Readiness

I feel that the child shows they are ready to learn something or move onto something more challenging by showing interest. The child may be interested in something on their own, or within themselves, or the teacher may show them something or show them that they are capable of learning something new to get them motivated. Before they learn a more challenging task, they obviously have to master previous simpler tasks and ideas. They can set goals for themselves and work towards these goals with the help of the teacher and their peers. They also may show they are ready for bigger and better things or a new grade level when they feel comfortable explaining what they have already learned to another person. To begin with these new ideas, the teacher may guide the children in coming up with things they want to learn, within limits without the children knowing. They then feel like they came up with the curriculum and feel motivated and ready to learn this material. This is an important part of being ready. If the children don't want to learn it, they will never be ready to learn it in the first place, which makes them unable to learn the concept.