At Little Kinder Montessori, we take mental and emotional well-being seriously. As our children grow older and becomes increasingly involved in the company of others, they will learn that behaving well encompasses a broad range of positive actions and attitudes beyond simple sharing of toys and following simple instructions. To a certain extent, learning how to behave well is basically a matter of conditioning – when a positive behaviour is consistently recognized, it proliferates; whereas when it is ignored, it dwindles and disappears. The aims of our social emotional learning education are:
Learning Goal 1:
Develop an awareness of personal identity
Learning Goal 2:
Manage their own emotions and behaviour
Learning Goal 3:
Show respect for diversity
Learning Goal 4:
Communicate, interact and build relationships with others
Learning Goal 5:
Take responsibility for their actions
The way we approach it is to bring it to the forefront of our school activities, concretise the desired quality and reinforce it both at school and home as often and as early as necessary so that it becomes ingrained in our children’s core personalities. We do that by touching on a different topic every month by way of a discussion, story-telling and parent involvement project. Mostly it will culminate in something that is tangible like the creation of a responsibility checklist which can be continue to be used long after the topic of the month is over.
While there isn’t a universal definition as to what constitutes a “good citizen”, at Little Kinder Montessori, we prioritise on a child being able to function effectively in a social setting. Therefore our monthly themes revolves highly around a child’s emotional well-being (relationship with self and others, responsibility, gratitude and cheerfulness) as well as being an effective member of social group (cooperation, generosity, respect for others, helpfulness and citizenship). Lastly, we incorporate creativity and leadership into their inner resources for them to navigate themselves in the unknown future world. With this in mind, this is forms the main themes of our social emotional learning programme.
January - Relationship with self | July - Respect for others |
February Relationship with others | August - Citizenship |
March - Helpfulness | September - Creativity |
April - Responsibility | October - Leadership |
May - Gratitude | November - Cooperation |
June - Generosity | December – Cheerfulness |
With all that being said and done, having good character is a lifelong process and the most important of all perhaps is to have independence of mind. After all, we do not want just mindless obedience but a child who is able to think and make good decisions independently and resist negative influences from their surroundings in the future.