This is the most interesting age group to teach!
Care with children at this age may be the solution to many problems of adolescence.
- Physically: They are always on the move and full of energy. They are always doing something, but their work is more focused. It is better to channel their restlessness into creative activity rather than stopping them from doing things.
- Mentally an investigator: They love details and facts. The teacher has to know his/her subject well. The child puts things to the test – classifying everything into true or false, fact or fiction. They also tend to collect things; cards, stickers, facts etc.
Children this age require little effort to learn and memorise things, so now is the time to fix in their minds what we want them to remember.
They are developing reasoning ability. They can think things through to arrive at conclusions. Encourage them to read.
- Socially: Although at the beginning of this age group the child’s relationship with other children takes the form of competition, later they learn the meaning of team play. This is the age where habits are easily formed and we should take advantage of this time to teach good habits.
- Spiritually: This is the beginning of the age of hero-worship. Boys will idolise men from real life and physical achievement, e.g. famous sportsmen. Girls may idolise men and women from films or books. Sometimes there may be a great change in the behaviour of a child and the explanation may simply be that they have found a new hero/heroine to emulate.