Change and transformation happen every day, everywhere.
Transformation; On a microscopic level, cells multiply and replace others, sections of skin slough off and are replaced by others emerging from the lower layers or are transformed into calluses, hair and nails.
Over the period of a day we shrink a little through the effect of gravity on our bodies, only to regain that height again when we lay down to sleep. Over years, children transform into adults with fundamental restructures not only of their faces and bodies but of their minds.
Children’s brains are in a constant state of heightened awareness and growth, forming and reinforcing neurone connections with each experience. They are also transforming their perception of the world and their place in it.
Growth is continual, moment to moment and noticeable (especially to family who see the children infrequently; “My, haven’t you grown?”)
“When your child asks, ‘Why is there a moon?’, don’t reply with a scientific answer. Ask him, ‘What do you think?’.
He will understand that you are telling him, ‘You have your own mind and your own interpretation, and your ideas are important to me.’ Then you and he can look for the answers, sharing the wonder, curiosity…”
– Carla Rinaldi, Pedagogista and Director of the Municipal Infant-Toddler Centres and Preschools of Reggio Emilia, Italy
Transformation is significant and, mostly, invisible.
Adults have important roles to play in supporting children’s growth and transformation. Our care for them building their senses of identity, security and wellbeing. Thinking with them build’s their confidence as learners and communicators.
At SOEL, children have a direct influence on their physical environments and the nature of the investigations that happen within them. They transform themselves through their own learning via the knowledge and experience gained in the process of interactions, and their ability to influence the world in which they live.
The transformational abilities of our children are nurtured at SOEL through a deeply layered and complex skilling programme. We introduce children to the visual arts at a very young age, so that they may learn to transform materials and objects into representations of their understandings.
The skilled SOEL child moves with intelligence, experience and purpose when interacting with media and creating a piece of work, often revisiting it to add layers of complexity, colour or texture. The work is finished when the child feels that it communicates what they want it to, not when an artificially constructed timeframe is finished. When they feel that their transformation is complete.