However, one mother did not agree with this. In order not to hurt her mother's face, she didn't speak in the group, but privately believed me: "Such a small child doesn't understand the meaning of poetry at all, and it's useless to recite."
Moreover, she believes that children have no memory before the age of 3: even if they can recite it now, they will forget it when they turn around.
This mother's theory comes from a book she read before, which deeply criticizes the phenomenon that many parents in China like to learn English and ancient poems before their children are 3 years old. The author believes that children will not form deep memory before the age of 3, and the poems and English words recited before are only unconscious mechanical memories, which may soon be forgotten if they don't "grind their ears".
In fact, whether children should recite ancient poems before going to school has been controversial on the Internet.
If there is opposition, there will naturally be support. Supporters believe that preschool is the key period of children's brain development, and 3 years old is the golden age of baby's memory. What they read and recite during this period will really be engraved in their minds, and even if they don't fully remember it, they will also cultivate a sense of language and melody for their children.
In view of this problem, today we will talk about the enlightenment function of ancient poetry in detail. Is it useful to recite preschool students? And at what age is it better for children to start the enlightenment of ancient poetry?
How much influence can ancient poetry have on children?
Before saying when children will start to enlighten ancient poetry, answer a question: Is it useful to recite ancient poetry?
I think this is very useful and necessary.
As the most magnificent branch in the tree of Chinese civilization, ancient poetry is the cultural form that best reflects the cultural heritage of the Chinese nation. In the whole world, no country's language can achieve the unity of sound and form like Chinese, which has a unique rhythmic beauty. Ancient poetry is particularly important. Short numbers can express what modern Chinese or other languages need to express in hundreds or even thousands of words.
And because most ancient poems rhyme at the end, they are catchy and rhythmic, just like singing. Of course, in ancient times, ancient poems were originally used for singing, but in modern times, in order to better remember ancient poems, they have gradually changed to the form of recitation.
On the one hand, learning ancient poetry lies in improving children's literary accomplishment, strengthening their study and understanding of Chinese and improving their language expression ability; On the one hand, it is also to cultivate the inner literary temperament. As the saying goes, if you read more books, your temperament will be different, not to mention poems with beautiful words and high literary attainments. Just like Wu Yishu, who won the China Poetry Conference at the age of 16, ancient poetry has brought her an elegant image of a talented woman, fully showing people how different children with rich cultural background are.
Of course, if we want to further improve our level, I personally think that the more important purpose of studying ancient poetry is to inherit China's traditional literature. Many children in contemporary families attach great importance to the cultivation of English language sense, but ignore the learning ability of Chinese, which leads to many children's superficial learning of China traditional culture and lack of Chinese expression ability.
Therefore, learning ancient poems is very necessary for children to improve their literary accomplishment, personal temperament and language expression ability. Since it is so important, when is the best time to start the enlightenment of ancient poetry?
Whether it is time or not, children's interests are the most important.
From a medical point of view, 3 years old is indeed a critical period for children's physical and intellectual development. Many medical experts admit that 3-6 years old is the golden period of memory.
So 3 years old is the most suitable age for children to go to kindergarten. Education before the age of 3 can only be called early education, which is preschool education.
In fact, the meaning of early education is quite extensive, including the training of perception, language and cognition, as well as the cultivation of living habits, self-care ability, personality and moral character.
However, it can be clearly seen among many parents that a considerable number of parents unilaterally understand early education as intellectual skills education, thinking that children can recite poems and English words, and the more they recite, the better.
There are many precious mothers around me who are of this type. I can't wait for my baby to start reading poetry books when he can talk.
For example, I have a friend who played all kinds of ancient poems and songs for her when she was just one year old. At this time, children can't even shout to their parents, so the profound literature of ancient poetry is naturally unintelligible. But my friend complained to me that when the ancient poems were put on, the children looked at them blankly and didn't listen to what they were. In the future, he will probably be a scum. I am really speechless and can only reply to her in six points.
My son Yuanbao first reacted to ancient poetry when he was one and a half years old. He listened to Ode to Goose on the player and read it slowly. By the time he was one year and eight months old, he had been able to recite two or three poems completely. But I don't think there is anything to show off. For children, reciting these ancient poems is no different from singing Bunny. As mentioned above, it's really just "grinding an ear".
In that case, why did I let my children listen to ancient poems before I was 3 years old?
In fact, my purpose is not to make children memorize, but to improve their sense of language and rhythm. As far as my personal experience is concerned, reading more ancient poems is really helpful to children's language development. When Yuanbao can't say a complete sentence, it can slowly recite a complete "goose song", and the following sentences will be smoother.
Then if children really have no perception of ancient poetry, it is impossible to be interested before the age of 3. Forcing children to remember too much will make them gradually resist learning.
Therefore, adults need to do more guidance than coercion. After all, curiosity will produce the desire to read. It is not too late to slowly guide children to start the enlightenment of ancient poetry when they reach the stage of stronger cognitive desire.
How to enlighten ancient poetry?
If the child is still young, it is natural to start from "grinding his ears" to see if the child is willing to learn English with ancient poems and observe whether the child is interested.
Then there is the sense of picture guidance.
I recommend a set of books especially suitable for the enlightenment of ancient poetry, called "Ancient Poetry Hidden in History".
Based on the historical background of each poem, this set of books draws the image of the poet according to the poet's habits, and draws the story in the book in an easy-to-understand way according to the content of the poem, so that children can see at a glance what the poem is about, what kind of social background it was at that time, and what kind of characteristics and personality the poet has.
Compared with modern poetry, the sentences in ancient poetry are more intentional. An adult reading a story may not fully understand its profound meaning, let alone a child.
Therefore, when adults cultivate children's interest in ancient poetry, they can start with the book "Ancient Poetry Hidden in History". For younger children, adults can watch it with him and explain it while watching it, so that children can understand the presentation content of ancient poetry through the intuitive pictures in the ancient poetry book, and then combine the explanations of parents to let children understand the difference between ancient poetry and modern literature.
For example, "there is such bright light at the foot of my bed, can it have frosted?" Looking at the picture in "Ancient Poetry Hidden in History", the bright moonlight was projected into the window and shone on the ground. I felt too cold, and the ground was frosted, so there was the famous saying, "Is there frost already?" !
Of course, we can also take our children for an outing in the spring, and when the spring returns to the earth and the willow trees are shaded, let them have a look at Singing the Willow in combination with the pictures in the book. Illustrated with pictures and texts, children can also understand that "the tapestry of thousands of strands of moss hangs" is like this!
Through popular language expression, presenting the pictures in poems to children, guiding children to understand the connotation of ancient poems, can also help children better remember poems and sentences.
Finally, let the children apply what they have learned.
But in appropriate occasions, don't "spot check" when eating or playing without a sense of picture, so that children will feel nervous. It is best to go out for a walk or an outing. When you see the beautiful sunset glow, you can think of "sunset and lonely Qi Fei, autumn water and sky are the same color"; When you see the green hills and flowing water, you can think of "birds flying in the green hills and flowing water reflecting the sunset glow" .......
In short, learning is not achieved overnight, and children still have a lifetime to learn. In the long study career, there are still many opportunities to get in touch with and fall in love with ancient poetry.
The point is not the time of enlightenment, but the opportunity of enlightenment.
In the long history of China, there are more than 30,000 ancient poems. These ancient poems are historical treasures, important media for us modern people to understand the ancients, and cultural sources for us to learn from ancient literati. Such an important cultural treasure should not be used as a standard to measure children's achievements or as a capital for parents to show off.
In the final analysis, the significance of the enlightenment of ancient poetry lies not only in expanding the material of composition, but also in giving children more poetic life experiences and making life more colorful.