Why Five Days a Week

All our programs at Baan Dek are five days per week. We’d love to take this opportunity to explain why. It might be our most frequently asked question, and it’s a perfectly normal one to ask.

We hope we get to the heart of the answer here, but after reading the post, and looking at the photos (notice the concentration, contentment and persistence!), if you have more questions, please don’t hesitate to get in touch. We’re always happy to help.

Basically, the idea is that when children come to school every day, it helps provide them with a solid foundation. Montessori believed, and this is a principle that we follow at Baan Dek, that consistency and routine are extremely important.

Consistency helps children feel at ease and slowly gain confidence in the world around them. Not only do they get a chance to practice new skills, they increasingly start to develop independence in their everyday lives.

[quote] Going to school one day and not the next, can be jarring for a young child. [/quote]

As we get older, it’s not that consistency becomes less important – for many of us, we actually thrive on our habits and routines – but rather, that we learn how to adapt and become more spontaneous and open to change.

Unlike children, however, we are typically in control of our decisions. In the very least, we understand why things were mixed-up. We grasp what happened and it’s not as startling or confusing when our routines are interrupted.

[full-image url=”https://baandek.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/socialsuccess.jpg”]

We have a phrase that we like to say around here. Social success leads to academic success. The thought is, if a child feels like they belong to the classroom, that they are important to the group and missed if they are absent, it leads to a feeling of peace and ease in this learning environment.

Again, it can sometimes be hard for us, as adults, to relate to this logic of consistency, but here’s a concrete example that might be of relevance. Think, for instance, how we feel when we miss a few days at work, especially in the middle of the week. We can feel disoriented and out of place.

When we return to work, we have the sensation that we’re constantly trying to catch up. Things are just a bit amiss, until we can once again establish our consistency. Not only does this pertain to our tasks, but perhaps even more importantly, to our relationships.

Even if they might not be able to fully articulate their emotions, children share our sentiments towards inconsistency. Coming to school five days per week provides the best consistency and routine for children, which we believe is fundamental to strong development at this early, formative age.