Over this term we have begun each day at kindergarten with something new, developing our kete or basket of character resources that we will need for the day as we work and play alongside each other.  We light our candle, quieten ourselves and make a basket with our hands, then in the stillness and quiet we ask the children to tell us what they think they might need to use during the day.

One of the goals of our early childhood curriculum, Te Whãriki, is that children are encouraged to learn with and alongside others.  For us that is a given, as we believe children are born with a drive to relate to and connect with others, and we want to support them as they continue to develop the social skills necessary to form strong, healthy relationships throughout their lives.  We want to nurture strong and effective relationships because we believe that through relationships, children begin to discover who they are and they also learn to understand others.

So what are the things the children think they need?

The first ideas to emerge were “kindness” and “gentle hands” – these are things we talk about often so we were not surprised to hear these ideas.

We know this is having an impact on our children as just a couple of weeks ago one of our Mum’s came to talk to us about something her child had said to her.  When asked about her day Miss aged 4 years said it was a bad day, she had hit one of her friends and felt really unhappy about it.  Mum asked what she should have done and Miss aged 4 years said “I should have put more kindness into my basket”

As we have continued to make time for this each morning we are hearing more ideas, “imagination”, “laughter”, “patience”, “love-ness”, “good thinking”, “braveness”.  We also get the occasional bit of humour injected into the process as someone suggests we need “a lawnmower”, “marshmallows” or “Chocolate” and “Gummy Bears”, not all of us agree that we need to carry around a lawnmower as that could get quite heavy by the end of the day, but most of us agree chocolate and marshmallows are a positive addition to any day.

As we unpack some of these thoughts we are coming to see that “love-ness” is richer and more expansive than love, perhaps for the children it is about having a loving attitude to others, and we definitely agree we need more of that.  The world can be a confronting place, and if we are able to go into it with an attitude of “love-ness” wouldn’t we make it a much more beautiful place to be and isn’t that what we want for our future generations