Resilience
is a bit of a buzz word in education at the moment. From early childhood through to secondary
schooling, children across Aotearoa are learning about resilience. This got me thinking about how important building
resilience is for our children and how we can build resilience in kindergarten
aged children. With so many questions in
my mind I decided to base my inquiry question around resilience, How can I support children to develop
resilience and self-regulation skills which will foster their lifelong learning
and transitioning, so that children can manage their emotions, gain
self-confidence in their abilities and skills to experience positive
educational transitions.
It
seems that the word resilience can be interpreted many ways. I have certainly spent many hours
of researching, and so, what is resiliency?
“Resilience means the ability to overcome and ‘bounce back’ from change
or from difficult life events. A person
that is resilient is able to learn from the experiences, and apply this
knowledge and coping skills to other situations. The more resiliency factors your child has,
the more likely he or she will be able to resist negative influences”. (Healthy Minds Healthy Children, 2017).
It was
exciting to read that resilience is something that can be nurtured in all
children, as everyone is capable of extraordinary things. We all know in life that there is no
happiness gene, no success gene and no ‘doer of extraordinary things’
gene. I believe the potential for
happiness and greatness lies in all of the children, and this will mean
different things to different children.
Life is a journey and there will always be challenges along the
way. What we can do is give children the
skills so these challenges are never able to break them, by building their
resilience one step at a time.
There
are many ways to build resilience, at kindergarten I have started by focusing
on developing our children’s ‘patient muscles’.
Learning to wait and take turns is a lifelong skill that everyone can
learn and it needs constant nurturing.
Patience is not simply the ability to wait - it's how we behave while we're waiting. (Joyce Meyer)
 |
| Waiting for our fresh bread to cool down |
Even
as adults we need to exercise our ‘patient muscles’ in our daily lives, whether
it is having to wait at the traffic lights, waiting for an appointment, or queueing up at the supermarket. At
kindergarten there are plenty of opportunities to learn to wait and use our
‘patient muscles’, for example; waiting for a swing, wanting to help make
bread, washing hands, waiting to cook on the fire or have a ride in the
trolley.
Patience is
essential to daily life – and might be key to a happy one. Having patience means being able to wait
calmly in the face of frustration or adversity, so anywhere there is
frustration or adversity – i.e., nearly everywhere – we have the opportunity to
practice it. (Kira M. Newman, 2016)
Something
that is always popular at kindergarten that our tamariki love to challenge
themselves with is an obstacle course, finishing off with a big jump onto a mat. This experience is fantastic for
building resilience in many different ways, including; building
feelings of competence and a sense of mastery every time the teaching team
acknowledges the children’s strengths, their bravery and effort to try
something difficult and encouragement to help them make their own decisions.
Standing
on top of the log is actually quite high, it is at these moments when faced
with fear, support and words of encouragement help immensely. I have to admit when standing up on the log
waiting to jump made my tummy feeling a bit funny and the thoughts that run
through my mind were ‘no I’m not doing it, it’s too high’ or ‘yes I can do this
they are all waiting for me to be brave’. It is the courage to decide to jump that is
actually bigger than the actual jump itself.
I believe it is important to let those children know, who are clearly
feeling challenged to jump, what wonderful courage they are showing in doing
something so brave and difficult.
When
children take risks they start to open up to the world and realise their
capacity to shape it. There’s magic in
that for them and us. (Karen Young, 2016)
Of
course once the jump is completed one jump is never usually enough, it is time
to climb and balance on the obstacle course and then wait in the queue to jump
again. Waiting for a turn can certainly
be challenging, especially when you are all excited and keen to have another turn.
As a
child I would often hear the saying ‘patience is a virtue’ or ‘have patience’
and now I believe that having patience is a real asset in life. Now I live by another saying ‘good things
come to those who wait’. Having patience
can make feelings of frustration go away and be the difference between worry and
tranquillity. Patience is a virtue that
I feel every child must develop the skill and practice.
Research suggests that patient people tend
to be more cooperative, more empathic, more equitable and more forgiving
(Kira M. Newman, 2016)
I
don’t know of anybody who likes to be pushed in front of when waiting in a
queue, the same goes at kindergarten, I don’t know of a child who likes to
continually miss out on a turn. Learning
to wait is such an important skill and here is a little snippet of
conversations when waiting for a turn to jump;
Freya:
“You’re after me Matthew and I’m after Charlize”
Bella: “Look I’m waiting”
Scarlett: “Can you please fix the mat for me, then it
will be my turn”
Juno: “I’m sitting down while I’m waiting”
Matthew: “Gus watch out please, you’re going after me”
he then jumps “Now it’s your turn, go!”
Gus: “I’m ready yeah it’s my turn”
Isla: “It will be your turn after me”
McKenzie: “I’m after Isla, I’m waiting here”
Blue: “Yeah it’s my turn”
What I
believe about these comments from the children, is that patience becomes a form of kindness. I feel that it is important for all children
to develop flexibility of the mind, to transform those negative thoughts into
positive through developing an understanding and awareness about people and
world around us. Te Whāriki explains
this under the strand Wellbeing – Mana atua, when they state that children have a sense of wellbeing
and resilience when safe, stable and responsive environments support the development of
self-worth, identity, confidence and enjoyment, together with emotional
regulation and self-control. (Ministry
of Education, 2017, p.26).
Next
time you see a child waiting for a turn on the swing, pay them a compliment for
having such strong ‘patient muscles’.
The world is going to be a much better place with lots of patient
people. “Gaining patience can be
transformative to your overall life experience.
So much of life is about awareness, growth and learning – these are the
things that are always going on behind the scenes”. (Leo Carver, 2017).
Mā te
wā
Susie
