Making Friends – The Building Blocks of Life

In a few weeks, our children will be returning to school or entering a new school.  Both situations are filled with anxiety when a child struggles with social situations.  While some students can just jump right into a new situation and be a social butterfly, other students will sit alone on the sidelines at recess.  The simple social skill of making new friends is the building block of creating a successful life.  As adults, we have many friends we have kept throughout our lifetime, and we need friends for comfort, companionship, socializing and networking.  This is one skill we need to instill in children who need that boost of confidence in approaching a social situation, either in the now or in the future.  The ability to make friends and keep old ones is a much-needed skill for everyone.

As a teacher or daycare worker, you see it all the time; how children react to other children.  By simply being the “Fly on the Wall”, you observe who is the outgoing one, the leaders, the fixer, the bullies, and the loners.  Depending on what behaviour you observe, you can decide how to contribute to and offer guidance to the socially distant child.

Here are a few tips on coaching the shy loaners:

• Be a good example.  Children learn by example so be mindful of how you interact with others.  Are you positive, upbeat, and kind towards others, or do you gossip to coworkers about other people?  The children are always listening and every interaction by you can be a learning situation for a child.
• Reinforce and praise.  When a child tries to either bring another child into their group, or a child tries to be included into a group, then make sure that child is acknowledged with praise and knows how proud you are of them for trying.
• Never compare one child to another.  Each child is unique in their own way, and this will guide them in how they make friends
• Gentle guidance and encouragement work best.  Never force a child to partake in a social situation, but gently encourage their involvement.

Just like the building blocks of a friendship, Esikidz.com childcare software has the building blocks of a successful business.  Our revolutionary childcare software for childcare management has built-in programs that work on the information that is entered into the system.  Our application has such programs as Automatic Tuition Calculation, Automatic generation of the CCOF monthly report, Waiting List management, Out of School Care, Multi-site management, Enrollment management and so much more.  If you would like a 30-day free trial with in-depth training on the system, please visit our website at www.esikidz.com childcare software or email us at adele.fussi@esihome-tech.com or call us at 778 552 7133.  We look forward to being friends with you and your team.