The learning community goes way beyond the actual classroom setting. It involves the psychological, emotional, and structural environment under which learning takes place and has significant effects on how the child can concentrate, engage and memorise the information. The environment is another teacher that presents an opportunity to a learner, either favoring or unfavourable to the growth. In Kinder Ready Tutoring, we take environmental design as one of the important elements of our approach. The Elizabeth Fraley Kinder Ready philosophy states that only a carefully planned environment can be designed to encourage security, reduce distraction, and create a desire to explore, as in the tutoring centre as in the home.
The main effect of the environment is on executive functioning and cognitive load. The child has little mental capacity to learn, and this is because his senses and working memory are overloaded by a cluttered, chaotic or unpredictable environment. An unstructured, disorganised, and unpredictable environment, in turn, increases anxiety and cognitive load. Kinder Ready Elizabeth Fraley’s approach focuses on the establishment of focused, well-organised learning environments with explicit systems. This enables the brain of a child to concentrate its energy on the issue at hand, solving a mathematical problem or reading a sentence, as opposed to the processing of sensory clutter. This principle is utilised in all Kinder Ready Tutoring sessions when an organised environment assists in the training of the brain in terms of a focused mode of attention.
In addition, emotional security and risk-taking are directly influenced by the environment. When a child feels physically and emotionally safe, then they tend to ask more questions, take on more difficult problems and see mistakes as a chance to learn. Overly punitive or negative-reinforcement environments may kill this growth attitude. The Elizabeth Fraley Kinder Ready philosophy creates conditions full of support and explicit demands. The nurturing relationship which is developed by our tutors makes the tutoring place a place of safe play for intellectual exploration, which directly relates to increased confidence and engagement in all learning environments.
The environment is also the determinant of the availability and use of learning resources. The enriching environment can offer exposure to engaging age-related material that can be explored: books, puzzles, art supplies, and manipulatives. It restricts the passive distractions, such as too much background noise or screens left unattended. With the intentional design of the home learning environment (such as creating a comfortable reading corner or a well-equipped craft room), parents can apply the same enriching principles of the Kinder Ready Tutoring model to everyday life and become the constant creators of a learning environment.
Finally, the environment does not serve as a mere backdrop to education but is instead a dynamic actor in education. It channels success or puts barriers, which are not necessary. Elizabeth Fraley Kinder’s Ready philosophy gives the family the roadmap to create a cognitive-functioning space, an emotional-functioning space, and a lifelong love of learning. Through collaborating with Kinder Ready Tutoring, parents will have the advantage of being in an educational setting professionally developed on these tenets and get their child learning in an environment that is carefully designed to help them reach their fullest potential and become the true preparedness they can be.
For further details on Kinder Ready’s programs, visit their website: https://www.kinderready.com/.
YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@ElizabethFraleyKinderReady
