I heard the bird movements in our garden earlier than the usual time in the morning yesterday. When I went out, I spotted a Magpie Robin, Bulbul, Leaf bird and a Tailor bird. It was the Tailor bird that caught my attention yesterday.
The Tailor birds prefers foliage and move between trees in a hurry and is not in the habit of staying in a flight station for too long. But yesterday, a Tailor bird was perched in a bare branch on the Bell fruit tree, a position which Bulbuls and Magpie robins occupy normally.
I noticed this Tailor bird looking around and soon broke forth in to a chanting spell of its bird calls without interruption. Its bird calls are high frequency sounds, sonorous and have a repetitive cycle. I looked around to spot another Tailor bird in the vicinity. It was alone and singing heartily to itself!
That is when I remembered a bird watcher once mentioning that of all the small birds, it is the Tailor Bird who have tuneful musical tone to their bird calls. They develop it by habitual singing and chanting from the time they are chicks.
A mother recently told me that her son, who is three years, wants a toy in his hand when he is mot doing anything else. He then explores that toy with imagination. He was into playing with fifty and more pieces of puzzles, completing the task of putting them together in a short time. He would tell about the way he completed it and would make a short story about it, often based on the stories he heard read to him at bed time. He has a range of play activities that he is fond of. He organises children to play in group activities when friends come home. His mother said that he is fond of playing and interacting.
I was curious to know how this child developed this style of using play as a process to explore and engage. His mother usually found time to spend time at the Child's corner at home, where a table with chairs were placed from the time he was one year. The toys, books, craft materials, colouring books and drawing materials were added gradually to the collection of play materials. His father introduced playing with blocks and puzzles. He often returned from his travels with a puzzle of places, popular buildings, monuments, animals, flowers, etc. The family was a singing family. His mother sang to him rhymes with actions and dance movements that he developed the habit of singing along with actions. His family was an engaging family to promote childhood interests. Another regular activity was various outdoor explorations.
One thing that interested me was how their son had a few pots of plants allotted to him, which he watered. He was the first one to notice a bud and ask his father to take photos serially, which his father downloaded to create an album. The albums were made of regular note books where the phots printed out in ordinary paper were pasted. This boy had a dozen of albums of photos of many nature events.
I felt amazed how this family got so enthused in engaging their child to pursue many childhood interests. It all began with the mother noticing at the age of one year, that their son was intent to listen to songs and follow actions. This surprised the mother that she began introducing new activities to him. His response was incremental and consistent that they created a Child's Corner at home which gave a location for their son to spend time in exploration and play.
I became even more curious to know how they protected their son from the usual traction from watching cartoons, play games in the mobile or get occupied in the digital world. That was what surprised me about the wise choice the parents made for themselves and for their son. They had half an hour TV time twice week when one of the parents sat with him and talked about it to answer the questions. They were nature scenes, animal world, places of interest and occasionally cartoons. The child was not crazy about watching TV or playing in the mobile as he was exposed to a wider experience of indoor and outdoor activities.
A Tailor bird develops tuneful chanting skills by habit. Its musical tone is more because of the habit of bird calls which gradually become tuneful and musical.
A child's natural instinct is play even from one year of age. For this to become real and experiential, a child would need a playful environment, engaging parents, variety of play activities introduced to widen a child' interests and a place in a home, where he can return to with a sense of belonging.
We need to protect pre-school children from drifting into the world of digital activities. Their natural instinct is to grow in a playful environment. I have a suspicion that when parents ignore the playful emphasis in the life of a child, the child gets dragged into the adult word of digital experiences of TV viewing, computer games, playing in the Mobile phone etc. If the home has a large TV screen, and parents are often tuned to spending time digitally, a child also gets dragged into it. If a home has a child's corner, and parents are used to spending time with children engaging in play and childhood explorations, the natural instincts of children get nurtured further.
Child development is promoted by a philosophy of childhood nurture, where parenting practices are based on play based engagements and interactions!
A pre-school child is a creation of parenting practices and an environment of play-based learning experiences!
A Tailor birds sings tunefully through its habit from early in life!
A child becomes learner by habit of childhood explorations and experiences, promoted by the intimacy of parents in their play based learning pursuit!
M.C.Mathew (text and photo)
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