The Natural Laws of Children

In order to keep a record of the presentations which we had given to each child, we designed a checklist which we stuck discreetly to one of the classroom walls with blu tack. After presenting an activity to a child, we marked a dot on the checklist in a neutral colour (black or blue). This enabled us to keep a precise record of what presentations we had given and therefore to guide each child appropriately in the choice of activities.

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Before printing it out, we suggest you type the children's first names in the left-hand column and use the same colour in the rows for children in the same year. We know from experience that this is a very handy resource for quickly making a record of a presentation given to a child. After printing it out, you can laminate it and use a marker pen to check off the activities presented.

How do I make a record of the skills acquired?

For some activities, such as the knotting board or paper folding, we erased the neutrally coloured dot and replaced it with a green dot as soon as the child had mastered tying knots or folding paper. This way, we knew that such-and-such a child would be able to help the little ones to tie their laces and that another child was ready for simple origami presentations. For other practical activities, we just noted which activities had been presented, because we should always bear in mind that the objective of these activities is not that the children 'pass the test'. Rather, the objective lies in everything which they construct within themselves – executive skills, self-confidence, perseverance – as they try to reach the goal which we have formulated to them.

To find out more, please view the 'Record-keeping' video in the theoretical underpinning section.