NUACHTÁN KINDER | October 2021

7 steps to foster children’s autonomy at home through order

By Miss Ana Paola Gerdingh | Coordination of Student Activities

Experts in child development tell us about the importance of stimulating autonomy during the first years of life, being the basis of learning to be able to function in a safer way throughout life. Children’s autonomy can be fostered by teaching order at home.

Organization and order play a very important role, because applying it in their lives will help us to promote that autonomy in a more effective way.

The 7 main keys to promoting autonomy through order are:

1. Observe

Before starting we must observe, think about what lifestyle and habits our children have, to see what their routines are and how they carry them out.

Having all that information will make it easier when making decisions.

2. Communicate

Once we know what their routines are, the time has come to create appropriate organizational systems for them.

The aim is to make life easier for them and adapt the environment to their needs.

For example, we can add a hanger at their height at the entrance of the house so they can put their jackets and backpacks when they get home from school.

It is very important that we communicate with children and that we ask their opinion to know if the organizational systems that we have proposed at home are suitable to their needs and comfort.

Sometimes we can believe that it is the best; but only they, who are going to use them, will be able to know.

3. Categorize

To maintain order and, above all, for children to be more autonomous, the ideal is to organize things by categories, so that they can find things better and even sort them more easily.

4. Storage products

Once we create categories, to be able to separate them from each other, we can use boxes, cans, pots, hangers, drawers, shelves, trunks… that help us define each category without mixing everything nonsense.

A good idea is to create these storages with the children, making crafts and taking advantage of the opportunity to enjoy some time with the family.

Therefore, this activity, will help us promote not only children’s autonomy through order, but also in the joint creation of organizational methods.

5. Label

Labeling each category that we previously separated in your storage, indicating what it contains, is very convenient.

This will allow the child to perfectly identify what goes in each section without needing to ask at every moment where things are.

In this way, we will be promoting children’s autonomy.

If they still can’t read, you can put pictures or even photos of the content, which best suits each stage.

6. Accompany

Children go through different stages from the moment they begin to handle objects.

A first one, in which they need you for everything, a second one, in which they need your guidance and company to collect or look for things and a last one, in which they can do it on their own.

We must be patient and let them do it little by little and make them see that we are by their side to accompany them and to help them in whatever they need.

When a child succeeds in doing something alone, we are reinforcing his self-esteem and his autonomy.

7. Congratulate

It is just as important to teach them how to order or pick up, as it is to acknowledge it.

Congratulate them every time they do something well and that they feel happy with their achievements, as it will boost their self-esteem and motivation to have more and more desire to do it well, we all like to be told nice things.

Anyway, whenever you need to correct something, do it calmly, explaining how to do it and making them see that it is not a bad thing since everything has a solution and they are learning.

Let your children do things themselves.

https://www.guiainfantil.com Alba Caamaño, Professional Organizer

The importance of implementing the values

By Montserrat Flores | Kindergarten Assistant

The formation in values ​​in the schools has a transcendental importance in the education.

Nowadays, an educational process focused solely on the acquisition of knowledge is not conceived. There is a growing interest in contributing to the education of citizens with values ​​that allow them, not only to coexist in today’s world, but to commit to its transformation, based on their growth as human beings.

The role of the school in the education of values ​​presents differential characteristics with regard to that of the family, opening up new possibilities for moral and social formation.

Values ​​can be taught and learned.

 The educational institution is one of the main agents of axiological education.

Different authors highlight the need for the educational process to deal with the education of values ​​from non-traditional positions, insisting on the need to plan the process so that it is possible to experience the values, that the school becomes an ethical community in its own operation, rejecting the traditional conception of inculcation of values ​​in a formal way.

“More than teaching values, the important thing is to live them, to configure a human world, in which values ​​are a guide along the way”.

S. Jerez (1996, p.101) INSTITUTO UNIVERSITARIO DE CIENCIAS DE LAEDUCACIÓN UNIVERSIDAD AUTÓNOMA DE MADRID. (2002). Journal of Educational Research and Innovation. 15/09/2021, from REVISTAS UAM Website: https://revistas.uam.es/tarbiya/issue/view/403/245

The role of the teacher in the PYP

By Miss Pilar Lavín | PYP Coordination

In the early years of the PYP, teachers assume various roles and identities, including the following:

• Facilitator
• Researcher
• Participant
• Challenging
• Guide
• Observer
• Documenter
• Thoughtful professional

Through these flexible perspectives, teachers plan and facilitate student’s learning and their own teaching, in addition to providing scaffolding and reflection.

 Also, by monitoring and reacting to the development of individual learning, teachers maintain a careful balance between planning and documenting learning, on the one hand, and group progress, on the other.

The actions, reactions and interactions of the teacher with children at all times are key to the cognitive development of the latter (Copple and Bredekamp, ​​2009).

Teachers in the early years of the PYP create stimulating learning spaces, listen carefully to students and generate interesting paths of inquiry.

They strive to maintain a balance between listening to each student, shaping shared inquiries, and reaffirming overall intentions.

Using a repertoire of strategies, tools, and knowledge, teachers work closely with students to collaboratively generate inquiries and reflect on their practices on a regular basis.

Teachers also help students develop social and emotional competence, as this is related to children’s emotional well-being and their ability to adapt to new environments, as well as to establish fruitful relationships throughout their lives (Council National Child Development Scientist, 2004). For example, by placing game as a central factor in children’s development, teachers build a safe environment in which students can learn about the world at their own pace (Rushton & Juola-Rushton, 2010).

© International Baccalaureate Organization, 2018.

Language development

By Miss Iliana Brien | English Academic Coordination

Language development is essential to meet the instinctive need to communicate that human beings have.

Language learning includes the development of source languages, school languages ​​and additional languages, as well as the development of literacy.

This is critical to exploring and maintaining cognitive and personal development and cultural identity.

The teaching and learning of the language are social acts, which depend on relationships with others, the context, the environment, the world and oneself.

The principles and values ​​of the Primary Years Program (PYP) on the language are present, implicitly, in the profile of the learning community and, explicitly, in the attribute “communicators” as well as in the IB approaches of learning.

The Celtic School is committed to multilingualism as a means of strengthening cultural identity and developing an international mindset.

The term “multilingualism” in the PYP refers to linguistic competence in more than one language and recognizes that all a student’s languages ​​can develop at different levels and in different contexts, depending on their social and academic experiences. Thus, multilingualism carries cognitive benefits related to:

• Attention and concentration
• The thinking skills associated with problem solving
• Consideration of language

(Kessler and Quinn, 1980; Zelasko and Antunez, 2000)

Multilingualism represents the interaction between a person’s languages, including their interactions with other people and with the attitudes of the learning community towards languages.

Becoming multilingual provides us with a means of deepening our understanding of alternative perspectives and connecting with others.

Multilingualism takes into account the complex reality of the diverse sociocultural contexts of the world in which we live.

Multilingual students have a greater capacity to think, speak and reflect on how languages ​​work, which is why the students of Celtic School learn an additional language from Daycare, and then, add a third language, having already acquired the ability to decode more than one language.

Through the learning of additional languages, students become cognitively more flexible, creative, and effective in problem resolution.

Students who see and hear their own languages ​​in the learning environment, and who are invited to actively connect with their past language experiences, connect more quickly with the community and with their own learning (Cummins, 2000).

All members of the learning community are interested and involved in languages, they inquire about it and see themselves as agents throughout the process.

Based on:

© International Baccalaureate Organization, 2005-2021

The importance of crawling for literacy

By Miss Iliana Romero | Spanish Academic Coordination

1. Crawling helps the baby to exercise and improve eyesight, learn to focus both eyes and do it at a distance. This will help him to place the book at the correct distance when he begins to read and write.

2. It stimulates the tactility of the palm of the hand, that is to say, it acquires the necessary sensitivity to be able to have control of the line of writing in the future. The palm of the hand is massaged as the baby crawls, sending information to the brain about textures and sensations.

3. The crossed movement pattern is developed which consists of moving the right arm and the left foot and vice versa. The hemispheres of the brain work in a coordinated way and can perform simultaneous movements with both sides of the body, such as passing an object from one hand to the other or writing on a sheet of paper, in the future.

4. Crawling develops hand-eye coordination, in such a way that when crawling, the baby establishes a similar distance between the eye and the hand that she will need later when reading and writing.

5. When crawling the baby has to hold her weight with both hands, thus acquiring stability in the shoulders and palms of the hands. Both are strengths for fine motor skills, which is what she will later exercise when drawing or writing.

6. When a baby crawls, she is promoting spatial awareness, she learns to know her own size and the size of the objects around her. In this way she gains a sense of depth, quantity or size, something important in learning to read and write.

https://www.guiainfantil.com/articulos/bebes/desarrollo/el-inicio-gateo-del-bebe-paso-a-paso/

Play therapy in children

By Miss Paulina Cisneros | Psychopedagogy

Every day, psychologists look for the best way to approach and work with children.

Play therapy is one of the best tools for this. Through dynamics and toys, psychologists can interact and seek development and growth.

From child and educational psychology, methods and techniques are sought to help us get closer to the little ones. Resources different from those of adults are used, which help to unblock emotions, build trust and offer a safe space. One of the biggest barriers to overcome is communication. It is no longer just a problem of their age, but the way they express themselves or open up is oriented more towards their attachment figures, their family environment and their school circle. When we want to know what happens to them or how to help them, we must use external elements. One option is always to play with them, but not just anyway.

Play therapy has a structured format, scientifically proven and endorsed both by studied theoretical elements and by experience. It is executed based on the age and needs of each child. You must always adapt and find a way to help while respecting the space and rhythm of the little ones.

Here are the different benefits of play therapy:

• Conflict resolution: One of the problems that we encounter the most as child psychologists is that the little ones bring concrete problems that are repeated and do not know how to solve them. Through play and symbolism we explain alternatives to the situations raised.
• Understanding and emotional management: Emotions are habitual states that appear in any person, but that in a child are experienced as overflowing. Their name, their function and how they can be regulated are unknown. With play therapy we can give labels and self-regulation mechanism.
• Social skills: Neither children have an instruction manual nor do they themselves have it to understand the world or others. They need skills that allow them to interact with others in an optimal way.
• Self-esteem boost: When a child feels that he is not understood or cannot manage or express himself, his self-esteem goes down. Self-esteem suffers in unfamiliar surroundings. However, the game gives them a greater sense of worth, a space where they are recognized and reinforced.

What is play therapy?

Play therapy is based on three aspects that give it the validity and the necessary bases to be used in therapy. These three aspects are where the child and the psychologist relate and interact. The symbolism helps us to know everything that goes through the head and the life of the little one. He shows us his experiences, his concerns and his problems. And, using the same language, we reach out to him or her to be able to intervene.

• Play space: using a board, a box or a carpet, we have a series of elements, such as toys, where we will work together.
• Roles: What roles come into play? What roles does the child use to play? Dads or monsters, princesses or heroines?
• Communication: here both verbal and non-verbal interaction and interpretation and analysis take place.

https://www.somospsicologos.es/blog/terapia-de-juego-en-ninos-herramientas-terapeuticas-para-los-mas-pequenos/

Growth and development of your 7-month-old baby

By Miss Ana Laura Arias | Day Care Coordination

The development of a baby is an exciting process, a path towards the growth of the child that, on many occasions, generates doubts in moms and dads, especially when it comes to their first child, so it is important to know that around seven months old, the baby makes his first attempts at movement, especially by crawling or beginning to crawl. From seven months old on, children normally begin to crawl, although there are children who never crawl and learn directly to walk , perhaps a little later. Other babies do not get on their knees, but rather support themselves with their hands and feet; and others even roll on themselves or crawl on their bellies, as always, there are no hard and fast rules. Each child has his own rhythm of development, which must be respected without forcing.

Another important advancement at this age is the ability to understand the use of objects and their cause-effect relationships. For example, if she sees you taking out cutlery, putting on a bib or turning on the stove, the child senses that her food is about to arrive.

She is able to grasp small objects and pass them from one hand to the other. Her verbal development will also multiply exponentially during this stage and, in addition to the sounds to which she will have become accustomed, the baby will begin to understand the meaning of some words.

The little one will begin to understand the meaning of words like ‘yes’ and ‘no’ or gestures like laughing, celebrating and even clapping for her when she does something right.

At this stage, children are a sponge that learns from those around them, so be encouraged to talk to them often: you are a mirror for them and soon they will begin to emit everything you say and do. In less than you think, she will pronounce two of the words that will excite you the most, ‘dad’ and ‘mom’

Between seven and eight months, the child can play while sitting on the ground or in the park, without falling backwards. If turned upside down, she can also crawl around. If kept standing up, she walks swinging with her legs. She is not still for a single moment!

The child can already grasp things in a more sophisticated way. She doesn’t just use her hand, but she also uses her fingers. Her hands are becoming very useful to her and she uses both interchangeably. Let it be our child who chooses the one that pleases her the most! So she has a lot of fun bumping objects to hear the noise they make.

It is also precisely at this time that he begins to communicate the pleasure she feels by pronouncing the first syllables. She will also do it in a strong and clear way: “ba”, “da”, “ca”, “pa”, etc.

Also, between the seventh and the ninth month, the baby’s visual apparatus completes its maturation. The little one acquires mastery of eye movements and the mechanism for opening and closing the eyelids.

Likewise, the lower central incisor teeth may appear at 7 months, between six and eight months. However, in this case too, times are not the same for all children: some may have earlier teething and others may be later. What should you know about teething?:

Normally, the signs of the first teeth coming out are more abundant salivation, more swollen gums and the desire to chew everything that passes through the mouth, to perform a kind of self-massage on the gums. If the little one has already started teething and feels pain or discomfort, you can offer him specific teethers, which can even be kept in the refrigerator, to be able to give a cold massage on the little one’s gums.

Don’t worry if the first tooth is not showing or looking like it is already coming out. Each baby is a world! Some babies don’t get the first one until about a year or more.

Bebé de 7 meses – Desarrollo del bebé mes a mes (elmundo.es)

https://mibebeyyo.elmundo.es/mx/como-crece-bebe/tu-bebe-tiene-7-meses