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Social Emotional Learning Curriculum to Help Kids Become Better Individuals!

A social emotional learning curriculum is vital during the upbringing of a child. It’s what helps balance the child’s personality, allowing them to be strong in social skills alongside their academics.
Education plays an extremely important role in shaping one’s mind and personality. It’s through a great education that kids can pursue their dreams and succeed in the real world. When we send our kids to school, we want them to learn all sorts of concepts and academic subjects like math, science, history, geography, etc. But we also want them to learn social and civic skills for successfully settling into society. Teachers go to great lengths to make learning fun; they plan activities and lessons in a manner that will help students grasp difficult academic concepts easily. But somewhere in this curriculum, there’s a lack of social-emotional learning. Let’s understand why it’s important to fill in this gap and a few ways in which teachers and parents can include the social emotional learning curriculum in the process.

Importance of Social Emotional Learning

Social-emotional learning is a set of skills that allows children to be better aware of themselves; their strengths, weaknesses, interests, and emotions. Social-emotional learning, commonly termed as SEL, is made up of 5 components, namely self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship skills, and responsible decision making. These skills help children understand their own emotions and the emotions of others, which, in turn, allow them to showcase empathy in their actions. If kids have a strong foundation in SEL, they will grow up to be kind, disciplined, and reliable human beings. This will help them make friends easily, deal with challenges, and learn to put the needs of others before their own. Educators are beginning to realize that SEL is just as important as the academic subjects taught in school, and so, they are now including various SEL activities in the curriculum. Parents must also practice some of these activities on a regular basis at home to keep the learning going.

Social Emotional Learning Curriculum

Having a social emotional learning curriculum set out for kids is a must. One can start with keeping a gratitude journal for the kids. Have them write down everything they’re grateful for at the end of each day – playing with the pet dog, enjoying a good meal, a walk in the park with grandpa, playdate with a friend, a new toy, etc. Teach them that they can be grateful for everything that brings them joy, it doesn’t have to be only materialistic things like new toys or clothes. Another meaningful and very easy activity can be to maintain a calendar. It can be made fun by using colors and stickers etc.. The idea is to discipline the child. Make your child write down the various tasks, homework, chores, and lessons that they have to get done in the day. What time to wake up, have meals, shower, play, study, and various extracurricular activities like a music lesson or sports practice. You could tick them off and add a fun sticker every time a task is completed. This will make the child responsible and accountable for their time. Finally, parents must ensure that the child has enough playdates or field trips to bond with other kids. Help them understand how to deal with other kids. Every time they are met with a challenge and want to resort to a tantrum or physical abuse, teach them the trick of deep breathing. Let them calm down and think about why the other child is behaving badly, and finally choose an action that will help better the situation in a peaceful way. This can only come gradually to kids.

Conclusion

These activities, along with many more that parents can find online, will help kids become  aware of the situation they are in. Learning apps like SKIDOS have loads of games and puzzles for all age groups that are curated by educators keeping global learning standards in mind. Our games tap into the social, emotional, and intellectual capabilities of children. It requires kids to apply themselves socially and emotionally while playing our wide range of enriching educational games. As a result, their reflexes and cognition are better strengthened and they are likely to develop good habits and manners. They will also gradually learn to be more responsible and independent with regard to decision-making and problem-solving in an organic manner. A balanced curriculum that focuses on academics, as well as includes some part of the social emotional learning curriculum, is what is going to help the child grow holistically in all facets of life.

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