Instructions for using Poleidoblocs for Free Construction sessions and results from the Harlow Study of responses to these sessions.

Children think in action.

At the age of entering school, children are unable to focus for long on one subject; but it is natural for them to perceive several aspects of any given object at the same time; children respond to the world around them with a natural curiosity, they want to explore with all their senses, to construct, to take to pieces, to compare and to experiment.

Children do not use ‘words’ as tools for thought till much later, but they ‘think’ with the objects they handle just as later they will use logical thought to solve a given problem.

Poleidoblocs are designed to meet children just as they are when entering school and to go with them throughout school life. ‘Learning’ is something quite different from memorising. Children ‘learn’ in their own way: Poleidoblocs make it possible for them to combine several functions at the same time, focussed at a single point: while they work they acquire knowledge i.e. they learn.

In Infant classes children should be given opportunity for Free Construction sessions during actual school hours, for 2 – 3 terms before the teacher begins to utilise the knowledge the children have gained through Free Construction for actual teaching.

For Junior classes and upwards Poleidoblocs G should always be taken first. And worked with for at least one term. Poleidoblocs A can then be introduced and used until some familiarity with them has been gained.