Educational Philosophy

By Greg Page, AM, Original Yellow Wiggle, Dip Teach, Early Childhood Studies, Hon.DLitt

With so much content available for children to view today on a plethora of platforms, there has been a lot of recent interest in providing “story-based” content for children to view.  This is great – as children do love stories.

However, what does a young, ego-centric, preoperational child like most? Things that relate to them!  And what is best for their development?  Content that makes THEM the star of the show (the centre of attention!), and caters for their whole development, allowing them to feel a part of the show, immersed in the experience, not just a third-party observer to what is going on – just as play allows them to do.

What better way for children to be engaged in content, than for them to be immersed in an experience that allows for THEM to be THEIR OWN story-tellers by empowering them with the confidence, skills and tools to bring to life their own creations that tell the story that is theirs.

When children merely “watch” content, there are so many aspects of their development that are untouched, or unengaged.  Physical development and creative development are just two aspects that are un-engaged selves of the child.  If we look a child and their areas of development, we can break it into 5 areas (or selves) of the child:

Pencilhead’s Kids Club provides children with experiences that engage all selves of the child through the content and products available. 

Story-based content engages the cognitive self of the child through their understanding and interpretation of the worlds visited by Pencilhead and his friends, as well as the understanding of how the different characters relate to drawing tools and implements that the child will be familiar with, and how to use them to express their creativity. Social and emotional development will also be enhanced through the characters’ direct interaction with the child-viewer, demonstrating and modelling to the child, appropriate ways of interacting respectfully with others, as well as modelling ways of coping with situations that arise in the stories.  Through the music of Pencilhead’s Kids Club, we will see children get up and dance, and use their gross motor skills to enhance and develop physical skills and they will use their creative self to come up with ways to move that either mirror the suggested moves, or create their own. Finally, the creative self of the child will be encouraged to flourish as they are urged to draw along with Pencilhead in Pencilhead’s Squiggle Club, or create their own squiggles, or find shapes in clouds to re-create and imagine what they see in the sky.  Their cognitive development will be stimulated through hunting for shapes in the natural or man-made environment and once again, using their creativity to imagine what these shapes could form.

Of course, fine motor skills will be used by a child to use the implements and tools necessary for them to make their own creations at home – things such as:

All of these experiences provide rich opportunities for children to touch, feel, hold, grip and manipulate a variety of tools and media that will ultimately enrich their experience with the physical world and enhance their physical development.