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- Herausgeber: Crown House Publishing
- Kategorie: Bildung
- Sprache: Englisch
- Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2018
In Teaching on a Shoestring: An A to Z of everyday objects to enthuse and engage children and extend learning in the early years, Russell Grigg and Helen Lewis explore the educational value of familiar objects and suggest practical activities to help develop young learners' cross-curricular skills. We take many everyday objects for granted. But in a time of ever-tightening school budgets these objects can be invaluable in affording low-cost, high-impact opportunities for learning. With these value-for-money principles in mind, Russell and Helen have packed this practical A to Z handbook to the brim with fun facts, inspiring ideas and exciting activities to help teachers make the best use of familiar objects as launch pads for effective learning. Underpinned by solid theory, Teaching on a Shoestring investigates the learning potential of twenty-six inexpensive, readily available resources from apples to ice cubes to zebra-patterned fabric and shows how they can be exploited to develop in young learners the four skills widely regarded as essential in the twenty-first century: communication, collaboration, critical thinking and creativity. The book is organised into two parts: covering theory, then practice. In Part 1 the authors examine the nature of an object-rich learning environment and discuss the benefits of enquiry-based learning, in which the emphasis is upon promoting collaboration, dialogue and higher-order thinking in real-world contexts. In Part 2 the learning opportunities around the twenty-six objects are laid out in detail to illustrate how they can be put into practice. While the book focuses on object-based pedagogy employed with the under-sevens age category, many of the principles can also be applied with older children. There is a common format for the enquiry into each object, arranged into the following sections: In a nutshell key background information about the object in its broader context; Did you know? interesting facts about the object; Ready key vocabulary, resources and health and safety factors to consider; Steady learning goals and intentions; Go activities which show how teachers can develop the four skills of communication, collaboration, critical thinking and creativity around the object; Other ideas follow-up cross-curricular ideas; and Find out more websites and other references for further information. Suitable for early years educators and anyone who works with young children.
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Contents
Introduction
All things bright and beautiful
Margaret Woodbury Strong (1897–1969) was a rather eccentric American who once lined her garden boundary with forty bathtubs filled with flowers. Her wealthy father was an avid collector and on family holidays all over the world she was given a small bag to collect toys, dolls and other small objects. By the time she was an old lady, Margaret had acquired 22,000 dolls among more than 3,000,000 household objects, spread over fifty categories such as sport, holidays and music. The objects included buttons, shells, paperweights, glassware and kitchen appliances, although most of her collections related in some way to children’s play. When Margaret died, she left enough funds to open a ‘Museum of Fascination’ (now called ‘The Strong’) which includes the National Toy Hall of Fame. Visiting the museum has been likened to being let loose in Santa’s workshop on a day in December before the sleigh departs. The Strong is packed full of toys and games that have sustained their popularity over the years, such as yo-yos, puzzles and action figures.
Figure 1. The humble cardboard box
In 2005, however, a rather mundane object was added to the National Toy Hall of Fame – the cardboard box. Undoubtedly one of the most versatile of objects, the cardboard box captures children’s imaginations across the world – within a few minutes, boxes are transformed into forts, houses, submarines, castles, caves and spaceships. Smaller boxes become doll’s house furniture, while larger boxes are turned into television screens or refrigerators. The cardboard box represents a refreshing change from conspicuous spending, as anxious parents seek to acquire ‘the latest thing’ for their children. A recent survey of 2,000 parents of children aged three and above found that at Christmas time 46% of children prefer playing with boxes instead of actual toys and games, although parents feel pressurised to spend more than £200 on ‘must have’ items (Davis, 2012; Trajectory, 2012). The reality is that children can derive considerable pleasure and intellectual stimulation without expensive things. Observe any child playing on the beach, in the garden, at home or in the classroom, and you will soon see examples of how their creativity, enthusiasm and communication flourishes by engaging with the very simple objects at hand – pebbles, leaves, tubes, old clothes, pipes, hats, pallets, cloths, handbags, steering wheels, egg boxes and suitcases.
This is a book about the educational potential of everyday objects. It is aimed at early years practitioners, students on education courses, parents and those who work in museums and galleries. In the introduction, we provide an overview of objects in society so that readers are well informed when they hold discussions with children linked to the practical activities in Part 2. We believe passionately that the educational potential of objects increases when they are related to people – those individuals that made and used the objects.
Think about the popular television programme, Antiques Roadshow. Once the owner and presenter begin to discuss the stories behind the objects, we are drawn into their worlds and the emotions this brings – whether sadness, surprise, laughter or anger. To mark the 100th anniversary of the First World War, the show’s producers launched an appeal for people to tell their stories of wartime objects. This resulted in an astonishing response from viewers. Among the poignant objects was a 1914 Christmas dinner menu for soldiers in the trenches signed by all those who were present and William Bell’s erroneous death certificate. Bell, a sergeant from Liverpool, was reported to have been killed in action in 1918 and his wife received the dreaded telegram to that effect. Imagine how she must have felt on reading the telegram. Then imagine her reaction when he returned home in 1919. He kept the certificate, despite pressure from the army authorities to return it, saying he would dine out on the story for the rest of his life. Billy lived on until 1975. Many of the objects featured on the programme are now unusual or rare but they were once commonplace.
When discussing mundane, familiar objects with children, it is worth bearing in mind that one day in the future these may become antiques. Michael Hogben (2007), a leading antiques trader, has identified 101 everyday objects which he considers will be highly collectable in the future. These include chunky digital wristwatches from the 1970s, McDonald’s toys from the 1990s and the earliest mobile phones, first used by the general public in 1982.
The meaning and significance of objects
A simple definition of an object is a natural or artificial item that can be seen and touched. Many everyday objects define who we are. Some sociologists argue that it is possible to determine your social class from the household objects you own.1 Etiquette expert William Hanson (2015) has identified the kind of objects that would typically feature in an upper middle class home. The kitchen would include an Aga cooker, a cling film dispenser, cups and saucers (rather than mugs and a mug tree) and no coasters. Ask a group of children to match objects to occupations and most can do this without much difficulty.2 Everyday objects have meaning when we use them – we sleep in beds, we use knives and forks to eat, and pens or computers to write.
Objects are produced and used by people at a given time in society and so have social meaning. They reflect our ideas and ideals. Think about the objects in your own home and what they say about your interests, values and relationships. The long running television programme Through the Keyhole invites a panel of celebrities to guess the identities of reasonably famous people after a virtual tour of their homes and what clues the household items reveal. The programme’s appeal lies in our curiosity and desire to find out about the lives of other people. The objects are a means to this end. When objects are shared they take on a social purpose – they govern or inform interactions. As gifts, objects often strengthen bonds with family and friends. Psychologists say that it is usually the giver, rather than the recipient, who gains the most socially and emotionally from a gift.
In Snoop: What Your Stuff Says About You (2009), the psychologist Sam Gosling argues that our household goods reveal our true personality more so than face-to-face discussions. Based on extensive research, Gosling concludes that the objects we collect and the environments we create are not simply about sending messages to others but are there to help us manage our thoughts and emotions. He refers to family photos, CDs and even the colour of the walls as ‘feeling regulators’, helping us to focus on what is important or to reminisce about former times.
It is increasingly recognised that objects have an important role to play in helping isolated elderly people to communicate and make sense of their lives. Research shows that many old people in sheltered accommodation come to terms with their surroundings through caring for objects and images linked to their memories (Rowlands, 2008). In their experiments across Europe and the United States, British psychologists Gregory Jones and Maryanne Martin (2006) asked participants, ‘If you could save one object from a fire, what would you save?’ The responses showed that the objects people would save were those which evoked strong memories like photographs, jewellery, ornaments and childhood toys rather than laptops and other expensive items. Objects have been used successfully to care for and spark the memories of those who suffer from dementia. For example, the experience of looking through photographs and handling artefacts has helped people to remember things, become less frustrated and to eat more. In short, possessing objects can contribute to people’s well-being. And, of course, objects support intergenerational learning. They can become a focal point for building conversations and relationships between the young and the old (Thomas, 2009).
Children have always had an interest in objects, particularly toys. Beginning in 1918, Charles Quennell and his wife, Marjorie, wrote a landmark series called A History of Everyday Things in England. In the introduction to their first book, the Quennells apologised for providing only a sketch history due to ‘a shortage of paper’ (paper, which we take for granted, was rationed during the First World War) but called on schoolchildren to explore everyday things around them (Quennell and Quennell, 1918: x). Their illustrated series brought joy to many young and old readers alike who learned how things worked, from hair-cutting in the twelfth century to the new 20-inch televisions of the late 1950s – interference was a major hazard when a passing car produced electrical disturbances that made the screen ‘look like a firework display’ (Ellacott, 1968: 166). The significance of objects is summed up by the fact that they define historical ages; we refer to prehistoric people as living in the Stone Age while we think of ourselves as living in the Computer Age.
Age of abundance
We are living in what some historians and social commentators call an ‘Age of Abundance’ (Lindsey, 2008; see also Diamandis and Kotler, 2012). Before the Industrial Revolution and the mass production of goods, even a quite prosperous family house would have had few possessions – the main room typically containing only a table, benches, a chair and a cupboard (Flanders, 2014). Certainly, things we take for granted today were once viewed very differently. Take the example of a shirt or coat. In his breathtaking book, The Empire of Things, the historian Frank Trentmann (2016) explains how in the past a coat was not discarded until its fibres were literally coming apart. Another historian has suggested that a medieval shirt would have cost US$3,500 (around £2,600) to produce, based on a staggering 579 hours of labour – sewing, weaving and spinning.3 Today, one storage company found that the average Brit has fifty-eight items of clothing but only wears a third of them, and the average woman has seventeen pairs of shoes (men have eight) but regularly wear only six.4
Academics describe how we have lost the ‘stewardship of objects’ (Strasser, 2000) once held by our ancestors who valued the time and effort it took to make things. A culture of make do and mend has been replaced by a culture of disposal. The trend over recent decades has been to use more and more disposable items – cups, cameras, razors and so on. Unfortunately, this has serious environmental implications. To illustrate, it is estimated that if all our useless and discarded Christmas presents were combined they would cover 48.7 square miles – an area greater than the size of Edinburgh (Clearabee, 2015)! The typical home contains £1,000 worth of unused clutter (Daily Mail, 2013a). In short, most of us have too much stuff. The move from the age of scarcity to the age of abundance has meant that we are surrounded by millions of things. At a click of a button, it’s possible to access goods from all over the world.
But does the possession of lots of objects make us more contented? A recent US study (Weidman and Dunn, 2016) compared how people reacted to material and experiential purchases for two weeks, up to five times in a day. The material purchases included items such as a tablet computer, while examples of experiential purchases included weekend trips or tickets to a basketball game. Results suggest that material and experiential purchases both deliver happiness but in different ways. Material purchases provide more frequent momentary happiness over time, whereas experiential purchases provide more intense momentary happiness on individual occasions.
But there is no doubt that young children are exposed to messages which equate happiness with material possessions. One US researcher examined thirty picture books for young children and found that they featured ‘excessive amounts of toys, sending pro-consumer messages to children aged zero to six’ (Flood, 2013). In one wordless picture book, A Ball for Daisy (Raschka, 2015), the dog (Daisy) loves her ball, only to see it broken by another dog. Daisy plunges into sadness, but her happiness returns when she is given a new ball the next day. The researcher concludes that the unfortunate message for children in this and other stories is that happiness is dependent upon objects.
Companies target children with great success, so much so that by the age of three some children recognise McDonald’s Golden Arches before they can say their own surname. We know that three- and four-year-olds are brand savvy (Watkins et al., 2016). By the age of ten, UK children know around 350 brands. Children from a very young age are subjected to and exert their own pressures to get more things. The marketing industry fully recognises this – targeting child consumers as ‘preteens’, ‘tweenies’ and ‘tinies’. Given that barely fifty years ago there was no such thing as a teenage market, perhaps it is not stretching the imagination too far to envisage in a few years’ time a marketplace of objects for the yet-to-be-born – ‘foeties’ or ‘wombies’. The Daily Mail (2013b) cheerfully reports, ‘Hello baby! Incredible 3D scans allow parents to see foetus SMILING’ and ‘Incredible 4D ultrasound scans show what foetuses REALLY get up to in the womb’ (Blott, 2016). For the teaching profession and parents, what really matters is teaching young children moral values and critical thinking skills, so they see happiness as less contingent upon material things and more closely associated with cultivating relationships.
There is a danger of too readily reaching the gloomy conclusion that modern Britain has become a consumerist, materialistic society that only values what a person owns, and that success in life is seen to be about acquiring more and more of the latest things and showing them off to impress peers. Not everyone agrees with this analysis (e.g. Ormerod, 2016). An increasing number of everyday items – newspapers, music, books, films – are not being bought for ownership; rather, more and more people are accessing the media online instead of in tangible forms. Moreover, although consumer spending is increasing, economists point out that the market strengths lie in entertainment and travel (despite the global threat of terrorism). In short, it is argued that experiences are becoming more important than things. However, the argument becomes less convincing when you consider hard facts and figures – for example, the typical US household has 300,000 things (MacVean, 2014) and is consuming twice as much as they did fifty years ago (Taylor and Tilford, 2000), while the average ten-year-old in Britain owns 238 toys but plays regularly with only a handful (The Telegraph, 2010).
Objects and sustainability
In the modern world, advanced economies are characterised by the increasing production of short-term, disposable items, culminating in the notion of the ‘throwaway society’. This term, first used in the 1950s, has become almost redundant given that few remember what it was like to live at a time when people routinely repaired things and products lasted a lifetime. As the journalist Jenny McCartney (2013) points out: ‘Nothing in modern life lasts as long as it used to: relationships, news reports, hairstyles, attention spans, gadgetry, shoes or clothes.’ One enterprising businesswoman has set up her own company (www.buymeonce.com) which offers products made to last a lifetime, like the Fisher space pen which claims to write for so long that the average user won’t run out of ink during their entire life – a mere snip at £155. Most people will, of course, buy cheap biros – a box of fifty costs less than £4. Economists use the term ‘planned obsolescence’ to describe manufacturers’ deliberate intention to limit the shelf life (e.g. functionality or appeal) of products so that people buy more. Moreover, many products are expensive to repair and it is almost cheaper to replace a broken toaster or kettle with a new one than it is to try to fix it. Families also spend less time cooking at home using fresh ingredients, instead relying more on packaged, processed meals.
Figure 2. Bottled water – a good thing?
A bottle of mineral water is a good example of an object which illustrates the change in how we live. Until the twentieth century, a constant supply of piped water was considered a domestic luxury. In previous centuries, most people bought water from the barrels of street water carriers or drew water from street fountains and pumps, or from rivers, wells and springs. Although water has been bottled since the sixteenth century, companies such as Schweppes had taken this to a commercial scale by the 1900s. Demand has increased significantly over recent decades – sales of bottled water have increased from 800 million litres in 1995 to 2.8 billion litres in 2015.5The industry is worth more than £2 billion. Why do increasing numbers of people prefer bottled rather than tap water? In her book, Bottlemania (2008), Elizabeth Royte points out that 99% of UK tap water is of a high standard (by 2014 the figure had risen to 99.96%), and yet tap water costs 0.1 penny per litre compared to around 85 pence for a litre of bottled water. Moreover, studies tell us that most people can’t tell the difference between tap and branded bottled water in blind tests – try such a test with children. It seems that people buy bottled water for reasons other than taste. Perhaps it is the misconception that bottled water is healthier than tap water.
Whatever the reason, the environmental impact of using bottled water is staggering. It is estimated that British households fail to recycle 16 million plastic bottles each day, out of the 35 million which are used and discarded daily. The annual beach clean-up undertaken by the Marine Conservation Society typically collects 8,000 plastic bottles. The campaign group Recycle Now estimates that it takes 500 years for a plastic bottle to break down once in the sea (see Smithers, 2016).
Fundamentally, what is needed is the political will and popular support to move from a linear (make–use–dispose) to a circular (make–keep–recover–regenerate) economy. Leading academics argue that such a transformation would represent an alternative to the throwaway society and bring social, economic and environmental gains. For instance, forecasts suggest better value for money, greater consumer satisfaction and more jobs in the repair and maintenance industry (Cooper, 2010). Put simply, if we created fewer but better quality products, looked after them carefully and invested more in repair, renovation and upgrading, then the environmental savings would be huge.
The good news is that over the past sixty or so years there have been concerted efforts to educate children and young people about living more sustainably. What is clear is that children need to engage directly with environmental issues rather than passively absorb information (Rickinson et al., 2004; RSPB, 2006). There is no doubt that campaigns such as ‘reduce, reuse, recycle’ have raised awareness among children and the general public about the importance of sustainability and a greener future. Around 34,000 schools in the UK take part in recycling schemes and there are many resources available to teachers to promote aspects of environmental education such as recycling.6
Interestingly, despite higher prices, more and more people are buying ecofriendly products. A major survey of 29,000 Internet respondents across fifty-eight countries shows that one in four UK consumers are choosing more environmentally friendly products (Retail Gazette, 2013). There are also positive community developments such as the Library of Things in Norwood, south-east London (www.libraryofthings.co.uk) and SHARE in Frome (https://sharefrome.org), where for a small fee people borrow things – from baking tins to carpet cleaners. Many of the objects featured in this book can be reused or recycled. Cardboard boxes, for example, can be reused for storage (especially if moving house) or as toy boxes. And, of course, generations of teachers have reused cardboard boxes in craft projects. Among the more creative ideas are desk organisers, paint palettes, cardboard photo frames, hats and weed barriers.
Although we live in a highly disposable age, it is also true that many of us enjoy collecting things – although this can be taken to extremes. According to the British Heart Foundation, which runs charity shops on the high street, eight out of ten Britons describe themselves as a hoarder. They admit to having junk at home which they have not touched for a decade (Kolirin, 2014). When asked why, the most popular response is, ‘I hate throwing things away because you never know when you might need them again.’ Kolirin listed the top ten most hoarded objects as follows:
1 Now CDs (30%)
2 Bread maker (25%)
3 Rubik’s Cube (21%)
4 Lava lamp (19%)
5 Walkman (17%)
6 Gameboy (17%)
7 Beanie Babies (12%)
8 SodaStream (9%)
9 Furby (8%)
10 Roller blades (8%)
Hoarding has its health risks. At an extreme it can lead to what psychologists call ‘clutter disorder’, which describes the mental and emotional anxiety people suffer when living with an overwhelming number of objects. In fact, the charity HoardingUK (https://hoardinguk.org) has worked with Oxford University to develop a Clutter Index Rating – a test can be completed online to assess your hoarding tendency. It seems that we all have an insatiable desire for more stuff. The US writer Barry Schwartz (2005) points out that as consumers we are faced with a paradox of choice. Manufacturers and retailers offer us so many different products that this creates ‘choice overload’, which can lead to dithering, anxiety and stress.
However, for most people collecting things represents an enjoyable pastime and many start at an early age. An online Mumsnet discussion on ‘strange things kids collect’ reveals collections of things such as pencil leads, bones, sticks, stones, elastic bands dropped by the postman, bottle tops and Horrible Science ‘Slimy Aliens’.7 Some things have stood the test of time, such as Top Trumps, first collected in the 1970s. One US academic paper found that children collect things because it satisfies their curiosity, relieves boredom and helps them to make friends (Baker and Gentry, 1996). Even the most mundane of everyday objects might one day become collectables. Most young children develop an attachment to a particular object, such as a teddy bear, toy or blanket. These hold positive memories for children, and so it is usual practice among nursery classes to encourage parents to bring these along to ease the transition from home to school.
Adding value to objects
We take for granted many everyday objects. We owe a considerable debt to the likes of László Bíró, William Henry Hoover and Earl Silas Tupper, whose inventions – the commercial ballpoint pen, the vacuum cleaner and Tupperware – have become part of our daily lives. The stories behind such objects should be shared with young children because they often reveal qualities such as imagination, persistence and resourcefulness. Take the ubiquitous sticky note. What would life be like for teachers without it? In 1974, irritated by bookmarks that kept falling out of his hymn book, 3M researcher Arthur Fry played with the idea of using a sticky coating to retain his page marker. Within a few years, the Post-it note was developed and is now a global icon for quick and effective communication. Sticky notes have many uses in planning, creating and organising ideas. Figure 3 includes a few classroom examples.
Figure 3. Some classroom uses of sticky notes
It is possible to turn insignificant objects into significant ones without waiting for posterity. In 2009, a group of creative writers set up the Significant Objects Project (www.significantobjects.com). They wanted to know whether they could make money by buying very cheap objects and telling a fictitious story around them in order to sell them on at a profit, so they decided to buy lots of things from bargain stores and eBay (Figure 4).
Figure 4. Everyday items bought and then resold at major profit, as part of the Significant Objects Project
They wrote their stories and posted them alongside the objects for sale on eBay. In total, they sold US$128.74 worth of thrift-store junk for US$3,612.51. They subsequently repeated the experiment with even greater financial returns. The group then wrote a book on their project, Significant Objects (Walker and Glenn, 2012), which was named as one of the best design books of the year. This story illustrates that even the most mundane of objects can generate value and interest. Everyday objects
Summary
This preamble has tried to illustrate why everyday objects matter. They provoke sentiment, offer emotional security and define who we are as individuals and society at large. The meaning we attach to objects changes depending on the context. When we look at objects – rosary beads, a tennis ball, a screwdriver, the latest iPhone – we make assumptions about the owner’s gender, age, interests, beliefs, dislikes and social and economic background. Objects raise big questions – for example, about prevailing political ideas and movements, social change and religious beliefs.
This is well illustrated by the work of a small team of curators at the Victoria and Albert Museum, who form what is called the Rapid Response team. Their job is to find contemporary objects for the museum which are of political, social and economic significance, and to display them to the public as quickly as possible. Among their recent findings have been an IKEA cuddly soft toy, a fake iPhone 5S and a 3D printed plastic gun (see Harrod, 2014). As one of the curators points out, each object has a story to tell about the world we live in today – whether this relates to working conditions in the Third World, political unrest in China or changing race relations. The IKEA toy, for example, symbolised dissatisfaction with the Chinese authorities when in December 2013 a citizen threw it at Leung Chun-Ying, the then chief executive of Hong Kong, during a town hall meeting. Leung was unpopular because of his association with the Chinese Communist Party. The choice of toy, a wolf called Lufsig, was significant. Leung’s name in Chinese characters is like the character for ‘wolf’ and when transliterated into Chinese, Lufsig came out as an insult. The toy soon sold out in Hong Kong and it received more than 50,000 likes on one Facebook page.
This book focuses on the educational value of objects for young children. This has long been recognised. Susan Isaacs (1885–1948), a trained psychologist and former lecturer in infant school education at Darlington Training College, thought a great deal about the resources in her experimental nursery school in the 1920s. She equipped it with art and craft materials, beads, blocks, dressing-up clothes, a typewriter and outdoor resources for a playhouse, sandpit and tool shed. Settings founded on the work of Maria Montessori (1870–1952) use ‘alphabet objects’ to begin literacy work. The language starter set includes 100 miniatures such as animals and doll’s house domestic objects like pots and pans.
We hope this book will inspire readers to think differently about everyday objects. In these tight economic times, practitioners, educational managers and leaders are ever mindful of ‘value for money’ principles when building up collections of resources. Put simply, this means spending less, spending well and spending wisely. Based on our travels around pre-school settings and primary schools, we have seen some exceptional practitioners teaching on a shoestring and trust that this book will help others to do so.
Organisation and use of this book
The book is organised into two parts. In Part 1, we consider the use of objects in the broader context of important questions about effective learning and teaching in the early years, which we apply to the under-sevens. It is widely acknowledged that the early years is a critical stage in children’s development and predictive in terms of their future learning (Goodman et al., 2015). Many of the principles of object-based pedagogy we refer to can also be applied with older children. We consider how everyday objects can be used to develop four skills widely regarded as essential in the twenty-first century: communication, collaboration, critical thinking and creativity (the 4 C’s; see also Appendix).
In Part 2, we select twenty-six everyday objects using an alphabetical format to illustrate how these skills can be taught. There is no special reason for choosing these particular objects – in fact, we hope that practitioners will choose objects from their own environment to suit their own needs. What matters is not so much the objects but the associated pedagogy – the quality of dialogue and other teaching skills, the relationships with the children and the learning climate that is created.
There is a common format for each object arranged into the following sections:
In a nutshell – key background information about the object in its broader context.
Did you know? – interesting facts about the object.
Ready – resources, health and safety factors to consider and key vocabulary.
Steady – learning goals and intentions to consider.
Go – activities which show how teachers can develop the four skills of communication, collaboration, critical thinking and creativity around the object.
Other ideas – follow-up cross-curricular ideas.
Find out more – websites and other references for further information.
1 There are online quizzes to this effect, e.g. http://www.thepoke.co.uk/2016/09/26/how-middle-class-are-you/.
2 You can find worksheets on this at: https://www.turtlediary.com/worksheet/match-objects-with-occupation.html.
3 The calculations have been challenged but the main point – that items were a lot more expensive – remains valid. See http://www.bradford-delong.com/2016/08/weekend-reading-eve-fisher-the-3500-shirt-a-history-lesson-in-economics.html.
4 See https://www.storefirst.com/storage-news/a-nation-of-hoarders-figures-reveal-brits-are-wasting-two-thirds-of-their-wardrobes-on-rarely-worn-clothes/.
5 See http://www.aqbottledwater.com/hotel-bottled-water/new-consumer-health-trends-lead-way-bottled-water-sales/.
6 See e.g. http://www.recycling-guide.org.uk/schools.html.
7https://www.netmums.com/coffeehouse/general-coffeehouse-chat-514/general-chat-18/468824-strange-things-kids-collect.html.
Part 1
Important questions
1. Why use objects when teaching in the early years?
One of the main reasons objects should be used in early years practice is that they have the potential to stimulate children’s natural curiosity and creative thinking. Babies and toddlers use their senses to explore the physical, observable aspects of their immediate surroundings. The world is full of wonder and newness to investigate. This includes putting objects in their mouths, tapping and shaking things and responding to sounds – thereby gaining more experience and information. They reach out for objects such as mum’s necklace, a bunch of keys or a pair of spectacles, which become absorbing play materials. As young children acquire language, they begin to ask questions about the many objects they see, hear, feel, taste and smell in their environments, both natural and built. This sense of wonder can be curtailed, however, through overly directive teaching, a prescribed assessment-led curriculum and an unstimulating learning environment. These factors can mitigate against children’s creativity, with lessons reduced to a guessing game in which children try to figure out what answers the teacher wants.
Everyday objects should be used as teaching aids because they are excellent resources to support children’s spiritual, moral, social and cultural development. Although physical by nature, objects can also have spiritual significance. Many individuals treasure objects from their childhood even though these may have been discarded by others long ago. Some objects, for whatever reason, become significant and personally valuable. They outlast individuals and are a means of bringing the past into the present, offering stability and continuity. Valerie Flournoy’s classic story of The Patchwork Quilt (1985) gives young children a clear picture of how a simple quilt passed on from one generation to the next has meaning. Through stories, children can learn that objects are not only solid things (composed of physical matter) but also have symbolic value.
