ABSTRACT
As the earlier chapters have described, play-/child-centred learning should be an activity based on the children’s maturational stage and natural desires and to encourage development (remembering this has four fields, i.e. social, emotional, motor and intellectual). Learning opportunities and activities have to begin where the children are and then enhance that status in a positive, timely way. As Donaldson (1978) attests, ‘Teaching is not about children acquiring a series of skills – learning should always develop in a meaningful (to the child) context.’ So numbers can best be learned by looking at road signs and buses, on the counters in shops and on mobile phones!
