a - How young is Too Young?

[bas]

As a developmentally focused approach, Enki begins at the beginning! The Foundation and Early Childhood Guides are relevant all the way along and Enki parents recommend getting them as soon as you have recovered from childbirth and neonatal sleeplessness - at least enough to want to read.

However, this does not mean that it is time to start on a “schooling program,” yet. The young child absorbs the world around him so totally that we feel it is best that he be in a home environment doing the business of being home - and nothing else. That might include being in someone else’s home in a small group a few times a week, but the activities would still be primarily the things of home (cooking, cleaning, gardening, play, “pots and pans music,” “furniture architecture” and so on). These are the years to establish healthy rhythms and build the neurological base for effective learning in the later years. The guides go into great detail on all this.

Since we feel the young child is best served by the ordinary routines of home life, we do not offer resource materials (stories, songs, activities) for children under 4 1/2 years old. Some people find the kindergarten movement materials useful for younger children, but these are primarily geared to the 4 1/2  to 6 year old.  We recommend starting with the Foundation and Early Childhood Guides; with that understanding you will see what to get when.  The Kindergarten package is set up to support this sequence of purchasing - unlike the grade level packages, there is very little financial loss ($25) when purchasing the kindergarten books separately.

At the same time, we specifically do NOT recommend the Kindergarten stories for the child under 4 1/2. There are two reasons for this, both developmental:

1. The young child has not yet moved into the time of “picture thinking” needed to effectively make mental images. Therefore, simple picture books are needed, and best support the initial work with story. These - along with active and imaginative play -  provide the building blocks for the all important ability to make internal, mental images. In the Early Childhood Guides, we do offer a list of the type of picture books we recommend for the young child. 
2. Asking the child to use his capacity for picture thinking before he is developmentally ready is no different from asking him to read before he is developmentally ready. The day will come - very soon - when stories without pictures are critical to his development and to laying the foundation for all later thinking and learning. But rushing that undermines building a solid foundation - and frustrates all. For now, through picture books, he learns to make images and he learns to listen to the flow of story.
   
3. The young child is still firming up his sense of security in the home. He needs materials that reflect the simple stability of life around him  -  what we call “home and garden books.” Such books as Grandfather Twilight and Goodnight Moon take the child through an imagistic tour of the world in which he lives, without adding undue challenge. 
   
4. As the child approaches the kindergarten years, this trust in the stability of life should be quite well established and internalized. Now he seeks to meet the world as a budding individual. He needs stories with challenge. Our stories are specifically tailored to the 4 1/2 to 6 year old who needs to know that he can venture out of the home, meet a challenge, and return to the secure world from which he came. These are not the same as the typical fairy tale, or even many folk tales. Our kindergarten collections are unique, specifically geared to support this initial step into individuality - but not appropriate for the younger child. a more complete description can be found at (http://www.enkieducation.org/html/materials/tghs1-tghstgb.htm)

Of most importance for the preschooler is supporting his ability to “see the world in a grain of sand and heaven in a wildflower” (William Blake). This happens by helping him settle into the very normal rhythms and routines of the home and garden.