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Transitions

Every milestone in a child’s education comes with a corresponding difficult transition from one stage in their life to the next. This isn’t by coincidence, but by design. The various tiers of education were designed to change along with the children, to ease them into more complex social and intellectual concepts as they gained the capacity for them.

Of course, there’s still that sudden switch from a toddler’s basic schooling to suddenly entering Primary School, and it’s not going to be easy for any child. Some may even take it harder than most. Here are some ways to help ease them into each stage of their schooling.

EYP to PYP

Moving from KG2 to Grade 1 is going to be one of the very first great challenges that your child will have to face, and it’s going to be scary. Longer hours at school, less “kiddie” stuff replaced with real studying and workloads, and a general greater sense of “seriousness” is going to be intimidating.

The most important thing to do right off the bat is not to overplay the changes, and sit down with them and tell them what to expect so that the culture shock won’t cause too much anxiety. Dress it up as part of growing up, and highlight the opportunities to make new friends and do more things.

You should also take the time to help them develop essential skills, such as time management and study habits. Up until this point you’ll probably have been hovering over them at home, and now it’s time for them to do these things on their own. You should also encourage independence in them, which will be important to help them sustain themselves through schooling without your constant assistance.

And finally, you need to be positive about the whole thing. You may be anxious too about their first day in PYP, but you can’t show too much of that. Instead, promote an excited attitude and encouragement to go out there and do well!

PYP to MYP

As children move out of Primary and into the Middle Years Programme, they’ll experience several unique changes. First, they’ll start learning far more abstract concepts than before. On top of that, they’ll start learning in-depth about particular disciplines. This transition is a measured response to the cognitive development of children in the MYP age range, and most likely they’ll be able to handle the change without much effort.

Of course, at this age it’s not just cognition that changes, as adolescence begins to take hold. You may find your child acting out or being withdrawn. If you’d previously experienced their episodes of after-school restraint collapse, you might have already dealt with this, but it’s important to be a strong supporter of your children regardless.

One of the ways you can help your child transition is to encourage inquiry long before MYP, which itself puts a great emphasis on student-driven inquiry as part of the educational narrative. By teaching them how to question what they know, how to explore their knowledge and intelligence as a default way of handling things, they won’t be confused or taken aback when the MYP changes the learning thrust from a transdisciplinary theme to a global, more contextual way of learning.

You can also start them young by expanding their horizons constantly. Look for points of aptitude or interest and encourage them the minute you see them. Got an interest in dinosaurs? Take them to a museum and buy them books about prehistoric life. Computers? Enroll them in entry-level programming classes or download educational apps that can teach them. Even if they don’t end up pursuing something in the future, the mere experience of learning many things will help prepare them for the breadth and depth of knowledge that they’ll need for MYP.

You should also know how to deal with adolescent issues, as they’ll definitely come your way. Your child might no longer respond to direct, physical and verbal affection to help them with their issues in school. You’ll have to resort to indirect, written messages of validation.

MYP to University

Leaving the IB and entering university, you’re pretty much dealing with an adult already. They’ll have developed time management, independence, and a thirst for knowledge and self-actualization that you won’t have trouble cultivating.

What matters now is helping them move forward to a university of their choice – or finding out what they want to do in the first place.

SISD’s counselors can help with this dilemma. Our teachers and staff are always ready to provide advice as to where to go, whether it means university or trying out for a career. We have programmes such as the Work Placement Initiative, which give our children an idea as to what field they want to enter, which can lead to what university they want to enter.

You can also introduce them to your own line of work, which is especially helpful if you think that they’re a good match for your career. They need experience to make a decision, and that doesn’t come by itself. They’ll need your help, and our help, to transition.

[swiss-school-blog]

Should kids have to do chores v2

Of all the myriad debates about parenthood, perhaps one of the most polarizing is the debate on childhood chores – should stressed-out kids, still learning their place in the world and filled to the brim with school and activities, still be made to help out at home?

Today’s kids are doing a lot. It’s not just the demands of a heavier, more involved education in the classroom that take up their time, but also tutoring classes and homework, extracurricular activities such as sports, and enriching classes like musical instruments or language classes. They should also be allocated their leisure time, especially going out with friends or simply doing things that entertain them.

Given this, when faced with the question of whether kids should be helping around the house on top of all these things, it can be easy to think that they’ve already got a lot on their plate. They have so much to do, and need their energy and focus on these things, which chores would take significant time away from.

Other arguments against chores deal with how they affect the kids. Some parents believe that the discipline that kids would otherwise learn from having daily chores, can be taught instead in the form of better time management and diligence with schoolwork and extracurricular. Others also suggest that kids dread chores and find them to be a source of stress and anxiety waiting for them at home, when they’ve already had a long day at school.

Chores have been a part of raising children for generations. The arguments in favor of childhood chores often deal with the direct benefits to the household. Many parents will say that they’re busy themselves as well, and having the kids participate in tidying up would make things much easier for everyone. Children who do chores will also learn the life skills associated with chores. When they have their own homes, they’ll have to know how to do these chores anyway, so starting early is a great idea.

More importantly, though, there is research that correlates childhood chores with benefits in later adulthood. Chores do more than help out; they provide disciplinary instruction, judgement, and organization skills that will carry over later in life to everything they do, from owning and managing their own home to having a tidy and organized workplace.

Interestingly, the debate on childhood chores seems to have some rooting in culture – countries that are rich in social welfare programmes seem to have more inclination towards the pro-chores side.

Swiss International School Dubai aims to provide our students with excellent education, a variety of extracurricular opportunities, and a reasonable homework load, as well as a pastoral care environment that nurtures children as though the school were a second family. We believe that chores are an important part of character building, but they shouldn’t be a massive part of a child’s life at home, as we acknowledge that our kids need their personal time and energy for leisure.

Mr. Garry James, our Head of Boys' Boarding and Teacher of MYP Physical Health Education, has this to say about children doing chores. “Quite simply – yes! I believe this only helps to build a fundamental level of integral values, independence and responsibility from an early age. Having myself grown up in the country, on my family farm, I immediately learned an invaluable lesson of the importance in helping others and in being responsible. Given clear technological advances over recent years, consumerism, along that of the service sector, this has become a lesson can sometimes be forgotten to great determent to the individual. While, considering the preimages that our host country of Dubai offers us all, it only emphasizes this necessity in teaching our youth this life lesson.

“This lesson is also true of boarding. Boarding holds a strong family and team ethos; everyone looks after one another and everyone takes care of their own business. This include cleaning up after yourself, managing your own laundry and keeping your bedroom clean and tidy. The learning opportunity and journey that each boarding follows create a far more independent and responsible individual which can only benefit a young person’s holistic development.”