GEKA Orrong Road

Confidence to Belong

Liang Li, Early Childhood Teacher

The beginning of term 1 has always been challenging for some children in terms of transition to new environment. This year, as educators, we might feel it even more so, for in 2020, a lot of children only had limited opportunities socializing in kindergarten/day care settings, or even in daily families’ and friends’ events due to COVID-19. Therefore, apart from the common strategies that are usually extended from educators’ perspectives to support transition, this year, we focus on how to help children enjoy being in a group/smaller groups, have a stronger sense of belonging, and feel more connected through encouragement of inclusive play among peers from the very beginning. 

We have one child who has never been exposed to kindergarten settings due to his health issues from an early age. His mum is quite concerned with his transition to kindergarten. Until this week, he still has his ups and downs in the morning. However, once he starts playing with another child, we make sure this friendship is maintained and sometimes is redirected in a more cooperative, fair and constructive way. 

Once, when this child was sick, we encouraged his friend to write a letter to him, and then we put it in an envelope with a stamp on so that his friend could post it to him. When his mum heard what happened, she was very impressed with the way we encourage our children to be more caring, supportive and sensitive with their friends. It made a big difference to the child.

We also notice that empowering children to have a stronger self agency helps improve their confidence and sense of belonging in kindergarten. Usually its the small things that can help children feel more control over what they do and how they feel. 

We encourage this child to accomplish little things everyday, and then to celebrate his achievements with him. For example, turning on and off the tap (he used to be worried about the loud noise from the tap water), looking after his own food containers and drink bottle, packing up indoor and outdoor areas with his friends, pushing trolleys in and out, applying sunscreen by himself and so on. 

We are glad to see that within a short period of time, he is more and more competent to accomplish things by himself instead of asking for adults’ help straightaway. Due to his ongoing health issues, we hold frequent discussions with mum to debrief on his situations in kindergarten, and make small adjustments in our settings to cater for his individual needs.

We realize that more work needs to be done for the rest of the year, however, we are so glad to be part of this child’s learning journey, and we cannot wait to see how much he will achieve by the end of the year.