INSIDE THIS ISSUE:

INSIDE THIS ISSUE:

2018

The Latest News and Information From Kidi Kingdom

HILLCREST

LetterfromtheCentreManagerWhychildren'sbooksthatteachdiversityaremoreimportantthanever

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February | March

MONTHLY

2016/17

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Howdochildrendevelopasenseofself?

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How do children develop a sense of self?

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self-consciousness. Parents may notice that by the time they are three-years-old, their child is motivated to make amends for wrongdoing, can be proud of their own behaviour, or hides when unhappy about something they have done.

Toddlers’ ability to think about themselves from the perspective of a second person also marks the start of their acquisition of what’s called “self-concept" – stable thoughts and feelings about the self. Between their first and second birthdays, children will be able to produce simple self-descriptions and evaluations such as “I am a good boy”, which will become more complex over time. By the time a child is around eight-years-old, they will have a relatively stable idea of their own personality traits and dispositions, and whether they feel like a valuable and competent person.

Individual differences in personality and feelings of self-worth can influence a child’s approach to social situations and academic achievement. Children with positive perceptions of themselves have the best social and academic outcomes, perhaps because they focus on success and aren’t deterred by failure. Parents can help their child develop positive self-esteem by reacting positively to them and their achievements, and helping them to overcome negative events.

Psychologists think parents can also shape children’s self-worth right from birth: when they provide a positive response to an infant’s actions it provides them with their first experiences of having a positive impact on the world.

Influences on memory and learning

Regardless of how children feel about themselves, adding an “idea of me” to their cognitive architecture changes the way they process information. For example, as adults, we remember very few childhood events. One

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intuitive explanation for this “childhood amnesia” is that until memories can be related to our sense of self, they are very difficult to store and retrieve.

Once a child’s sense of self is established, they are more likely to remember information that is related to themselves. This is known as the “self-reference effect” on memory and emerges early on. From at least three-years-old children are more likely to remember objects linked with themselves than those linked with another person.

The self-reference effect occurs because items linked with the self – such as “my apple” – attract additional attention and memory support within the brain, ensuring that information of potential use to the self is not lost.

The self reference effect can be used to help children process and learn information, especially as it emerges early in life. So asking children to think about themselves while generating sentences to practice their spelling – such as sentences beginning with the word “I” – can significantly improve their subsequent spelling performance. Putting maths problems in the first-person – for example: “you have four apples more than Tom” – also improves both the speed and accuracy of children’s responses.

In summary, selfhood starts at birth, but children don’t start expressing an “idea of me” until toddlerhood. Children then start to gather information about themselves and store autobiographical material, starting a life narrative that guides their responses to the world.

Copyright © 2010–2018,The Conversation Media Group Ltd

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From the moment they are born, babies are exposed to information that can teach them about who they are. By touching their own face and body, or by kicking and grabbing things, they start to enjoy the influence of their actions on the world. But it is not until children approach their second birthday that they start to develop a sense of self and are able to reflect on themselves from the perspective of somebody else.

One indication of this new objective self-awareness is that children start recognising themselves in a mirror or photograph – something most children do by the age of two. This kind of self-awareness can be assessed scientifically by surreptitiously putting a small mark on a child’s forehead, such as by kissing them while wearing lipstick. The child can’t feel the mark so their sense of touch can’t alert them to its presence – but they can see it if they look in a mirror. If the children have the capacity to see themselves as another person would, they will reach up to touch the mark when shown a mirror, indicating that they equate the mirror image with their own body.

Finding the concept of the 'self'

Toddlers also naturally demonstrate their self-awareness by their ability to use and understand self-referential language such as I, me, you and my. Another example is when they claim something as their own property – the cry of “it’s mine” is the origin of many sibling disputes.

The appearance of self-conscious emotions such as embarrassment, pride, guilt and shame also demonstrates that a child is developing

We know that children’s books can act like both mirrors and windows on the world. Mirrors in that they can reflect on children’s own lives, and windows in that they can give children a chance to learn about someone else’s life. We also know that this type of self-reflection and opportunity to read or hear about different lives is essential for young people. Research on prejudice shows that coming in contact with people who are different – so-called “others” – helps to reduce stereotypes. This is because when we see people who initially seem different, we learn about them and get closer to them through their story. The “other” seems less far away and, well, less “otherly”. But while it may be ideal for children to actually meet people from different backgrounds in person, if that isn’t possible, books can serve as a first introduction to an outside world. Representing the world Despite knowing how important it is for diversity to be represented in our day-to-day lives, many characters in children’s books are white – which clearly doesn’t reflect the reality of our world. If we had more diverse children’s books, featuring a broad range of characters in many different jobs and situations, as well as more diverse role models in the media, young people would feel empowered, and they’d believe that when they grow up, they could be anyone and do anything they wanted. And they’d look at their friends and think the same for them, and they’d grow up respecting and appreciating everyone’s talents. With this mindset present, issues such as race or religion wouldn't even play a subconscious role. And it would mean that within a generation or two, we wouldn’t read articles about appalling and depressing statistics, and we wouldn’t need campaigns to increase diversity in literature, academia, or anywhere else. Role Models But books aren’t just about “others”. When we see people like ourselves in the media, including in fiction, we get a glimpse of who we might become, and we feel validated. We can gain role models and inspiration through literature. Perhaps partly in response to people’s growing awareness of the need for role models – whether in person or in literature – one young black girl, Marley Dias, started a campaign to find 1,000 “black girl books”. Dias recommends works such as Brown Girl Dreaming by Jacqueline Woodson, Once Crazy Summer by Rita Williams-Garcia, Chains by Laurie Halse Anderson and I Love My Hair by Natasha Anastasia Tarpley. Just featuring a minority character isn’t enough to create quality diverse literature, but it is a first step. And while there are some useful websites that recommend diverse children's books and even literary awards dedicated to promoting such works, much still needs to be done. Along with the increased worries today about immigrants, refugees, and general “otherness”, some societies seem to be headed towards a sense of false nostalgia about a time when the world was controlled by whites. Given this is not how the world is or should be, we owe it to young readers to show them reality in the books they’re reading. Perhaps then the next generation will be less frightened of the “other” if they get to meet them and learn about them from an early age.

Copyright © 2010–2018, The Conversation Media Group Ltd

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STAY UP TO DATE:

Welcome to another edition of Kidi Kingdom Child Care - Hillcrest’s Newsletter. I would like to take this opportunity to welcome all our new families to the centre and hope we are meeting your expectations.

We have had many new enrolments this year thus far, and I am urging families to book in their extra days as vacancies are now limited. We have many great educational programs on offer at our centre and would encourage all families to take advantage of these by booking your children in for these extra days.

Thank you to all our families for their on-going support, we hope you are satisfied with the amazing new educators who have joined our team in 2018.

The centre has many upcoming events for the year; please check your centre foyer for the new 2018 Centre Events Calendar. We would like to take this opportunity to invite all our families and friends to join in on these days.

Our educate system is up and running. Please see your child’s teacher for information regarding this service and how you can access your child’sprofile and progress online.

Kind Regards, Celeste O'Brien Operations Manager For Kidi Kingdom Childcare

Letter from the Centre Manager

Why children's books that teach diversity are more important than ever

If you think back to your childhood, what sticks with you? For many people, it’s those cosy times when they were cuddled up with a parent or grandparent, being read a story. But bedtime stories aren’t just lovely endings to the day or a way to induce sleep, they are also a safe way to experience and discuss all sorts of feelings and situations. So even when children think they’re just being told about an adorable bunny’s adventures, they are actually learning about the world around them.

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EARLY LEARNERS - Hello and welcome to 2018 in the Early Learners room. My name is Miss Jaimie and I will be the lead educator in this room. Over the next few weeks we will be working on routines and structure within the room. As I am new to this room I need to build relationships with each individual child and their families so that each child in my care feels safe, secure and supported always through their care here at Kidi Kingdom. I look forward to working with all of you and hope that I can be the best that I can be and provide these young children with the best education and care that I can possibly give. Thank you, Miss Jaimie JNR EARLY YEARS - Hello and welcome to 2018’s Junior Early Years room. We are looking at getting our room up to a high standard where we will have all our little friends journey for the year displayed at all times so that our parents are able to join our journey as well. We are looking for a theme to do in our room so all parent feedback will be noted and appreciated as our number one goal is the children, their needs, wants and interests. We aim to put in place a structured routine to help guide the children through every day and keep them stimulated each and every day. Toilet Training is highly encouraged, and we welcome it with open arms!! Thank you, Mr Cory and Miss Christina EARLY YEARS - We would like to welcome all the families to the new look Early Years Room. I am Miss Mel, the new lead educator. I come with over 10 years’ experience in the childcare setting and I can’t wait to meet you all individually and develop parent relationships. This month we will be working hard on our under the sea theme. After using the baby shark song for a transitional purpose, we quickly discovered the children’s interest in animals under the sea. We have decided to expand this and create our own play space dedicated to it. In the coming week we will be introducing our new friend, a gold fish that the children will name and continue to care for throughout the year. Our educators welcome any parent input that may assist us in continuing with our theme, things like photos of your children at the beach or an aquarium that we will proudly display on the wall for them. We will be exploring a variety of sensory play as well as a lot of visual learning during the next month or so and I will continue to display the children’s achievements on the wall as we go along. Thank you, Lead Educator Miss Mel and Miss Kara & Miss Tamiya PREPREP - We are very happy to welcome our new friends in the Pre-prep room. We will make sure that our friends will enjoy their stay and will engage in doing some explorations of our different planned exciting activities. This term we will be focusing on the development of our children’s identity and on their emotions as well as managing our classroom routines and transitions. The children will also be making their own classroom rules and covenant to ensure that their stay in the classroom is safe and secure. With pleasure, we would like to encourage our dear parents to take part in the upliftment of our children’s learning’s and development by giving some input and suggestions for our children’s welfare. Thank you, Ms. Nim and Ms. Mable SCHOOL CARE - Greetings families and friends, its been a great start to the new year so far and we love hearing our before and after school children’s exciting stories of how their day at school has been. Our prep children especially have settled in well and have shared their daily experiences at school and the new friends they have made, as well as the interesting new things they have learnt. As the children continue to adapt to their new surroundings we will continue to encourage them before school and look forward to helping and guiding them with homework or any questions they may have. We wish them all the best as they take the next step towards their next chapter and enjoy exploring and expanding their skills and knowledge. Thank you, Miss Christina and Mr Gaven.

PARENTS HUMOUR

AROUND THE ROOMS

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LATEST NEWS

UPCOMING EVENTS! See what exciting things we have been up to at Hillcrest Kidi Kingdom!

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MARCH 2018

Thursday 8th - (All Day) - Crazy Hat Day Friday 16th - (All Day) - St Patrick's Day Celebrations

- dress up in green (Ireland) Wednesday 21st - (All Day) - Harmony Day

(all around the World) Thursday 29th - (10am-11am) - Easter Bonnet Parade

Findouthowtomakethesecool

jellyfishhere:goo.gl/Xkxfdp

Findouthowtomakethesecool

puppetshere:goo.gl/McoEFf