Social emotional development

One of the key points is the well being of children. When they do not feel emotional well, they will not gain a high level of development. It doesn't mean that children can not feel hurt, sad, angry, .. the key point is to talk about these feelings. A lot of children can not even name what they are feeling that's why it is important to support them so they learn to express themselves.

What is SEL? 

Social emotional learning (SEL)  "Is the process through which children and adults understand and manage emotions, set and achieve positive goals, feel and show empathy for others, establish and maintain positive relationships, and make responsible decisions."

SEL Competencies

• Social awareness 
• Self awareness
• relationship skills 
• Self management 
• responsible decision making 

How to support SEL education

It is important to focus on the strengths and talents of your children. Make sure with misbehavior that there are fair consequences. Most important talk with them ask how they are feeling. When your child is angry try to find ways to calm them down. When there is a conflict ask your child questions to help them to solve their own problems. Its also okay to say sorry to your child when you are wrong.

Avoid humiliation or mocking the child. Al lot of emotions are "disapproved" by adults. When you say "You don't need to cry over that" It like saying you are not allowed to have these emotions you can not cry, ... when e.g. they miss their parent. It is not good for them, it is okay to feel sad or angry. Instead op disproving talk with the child give recognizing to their feeling and talk about it.  This way they will learn to handle their emotions better and they'll generally feel better than having to ignore these "negative" emotions like anger, sadness, ... 

Why do we lose control of our emotions? 

Watch this video from "Kids want to know" to understand how our brain works. 

Children will understand  the way their brains work  and learn to recognize and manage their emotions better. This is a source to help children, parents, educators and those who work with children to encourage mindfulness, empathy, and emotional regulation. 

Emotion stones

I made those emotion stones so children would find it more easy to talk about it. Many toddlers do not understand all the different emotions and do not always know how or why they feel that way. So it i important for us teacher parents to learn to speak about it and that is is okay to feel sad, angry, jealous, etc ... but it is about the way we handle the situation with those emotions.

I found an inspiring book "Ishi" Simple tips from a solid friend by Akiko Yabuki. It is a picture book who reminds you to see the positive in every situation, choose to be happy.

Movie Inside out 

I would strongly recommend to watch this animation movie for kids, it gives you a better inside of emotions in a easy way to understand. To movie is well thought true. We all will feel joy, sadness, anger, disgust, fear, .. all these feeling are important.  Watch here the trailer of inside out. 

Inspiring ideas childhood 101

Exercise sours https://childhood101.com/take-5-breathing-exercise/ 

Calm down with take 5 breathing, calm down yoga for kids and 9 other calm down for kids.

Inspiring idea based on the book "The colour monster" 

I participate in BSB (British school of Brussels) for a few days. I loved the idea at the entrance hall of the class. Here are four glass bowls. Each bowl represents another feeling. Red: angry, yellow: happy, green: calm, Blue: sad. This is in relation to the book "The colour monsters". When the children come into the classroom, they take a punpon of one of the four colours and put it in the bowl. In this way the teacher can see how the toddlers are feeling today. I would immediately take this idea with me to my own classroom. Feelings are so important. It is a difficult given feeling for children. That is why I believe that working around feelings is very important.

Example class practice 

We all know that one child that seems not to listen or do what you want and get angry or hurt other children. It doesn't help to punish them or keep jelling at them. It is important to highlight on what is going well. Positive attitude will help instead of focusing on the negative. 

I had this little boy in my class as a beginning teacher, who was a challenge every day. He would hurt every day somehow a child on purpose or not. When there was an incident I always tried to have a private conversation with him to talk about what happened and to ask him why I was not happy with his behavior. A lot of times he didn't know. That is why I think it is important to talk always with them so they understand what they exactly did wrong and why it is wrong. I always tried to listen to his story first to understand what was going on in his mind when things like hurting someone or breaking thing etc. happened. 

I came up with the idea to make a "silent"corner with emotion cards in the classroom where he could cool down, have a look to the emotion cards and make some drawing to express his anger, frustration, ... on a blackboard. And where he could think about why I put him there. When he was ready we talked about it and tried to find a solution to handle it better next time. 

After a while I noticed that his behavior escalated when there was too much going on in the classroom, too much noise. We came up with the idea together to put  on headphones. When it was to overwhelming for him he could wear them when he felt he needed it. 

By focusing on the things he did well, more good behavior showed of. 

Who made a difference to you during your childhood?

When you have had a thought about who made a difference for you, you should be aware that the first years of a child are very important. Children will remember who was there for them and supported them and the things where a child was criticized for will be still there ... 

My own experiences 

I will give a example of my own, why it is important to support children regardless of their abilities. As a child in kindergarten and year 1 and 2 I wasn't a happy child in the classroom. Because it was very difficult to keep up for me and it asked a lot of effort.  I started to talk on a later age then the norm and other things, ...So my parents decided to send me to a school where they provided more special care for all children with difficulties. For me that was Dyslexia  and Dyscalculie. 

Without the support of my mom that believed in me and stood by my side to continuous repeating over an over again till I understood, I would not have come where I am now. I'm a kindergarten teacher and studying International teacher. Let be this an example when you as a teacher or parent believe in your child and support them in every way it is a powerful gift. I was happier in my new school, but I still missed my friends that I spend my first 5 years with. I wouldn't have felt happy to continue in a normal school. 

Believing in the ability of every unique person is very important. I hope this blog has given you more insight in emotions and feel the importance of it. 

Do you have a personal story, I would love to listen and even share.