The day for the 3 to 4 year olds had just begun where they all sat down after the Welcome Song. Since the new academic year has just been kick started, they were all pondering on the new things they were about to learn this year, things that they remember from last year, etc.
They are currently in Cubs (3-4 years). The hierarchy at SM goes like this,
Guppies, Pups, Calves, Cubs, Joeys, Dolphins, Leopards, Falcons and Unicorns (from 1.5 year olds to 18year olds) and An seemed curious.
An: What is after Joeys, ma'am?
Facilitator (F): Dolphins.
An: And then?
F: Then we have Leopards, Falcons and Unicorns.
Av: They are all animal names.
F: Yes, absolutely!
An, not having registered Av's comment continues: It will take us a long time to get there.
F: Yeah, a few years. Which is awesome because you will get to learn so much and have so much fun doing it too!!
An, looking like she's given up: Ahh, so tiring ma'am. We'll be so tired by then.
F: What do you mean?
An: School is so boring ma'am. All these letters and numbers and activities. I don't want to come.
F: Why do you feel like that? Because the An that I know loves to come and learn things.
An (nodding a clear no): No I don't. I don't want to learn any of these. They are boring. I get so tired. It's so tiring.
An has been visibly quite off since the morning, so the Facilitator asked her a couple more questions, which seemed to just go in the loops of 'tiring' and 'boring' and an overall 'quitting' mode.
F: Are you really bored and tired, or are you just having a bad day?
An (suddenly sitting up, giving it a second to think, seemingly more clear in her thoughts now): I'm just having a bad day.
F: What happened?
An: I didn't sleep well. I woke up to drink water.
Then she was taken through the loops she had created in her head which connected school and her overall energy for that day, and given more clarity which she then agreed to that they were two separate things after all.
F: So you're saying you didn't sleep well and woke up at night and you're tired because of that?
An nods in agreement.
F: Does it still mean that you consider school boring and tiring? And you don't like the activities?
An: No I think I am just tired today.
F: okay. See you just mixed it here. You were feeling tired because you didn't sleep well and you thought you didn't like school because of how tired you felt. See these two are not connected.
An nodding in agreement: Yeah.
She seemed to have resolved that little loop she had created and the rest of the day went by smooth for her and her energy seemed high too.
It's important to help children see perspective and let them talk and figure things out for themselves without jumping in and resolving things immediately. Understanding their thought patterns and going deeper is essential to resolve conflicts and move ahead. What happened with this 4 year old was an important lesson for the child and the rest of the children who were listening to this conversation because it helped them see perspective and probably resolve things quicker later.
Contributed by Sruthy Krishna, Learning Facilitator at Sparkling Mindz Global Preschool.
They are currently in Cubs (3-4 years). The hierarchy at SM goes like this,
Guppies, Pups, Calves, Cubs, Joeys, Dolphins, Leopards, Falcons and Unicorns (from 1.5 year olds to 18year olds) and An seemed curious.
An: What is after Joeys, ma'am?
Facilitator (F): Dolphins.
An: And then?
F: Then we have Leopards, Falcons and Unicorns.
Av: They are all animal names.
F: Yes, absolutely!
An, not having registered Av's comment continues: It will take us a long time to get there.
F: Yeah, a few years. Which is awesome because you will get to learn so much and have so much fun doing it too!!
An, looking like she's given up: Ahh, so tiring ma'am. We'll be so tired by then.
F: What do you mean?
An: School is so boring ma'am. All these letters and numbers and activities. I don't want to come.
F: Why do you feel like that? Because the An that I know loves to come and learn things.
An (nodding a clear no): No I don't. I don't want to learn any of these. They are boring. I get so tired. It's so tiring.
An has been visibly quite off since the morning, so the Facilitator asked her a couple more questions, which seemed to just go in the loops of 'tiring' and 'boring' and an overall 'quitting' mode.
F: Are you really bored and tired, or are you just having a bad day?
An (suddenly sitting up, giving it a second to think, seemingly more clear in her thoughts now): I'm just having a bad day.
F: What happened?
An: I didn't sleep well. I woke up to drink water.
Then she was taken through the loops she had created in her head which connected school and her overall energy for that day, and given more clarity which she then agreed to that they were two separate things after all.
F: So you're saying you didn't sleep well and woke up at night and you're tired because of that?
An nods in agreement.
F: Does it still mean that you consider school boring and tiring? And you don't like the activities?
An: No I think I am just tired today.
F: okay. See you just mixed it here. You were feeling tired because you didn't sleep well and you thought you didn't like school because of how tired you felt. See these two are not connected.
An nodding in agreement: Yeah.
She seemed to have resolved that little loop she had created and the rest of the day went by smooth for her and her energy seemed high too.
It's important to help children see perspective and let them talk and figure things out for themselves without jumping in and resolving things immediately. Understanding their thought patterns and going deeper is essential to resolve conflicts and move ahead. What happened with this 4 year old was an important lesson for the child and the rest of the children who were listening to this conversation because it helped them see perspective and probably resolve things quicker later.
Contributed by Sruthy Krishna, Learning Facilitator at Sparkling Mindz Global Preschool.
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