Tadika Eco Lodge

🧓【设计，始于看见；理解，始于提问】👵

在《Design, Rooted in Dignity》项目里，我们邀请了一位专长于长者照护的职业治疗师（Occupational Therapist）来到 Tadika Eco Lodge，与孩子们展开一场特别的对话。

在此之前，孩子们已经经历了许多“不方便”的挑战：戴着手套扣纽扣、阅读小字、辨认低对比度颜色、操作细小物件；他们也曾走进长者日间照护中心，观察长者如何参与活动、使用工具和玩游戏。
因此，当职业治疗师来到幼儿园时，孩子们已经迫不及要把一连串真实的问题「吐」出来。

“为什么爷爷奶奶坐着运动？”
“为什么有些爷爷奶奶的手会抖，有些不会？”
“为什么有些颜色他们分不清楚？”
“东西medium是多大？大小是怎样的？”
“为什么太多rules很难？要几个才适合爺爺奶奶？”

这些问题并非来自课本，而是来自孩子亲眼所见、亲身所感。
孩子们开始把关注点从“长者做不到什么”，转向“是什么原因造成困难”，以及“我们可以如何设计得更好”。

职业治疗师Rachel姐姐很棒，她用了幼儿可以理解的语文做分享。这让孩子们进一步理解了长者在视力、动作控制、体力及认知上的变化，也重新检视自己正在设计的游戏与工具。

因为设计，是先理解人。而孩子的理解，始于愿意认真地观察，并诚恳地提出问题。

在这个项目学习的设计上，我思考许久，如何让孩子看见的并非是年龄增长带来的缺乏与无能，而是站在 humanity 的角度，学习如何透过观察、理解与科学思维，为长者设计更合适的游戏与工具。

三个月下来，孩子们长出的，不只是知识，而是细致的观察力、真实的同理心、不断追问「为什么」「如何」「什么」的好奇心，以及从他人需要出发解决问题的能力。

看见孩子们开始学会从别人的角度看世界，是件很棒的事。

真的很棒!

也谢谢 Rachel Loi 这位最有耐心的职业治疗师!





🧓 Design Begins with Seeing; Understanding Begins with Asking 👵

As part of our Design, Rooted in Dignity project, we invited Occupational Therapist Rachel Loi to Tadika Eco Lodge to support our children’s inquiry into ageing and human-centred design.

Prior to this session, the children had experienced a range of simulated age-related challenges and visited an elderly day care centre to observe how older adults engage with activities, tools, and games. These experiences sparked authentic questions:

Why do some older adults experience hand tremors while others do not?
Why are certain colours more difficult to distinguish?
How many rules are appropriate for a game designed for older adults?

These questions emerged not from direct instruction, but from careful observation and meaningful encounters with the real world.

Through Rachel’s sharing, the children gained a deeper understanding of age-related changes in vision, motor control, stamina, and cognition. More importantly, they began to shift their thinking from what older adults are unable to do, towards understanding the factors that create challenges and how thoughtful design can better support independence and participation.

At the heart of this project is a simple belief: children should not view ageing through a lens of deficit, but through a lens of humanity. By observing, questioning, and applying evidence-informed thinking, they learn to design with empathy, dignity, and purpose.

Over the past three months, the children have developed more than knowledge. They have cultivated close observation, intellectual curiosity, perspective-taking, and an emerging capacity to identify needs and respond through design.

Watching children learn to understand the world from another person's perspective has been one of the most meaningful outcomes of this project.

Our sincere thanks to Rachel Loi for generously sharing her expertise and helping deepen the children’s learning journey.

"Selamat Hari Gawai! Gayu Guru Gerai Nyamai!"🌾

May this year’s harvest bring you abundant blessings, peace, and prosperity.

Gawai was not merely celebrated at Tadika Eco Lodge today, it was lived.

Our 5 year-olds became little storytellers, sharing with the 4 and 6 year-olds what they learned from their excursion to Nagai Pangan. Together, the children prepared ayam pansuh over bamboo fire, cooked daun ubi kayu tutok, danced Ngajat around the Pohon Ranyai, and joyfully picked food and drinks from the tree in the true spirit of sharing.

The greatest beauty perhaps was this — every corner of today’s celebration was prepared by teachers and children together. The laughter, smoke from bamboo fire, little busy hands, music, dancing and shared food turned the kindergarten into a tiny kampung filled with warmth.

We are blessed to be called Anak Sarawak.

Cultures not merely spoken about, but welcomed, shared and celebrated together.

This is the true spirit of Sarawak 🧡

This Gawai is going to be a little more exciting for our 5 year-olds...

"A mother carries her child twice - first in her womb, forever in her heart."

Happy Mother's Day ❤️

A place where children love learning is always a place filled with joy.

In our Bahasa Melayu class, our 4-year-olds explored tembikai, hijau, and merah — learning new words through laughter, conversations, and juicy little discoveries together. 🍉❤️💚

🌿 从“完整呈现”到“清晰理解”

在这一次的项目中，孩子们为阿公阿嬷尝试设计一个磁力片「房子」。

一开始，他们提出用不同角度（上、前、左、右、下）拍摄「房子」，并打印成照片，让每个细节都被完整呈现。孩子们的出发点很清楚，就是想把「房子」结构讲明白，好让阿公阿嬷可以照版完成。

隔天，当孩子们自己尝试根据这些照片重建「房子」时，却发现~

“要一直看很多张，很乱”
“不知道这是上面还是旁边”
“会放错”
“会dizzy（头晕），等一下跌倒”

他们亲身感受到信息太多，反而更难理解。

于是，孩子主动将原本封闭的房子结构，改成一个正面开放、可以一眼看清的模型。这一次，只需要一张照片。

原来「完整」的解释不等于清楚，重要的是如何「让人容易理解」。

此外，孩子们也开始观察到环境对理解的影响。他们发现，当阳光透过黄色磁片照射在紫色磁片上时，紫色会呈现金色的效果。

因此，孩子见议老师拍摄时，要把「房子」放在桌子底下，这样阿公阿嬤才不会拿错 😁。

在一连串的观察、分析与反复嘗试中，孩子们不断修改自己的prototypes。

他们关注的已经不再是一个「物品」，而是整体系统的运作，比如房子结构是否稳定(多加一片磁片，"hold the weight", 孩子这么说)，信息如何呈现给阿公阿嬷(照片vs实物)，环境如何影响结果(光线)。

这是一个很真实的设计循环(design loop)，也是初步的系统思维(system thinking)。难得的是，这群孩子开始以他人为出发点做思考，如何減少困难， 让对方体验「成功完成一件事情」的快乐。

从某种意义上来说，让别人成功，本身就是一种深层的快乐。

这或许是成人世界里，比较稀缺的能力。

我想，教育走到最后，就是让人幸福，也让人更像一个「人」。

🌿 From “Completeness” to “Clarity”

In this project, children designed a magnetic-tile “house” for the elderly.

Initially, they proposed documenting the structure through multi-angle photographs (top, front, sides) to ensure completeness of information. Their intention was to communicate the structure as clearly as possible.

However, when attempting to reconstruct the model from these images, they encountered difficulties:

“It’s messy to look at many pictures.”
“Not sure which side is which.”
“Might put it wrong… feel dizzy.”

Through this experience, they recognized that an excess of information can hinder understanding.

In response, they redesigned the model—from a closed structure to an open-front configuration that allows immediate visual access. This reduced the need for multiple images; a single view became sufficient.

They thus developed an important insight:
completeness does not necessarily equate to clarity; effective communication requires reducing cognitive demand.

The children also identified the influence of environmental factors on perception. They observed that when sunlight passed through a yellow tile onto a purple one, the perceived colour shifted to gold. Consequently, they suggested controlling lighting conditions (e.g., photographing under the table) to ensure accurate interpretation.

Through iterative prototyping, observation, and refinement, the children demonstrated an emerging awareness of cognitive load and its impact on comprehension.

Their focus extended beyond the object itself to a broader systemic perspective, including:

🌱 structural stability (“add one more piece to hold the weight”),
🌱modes of representation (photograph versus physical model),
🌱 environmental variables (light and colour).

This reflects an authentic design iteration process and the development of early systems thinking.

Most significantly, the children began to adopt a user-centred perspective—seeking to reduce difficulty and enable others to successfully complete the task.

In this context, facilitating another’s success becomes a meaningful outcome in itself.

Such dispositions suggest that education, at its core, is concerned not only with knowledge acquisition, but with cultivating the capacity to understand others and to contribute to human flourishing.




#教育无他唯爱与榜样
#看见教育千树成林