Celebrating the Small Successes of Our Little Ones
We have all wished for our children to succeed in the future. Every small milestone and accomplishment is something we all celebrate! It is every parent’s dream to see them successfully navigate a task with ease.
Every praise from us teaches our kids how being welcoming and nice creates progression. Even young, they understand how great it feels when getting praises, be it from teachers or parents. When they foster a friendly and interactive attitude for themselves, it promotes a positive attitude for their future as they will consistently support other people in the future as well.
Even for us parents, simply celebrating every small success they make is just fun! The more energy being put in to motivate them enables them to never give up on difficult tasks, and it brings us closer to the children as they grow older!
With everyone being born differently from the others, here in Ilham Child Care, the teachers have found that every child has different methods to grow. We understand that kids are more attentive than we usually give them credit for, and they are modelled after the behaviour of not only the parents but the teachers here as well.
To that extent, we consistently ensure when we praise their classmates for something successful they have done, we let everyone else in class go ahead and celebrate as well!
An example of this is when one of the kids assists the teachers in distributing the worksheets in the class, the teacher will get the whole class to thank the child together. This helps the child giving out the worksheet to not only feel appreciated for helping out the teacher but also promotes a positive mentality within the other children who will come to understand that when others help them, being thankful about it is the basic courtesy they can give to someone else.
To even further extend how the teachers in Ilham Child Care promote this, we practice constant praises and positive reinforcements for daily activities and routines, even by just the words we say to them. Instead of saying “Do not run”, we instead say “Walking feet!” or rather than telling them to “Be quiet”, we instead use the words “Indoor/inside voice!”.
This way, rather than use negative words that might impact their lives, we choose to use alternative words where they can understand what should be done and what should not be!
While we can enjoy sharing and celebrating the improvements of every child’s progressions, emotional, self-help skills and self-regulation of emotions, there always comes a time where our kids would instead turn to violence. To prevent such behaviour in the future, we consistently encourage them to use their words. When they managed to do so, we would always be there to give them the approval for it, to ensure they understand using their words is better than physical confrontations.
Simply by saying “Good! I noticed you told your friend you are unhappy instead of using violence!” goes a long way for them to understand it was the right choice, making them appreciative of that.
While the teachers can promote this positive attitude, no one but their friends around them could heighten their confidence even more so! When a child receives praises and validation from their friends, they will feel encouraged and be further willing to go forward in this positive attitude. When successfully navigating a task, their friends would be the first person they look for approval, and in instilling them to consistently be positive to their friend’s success, it would ensure our kids can grow into fine people for the future!
They encourage their peers when a task is completed, or even assist them to complete a task! A simple “Do you need help with your worksheets?” or “Do you need help to carry your things?” goes a long way in creating an environment where your kids do not feel the need to be shy and do everything on their own. It will ensure they will ask for help in the future if they need to, and constantly help others when they can!
Every small appreciation goes a long way to moulding our children’s future! How do our methods sound to you? Do you have any tips for our teachers for the future of your children?