A Family of Friends.

For some of the children in Lower Pre-Primary, the 1st of September was the first day ever at school. Maybe the first day ever away from their parents for so very long. For a two and a half years old, this is a huge step. During the first weeks of school, I have focused on helping the children feel taken care of, safe, and loved. Amongst others, reassuring them that mom did not just vanish from the face of the Earth. I was very pleasantly surprised by how quickly the children adapted to the new situation. Within a week they were mostly happy to come to school and waved their parents away with a smile!

 

The second step for our little family was to progressively get used to the class routines. From the beginning I have encouraged children to be independent and do as many of their tasks as possible. For example, upon arrival the children must do the following: take their backpacks off, take their jackets off, hang it, open the backpack, sort out the items in the right box, close their backpack, hang it, take their shoes off, put them in the shelf and put their slippers on. For an adult, these tasks are self-evident, easy and unremarkable. For a toddler, being able to do all of this independently is an effort and an achievement. By being able to care for themselves, children develop independence, they regard themselves as capable and they develop a sense of responsibility.

A child that is used to get these sort of tasks done by an adult will, at first, resist my insistence that they do it themselves. By giving them enough time, asking them to persevere (‘try, try!’) and giving them appropriate assistance (e.g.: ‘pull the zipper’), children slowly master their tasks. Have you ever seen the face of a child the first time they master something that is hard for them? In that moment, if you can, stop whatever you had planned and jump with them celebrating that they’ve conquered the mountain!

 

Another big focus during these two months has been the socio-emotional development of the children. E.g.: What is acceptable in the class and what is not? Can we take the toy that a friend is holding without asking first? Can we run off wherever and whenever we want? How can we address and solve problems or conflicts? What can we do when we feel angry? How can we communicate our desires to our friends in the class?

There is never too much focus on socio-emotional development! The relationships they form early on help shape who they are, who they become, and their understanding of the world.

 

Family and Friends has been a great unit to start the school year. It allowed us to talk about ourselves, our families, our countries of origin, the languages we speak, etc. What do we have in common and what makes us different?

During these time each child chose the animal symbol that represents them, we made a group painting to decorate our class, we chose a name for our class tree (Mr Tree), we greet each other individually with a song and talk about who is missing and why, we learn the names of the family members of the children, we weekly visited our friends next door at Upper Pre-Primary…

It is now the end of the unit Family and Friends, but it is only the beginning of our little Family of Friends <3