CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
A.
BACKGROUND
At age 0-6 years,
a child’s brain develops very rapidly up to 80%. At that age the children
receives and adsorbs many information whether it good or bad. It was time when
the physical, mental and spiritual child is formed. Because of that, this time
was called the golden age.
Parents should
take the chance of the golden age of child to provide the good education for
their children. The research shows that children’s experience in the first
month and year of life determine whether the child is able to faces the
challenge of role in his next life and whether the child will demonstrate a
passion for learning and the result in life.
B.
DEFINITION
ON EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION
Early childhood is a crucial stage of life
in terms of a child's physical, intellectual, emotional and social development
growth of mental and physical abilities progress at an astounding rate and a
very high proportion of learning takes place from birth to age six. It is a
time when children particularly need high quality personal care and learning
experiences.
Education begins from the moment the child
is brought home from the hospital and continues on when the child starts to
attend playgroups and kindergartens. The learning capabilities of humans
continue for the rest of their lives but not at the intensity that is
demonstrated in the preschool years. With this in mind, babies and toddlers
need positive early learning experiences to help their intellectual, social and
emotional development and this lays the foundation for later school success.
CHAPTER II
DISCUSSION
A.
EARLY
CHILDHOOD EDUCATION IN INDONESIA
Early childhood education (ECD) in Indonesia began to be noticed by
government seriously and cover the age range 0-6 years since 2002. Now, ECD has
to be ”National Public Movement” (Gerakan Masyarakat Secara Nasional), the
society has realize that the early childhood education is important.
Early childhood education in Indonesia has been more widely
implemented by society. The number of early childhood education and play group
organized by the society shows the extent of public interest in this early childhood
education. The government will not take over the role of existing society. The
government will facilitate, encourage, and complement existing activities, so
that the service and quality of the education they hold the increasing. The
program need to be is conducted include handling integrate early childhood
education programs that already exist in the field.
Challenge statistic of early childhood education in Indonesia.
1.
Number
of children who have not attended early childhood education is still quite
large.
2.
Facilities
and infrastructure quantitative and qualitative study was limited, it was
caused by lack of creativity ECD teachers of create and develop teaching method
and learning resources by exploiting the potential of culture and natural
surroundings.
3.
Competence
most early childhood teachers is inadequate because most of them do not come from a background of ECD and they
have not received training and practical knowledge about ECD.
4.
The
difference in the gross enrollment rate of ECD participant in urban and rural
areas is still large.
B.
THE
IMPORTANCE OF CHILDHOOD EDUCATION
Child
development experts agree that play is very important in the learning and
emotional development of all children. Play is multi-faceted. Although it
should be a fun experience for the child, often many skills can be learned
through play. Play early childhood development in Indonesia helps children
learn relationship and social skills, and develop values and ethics, Play
should always be considered an essential part of a child’s early education.
Functional
play helps children to develop motor and practice skills. This kind of play is
normally done with toys or objects that are stackable, can be filled with water
or sand or playing outdoors. Water play or sand play is a favorite amongst
pre-school children and a valuable teaching tool. This type of play can make up
about 50% of the type of play that toddlers through 3year-old children
practice.
Constructive
play is characterized by building or creating something. Toys that encourage
this type of play are simple puzzles, building blocks, easy craft activities,
and puppets. Normally 4 or 5 year old children enjoy this type of play, but it
continues to be enjoyable into the first and second grades of school. early
childhood development in Indonesia
Hands
and fingers are the best first art tools. Soon they will manage thick paint
brushes, wedges of sponge, wax crayons, and hunky chalks. It is advised to
avoid rushing a child into making something in particular. Letting them do what
they want encourages individuality and decision making. Toddlers also enjoy
play dough because they can get hands and fingers in it for poking, rolling,
and shaping. This type of play develops thinking and reasoning skills, problem
solving, and creativity.
Pretend
play allows children to express themselves and events in their lives. Normally
a child will transform themselves or a play object into someone or something
else. This type of play is popular with children in preschool and kindergarten
and it tends to fade out as they enter primary school. Pretend play helps
children process emotions and events in their lives, early childhood
development in Indonesia practice social skill, learn values, develop language
skills, and develop a rich imagination. Because of the important skills that
are developed through this type of play, efforts should be made to encourage
children to pretend.
Playing
games that have a definite structure or rules do not become dominant until
children start to enter elementary school. Board games, simple card games, ball
games or skipping games that have specific rules will teach children
cooperation, mutual understanding, and logical thinking.
A
playground can be a turned into a learning experience for a child. Although a
playground traditionally has certain elements, these elements may pose an
unsafe surrounding for your child if the equipment is not properly supervised
or built of unsafe materials. To provide a safe environment that allows gross
motor activity it is important that some considerations of the equipment be
made. The following elements have been found to be unsafe in group care
settings:
o
Metal
slides can cause burns when they are exposed to direct sunlight. The intense
sunlight in a tropical climate heats metal to very high temperatures.
o
Enclosed
tunnel slides make observation difficult and can allow one climbing child above
the enclosed tunnel to fall on top of another at the tunnel exit.
o
Traditional
seesaws can result in injuries when one child unexpectedly jumps off.
o
Spring
mounted, rocking toys with very heavy animal seats can strike a child. (There
are acceptable, lighter weight rocking toy alternatives.)
o
Swings,
other than tire swings, can easy hit a waiting child and cause injury. Light
weight plastic seat swings pose a much lower chance hurting a child.
C.
DIFFERENCES
BETWEEN EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION AND PLAY GROP
In general, the definition of play
group and early childhood education may have same meaning, early childhood
education and play group is the education for child at the age 0-6 years before
entering to the elementary school. In the specific meaning, early childhood
education in nonformal education and the position is under education out of
school system. And playgroup is the formal education under the education and
culture ministry.
Playgroups or early childhood
education are community-based groups that give parents and caregivers the
opportunity to meet together and provide play programs for their children. To
be a playgroup, more than half the children attending must have a parent
staying with them, and no child can attend for more than 4 hours per day. The
playgroup sessions are often set up in community halls where equipment is put
out before each session and cleared away afterwards.
Certificated playgroups that meet certain requirements can
receive a small amount of Government funding to help pay for equipment and hall
hire. Parents and caregivers involved in running the sessions receive
information, support and training from the Ministry of Education to help them
do so. With the Ministry’s help, some of these groups grow into a service
licensed by the Ministry of Education.
CHAPTER III
CLOSING
CONCLUSION
Early
Childhood Education is a term that refers to educational programs and
strategies geared toward children from birth to the age of eight. This time
period is widely considered the most vulnerable and crucial stage of a person’s
life. Early Childhood Education is usually defined as before the age of normal
schooling (0-6).
Early
childhood education often focused on guiding children to learn through play.
The term often refers to preschool or infant/child care program’s. it has been thought that children learn more
efficiently and gain more knowledge
through play-based activities such as dramatic play, art, social games. This
theory plays stems children’s naturally curiosity and tendencies to make
believe maxing in educational lesson.
Early
childhood education is very important for parents to stay engaged in their
child’s learning process event if there are getting most of their education
from a day care, day home, school, etc. the knowledge learnt from a parent will
be more cherished and remembered by a child then if any other person taught
them, especially at an early age. Early childhood education is crucial to child
development and should be entered into cautiously with someone you trust will
benefit your child.
REFENENCE
