Educational Insights丨Life is Education

From Deputy Head of Early Years Lisa Li

In 2020, at the beginning of the year of the rat, the coronavirus outbreak took the world by surprise. People's lives changed overnight due to the outbreak, and children have experienced a variety of mixed feelings and emotion. There were many uncertainties. How do we help children develop good learning habits during this time period? How to alleviate the child's anxiety? How to create a parent-child relationship during this time? At Wellington College Bilingual Tianjin Nursery, we are committed to developing our children into life-long learners and global citizens. During the epidemic, e-learning and online teaching was challenging, but teachers stepped up to enrich children's learning at home through a variety of mediums, to develop children's learning while staying connected to our children and parents. However, even at home we can also take action during this special period of learning. Using these real life moments to be creative and turn a difficult situation into positive educational activities. Parent-child companionship and wellbeiing A child’s  physical and mental health and instilling good habits are some of the primary goals in a child’s development. Indeed, one of the main goals is to take life experiences and weave these into teaching and learning.

Baking cookies whilst

learning about shapes and sizes

  1.Guide children to develop good hygiene habits Using everyday situations enables us to help our children understand why looking after our health is so important. Using  real life situations give children a better context of understanding and allows children to relate to hygiene within a healthy lifestyle On one hand, we have to keep safety in mind, such as staying at home, limiting visits and play with others, or even wearing a mask; on the other hand, parents should also pay close attention to everyday hygiene with regular handwashing to help children develop good habits as something essential and yet fun to do.

Author: Reception Ariel

 

2. Maintaining a healthy lifestyle

Sleep and rest are important factors in a healthy lifestyle and making a daily plan and making reasonable time arrangements for sleep, meals, games, sports, study and work are an integral part of a good lifestyle. Of course, parents should set a good example, by keeping regular bedtimes and mealtimes, whilst building sound dietary habits for health and fitness.  It is also essential to observe good study practices in your child and affirm positive behaviour and to deal with problems in a calm and understanding manner. The use of routines help children to stay on track, develop good habits of self-management, and grow independence.

Christina prepared a nutritious lunch based on the theme of "healthy living".

  3. Have fun with indoor sports Staying indoors is never easy and the biggest impact is getting enough exercise. Physical education is part of an overall holistic view of education at the school and PE teachers have developed fun activities that can be done while staying at home. Parents of course are encouraged to take part and also keep fit by using these activities. The P.E team have created many games such as the cycle game, skipping in time, an obstacle race using everyday items from the home, to hop, skip and jump and music and dance. We can use this time every day to exercise and to help with our children’s physical development.

Exercise is good! Alex and his sister doing Cosmic Yoga

Ali kicked the shuttlecock in the yard at noon.

  4. Supporting children through play Children love to play and independent play through games and activities often occupies the majority of a child’s time. Play is a natural development and learning mechanism and an indispensable factor in any children's life. It is one of the basic aspects of learning, yet one of the most important of any childhood. It is recognised that learning through play benefits the continued development throughout the formative years as each child builds an understanding of the world around them through these activities. Therefore, the need to have both play-led activities and independent play as it is essential in any child’s development. Through various activities and the use of educational toys and everyday objects, children learn to use their imagination and to explore the world around them and in doing so, open up new levels of interaction and growth essential in their development. Stretching and challenging children with fun and interesting activities activates the mind and helps with cognitive growth.

Students enjoyed the activity of floating and sinking objects

 

5. Read with your children

A day at home needs a mixture of  different activities to keep a child engaged and learning. In addition to sports and play, parents should schedule time for reading  at least 10-30 minutes each day. This helps to foster a love of reading but also encourages language development. Reading can be interactive, with both parents and children encouraged to take part from discussing the pictures to acting out the story through play. Making reading interactive and fun instills good habits early and gives children the ability to be creative and to pick up reading as a lifelong endeavour. Spending time reading with your child will help them to better express their feelings and to understand and interpret the world around them.   6. Explaining the world around us The recent epidemic brings with it new information. Hearing new and repeated words like “coronavirus” and “outbreak” understandably give rise to many questions from children. At a young age children are just starting to understand the world around them and to make sense of where they fit within this new and wonderous world. Life after all, is in part an education in itself. We should try to use language that children can understand, to help them to learn why their routines are now different, why they can't meet their friends, why they can't go out to play and why they can't go out to eat and watch movies. Encourage children to participate and be involved in the conversation, and remember to use positive and supportive messages around the outbreak to  help them to learn and develop a new understanding from this experience.

'Wash your hands' by Christina (Reception)

  I am sure in no time at all we will be welcoming each child's arrival at the school gate.