earlychildhoodeducation Archives - Page 9 of 9 - Early Learning Childhood Education

16/03/201516/03/2015

Harmony Day – Gratitude and Thank-you

Harmony Day on March 21 is a celebration of cultural diversity and inclusiveness across Australia and last Thursday we marked the beginning of our Bonkers Beat Harmony Week at Bonkers Beat Music Kinder.

With this year’s theme ‘Gratitude and Thank-you’, we embarked on a community project together – our Gratitude Tree. Last Thursday we invited current and new families to come along to an Open Day at the kinder where they contributed to our Gratitude Tree and were able to see our centre in action. Coming together as a community is something that is truly reflective of the spirit of Harmony Day and Week, and we found it was a special way of celebrating inclusiveness and expressing gratitude for what we all bring to our Bonkers Beat family and local community.

We have been discussing many aspects of gratitude and giving thanks with children. Some of the questions that have been coming up are ‘Why do we need to say thank you?’, and ‘What are some ways we can express gratitude?’. Our display of clay ornaments depicted what each child was thankful for, and very sweet ideas flowed from the children, making it an enjoyable project for everyone.

As our Harmony Week continues this week, we anticipate more celebration of a sense of belonging for one and all through the inclusion of many parents who will be sharing their cultural diversity and traditions with our children and educators.

The Harmony Day website has some great ideas to celebrate:

-Sport, dancing and eating: play world sports together and involve everyone, learn new dances from countries across the world, or enjoy foods of different cultures.
-Arts and crafts: use your creative abilities to make something that symbolises the different cultures of your local community. You could even hold a poster or art competition.
-Music and sounds: apply your musical talents to reflect your experience of different cultures or traditions — rhyme, rap, or rock to a story about culture and experience. You could even hold a concert for everyone to enjoy.
-Listen and learn: invite an Indigenous elder or someone who has migrated to Australia to come and share their story and culture with your class. You could even research more information about their story or write about your own.

We’ve shared some great images on our Facebook page and hope they inspire you. We would love to hear how you will be celebrating Harmony Day in either your centre or your homes. Join our celebration and use social media to share with us!

22/09/201423/09/2014

How You Can Incorporate Mindfulness into Every Day

In early childhood education many approaches come and go when it comes to teaching children to handle their feelings, many of which they may be experiencing for the first time. One such approach that is prevalent at the moment is mindfulness.

You may have heard of mindfulness, but if you haven’t or you’re not sure what it means, this definition explains it quite well: “a mental state achieved by focusing one’s awareness on the present moment, while calmly acknowledging and accepting one’s feelings, thoughts, and bodily sensations, used as a therapeutic technique.”

On Reachout.com it is described as being “about training yourself to pay attention in a specific way. When a person is mindful, they:
-focus on the present moment
-try not to think about anything that went on in the past or that might be coming up in future
-purposefully concentrate on what’s happening around them
-try not to be judgemental about anything they notice, or label things as ‘good’ or ‘bad.’”

It is safe to say that practicing mindfulness is something that just about anyone will benefit from, no matter the age. One way that is frequently recommended is through one of our favourite things at Bonkers Beat and that is meditation.

We have talked about meditation previously on our blog, and often parents and other educators query how on earth it is possible to get very young children to sit still and partake in the act of meditating but it truly is possible through some gentle guidance. It only takes mere minutes of deep breathing and some thoughtful reflection each day for your children (and adults) to feel happier, more relaxed and more in control of feelings and life in general.

Practicing mindfulness works towards combating stress, dealing with all the obstacles life throws at us and ultimately (and crucially), building resilience.

Here’s three additional tips from ParentsCanada.com that are easy and fun ways of incorporate mindfulness into every day:

Mindful listening: Tell your child you are going to ring a bell or a tone bar. Ask them to listen carefully to the sound of the bell and raise their hands when they can no longer hear it.

Breath awareness: Have your child lie down on a mat on the floor, or on their bed, and place their favourite stuffed animal on their belly. Have them rock the stuffed animal to sleep with the movement of their belly as they breathe in and out. This is how they can begin to pay attention to their breathing.

Mindful eating: This is a time when playing with your food is OK. Give your child a piece of fruit and ask them to pretend they are from another planet and have never seen this piece of fruit before. Ask them to describe their experience using all five senses. What does it look like? Smell like? Feel like? Taste like? Does it make a sound when you bite it?

What can you share with us about mindfulness? If you have some mindfulness techniques that you have seen results from, we’d love if you would share them with our Bonkers Beat community here or on our Facebook page.

05/08/201415/04/2015

Growing Through Emotional Intelligence

Children’s imaginations are racing every day as their various types of intelligence are developed and they continue to learn new things. One particularly crucial area that they are experimenting with and learning about is emotions.

Emotional intelligence and awareness are very important skills for becoming a confident, resilient adult. The Victorian government’s education website identifies the set of skills involved in emotional intelligence, which includes:

Knowing your own emotions
Recognising and being sensitive to other people’s emotions
Knowing how to calm down when you are upset or angry
Developing the skills of restraint—knowing when it is wise not to say or do something.

Here are some ways you might like to consider developing children’s emotional intelligence:

Emotional literacy – identifying emotions in others and in ourselves, giving them a name so they can be acknowledged, accepted and dealt with in an acceptable way
Activities focused on expression of feelings – instead of writing about how something made them feel, younger children may like to draw how they felt during a certain time
Conflict resolution role play – demonstrating and working with children to show them how to find a solution to a problem with others in a fair and measured manner
Reflecting on triumphs – encouraging children to remember times where they came out on top facing a challenge to assist them with developing optimism

(Reference: http://www.happychild.com.au/articles/teaching-emotional-intelligence-how-schools-can-educate-children-for-life)

Whether at home or within a childcare or kinder setting, the first step towards promoting positivity and wellbeing when it comes to emotions is allowing children to see that all feelings are okay, including the bad ones. A fantastic article on Berkeley’s ‘Greater Good’ site makes a powerful comment: “Terrible feelings like jealousy and fear and greed are invitations to grow, to understand ourselves better and to become a better person. When you see these “undesirable” emotions in children, think of them as opportunities to both learn more about their inner-world and—importantly—to teach them how to deal with negative emotions now and in the future.”