Some of my students are interested “in a galaxy far far away.” The make-believe world of Star Wars is being watched and played out by this next generation and it awesome how much they learn about society and communities from such mythical lands. Children are more aware of the chaos across our land and the globe then we’d like them to be, and they relate real life issues to the drama in fictitious worlds. They see the fight of good vs evil and the keys to a peaceful community.
What are the keys to a peaceful community? What are the keys to a lasting friendship? What are the keys to a loving family? What are the keys to loving oneself and having inner peace? As we continue learning about “me, my family and my friends” at Adventure Academy, we read books about character and work together on projects and play together in our classroom and outdoors. We talk about how our behavior affects reaching our personal goals and how it affects our relationships with others.
Whether interacting with one other person or a large group we need to be aware of our behaviors, our expressions, our emotions … and the emotions of those we’re interacting with. Being able to read emotions and feelings can help us solve or even avoid a conflict. This week we made a book entitled “our friends and our feelings” with pictures of the students pretending to feel various emotions. We talked about reasons we feel different emotions and how to handle such feelings and help others in time of need.
Sometimes misunderstandings lead to fights between friends. Sometimes we can understand why someone may act like a bully when we understand where their behaviors and feelings are coming from. We can’t avoid all conflicts. Friends will fight and the world will have wars. However, we can teach our children how to try and avoid conflicts and how to try and solve conflicts. I’ve met many who have decided to homeschool their children to try and avoid bully situations, but I say instead of avoiding teach kids how to handle bullies.
Just because my boys are homeschooled, doesn’t mean they don’t interact with others and aren’t bullied. In fact because of some of their challenges, such as language delays, they often encounter teasing and other mean behaviors from “friends.” The difference is I’m usually around to help them find their courage to stand up for themselves – and if I see them on the “mean” side I can help them redirect their behaviors and see how the other side feels. I am not always around (and shouldn’t be) so I just pray the lessons stick.
I also pray lessons of caring, being helpful and encouraging also stick when they interact with others. I express pride when I see them work together and cooperate with others – especially the students that visit our home for child care or tutoring sessions This week one of our character lessons was about sharing. To go with our seasonal theme we read a book about Johnny Appleseed sharing his appleseeds. We learned about apples and other fruit that grows on trees while working on our family and friend trees.
We made fruit salads and talked about things that grow on trees and things harvested in the fall. We visited a farm recently and will continue fun fall field trips throughout October. If you’d like your child to join us for field trips, or tutor time sessions, or our child care program please email Christi@MiFamilies.com. Adventure Academy is the youth program through Mi Families LLC. “My families” has programs for youth, parents and providers. Mi Families is “reaching out with resources” for families and those who work with families across Michigan and across social media. Feel free to find us on Facebook, Pinterest, YouTube, LinkedIn, etc for resources and networking opportunities. Feel free to subscribe up on the right for our future articles to see what adventures we’re up to next! Also feel free to check out www.mothergoosetime.com to learn more about one of our curriculums. Many of the photos above showcase some MGT materials.
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