Life Skills

Early childhood programs often have a section of our official curriculum that we call life skills.  These are non academic skills that are simply part of life.  Today our class leapt into a true life skill moment.  A few children were at the sand table playing well together. It is fair to say even with great care a giant mess occurred.

We have a few brooms and dust pans in the room for moments like this (which happen on a near daily basis).  The two children quickly got to work on cleaning up. 

While they worked hard it was a mess that was too large for two to handle alone.  In rather short order on friend came over to help with a larger broom.

It was still too much and several others joined in.  We ran out of brooms. This was solved by our resourceful group. Rulers were found that could be used to help push the sand into piles that could be swept into the dustpan and then returned to the table.  

Please note in this short video how well they were working together.  This was all done WITHOUT teacher direction.  It is always such fun to see how well young children can work together and accomplish a task when given the opportunity.  

The children are also responsible for cleaning our shelves every Friday. At the end of each week they make sure that all the items on the shelf are organized and in the proper place. We sometimes even dust the shelves with damp towels.  These are only two examples of life skills within the program. Life skills are ways that we help young children develop their independence and sense of responsibility.