Here at Sunny Patch Preschool we believe the first five years are the foundation of how your child thinks and sees herself in the world. Does she feel confident? Can he set boundaries appropriately with peers? Does she have the confidence and social skills to make a freind? Is he socially aware enough to offer a hug when somenone is sad? Can she ask for a hug when she's feeling sad and needs emotioal support?
These are all things that many adults struggle with and as we all reflect on our own lives we can see how important these skills are!
Self awareness and social skills are not olny the key to having and keeping friendships all throughout life, they are also indicators of your child's self esteem. In order to be aware enough to spontaneously engage in any of the above behaviors your child has to both emotionally aware and have the self confidence to engage in behaviors that will fill his or her needs. He or she also has to have the language for solving problems and getting those needs met.
In our classroom our staff are trained in ways to help your children develop tools to navigate sticky social situations using the following 5 strategies:
Facilitating connection - The MOST important thing we do to support your child's emotional needs is to foster a feeling of belonging. As soon as your child comes in for the day one of our team members are ready to joyfully hug and greet her. We want your child to feel that we are and extension of your family and we are looking forward to spending the day together! We have a few activities ready for play, we can help your child find a friend or if needed we can snuggle on the play couches until your little one warms up. Whatever your child's emotional needs are we meet them right from the beginning so that we all have a fun day.
Offering unstructured playtime - Unstructured playtime is SO important for your child's overall emotional wellbeing, creativity and imagination. During this time the children are free to choose thier playmates and follow thier interests.We are always rotating new toys into the room so there are plenty of things to explore. Lots of disagreements over toys, the direction of play, invasion of space or hurt feelings naturally happen, teachers are there to support your child as she learns to problem solve. We ask questions to get to the bottom of the problem and offer language or emotional support to walk the children through ways to resolve conflicts. This takes lots of PRACTICE and opportunities through conflicts that naturally come up during play.
Modeling empathy - We often get new students into our program who are leaving mom and dad for the first time, we pair our new children up with an adult who is physically available to offer comfort as much as necesssary through the transtion period. While the new child is adjusting we narrate the child's feelings, how we are offering emotional support and how the children in our class can offer support. Often our newer children will bring toys, books, offer hugs or invite the new children to play using the strategies the adults use in the classroom.
Offering scripted responses - Often times when children are playing together and a conflict arises there can be alot of tears because a child doesn't yet have the words to resolve conflicts or set boundaries. In our classroom we have scripted responses for the children that they can use when another child is invading thier space or taking thier things. For instance if a child is using toys and another child starts taking their things, our children know to say "I'm having a turn." or if a toddler is getting handsy the oldre children are taught to redirect by holding the toddlers hands and saying "Gentle hands" Adults only get involved if the other child is not responding to the redirction. This gives the children an opportunity to resolve the conflict independently.
Offering LOTS of outdoor time - We have a beautiful half acre lot with three seperate play areas for the children. Our fenced in play space where we usually have a craft or games in additon to climbers and outdoor toys. Our big field where we play games, ride bikes or play ball and our covered porch where we play with the puppies. There's always something fun to do and lots of ways to get those wiggles out!
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