Against the background of gaming, an equally effective alternative is the productive activity. It is also otherwise called fine, constructive. As well as playing, productive activities can enrich the child's abilities, including his personal development.

What can the educator do for his part? It is in his power to ask a game or productive lesson such a topic that would be relevant and interesting for children right now, at this time. Here it is necessary to set the goals and objectives of educational work that will implement the principle of a comprehensive thematic construction of the educational process. It is in the independent work of children that is quite important. After all, such an activity should not be thoughtless, it should be directed to some kind of targeted orientation, so that it brings results. It’s important for a child to learn this.

The productivity of children's independent work directly depends on how the child achieves his goal, how diligent his attempts are. At the same time, the leader acts only as a guide for him, which, to some extent, directs him in the right direction, but the baby acts exclusively by himself, using his skills, efforts and showing the level of his mental abilities.

Work objectives

Like any other branch of pedagogical work, independent activity organized by teachers in any preschool institution is determined by the achievement of specific goals. What are these goals?

• The independent activity of children is primarily aimed at self-education. In properly selected conditions of place, time and a friendly atmosphere, the collegium of educators achieves the effect of the child’s self-development due to well-established circumstances (meaning the correct organization of the work process by teachers).
• The second important point is the teachers' focus on awakening interest in the educational process in each child. That is, it is important not only to engage the kids, but also to encourage them to action, unobtrusively make you want to learn and develop. Thus, performing independent group tasks, children are not even aware that they are being pushed to the process of self-education, because it is a joy to them.

Tasks

In addition to the specific focus on the desired result, the independent activity of children in groups of the middle, older and younger age categories is due to the achievement of certain methodological and pedagogical tasks. What are they?

• Self-regulation processes are developing. Pursuing a task independently or in a group of his peers, the child thus learns to calculate the level of his energy spent on certain actions. He learns to feel the need for a change in activities and the need for rest, it comes almost automatically with regular independent work.
• Strong-willed qualities are formed. This is one of the main tasks of independent activity, because it is so important for children to achieve psychological independence from the influence of external factors (street noise, voices of other children). And also in the process of such a lesson plan, the child develops resistance to the influence of someone else’s opinion and the desire to complete the work begun.
• The abilities and skills of self-regulation of certain processes are formed. For example, a child, over time, already determines for himself a game plan, research, observation, his own employment. And here the most important task is to stimulate in a child this desire to fulfill his plan without the help of teachers. Therefore, work is called independent.

Classification

Among other things, the organization of the environment for independent activity of children, developing certain skills, is delimited by several vectors of subject-educational orientation. In other words, such an activity is classified into several main blocks.

• Physical activity. As an integral part of the educational process, educators organize such independent work of children that contributes to the development of their musculoskeletal system. Such tasks are realized through such settings as games of Cossack robbers, mousetraps, hide and seek, and the like.
• Calm games. In this case, the ideas of children's independent organization of their own playing field are touched upon. Often there is an imitative theme: children take toys and imitate situations in a store, in a pharmacy, in a hospital, in a park for a walk. With increasing age, the children of the older group begin to split into teams of boys and girls: the first play with cars and soldiers, the second with dolls and utensils.
• Artistic activity. This type of independent play activity of children is realized through the organization of performances by children, theatrical scenes, and a small puppet theater. They are interested in trying on all kinds of carnival and stage costumes, they like to retell plots from cartoons and fairy tales, they learn to sing familiar melodies, and, most importantly, some begin to improvise and compose their own scripts, their own chants.
• Productive activity. It is reflected in the modeling by children of all kinds of applications and crafts. This is the level of skill acquisition that contributes not only to visualizing what the child is thinking. In addition to the desire to show his ideas to others, he also tries to do it aesthetically representative, beautiful. He likes the work process itself, especially in painting. The presence of paints, pencils and a canvas in the form of paper gives the child the opportunity to show their initial skills and develop them in the future, showing peers their vision of a particular subject, phenomenon. Not only drawing tools are used. Here, work with plasticine, beads, sequins, all kinds of buttons, pebbles, shells, ribbons, postcards, sparkles and the like is also affected.
• Research activity. In addition to the fact that teachers organize the assimilation and accumulation by children of the obtained information in a finished form, the task of any educator is also the encouragement of children to independent searches and the desire to learn this world. That is, not only does the child learn about the phenomenon or subject from the lips of his teacher, it is important that he himself would like to experience how this or that process occurs. Therefore, children are interested in experiments. Such elements of the educational process occur without the specific intervention of the educator, but with its mandatory presence to monitor compliance with safety precautions.
• Self-service items. This direction of the child’s development ensures the assimilation of specific elements of daily hygiene and personal tidiness. Children learn to wash their hands, take a shower, dress and undress, tie their shoelaces, brush their teeth, comb their hair. They inculcate mandatory attention to themselves and their appearance. So the child prepares for adaptation in the adult world. And I must say that the omission of this stage subsequently negatively affects the feeling of neatness and accuracy to oneself and one’s things.

File cabinet of independent activity of children

In the group, the work of teachers is actually complex and quite multifaceted. The quality of their children's activities directly affects the future fate of each of the kids. Based on the fact that the educator needs to engage in comprehensive child development, he needs to combine several subject industries into each task at once. Therefore, the process of the organization of labor activity in a group seems rather difficult, regardless of whether it is older, younger or middle. In order to ensure a creative and interesting cognitive process, the teacher must take into account not only the scientific aspect of his lessons and assignments, but also intrigue the children with an interesting statement of this assignment, arouse their interest in doing one or another job.

It is precisely in view of the difficulty to combine everything together and to present the material in a high-quality manner that card files are formed by preschool institutions. Each file cabinet contains a specific focus, methods of specific implementation and the intended purpose of the lesson. Independent activity is no exception. It is also organized on the basis of a list of goals and objectives defined in a card file previously developed by the teacher.

What elements are inherent in any file cabinet?

• Distribution by day, as well as morning and afternoon hours.
• The set subjects of work for every day.
• The purpose of the classes.
• Setting specific tasks.
• The list of equipment and inventory necessary for the work.
• A direct description of the form of implementation of a particular lesson.

Thus, the day card for the younger group may look something like this:

1. Morning. Conducting a conversation "On table behavior." Objective: to form a list of cultural and hygienic skills in the child’s mind. Equipment: plates, cups, spoons, table, chairs. Displays: how to hold a spoon, how to use a napkin, how to sit at a table.
2. Noon. The didactic game "Animal World". Objective: teaching children associative thinking on the subject of pictures with animals, teaching them to recognize animals, pronouncing their names correctly. Equipment: special drawing cards. Content: giving each child the opportunity to look at the picture and say the name of the animal he saw.
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• Ecological zone - a place of independent activity related to the cultivation of plants, fresh flowers, mini-gardens, etc.
• Artistic and aesthetic zone - here the children can draw, create all kinds of applications, prepare for amateur classes, sculpt from clay and perform other similar tasks.
• Relaxing area - often looks like a tent, where the guys can sit, talk quietly, take a break from vigorous activity.

To summarize

Thus, independent activity, for the organization of which the preschool teachers are responsible, is based on the fact that children perform various developmental tasks without the direct participation of elders. They learn the rules of hygiene, they collect designers and perform group classes, they participate in theatrical performances and learn how and in what situations you can make independent decisions. Thanks to this block of activity, children quickly learn about the world around them, become more responsible, more disciplined, more independent.